ESTAR

HUGE ARCTIC POOL COULD COOL EUROPE

2012-01-23T09:23:00.000+13:00

A huge pool of fresh water in the Arctic Ocean is expanding and could lower the temperature of Europe by causing an ocean current to slow down, say scientists from University College London and Britain's National Oceanography Centre. Using satellites to measure sea surface height from 1995 to 2010, they found that the western Arctic's sea surface has risen by about 15 cms since 2002. The volume

DAYLIGHT-SAVING CAUSES BRAIN-DAMAGE?

2012-01-13T18:10:00.002+13:00

This report on ScienceDaily on research that shows neurological damage is caused by messing about with biological clocks should give pause to those who love 'daylight-saving.' Russia has already dumped it because of the known effects on health, including increases in the incidence of heart-attacks in the weeks

EVIL STATISTIC

2012-01-07T11:33:00.000+13:00

From page 1330, volume 334 of Science magazine: 9.1 billion tons. Total global carbon-emissions in 2010, an all-time high, up from 8.6 billion tons in 2009, according to the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

EARTHQUAKES LINKED TO TROPICAL CYCLONES

2011-12-27T09:00:00.004+13:00

A groundbreaking study led by University of Miami (UM) scientist Shimon Wdowinski shows that earthquakes, including the recent 2010 ones in Haiti and Taiwan, may be triggered by tropical cyclones (hurricanes and typhoons). 'Very wet rain events are the trigger,' says Wdowinski, associate research professor of marine geology and geophysics at the UM Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric

ESTARFUTURE ADDS AMAZON R&D SUPPLIES

2011-12-23T09:28:00.000+13:00

It is fitting that EStarFuture Corporation, which has such a strong emphasis on R&D, has added to its repertoire by becoming a portal for SmallParts, a division of Amazon, 'the hardware store for researchers and developers', which stocks 200,000 items for R&Ders, including laboratory and scientific supplies, metalworking tools, measurement and inspection tools, raw materials, fasteners, tubing,

ESTARFUTURE INVADED BY DOVES

2011-12-21T20:09:00.000+13:00

As this post by our CEO shows, the 3475-square-metre property that is EStarFuture's headquarters (shared with the CEO) has been invaded by doves. It a very fitting juxtaposition: white, glorious doves and a company that wants us to be living at peace with the planet. Invaded by doves, blessed by doves, surrounded by doves, accompanied by doves. Would that every company had such companions and

GREENLAND'S BEDROCK RISING

2011-12-12T13:13:00.001+13:00

ScienceDaily reports that an unusually hot melting-season in 2010 accelerated ice loss in southern Greenland by 100 billion tons. Fifty GPS stations planted along the coast to measure the bedrock's natural response to the ever-diminishing weight of ice above it, showed that large portions of the island's bedrock responded by rising another 6mm (0.25 of an inch). The bedrock rises 15mm a year,

TUNA ON THE EDGE OF SUSTAINABILITY

2011-12-06T12:34:00.001+13:00

Tuna stocks have declined 60% since 1954, reports Science, and in some areas more than 90%.

CLIMATE INSANITY ON STEROIDS

2011-12-06T10:14:00.001+13:00

How much stupider can we humans get? We are wrecking the only planet we can live on in the entire universe, we have been given that message over and over and over again, we have been told very plainly how we are doing it, we have been told that we must to stop pumping carbon-dioxide into the atmosphere, yet we persist in making things worse, led by prats who we are too stupid to vote out of

WMO RANKS 2011 ONE OF THE WARMEST

2011-11-30T11:44:00.001+13:00

Reuters says a report by the UN's World Meteorological Organisation ranks 2011 as one of the warmest years on record. The WMO says global temperatures in 2011 are at the moment the tenth highest on record--higher than any previous year with a La Nina event, despite the fact that it has a relative cooling influence.

CLIMATE THREAT FROM HFCs

2011-11-22T11:08:00.001+13:00

The BBC reports on growing concerns that ozone-friendly HFCs are not friendly to climate-change, because the average global warming potential of the present mix of HFCs is about 1600--so a kilogram of HFC has about 1600 times the effect on global warming as a kilogram of carbon dioxide. The HFCs: A Critical Link in Protecting

HOTTEST OCTOBER FOR NORTHERN HEMISPHERE LAND

2011-11-21T19:35:00.001+13:00

The monthly figures prepared by the American government show that October 2011 was much warmer than normal compared with previous Octobers. On average, land areas across the Northern Hemisphere—where the majority of the Earth's land mass is located—were the warmest on record for the month, at 1.29°C (2.32°F) above the 20th century average. The warmth was especially pronounced across Alaska,

