CO2 HIGHER NOW THAN IN PAST 2M YEARS

A new study, reported on ScienceDaily, which was able to reconstruct carbon-dioxide levels in the sharpest detail ever and over a much longer period than any previous one, shows that the peak average over the past 2.1 million years has been 280 parts per million--which was the level before human activity raised it to its present level of 385ppm.

Another study on ScienceDaily shows that glaciers can vanish in a geological eyeblink.

Not a pleasant conjunction of studies. Yet all the fools who run the world can think of as the Arctic melts away is that they will now be able to get at the oil and gas beneath it.

And fools of the same breed are excited about a new technique that will enable the human race to extract even more fossil fuels--folly fuels--from the earth.

GREENLAND ICE-SHEET MELTING FASTER THAN EXPECTED

A report in ScienceDaily cites a new study showing that Greenland's ice-sheet is melting faster than expected, and is contributing up to 25% of the global rise in ocean levels.

The oceans are now rising 3mm a year, and Greenland has been contributing about 0.7mm of that since 1995. About 265 cubic kilometres of ice have been lost each year.

CLIMATE DAMAGE WILL LAST FOR MILLENNIA

From the American Association for the Advancement of Science: 'The idea that we are already committed to a certain amount of surface air temperature increase and sea-level rise over the coming century, even if we could immediately halt all CO2 emissions, has become well known in scientific and science policy circles. The longer-term outlook is less well understood. Eby et al. use a complex, coupled climate-carbon cycle model to investigate how long anthropogenic climate change will persist as a function of how high the concentration of atmospheric CO2 rises. They calculate how long it will take for half of the total emissions to be removed from the atmosphere, what the maximum global average sea surface temperature increase will be, and how long it will take for 80% of that sea surface thermal anomaly to decay. The results suggest that atmospheric CO2 can persist at high concentrations for several thousand years, and that sea surface temperature increases can last many times longer than that. It looks, then, like we are in this for the long haul.'

CLIMATE PROJECTIONS ARE NOW FAR WORSE

New climate-change projections by MIT, published this month in the American Meteorological Society's Journal of Climate, and reported in ScienceDaily, show that climate-change, if no action is taken, will be much worse than previously thought--a median probability of surface warming of 5.2 degrees Celsius by 2100, with a 90% probability range of 3.5 to 7.4 degrees.

PARTICULATES REPROGRAM GENES IN THREE DAYS

A new study, reported in
ScienceDaily, shows that certain particulates in polluted air can reprogram genes in as little as three days--genes responsible for the suppression of tumours.

To avoid cancer, stop breathing pollution.

COSMIC-RAY MODEL SHOOTS CLIMATE-SCEPTICS DOWN

A favourite theory of climate-change sceptics, who say the problem is caused by cosmic rays caused by increased solar activity, not greenhouse gases, has been buried by a new study, reported in ScienceDaily.

Sorry, guys, you will have to accept the truth sooner or later. And you'd better sell your oil shares quick...

OZONE HOLE EXPLAINS ANTARCTIC ICE

A new study explains why Antarctic sea-ice has been increasing overall, in contrast to Arctic sea-ice, which is vanishing away. The ozone hole is the answer to the puzzle. It is keeping the area artificially cooler than it would otherwise be. But once it has gone the overall effect will be the same as some local effects--the melt will be on. Full report in ScienceDaily.

NEW WAY TO SPLIT WATER

And a very clever one it is too. The only drawback is that the reported process needs ruthenium, not the most plentiful element known to science or anybody.

CARBON-SINKS LOSING AGAINST EMISSIONS

Scientists attending the Copenhagen Climate-Change Conference say that the stabilising influence that the carbon-sinks have on climate-change is gradually weakening because the sinks are not keeping pace with rapidly rising emissions. Report in Science Daily.

A study looking back millions of years via 1280-metre core drilledn from under Antarctic's Ross Sea Ice Shelf adds to the worry, because it shows that the amount of carbon-dioxide now in the atmosphere is about what it was when the huge West Antarctica Ice Shelf last vanished.

If it were to vanish again global sea-levels would be about 7 metres higher.

HORROR WORLD WITHOUT OZONE SIMULATED

This report in Science Daily shows what the world would have been if we had not realised what our CFCs were doing to the vital ozone layer. It would have virtually collapsed in the middle of this century, with terrifying consequences.

That study underlines what we could and should be doing about climate-change. There are some new thoughts on the risks from that, again in Science Daily.

RISING OCEANS WILL IMPACT 600M PEOPLE

The predicted rise in global sea-levels by 2100 is now expected to be at least 1 metre, and heading for metres unless urgent action is taken, according to presentations at the International Scientific Congress on Climate Change in Copenhagen--report in ScienceDaily.

