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Global Climate Change Archive - Observed Environmental Changes

A collection of older (2005) news items related to OBSERVED environmental changes that have been linked to global climate change. All links take you outside of the PRISM site. Use your back button to return.

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    August, 2007

  • August 14, 2007 - Greenland Residents Detect Sea Change - PBS
    On Greenland's west coast, residents of the town of Ilulissat -- the name means "among the icebergs" -- say they are already feeling some results of global warming.

  • August 13, 2007 - Arctic sea ice set to hit new low - BBC
    Arctic sea ice is expected to retreat to a record low by the end of this summer, scientists have predicted.

  • August 3, 2007 - Tropical storms doubled due to global warming - CNN
    The number of tropical storms developing annually in the Atlantic Ocean more than doubled over the past century, with the increase taking place in two jumps, researchers say.

  • August 2, 2007 - An Incomplete Energy Bill - New York Times
    The House will begin debating Friday on a generally useful energy bill that would increase energy efficiency, encourage more responsible oil and gas development on public lands and stimulate investment in cleaner fuels. Yet the bill is incomplete.


  • July, 2007

  • July 31, 2007 - Energy Bill Aids Expansion of Atomic Power - New York Times
    A one-sentence provision buried in the Senate’s recently passed energy bill, inserted without debate at the urging of the nuclear power industry, could make builders of new nuclear plants eligible for tens of billions of dollars in government loan guarantees.

  • July 23, 2007 - Study: Glaciers contributing more to rising seas - CNN.com
    Don't worry too much, for now, about rising seas caused by melting ice in Greenland and Antarctica. The big threat this century could come from small thawing glaciers, researchers reported Thursday.

  • July 17, 2007 - Glaciers in Retreat - New York Times
    At nearly 13,000 feet above sea level, in the shadow of a sharp Himalayan peak, a wall of black ice oozes in the sunshine. A tumbling stone breaks the silence of the mountains, or water gurgles under the ground

  • July 16, 2007 - Climate Change Debate Hinges on Economics - Washington Post
    Here's the good news about climate change: Energy and climate experts say the world already possesses the technological know-how for trimming greenhouse gas emissions enough to slow the perilous rise in the Earth's temperatures.

  • July 12, 2007 - Report Warns of a Much Warmer Northeast - The Washington Post
    People in Philadelphia would swelter through as many as 30 days with temperatures higher than 100 degrees each summer. The Northeastern ski industry, except for western Maine, would probably go out of business. And spruce and hemlock forests -- as well as songbirds such as the Baltimore oriole -- would all but disappear from New Jersey to the Canadian border.

  • July 12, 2007 - Florida Plan Will Focus on Emissions and Climate - New York Times
    Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida has drafted a series of executive orders to slow climate change and cut the state's emission of heat-trapping gases by more than 25 percent, to 1990 levels, over the next 18 years.


  • December, 2006

  • December 24, 2006 - KU takes flight to aid study of global warming - Kansas City Star
    Somewhere in Antarctica, a little plane with a University of Kansas logo is doing its part to help scientists understand global warming. KU research on glacial melting has broadened to include the use of ice-penetrating radar devices mounted on the wings of an unmanned airplane. The plane, in 2008 and 2009, will use ground-penetrating radar to measure the thickness of ice and look for melting.


  • November, 2006

  • November 29, 2006 - Warmer oceans storing climate change dangers - Guardian News
    Global warming is creating a climate time bomb by storing enormous amounts of heat in the waters of the north Atlantic, UK scientists have discovered. Marine researchers at Southampton and Plymouth universities have found that the upper 1,500 metres of the ocean from western Europe to the eastern US have warmed by 0.015C in seven years. The capacity of the oceans to store heat means that a water temperature rise of that size is enough to warm the atmosphere above by almost 9C.

  • November 11, 2006 - Melting ice turns up the heat - The Sydney Morning Herald
    Richard Alley's eyes glint as we discuss how fast global warming could cause sea levels to rise. The scientist sums up the state of knowledge: "We used to think that it would take 10,000 years for melting at the surface of an ice sheet to penetrate down to the bottom. Now we know it doesn't take 10,000 years, it takes 10 seconds."

  • November 9, 2006 - Global climate efforts 'woeful' - BBC News
    Efforts to help developing nations adapt to the impacts of climate change have been called "woefully inadequate" by a UN-commissioned report.

  • November 9, 2006 - Climate Change Threatens Agricultural Crisis: UN - The New York Times
    Immediate steps are needed to avert a potential catastrophe as climate change dries up water resources in drought affected areas, hitting poor farmers, a United Nations report said on Thursday.