AIR-POLLUTION WORSENS DROUGHT AND FLOODING

2011-11-15T19:50:00.001+13:00

ScienceDaily reports research showing that increases in air pollution and other particulate matter in the atmosphere can strongly affect cloud development in ways that reduce precipitation in dry regions or seasons, while increasing rain, snowfall and the intensity of severe storms in wet regions or seasons. The study by a University of Maryland-led team of researchers provides the first clear

AMERICA USED MORE ENERGY IN 2010

2011-11-14T18:03:00.001+13:00

ScienceDaily reports that American energy use went back up in 2010 compared to 2009, when consumption was at a 12-year low. The United States used more fossil fuels in 2010 than in 2009, while renewable electricity remained approximately constant, with an increase in wind power offset by a modest decline in hydroelectricity. There also was a significant increase in biomass consumption, according

ANNUAL GREENHOUSE-GAS INDEX RISING

2011-11-11T19:41:00.001+13:00

NOAA's updated Annual Greenhouse Gas Index (AGGI), which measures the direct climate influence of many greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, shows a continued steady upward trend, reports ScienceDaily. The AGGI reached 1.29 in 2010, which means that the combined heating effect of long-lived greenhouse gases added to the atmosphere by human activities has increased 29 percent

SCEPTIC'S DATA CONFIRMS CLIMATE-CHANGE

2011-11-01T18:43:00.001+13:00

A US physicist who has been critical of climate change data says his own research has convinced him that global warming is real in this ABC interview. Professor Richard Muller says that to his amazement his results correlate with previously published results from other teams that used both inaccurate temperature gauges and faulty weather stations. He says his research shows the earth's surface

EXTREME MELTING OF GREENLAND CAN SELF-AMPLIFY

2011-10-27T18:01:00.002+13:00

The Greenland icesheet can experience extreme melting even when temperatures do not hit record highs, according to a new analysis by Dr. Marco Tedesco, assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at The City College of New York. His findings suggest that glaciers can undergo a self-amplifying cycle of melting and warming that would be hard to stop. 'We are finding

STILL A BIG OZONE HOLE OVER SOUTH POLE

2011-10-22T14:30:00.000+13:00

The Antarctic ozone hole, which yawns wide every Southern Hemisphere spring, reached its annual peak on September 12, stretching 26.03 million square kilometres (10.05 million square miles), the ninth largest on record. Above the South Pole, the ozone hole reached its deepest point of the season on October 9 when total ozone readings dropped to 102 Dobson units, tied for the 10th lowest in the

NEW STUDY GAZUMPS CLIMATE-CHANGE SCEPTICS

2011-10-22T14:29:00.000+13:00

Global warming is real says a major study released on October the 20th. Despite issues raised by climate-change sCeptics, the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature study found reliable evidence of a rise in the average global land temperature of approximately 1°C since the mid-1950s, reports ScienceDaily. Click here for more data from the Berkley Earth study.

SEA WILL RISE FOR 500 YEARS?

2011-10-18T18:28:00.003+13:00

Researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute are part of a team that has calculated the long-term outlook for rising sea-levels in relation to the emission of greenhouse gases and pollution of the atmosphere using climate models, reports ScienceDaily. In the pessimistic scenario, emissions keep increasing, and the sea rises 1.1 metres by the year 2100 and 5.5 metres by 2500. Even in the most

RECORD OZONE LOSS OVER THE ARTIC

2011-10-03T10:35:00.001+13:00

The loss of ozone over the Arctic this year was so severe that for the first time it could be called an 'ozone hole' like the Antarctic one. The study, published in Nature, is reported on the the BBC's website. About 20km above the ground 80% of the ozone was lost. This is the report in ScienceDaily.

MANMADE AEROSOLS MESSING UP THE MONSOON

2011-09-30T14:26:00.002+13:00

This research reported in Science blames human activity for the negative change in the South Asian summer monsoon. Abstract: 'Observations show that South Asia underwent a widespread summertime drying during the second half of the 20th century, but it is unclear whether this trend was due to natural variations or human activities. We used a series of climate-model experiments to investigate

CLIMATE-CHANGE ROCKS EVEREST?

2011-09-26T10:22:00.001+13:00

Scientists and observers are concerned that climate-change will ultimately turn even Everest, the world's highest peak, into a rock-climb. One climber said that he was able to scale it without crampons there was so much bare rock. Full story here.>/a>

ELECTRIC CARS SLASH SOLAR-CELL PAYBACK TIME

2011-09-20T11:26:00.002+12:00

BusinessGreen reports on figures released by British Gas which show that owners of electric cars who charge them from their own installations of solar cells slash the payback time for the installation to less than five years. The figures are based on a 2.52kWp system at the home of actor and TV presenter Robert Llewellyn, who uses the panels to charge his Nissan Leaf.