Even the best-case scenario will hit low-lying coastal areas that house a tenth of the global population--about 600 million people.

AMERICAN BIRDS CONFIRM CLIMATE-CHANGE
The northward and inland movements of American birds, established by the observations of a vast number of citizens over many decades, shows that climate-change is having a serious impact on bird-life, reports
ScienceDaily.

Some species have moved hundreds of kilometres north, and are breeding earlier. Others, constrained by changes to habitat caused by human occupation and use, cannot move.

BOTH POLES WARMING FASTER THAN THOUGHT

The poles are warming faster than previously thought, raising global sea-levels and making drastic climate-change far more likely, concludes two years of wide-ranging research in a UN-backed programme called International Polar Year, which involved 10,000 scientists. See the full report in NewsDaily.

TROPICAL FORESTS ABSORB A FIFTH OF CO2

A long, careful study reported in
ScienceDaily shows that tropical forests are soaking up about a fifth of the 32 billion tonnes of CO2 that being pumped into the atmosphere every year. The oceans absorb another huge portion, leaving about 15 billion tonnes floating about.

IPCC SCIENTIST SAYS GOH TO BE FAR WORSE

A ScienceDaily report says that 'Without decisive action, global warming in the 21st century is likely to accelerate at a much faster pace and cause more environmental damage than predicted [in the fourth IPCC report], according to a leading member of the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

'The IPCC scientist Chris Field of Stanford University and the Carnegie Institution for Science points to recent studies showing that, in a business-as-usual world, higher temperatures could ignite tropical forests and melt the Arctic tundra, releasing billions of tons of greenhouse gas that could raise global temperatures even more--a vicious cycle that could spiral out of control by the end of the century.'

He says humans have released 350 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere since the start of the Industrial Revolution, and that there is 1000 billion tons locked up in the tundra.

SEA 21 METRES HIGHER 400,000 YEARS AGO

Proof that the oceans were 21 metres higher 400,000 years ago has been found in Bermuda, a worrying discovery because of the conditions that the earth is now heading for. Full report in ScienceDaily.

STRATOSPHERIC SECRETS DISCOVERED DOWN A MINE

Cosmic-rays detected half a mile underground in a disused US iron-mine can be used to detect major weather events occurring 20 miles up in the Earth’s upper atmosphere, a new study has revealed, reports ScienceDaily. The surprise discovery will enable accurate measurements of a part of the atmosphere that till now has been hard to get at (no ladders tall enough).

GOH IRREVERSIBLE AND OCEAN DEAD-ZONES SOAR

The BBC reports that a team of US environmental scientists says many effects of climate change are irreversible, and that global temperatures could remain high for 1000 years even if carbon emissions can somehow be stopped right now. Their report was sponsored by the US Department of Energy; it appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. ScienceDaily reported the same story.

And if global overheating is not stoppped ocean dead-zones will increase tenfold, reports ScienceDaily.

ANTARCTIC IS WARMING NOT COOLING

Sorry, all you oil-washed climate-change sceptics, but new research published on ScienceDaily shows that the Antarctic 'cooling', on which you were pinning a big chunk of your denial, is a myth. It is warming about the same amount as the rest of the planet.

If West Antarctica and Greenland melt the oceans will be 14 metres higher.

Even worse, thousands of scientists are agreed: that the planet is warming, and that it's our fault.

But geologists who work for oil companies are not convinced. They must have inside knowledge denied to ordinary mortals. ;-)))

ARCTIC MELTING PREDICTS HIGH SEA-LEVELS

A new report on ScienceDaily says, once again, that the Arctic is heating up faster than other places in the Northern Hemisphere. The US Geological Survey led the new assessment, which is a synthesis of published science literature and authored by a team of climate scientists from academia and government. The US Climate Change Science Program commissioned the report, which has contributions from 37 scientists from the United States, Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom and Denmark.

The new report also makes several conclusions about the Arctic:

The size and speed of the summer sea-ice loss over the last few decades is highly unusual compared to events from previous millennia, especially considering that changes in Earth's orbit over this time have made sea-ice melting less, not more, likely.

The entire Greenland icesheet will vanish if there is sustained warming as little as 2 degrees Celsius above twentieth century values. That would raise sea-levels about 7 metres.

OCEANS TO RISE A METRE IN 100 YEARS

After studying the records of sea-level rises in the past instead of computer models, a multinational group of researches are predicting a rise of up to 1.3 metres in 100 years, which is many times what the IPCC's official vew, reports ScienceDaily.

Other scientists have knee-capped the climate-sceptics with research showing that the chances of the rising temperatures in recent years being nothing but statistical chance are the same as their chances of flipping a coin and getting heads fourteen times in a row (ScienceDaily).