  • November 3, 2006 - Greenhouse gases hit record high - BBC News
    The steady rise in atmospheric levels of the greenhouse gases blamed for climate change shows no signs of abating, a UN agency has announced.


  • October, 2006

  • October 31, 2006 - Climate change fight 'can't wait' - BBC News
    The world cannot afford to wait before tackling climate change, the UK prime minister has warned.

  • October 30, 2006 - Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change - HM Treasury
    This Review has assessed a wide range of evidence on the impacts of climate change and on the economic costs, and has used a number of different techniques to assess costs and risks. From all of these perspectives, the evidence gathered by the Review leads to a simple conclusion: the benefits of strong and early action far outweigh the economic costs of not acting.


  • August, 2006

  • August 1, 2006 - IF YOU THOUGHT LAST WEEK WAS HOT ... - San Francisco Chronicle
    A report recently issued by the California EPA, details some of the effects of climate change in California based on data from models, the number of high temperature (90 degrees and above) days could go up to 100 days a year. Some highlights included the near total loss of fresh drinking water due to loss of the snowpack, increased power demands but loss of hydropower supplies, increased potential for wildfires, etc.


  • July, 2006

  • July 19, 2006 - Climate change may have role in wildfire trend - The Salt Lake Tribune
    Rising temperatures and earlier snowpack melt-offs appear to have sparked an increase in the number of forest wildfires across the western United States. "There is a very dramatic increase in forest fires in the West" over the past 15 years, said Anthony Westerling, a researcher with the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, La Jolla, Calif.

  • July 3, 2006 - Climate change brings new options for farming - ABC
    Climate change provides many new opportunities for farmers, like tea and energy crops, but also poses challenges including the threat of new insects and diseases, a British government minister said. "We want to see farmers seize opportunities for new crops that a changing climate is going to bring," junior environment minister Ian Pearson said on Sunday.


  • June, 2006

  • June 5, 2006 - Climate change threatens deserts - Aljazeera.net
    Scientists predict that rainfall will decrease by as much as 20% by the end of the century, seriously jeopordizing the ecosystem that exists in the deserts of the world today, including a population of about 500 million people world wide. The drying out of the deserts comes from danger to water sources such as run off from Glaciers that feeds rivers and lakes, due to the inability of glaciers to reform.

  • June 5, 2006 - Talks advance as planet continues to warm - CNN.com
    Discussion is underway concerning the increased emissions from the US which fails to meet the goals of the Kyoto Pact. Currently only two countries out of 18 in the pact, Britain and Sweden, meet expectations. Talks cover reductions, regimes, plans and research data.

  • June 4, 2006 - Widening tropics 'will drive deserts into Europe' - The Independent
    New research from satellite data over the past 25 years - shows that the tropics have moved outward toward the poles by 140 miles since 1979. Scientists believe that global warming is to blame. This is shocking to some scientists as they considered the most dramatic changes to be at the poles, but the data indicate that the changed are equally dramatic elsewhere. Data also suggest that the areas just outside the tropics, such as parts of China, North India, the Middle East, North Africa, Florida, the US Gulf Coast, and through Australia, Southern Africa and Argentina - are warming at an alarming rate.


  • May, 2006

  • May 30, 2006 - Poison Ivy Getting Meaner - U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
    Increased levels of Carbon Dioxide fosters the growth poison ivy. Greater photosynthesis allows plants to grow faster, larger and more poisonous. Currently, some apes and about 80% of the human populationare susceptible to developing allergic reactions to the poison ivy sap, but that will likely increase with increasing virulence. A major concern is for forest regeneration, since greater vine abundance will kill off the younger trees.

  • May 23, 2006 - Report calls for Canada to bury tonnes of emissions - The Province
    Canada has found a new solution to its Carbon Dioxide pollution emissions problem, in the form of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). This will allow Canada's industrial sections to pump anywhere from 10- 100 million tons of CO2 down underground, into the sedimentary basin under the Prairies, which "is enormous and ideal for soaking up CO2." Canada is looking to CCS as a long term solution and will begin to impliment it very soon.

  • May 23, 2006 - Earth-Solar Cycle Spurs Greenhouse Gases, Studies Show - Environmental News Network
    There is a reciprocal effect between greenhouse gasses and global warming. Not only do greenhouse gasses contribute to globalwarming, but also global warming encourages production of greenhouse gasses, resulting in temperatures that are higher, faster than expected.