WHY GLOBAL OVER-HEATING RISES UNEVENLY

2011-09-20T09:09:00.001+12:00

These stories, at TG Daily and LiveScience report a study that explains why the inexorable rise in the average global temperature is proceeding in fits and starts. The deep oceans store excess heat temporarily, for as long as a decade. Satellites show that the discrepancy between heat coming in and being reflected back into space is growing, so the excess heat must have been going somewhere.

SMALLEST NORTH POLE IN 8000 YEARS

2011-09-12T13:36:00.001+12:00

A report in the Guardian newspaper shows that the extent of Arctic sea-ice is the smallest it has been since satellite observations began in 1972, and is almost certainly the smallest it has been for at least 8000 years. If current trends continue, a largely ice-free Arctic in the summer months is likely within 30 years. That is up to 40 years earlier than anticipated in the last assessment

CLIMATE-CHANGE THREATENS AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION

2011-09-02T16:39:00.000+12:00

Science magazine (published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science) has published a study of the global production of the four largest agricultural commodities over the last 30 years: maize, wheat, soybean and rice. Together they account for about 75% of the calories consumed by humans, directly or indirectly. The study found that maize and wheat have been negatively

CUT THE SOOT TO SLOW WARMING

2011-09-02T08:47:00.000+12:00

ScienceDaily reports that a new study of dust-like particles of soot in the air--now emerging as the second most important, but previously overlooked, factor in global warming--provides fresh evidence that reducing soot emissions from diesel engines and other sources could slow melting of sea ice in the Arctic faster and more economically than any other quick fix, a scientist reported in

SIMPLE CATALYST SPLITS WATER IN SUNLIGHT

2011-09-01T09:05:00.000+12:00

Using computational science researchers at the universities of Kentucky and Louisville have found a simple new catalyst that splits water in sunlight, thus opening another carbon-free door to the hydrogen age. Full story on ScienceDaily.

2011-08-26T17:37:00.000+12:00

CLIMATE-CHANGE MAY WIPE OUT A THIRD OF SPECIES If global warming continues as expected, it is estimated that almost a third of all flora and fauna species worldwide could become extinct. Scientists from the Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (Biodiversität und Klima Forschungszentrum, BiK-F) and the SENCKENBERG Gesellschaft für Naturkunde discovered that the proportion of actual

2011-08-20T18:35:00.001+12:00

KEY GREENLAND GLACIER MELTING FASTER A key glacier in Greenland is melting faster than previously expected, according to findings by a team of academics that included Dr Edward Hanna from University of Sheffield's Deaprtment of Geography, Dr Sebastian Mernild from the Los Alamos Laboratory, USA, and Professor Niels Tvis Knudsen from the University of Aarhus, Denmark. The team´s new findings

2011-08-13T10:06:00.000+12:00

IRON TO REPLACE PLATINUM IN FUEL-CELLS A research-team at INRS have now built on their pioneering achievement--the first high-performance iron-based catalyst for fuel-cells. They have developed a new and improved iron-based catalyst that generates even more electric power. Previously, only platinum-based catalysts could produce similar performance. The team, led by Professor Jean-Pol Dodelet,

2011-08-02T08:50:00.002+12:00

SMALL AMOUNT OF WARMING COLLAPSES ICE-SHELVES An analysis of prehistoric 'Heinrich events' that happened many thousands of years ago, creating mass discharges of icebergs into the North Atlantic Ocean, make it clear that very small amounts of subsurface warming of water can trigger a rapid collapse of ice-shelves. The findings provide historical evidence that warming of water by 3-4 degrees was

2011-07-29T09:44:00.001+12:00

TUNDRA FIRES COULD ACCELERATE GLOBAL WARMING After a 10,000-year absence, wildfires have returned to the Arctic tundra, and a University of Florida study shows that their impact could extend far beyond the areas blackened by flames, reports ScienceDaily.

2011-07-21T11:04:00.002+12:00

316 STRAIGHT MONTHS WARMER THAN 20TH CENTURY AVERAGE June 2011 was the 316th consecutive month with a global temperature above the 20th century average. The last month with below-average temperature was February 1985. Full report at NOAA/NCDC. That's 316 in the eye for the head-in-the-sand-junk-science-it-ain't-happening brigade. And still counting...

