When crocodiles roamed the Arctic
The poles were once covered by lakes and forests instead of ice. Anil Ananthaswamy finds out what the world was like in the last great warming.
The poles were once covered by lakes and forests instead of ice. Anil Ananthaswamy finds out what the world was like in the last great warming.
Jason 2 satellite will record role of oceans in climate change Jason 2, a French-U.S. satellite that will provide the most accurate monitoring ever of rising sea levels and track the effects of climate change, was launched into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on Friday. The liquid-oxygen-fuelled rocket sent an explosive arc of light into the night sky, some 256 km northwest of Los Angeles, as it launched the satellite on a three-year journey to track virtually the entire oceanic surface of Earth and extend the record of sea-level study from space to two decades.
Alcoa, Royal Dutch Shell and 97 other companies are urging world leaders to devise a plan for fighting global warming by setting greenhouse-gas targets for all nations and creating an international carbon market. A new climate-change treaty is needed with incentives to capture and store carbon dioxide and protect forests, the 99 companies said in a statement prepared by the World Economic Forum, a Geneva-based business coalition. The group presented the proposals on Friday to Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who hosts a meeting of the Group of Eight nations next month in Japan.
Buildings are known to be responsible for half of global carbon dioxide emissions Threat to ecology: Buildings have been indirectly contributing to carbon di oxide emissions globally. The global property industry could pay a high price for moving too slowly to shrink its colossal carbon footprint, a report to a United Nations conference on the environment said on Wednesday.
When Ernest Shackleton and his men marched towards the South Pole in December 1908, they came across something entirely unexpected. After scaling the vast Beardmore glacier on the edge of the polar plateau, they found seams of coal amid the snow and ice. They also found impressions of leaves in sandstone boulders nearby and even fossilised wood from a coniferous tree.
BRUSSELS: As the United States moves toward action on global warming, practical experience with carbon markets in the European Union raises a critical question: Will such systems ever work?
The World's oceans have warmed 50 per cent faster over the last 40 years than previously thought due to climate change,Australian and US climate researchers have reported Higher ocean temperatures expand the volume of water, contributing to a rise in sea levels that is submerging small island nations and threatening to wreak havoc in low-lying, densely-populated delta regions around the globe. The study, published in the British journal Nature, adds to a growing scientific chorus of warnings about the pace and consequences rising oceans.
The response of the Greenland ice sheet to global warming is a source of concern notably because of its potential contribution to changes in the sea level. We demonstrated the natural vulnerability of the ice sheet by using pollen records from marine sediment off southwest Greenland that indicate important changes of the vegetation in Greenland over the past million years.
If you think the weather is getting more extreme, you're right
Pollen data suggest that the Greenland ice sheet was much smaller during previous warm periods.
KAMPUR
The United States must take on a leading role in combatting global warming, the head of the country's delegation to climate change talks said in an interview published Wednesday.
Here the authors report improved estimates of near-global ocean heat content and thermal expansion for the upper 300m and 700m of the ocean for 1950
Global warming will lead to increasing frequency of drought, which sometimes has greater negative impacts on crops than other natural calamities do, speakers at a seminar said yesterday. They called on researchers to develop drought- and flood-tolerant crop varieties, as the people have no alternative but to adapt to changing climate conditions. They also called on the government and development partners to allocate adequate funds for this purpose.
Are environmentalists doing themselves
Another Failure on Climate Change,' the June 11 editorial about the recent Senate debate on global warming legislation, was off the mark. Questioning the scheduling of the debate because of high gas prices makes little sense. If gas prices don't go down, should we never address global warming? Of course not. Many Republicans used gas prices as a reason not to act, even though the long-term solution to gas prices lies in the new green technologies that will come to the fore once we do act.
Ten years ago, when environmental lawyer Kassie Siegel went in search of an animal to save the world, the polar bear wasn't at all an obvious choice. Siegel and Brendan Cummings of the Center for Biological Diversity in Joshua Tree, Calif., were looking for a species whose habitat was disappearing due to climate change, which could serve as a symbol of the dangers of global warming.
Author and environmentalist Lester R. Brown tells Nandini Nairour civilisation is at risk Run off Lester Brown (bottom) warns against melting icebergs He might bring doom's day prophecies with him. But he offers solutions as well. Environmentalist Lester R. Brown was in the Capital's Taj Mahal hotel recently for the launch of the Hindi version of his book, "Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilisation' (W.W Norton & Company).
Al Gore made his debut in the 2008 presidential campaign Monday night, encouraging voters to back Barack Obama because ''take it from me, elections matter.'' The former vice president's speech at the Joe Louis Arena was part endorsement and part blistering attack on the man who denied him the White House eight years ago. ''After eight years of incompetence, neglect and failure, we need change,'' Gore said. ''After eight years when our Constitution has been dishonored and disrespected, we need changes.''
This may come as a surprise, but a report from a scientific firm based in Washington, has revealed that obese people are contributing up to 45 per cent to global warming. Undeniably, planet earth is witnessing a major climate change in the world. And if you think it's only greenhouse gases doing the damage, think again. The scientific evidence which recently emerged, stated that obesity and global warming are linked. Could it be true or is it just one more way of making overweight people feel guilty?