  • May 9, 2006 - Where have all the butterflies gone? - San Fransisco Chronicle
    Fluctuations in winter and spring weather have caused the populations of some Butterfly species to drop to the lowest numbers recorded in three decades, leading scientists to be increasingly concerned about links to climate change and loss of habitats. Published studies have shown that increased variablility in rain, as predicted by global warming models, has helped lead to lead to the extinction of two populations of Checkerspot Butterflies.

  • May 6, 2006 - Climate change could shift rainfall line - ABC News Online
    Scientists say Goyder's Line in South Australia could be shifted south on maps because of climate change. The line was originally drawn on maps after the 1860s drought as a boundary to indicate where graziers to the north required government help. It is now thought of as a rainfall line indicating the areas suitable for cropping. Research by the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI) and the CSIRO suggests higher temperatures and less rain will change the agricultural landscape, moving the line further south. SARDI spokesman Peter Hayman says the northern-most point of the line could shift from Orroroo to Jamestown or even Clare within 60 years or so. "For people in that region, that's a big change. Land values change enormously across that transect," he said.

  • May 5, 2006 - More rain in the Pacific due to climate change - Radio New Zealand International
    US scientists indicate that global warming is weakening the vast system of air currents that fuel Pacific trade winds, creating more El Nino-like weather patterns. The change in weather patterns will also bring a change in the ocean currents, lessening the circulation that brings nutrients to the surface for marine life to feed on, which could have an impact on fishing in the Pacific.


  • March, 2006

  • March 21, 2006 - Humans Spur Worst Extinctions Since Dinosaurs - ENN
    Humans are responsible for the worst spate of extinctions since the dinosaurs and must make unprecedented extra efforts to reach a goal of slowing losses by 2010, a U.N. report said on Monday. A rising human population of 6.5 billion was undermining the environment for animals and plants via pollution, expanding cities, deforestation, introduction of "alien species" and global warming, it said.

  • March 15, 2006 - Global Warming Gases At Highest Levels Ever - New Zealand Herald
    Greenhouse gases blamed for global warming and climate change have reached their highest ever levels in the atmosphere, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said today. "Global observations coordinated by WMO show that levels of carbon dioxide, the most abundant greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, continue to increase steadily and show no signs of leveling off," said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud.

  • March 9, 2006 - Global Warming Threatens New Guinea Paradise - ENN
    Exotic species in the mountains of New Guinea island are under threat from global warming according to a climatolotist at Plymouth State University, New Hampshire. His latest data show that the temperatures in the mountain regions of the island are rising far faster than previously was predicted.

  • March 1, 2006 - Consensus Grows On Climate Change - BBC
    The global scientific body on climate change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, will soon release a report that says that only greenhouse gas emissions can explain freak weather patterns.


  • February, 2006

  • February 18, 2006 - Could Global Warming Become A Runaway Train? - ABC (U.S.)
    Scientists are worried about a "feedback loop" from global warming. In a feedback loop, the rising temperature on the Earth changes the environment in ways that then create even more heat. Those working in the Arctic say that the feedback loop is already underway.

  • February 17, 2006 - Proposed Arctic Pipeline Obstacle: Warming - MSNBC
    Environmental hearings on Canada's proposed $6 billion Mackenzie Valley pipeline opened with warnings that the safety of the pipeline and the natural gas fields that feed it is threatened by climate change that already is damaging northern roads and airstrips.

  • February 14, 2006 - Global Warming Makes The Common Cold Season Shorter - Leader-Post (Canada.com)
    Global warming may be making the common cold season shorter in cool countries like Canada, says a new study from Britain that links warmer weather to earlier relief from colds. For each increase of one degree Celsius in the average temperature of central England, the busy season for hospital visits by cold sufferers ends 2.5 weeks earlier, the study shows.

  • February 10, 2006 - Global Warming Shrinks Glacier - News 24
    Europe's longest glacier, the Trift glacier, shrank by 66m last year because of global warming, Swiss scientists said on Wednesday. Similar story from MSNBC


  • January, 2006

  • January 25, 2006 - 2005 Was Century�s Warmest Year: NASA - Hindustani Times
    Climatologists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City said the highest global annual average surface temperature in more than a century was recorded in their analysis for 2005.

  • January 12, 2006 - Global Warming Killing Frogs - news24
    Global warming has wiped out two-thirds of species of unique frogs that inhabit the cloud forests of Central America, a study published on Thursday in Nature says. Sixty-seven percent of the 110 varieties of harlequin frog, along with the golden toad, have disappeared from tropical America in the past 20 years according to the researchers.

  • January 12, 2006 - Global Warming: Blame The Forests - Guardian
    Scientists have realised that plants are part of the global warming problem. According to a study published today, living plants may emit almost a third of the methane entering the Earth's atmosphere.

 

 

       




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