2011-07-20T08:35:00.003+12:00

OCEANS SET TO RISE MANY METRES An analysis of records left by the Last Interglacial led by the University of Arizona has found that most of the 8-metre rise in sea-levels was due to the melting of ice-sheets, not thermal expansion, and that average ocean temperatures then were only 0.7 degrees Celsius above what they are now. 'This means that even small amounts of warming may have committed us

2011-07-16T09:48:00.001+12:00

DRAMATIC CLIMATE SWINGS LIKELY AS WORLD WARMS Using research into the ancients behaviour of El Niño, scientists at Oxford and Leeds Universities predict that the dramatic climate swings behind both last year's Pakistan flooding and this year's Queensland floods in Australia are likely to continue as the world gets warmer. They have discovered that the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the

2011-07-11T08:28:00.000+12:00

GREEN-ENERGY INVESTMENT UP $211 BILLION IN 2010 World-wide spending in 2010 on renewable energy was up 32% on 2009, with wind-farms in China and small-scale solar panels on rooftops in Europe largely responsible for the increase, according to the latest annual report on renewable energy investment trends issued by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). Last year, investors pumped a record $211

2011-07-01T10:38:00.001+12:00

2010 ONE OF TWO WARMEST YEARS ON RECORD Globally, 2010 was one of the two warmest years on record, according to the 2010 State of the Climate report, which NOAA has just released. The peer-reviewed report, issued in coordination with the American Meteorological Society, was compiled by 368 scientists from 45 countries. It provides a detailed, yearly update on global climate indicators, notable

2011-06-21T17:32:00.004+12:00

WORLD'S OCEANS IN 'SHOCKING' DECLINE The oceans are in a worse state than previously suspected, according to an expert panel of scientists. In a new report they warn that ocean life is 'at high risk of entering a phase of extinction of marine species unprecedented in human history'. Full story on BBC News, and also on Reuters. More in the New Zealand Herald.

2011-06-11T09:02:00.002+12:00

FOOD-PRODUCTION RACING TO BEAT CLIMATE-CHANGE Across the globe, rising temperatures and more intense droughts, floods and storms are forcing a rethink in how to grow food, from breeding hardier crop varieties and changing planting times to complete genetic overhauls of plants, in a desperate bid to beat the effects of what we have done to the planet and sustain enough food-production for a

2011-06-07T10:59:00.002+12:00

FASTEST C02 RELEASE AND HOT SUMMERS The rate of release of carbon into the atmosphere today is nearly 10 times as fast as during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), 55.9 million years ago, the best analog we have for current global warming, according to an international team of geologists. Rate matters, and this current rapid change may not allow sufficient time for the biological

2011-05-20T09:43:00.001+12:00

WEIRD WEATHER IS THE NEW NORMAL The extremes of weather in the United States are signs of a new normal, says a group of scientists and government planners. 'It's a new normal and I really do think that global-weirding is the best way to describe what we're seeing,' says climate-scientist Katharine Hayhoe of Texas Tech University. Full story at NewsDaily.

2011-05-12T10:24:00.000+12:00

REMOVAL OF C02 FROM AIR NOT VIABLE Technologies for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere are unlikely to offer an economically feasible way to slow human-driven climate change for several decades, according to a new report. The American Physical Society has released a new assessment -- Direct Air Capture (DAC) of CO2 with Chemicals -- to better inform the scientific community on the

2011-05-11T09:40:00.001+12:00

ALGAE STARING DOWN THE CO2 BARREL New research shows that coccoliths, an important part of the marine environment, dissolve when seawater acidifies, which means that acidification of the world's oceans could have major consequences for the marine and global environments. Experiments show that coccoliths fall apart at the pH levels expected in 2100. Full story at ScienceDaily.

2011-05-05T07:59:00.001+12:00

ARCTIC MELTING AND RAISING SEA FASTER A much reduced covering of snow, shorter winter season and thawing tundra: the effects of climate change in the Arctic are already here, and are taking place significantly faster than previously thought--the conclusions of new research report on the Arctic, presented in Copenhagen this week. 'The changes are dramatic, not coincidental; the trends are

2011-04-01T14:34:00.000+13:00

CLIMATE-CHANGE WORSE THAN WORST PREDICTIONS The founder of New Zealand's Climate Change Research Institute, Professor Martin Manning, who also worked on the IPCC's fifth report, says the way the climate is changing is beyond their worst-case scenarios. Click here for the full article. Professor Manning says we need a 75% cut in carbon emissions. The technology is there to achieve that, but not

2011-03-31T10:04:00.001+13:00

ARCTIC SEA-ICE STILL DWINDLING Although the final data is not in, it seems that the maximum winter extent of sea-ice in the Arctic is tied with 2006 as the lowest ever measured by satellites. That also means that the last seven years have seen the seven lowest measurements since records began in 1979. Full report on ScienceDaily.

