Climate Change News - ENN

UN climate summit seeks clarity

BBC — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 08:55:00 EST

This year's round of UN climate talks are opening in Poland with nations attempting to set the terms of a new deal on all aspects of climate change. The talks, in the city of Poznan, mark the halfway point in a two-year process agreed at last year's UN conference.

Climate change remains a top priority

SF Gate — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 09:58:00 EST

Skeptics believed that the fiscal crisis would force Obama to put his plans to address global warming on the back burner. But in a videotaped speech to a climate summit co-hosted by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this month, Obama said, "Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all. Delay is no longer an option."

Poorer nations bear brunt of climate change

http://www.deccanherald.com — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 09:40:00 EST

Delegates from nearly 200 countries meet in Poland Monday to work on a new global climate-saving pact, finding ways to help poorer regions

Greenhouse gases hit record levels last year

Reuters — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:50:00 EST

GENEVA (Reuters) - Gases blamed for global warming reached record levels in the atmosphere last year, the United Nations weather agency said on Tuesday. Concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide (N2O) touched new highs after more steady rises in 2007, and methane had its largest annual increase in a decade, the World Meteorological Organization said.

Climate change wiped out cave bears 13 millennia earlier than thought

Wiley-Blackwell — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:40:00 EST

Enormous cave bears, Ursus spelaeus, that once inhabited a large swathe of Europe, from Spain to the Urals, died out 27,800 years ago, around 13 millennia earlier than was previously believed, scientists have reported. The new date coincides with a period of significant climate change, known as the Last Glacial Maximum, when a marked cooling in temperature resulted in the reduction or loss of vegetation forming the main component of the cave bears' diet.

Melting Arctic, Afghanistan top general's concerns

canada.com — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 09:29:00 EST

OTTAWA - Global warming is melting Arctic ice faster than the military projected, posing greater challenges for Canadian Forces already facing a deteriorating security situation half a world away in Afghanistan, says Canada's top soldier. "Global warming is happening very quickly. I think any projection we have has been underestimated. Flying over Ellesmere Island and not seeing very much snow up there and seeing the Arctic Ocean as a blue water ocean was quite revealing to me," Gen. Walt Natynczyk, the chief of the defence staff, said Monday in a candid and sweeping assessment of the challenges faced by the military from the sun-baked deserts of Afghanistan to the not-so-frozen Far North.

Tibetan glaciers rapidly melting

http://www.abc.net.au — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 09:25:00 EST

Glaciers high in the Himalayas are dwindling faster than anyone thought, putting nearly a billion people living in South Asia in peril of losing their water supply. Throughout India, China, and Nepal, some 15,000 glaciers speckle the Tibetan Plateau. There, perched in thin, frigid air up to 7200 metres above sea level, the ice might seem secluded from the effects of global warming.