2011-03-30T11:08:00.005+13:00

AMAZON FORESTS NOT IN GOOD HEALTH A new NASA-funded study has revealed widespread reductions in the greenness of the forests in the vast Amazon basin in South America caused by the record-breaking drought of 2010. 'The greenness levels of Amazonian vegetation--a measure of its health--decreased dramatically over an area more than three and one-half times the size of Texas and did not recover

2011-03-26T09:39:00.001+13:00

RUSSIAN BOREAL FOREST CHANGING RAPIDLY A rapid, large-scale change in the type of trees is accelerating in Russia's boreal forest, which spans its cold northern regions, and is the largest continuous expanse of forest in the world. The change is the result of globally and regionally warming climate. That in turn is creating an even warmer climate in the region, according to a new study reported

2011-03-26T09:18:00.000+13:00

CO2 RAPIDLY AFFECTS ATMOSPHERIC STRUCTURE New research reported in ScienceDaily work shows that carbon-dioxide rapidly affects the structure of the atmosphere, causing quick changes precipitation, as well as many other aspects of Earth's climate, well before the greenhouse gas noticeably affects temperature. ‘The direct effects of carbon-dioxide on precipitation take place quickly,’ said a lead

2011-03-22T11:45:00.002+13:00

HYDROGEN FUEL-CELL VEHICLES NOW CLOSERScienceDaily outlines a paper published inScience magazine that reveals a breakthrough in using ammonia borane to store hydrogen that will make it a far more attractive fuel for vehiclesby researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory describes a simple scheme that regenerates ammonia borane from a hydrogen-depleted 'spent fuel' form (called

2011-03-15T17:26:00.002+13:00

ARCTIC OZONE-LEVEL PLUMMETSUnusually low temperatures in the Arctic's ozone layer have initiated a massive depletion of ozone there recently, and the Arctic seems to be heading for a record loss. At the relevant altitudes about half the ozone that above the Arctic has been destroyed in recent weeks, which may also affect regions further south. Scientists expect further depletion, because the

2011-03-10T09:57:00.000+13:00

MELTING ICE-SHEETS DOMINATE RISING SEAThe Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are losing mass at an accelerating rate, according to a new NASA-funded satellite study, the longest study of changes in polar ice sheet mass. It suggests that they are overtaking the loss from mountain glaciers and ice-caps to become the dominant contributor to global sea-level rise, much sooner than model forecasts

2011-03-02T15:03:00.000+13:00

EXTREME WEATHER LINKED TO CLIMATE-CHANGEA report in ScienceDaily links the warming of the planet with the extreme winter weather that has hit the United States in the last two years.What goes round comes round: the United States is responsible for a huge amount of the total global carbon-emissions, and more per head than any other nation.

2011-02-17T15:47:00.000+13:00

WARMER EARTH EVEN WITH ZERO EMISSIONSNew research by the University of Washington (UW), reported on ScienceDaily, shows that the world is committed to a warmer climate because of emissions that have occurred up to now, regardless of what we do to mitigate the effects.There would continue to be warming even if the most stringent policy proposals were adopted, because there still would be some

2011-02-16T11:48:00.001+13:00

RISING SEA THREATENS 180 US CITIESResearch led by scientists at the University of Arizona, reported in ScienceDaily, says rising sea-levels caused by climate-change could threaten an average of 9 percent of the land in 180 U.S. coastal cities by 2100. The Gulf and southern Atlantic coasts will be particularly hard-hit. Miami, New Orleans, Tampa, Fla., and Virginia Beach, Va. could lose more than

2011-02-04T14:16:00.004+13:00

AMAZONIAN DROUGHTS RING ALARM BELLSThe 2010 drought in the Amazon may have been even more devastating for its rainforests than the unusual 2005 drought, which had been billed as a 1-in-100-year event, report ScienceDaily and NewsDaily.Analyses of rainfall across 5.3 million square kilometres of Amazonia during the 2010 dry season, recently published in Science, shows that the drought was more

2011-01-22T12:35:00.000+13:00

2010 SETS MELT RECORD FOR GREENLAND2010 set new records for the melting of the Greenland ice-sheet, expected to be a major contributor to projected sea level rises in coming decades, reports ScienceDaily.'This melt season was exceptional, with melting in some areas up to 50 days longer than average,' said Dr. Marco Tedesco, director of the Cryospheric Processes Laboratory at The City College of

2011-01-15T11:34:00.001+13:00

2010 TIES 2005 AS WARMEST ON RECORDHow many times does the human race have to be told the bad news before we call it bad news and stop being bad?Full report on ScienceDaily.

2011-01-11T10:16:00.002+13:00

CLIMATE DAMAGE TO LAST 1000 YEARSThis ScienceDaily report on new research indicates that the impact of rising CO2 levels in Earth's atmosphere will cause unstoppable effects to the climate for at least the next 1000 years, a collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet by the year 3000, and an eventual rise in the global sea-level of at least four metres--even if emissions stopped at their present

2010-12-01T10:37:00.000+13:00

COMPOST BOMB COULD SPEED GLOBAL OVERHEATINGThe rate at which the global climate heats could lead to a rapid release of carbon from peatlands that would further accelerate the heating, reports ScienceDaily. Two recent studies published by the Mathematics Research Institute at the University of Exeter highlight the risk that this 'compost bomb' instability could pose, and show that there is a

2010-11-30T10:37:00.000+13:00

NASA FINDS EARTH'S LAKES ARE WARMINGIn the first comprehensive global survey of temperature trends in major lakes ( reported on ScienceDaily )NASA researchers have found that Earth's largest lakes have warmed during the past 25 years in response to climate-change. Satellite data was used to measure the surface temperatures of 167 large lakes, which showed an average warming-rate of 0.45 degrees

2010-10-26T15:41:00.000+13:00

MORE INTENSE STORMS FROM GLOBAL OVERHEATINGReported in ScienceDaily, an analysis of weather systems in the northern and southern hemispheres by an atmospheric scientist at MIT says they will respond differently to global overheating. There will be more intense storms in winter in the northern hemisphere and all year round in the southern hemisphere.

2010-10-23T10:02:00.000+13:00

ARCTIC HEATING CONTINUESThe Arctic Report Card, an annual assessment of Arctic conditions, prepared in 2010 by a team of 69 scientists, shows taht the region is continuuing to heat up, affecting local populations and ecosystems as well as weather patterns in the most populated parts of the Northern Hemisphere.Highlights this year include: record-setting high temperatures in Greenland, causing

2010-10-21T17:32:00.002+13:00

HUMAN EFFECT ON NITROGEN RISKS GLOBAL DAMAGEAn authoritative study published in the October 8 issue of Science magazine (the publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science) sounds the alarm over what humans are doing to the Earth's nitrogen cycle.Micro-organisms have been controlling the cycle since life began on the planet. With life evolving around it, nitrogen became

2010-10-21T11:23:00.000+13:00

SEVERE DROUGHT MAY BECOME GLOBAL PROBLEMThe United States and many other heavily populated countries face a growing threat of severe and prolonged drought in coming decades, according to a new study by National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) scientist Aiguo Dai, and reported on ScienceDaily. The detailed analysis concludes that warming temperatures associated with climate change will

2010-10-20T08:45:00.000+13:00

HUMAN DEMANDS ON EARTH 50% TOO HIGHNew analysis shows populations of tropical species are plummeting and humanity's demands on natural resources are sky-rocketing to 50 per cent more than the earth can sustain, reveals the 2010 edition of WWF's Living Planet Report (the leading survey of the planet's health)--full report on ScienceDaily.

2010-10-16T19:07:00.002+13:00

CARBON-DIOXIDE DRIVES OF GLOBAL TEMPERATUREWater vapoUr and clouds are the major contributors to Earth's greenhouse effect, but a new atmosphere-ocean climate modeling study by Andrew Lacis and colleagues at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York shows that the planet's temperature ultimately depends on the atmospheric level of carbon dioxide.The notable feature of the team's

2010-10-04T10:16:00.001+13:00

CLIMATE-CHANGE TARGET UNSAFE SAY RESEARCHERSAnalysis of geological records by climate-change experts at the University of Exeter, records that preserve details of the last known period of global warming, has revealed 'startling' results that suggest current targets for limiting climate change are unsafe. The study, reported on ScienceDaily, has important implications for international negotiators

2010-10-02T11:06:00.000+13:00

HOW WARM WAS THE 2010 NORTHERN SUMMER?And were the unusually high temperatures caused by global over-heating? The answers are on ScienceDaily.

2010-09-30T10:28:00.001+13:00

LOOHOLES IN CLIMATE ACCORD COULD SEE 4.2-DEGREE RISE BY 2100An increase in the global temperature of up to 4.2 º C and the end of coral reefs could be reality by 2100 if national targets in the Copenhagen Accord are not revised--see ScienceDaily for the full report.

2010-09-30T10:08:00.001+13:00

A FIFTH OF THE WORLD'S PLANTS FACE EXTINCTIONA global analysis of the risk of extinction for the world's plants, conducted by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the Natural History Museum, London, and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), has revealed that they are as threatened as mammals. One in five species face extinction.Full story in ScienceDaily.

2010-09-01T19:25:00.002+12:00

BLEAK FUTURE FOR OCEAN LIFEA unique natural laboratory in the Mediterranean is revealing the effects of rising carbon-dioxide levels on ocean life, and shows a bleak future as ocean acidity rises.Scientists from the University of Plymouth in England and the University of Santa Catarina in Brazil studied single-celled organisms called Foraminifera round volcanic carbon-dioxide vents off Naples in

2010-08-25T09:27:00.002+12:00

NEW TECHNOLOGY BRINGS ELECTRICITY-GENERATION HOMEReported in ScienceDaily is a new technology aimed at making every household and place of business a generator of electricity. Every point of consumption will also be a point of generation. The energy-base of society will be sunlight and water, not oil and coal. And huge transmission-lines will vanish.The technology to do all that has been with us

2010-07-20T19:19:00.002+12:00

HIGHEST GLOBAL TEMPERATURES CONTINUE.Data published by America's NOAA Satellite and Information Service, shows that the alarming temperatures continue:The combined global land and ocean average surface temperature for June 2010 was the warmest on record at 16.2°C (61.1°F), which is 0.68°C (1.22°F) above the 20th century average of 15.5°C (59.9°F). The previous record for June was set in 2005.

2010-07-03T18:30:00.000+12:00

ABOUT 500 BILLION SHOULD DO ITScientists at the Carnegie Institution have found that if we removed 100 billion tons of carbon-dioxide from the atmosphere the average global temperature would drop only 0.16 degrees Celsius.Which means that to reverse the damage we have done to the planet we would have to remove about 500 billion tons.Even if we knew how to do that it would take many lifetimes.Full

2010-06-21T12:27:00.000+12:00

DIRE IMPACT FROM CHANGES IN OCEANS The first comprehensive synthesis on the effects of climate change on the world's oceans has found they are now changing at a rate not seen for several million years, reports ScienceDaily.Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, lead author of the report and Director of The University of Queensland's Global Change Institute, says the findings have enormous implications for

2010-05-19T10:00:00.000+12:00

HOTTEST APRIL ON RECORD SAYS NOAAThe combined global land and sea surface temperatures for April, and for January to April, were the warmest on record, according to measurements by NCDC-NOAA.

2010-05-14T11:17:00.002+12:00

ANOTHER CHEAP HYDROGEN CATALYST FROM MITExpanding on work published two years ago, MIT's Daniel Nocera and associates have found another formulation, based on inexpensive and widely available materials, that can efficiently catalyse the electrolysis of water. It could be the basis for new storage-systems that would allow buildings to be independent and self-sustaining in energy. They would use

2010-05-06T13:08:00.000+12:00

OVERHEATED EARTH WILL KILL HUMANSReasonable worst-case scenarios for global warming could mean deadly temperatures for humans in coming centuries, according to research findings from Purdue University and the University of New South Wales, Australia.Researchers have for the first time calculated the highest tolerable wet-bulb temperature and found that it could be exceeded for the first time in

2010-05-03T13:26:00.000+12:00

CHEAP CATALYST MAKES HYDROGEN FROM WATERA team of researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California, Berkeley has discovered an inexpensive metal catalyst that can effectively generate hydrogen gas from water.The new proton-reduction catalyst is based on a molybdenum-oxo metal complex that is about one

2010-04-22T15:52:00.000+12:00

MARCH 2010 HOTTEST MARCH ON RECORDThe monthly measurements by NOAA show that the combined land and ocean temperature for the planet made March the hottest on record (since 1880), reports ScienceDaily.

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2010-04-07T13:04:00.001+12:00

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2010-04-03T11:47:00.000+13:00

ACIDIFICATION THREATENS WORLD'S OCEANSThe rise in human emissions of carbon dioxide is driving fundamental and dangerous changes in the chemistry and ecosystems of the world's oceans, international marine scientists have warned in a study reported in ScienceDaily.surface waters have already acidified an average of 0.1 pH units from pre-industrial levels, and we are seeing signs of its impact even

2010-03-27T19:16:00.000+13:00

GLOBAL CONVEYOR BELT NOT SLOWINGSome good news amongst the climate-change gloom, in this report from an AAAS page.The global conveyor-belt, the great current circling much of the planet, which keeps Europe warm, is not slowing down, according to careful analysis at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.So The Day After Tomorrow is still just a very good movie.

2010-03-27T18:34:00.001+13:00

TIPPING-POINT FOR GLOBAL OILScienceDaily reports that the world's capacity to meet projected future oil demand is at a tipping point, according to research by the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at Oxford University.It says that the age of cheap oil has ended as demand starts to outstrip supply, that current estimates of oil-reserves should be downgraded from between 1150-1350

2010-03-25T14:25:00.000+13:00

GREENLANDS NORTHWEST COAST LOSING ICEThe ice-loss off Greeenland is accelerating up its northwest coast, according to satellite measurements. Full report in ScienceDaily.

2010-03-24T09:58:00.000+13:00

CLIMATE-CHANGE EFFECTS UNDERESTIMATEDCharles H. Greene, Professor of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Cornell University, one of the authors of 'A Very Inconvenient Truth,' published in the peer-reviewed journal Oceanography (March 2010), says that he and his co-authors conclude that the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2007 Fourth Assessment Report underestimates

2010-03-06T20:07:00.000+13:00

HUGE METHANE LEAK IN ARCTICA section of the Arctic Ocean seafloor that holds vast stores of frozen methane is showing signs of instability and widespread venting of the powerful greenhouse gas, according to the findings of an international research team led by University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists Natalia Shakhova and Igor Semiletov.The research results, published in Science on March 5th,

2010-02-23T20:50:00.000+13:00

ANTARCTIC MELTING SINCE 1947 SAYS USGSNew data shows that ice-shelves are retreating in the southern section of the Antarctic Peninsula due to climate change, which can can cause glaciers to retreat and a rise in sea-levels if warming continues, threatening coastal communities and low-lying islands.Research by the U.S. Geological Survey is the first to document that every ice-front in the

2010-02-18T13:14:00.000+13:00

PERMAFROST NOW-130KM FURTHER NORTH THAN IN 1960The southern limit of permafrost is now 130 kilometres further north in the James Bay region than it was 50 years ago.The average temperature in the area has increased 2 degrees Celsius in the last twenty years.

2010-02-18T13:10:00.000+13:00

SUB-TROPICAL IN GREENLAND'S GLACIERSResearchers have found that ocean currents in the North Atlantic have changed to the extent that sub-tropical water is now reaching deep into Greenland's glaciers all year round, driving melting and probably triggering an accelerated loss of ice. Full report in ScienceDaily.Sub-tropical heat is being rapidly transported to the glaciers--in months, not years.

2010-02-08T20:56:00.000+13:00

ARCTIC CHANGING FASTER THAN EXPECTEDClimate-change is transforming the Arctic environment faster than expected and accelerating the disappearance of sea ice, reports the biggest-ever study of Canada's changing north, which involved more than 370 scientists from 27 countries. Collectively they spent 15 months, starting in June 2007, aboard a research vessel above the Arctic Circle, the first time

2010-01-28T16:34:00.000+13:00

2000 TO 2009 WARMEST DECADE SAYS NASANASA says the average global temperature for the last ten years are the warmest decade on record (since 1880), reports ScienceDaily.

2009-12-30T19:35:00.000+13:00

CLIMATE WIZARD SHOWS WHAT IS COMINGClimate Wizard, makes rapid visual sense of climate models or a combination of some of all of sixteen of the leading ones.Read the report on ScienceDaily.

2009-12-18T18:05:00.000+13:00

MAN-MADE CLIMATE-CHANGE IRREFUTABLE FACTThose who say that the changes in climate, average global-temperature, and weather are not man-made are dead wrong. The facts are irrefutable, the reasoning from them is irrefutable, and therfore the conclusion is irrefutable. The argument is so simple it is beyond denial, even for the worst prat-headed denial-addict on the planet.A mixture has the

2009-12-17T08:48:00.000+13:00

NASA UNVEILS CO2 SATELLITE MAPPING TOOLThe Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite is proving a precise and sophisticated tool for tracking carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere, and its effect on climate in conjunction with water vapour, reports ScienceDaily.The new data, which span the seven-plus years of the AIRS mission, measure the concentration and distribution of

2009-12-11T20:18:00.000+13:00

NEW IGBP INDEX PROVES CLIMATE-CHANGEA new index prepared by the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), which reduces solid climate-change data to a simple index, rather like a stock-market index, once again proves that human activity is the cause. Full report in ScienceDaily.

2009-12-09T19:29:00.000+13:00

STUDY PREDICTS SEA WIL RISE UP TO 1.9MA careful new study shows that the global oceans will rise may rise anywhere between 0.75 metres and 1.9 metres, reports ScienceDaily. ~The latter figure is consistent with another study that predicted up to 2.0 metres.