climate change – News Stories About climate change - Page 81

Feb 14, 2008 2:56 PM CST

Solar Lull May Trigger Ice Age

Global warming still dire despite sluggish sun, study says

(Newser) - Solar activity, which usually runs in 11-year cycles, has been so sluggish of late that space weathermen are worried we might be entering a mini-ice age. They expected to see sunspot activity pick up about last March, to peak in 2012; if the sun stays this sluggish for another year...

Obama Debuts $210B Jobs Plan

Feb 13, 2008 5:20 PM CST

Obama Debuts $210B Jobs Plan

Democrat proposes $150B for environmental, $60B for infrastructure jobs

(Newser) - Democrat Barack Obama today laid out a $210 billion plan to create 2 million environmental and construction jobs over 10 years. “This agenda is paid for,” the Illinois senator said at a General Motors plant in Wisconsin, adding that the money would come from ending the Iraq war,...

Gore, Powell Stay on Sidelines

Feb 12, 2008 2:25 PM CST

Gore, Powell Stay on Sidelines

Ex-VP may want broker role; ex-Secretary of State has GOP fatigue

(Newser) - As the race for the Democratic nomination enters what the party hopes will be its homestretch, Al Gore is still watching from the sidelines, and insiders say he's planning to stay there. The ex-VP is said to see himself brokering a deal if Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton end at...

Winemakers Battle Climate Threat

Feb 12, 2008 10:50 AM CST

Winemakers Battle Climate Threat

Vineyard owners, scientists gather to share new strategies

(Newser) - For vineyards, global warming isn’t a distant, theoretical problem—it’s hurting their products now. That’s why winemakers and scientists are gathering in Barcelona this week to hash out ideas for combating changing temperatures and harsher sunlight, NPR reports. Recent studies have shown that grapes are ripening faster...

Warming Dooms King Penguins

Feb 12, 2008 4:31 AM CST

Warming Dooms King Penguins

Rising temperatures may drive them to extinction in 20 years

(Newser) - Global warming could drive king penguins into extinction in the next 20 years, a new study warns. Research indicates that a rise in ocean temperature of just 0.47 degrees—well below the forecast—would reduce the animals' critical supply of lantern fish and krill, reports the Los Angeles Times....

Young Evangelicals Shifting Left

Feb 11, 2008 5:55 PM CST

Young Evangelicals Shifting Left

Many are dropping hot-button issues to take on media and Internet porn

(Newser) - Young evangelicals are dropping hot-button GOP issues like abortion and gay marriage to embrace less controversial causes, a new survey says. Internet porn, liberal media, and AIDS orphans now top their political hot list, and many young evangelicals who still rank abortion as number one also pick Barack Obama—a...

Biofuels Will Add to Heating Climate, Studies Say

Feb 8, 2008 8:21 PM CST

Biofuels Will Add to Heating Climate, Studies Say

Land likely to be used for production is already helping absorb carbon

(Newser) - Biofuels could hurt Earth more than help it, two new studies conclude. Over 30 years, argues one, corn-based ethanol would spout twice the greenhouse gas of regular gasoline; the other notes environmental damage likely to be wreaked by chopping rainforests and other areas for production, the Washington Post reports. The...

New Worry: Global Soil Change

Feb 8, 2008 6:20 PM CST

New Worry: Global Soil Change

Scientists propose calling current geological era 'Anthropocene'—human-made

(Newser) - Earth's changing soils appear less able to support farming and plant and animal diversity because of human activity, a study shows. "Global soil change," which is occurring most severely in Africa and Asia, has a heavier hand in climate change than previously thought, National Geographic reports. Degraded soils...

Black News for Not-So-Green
Biofuels

Feb 8, 2008 3:54 AM CST

Black News for Not-So-Green Biofuels

Producing crops for fuel releases more greenhouse gas than it saves: studies

(Newser) - Producing crops for biofuel releases more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than is saved by using the alternative energy, according to the findings of two surprising new studies. Converting US farmland from producing food to ethanol necessitates food production elsewhere, vastly increasing greenhouse gas emissions as forests and grasslands are...

Bishops' Bright Idea: Give Up Carbon for Lent

Feb 5, 2008 12:05 PM CST

Bishops' Bright Idea: Give Up Carbon for Lent

Brits urge faithful to fast to cut emissions, fight global warming

(Newser) - For many Christians, Lent is a time to forgo chocolate or ice cream, but two senior British bishops have a better idea: “fasting” away your carbon footprint. “The poor are already suffering the effects of climate change,” says Liverpool’s bishop. “To carry on regardless of...

Scientists ID Catastrophic Climate Change 'Tipping Zones'

Feb 5, 2008 4:34 AM CST

Scientists ID Catastrophic Climate Change 'Tipping Zones'

9 danger signs that disaster is inevitable

(Newser) - Scientists have identified nine danger zones where global warming could be pushed past the point of no return within years, the Independent reports. The scenarios include the melting of ice in the Arctic and Antarctic, the collapse of the Indian and West African monsoons, and the death of forests in...

Rainforests Still Fall
at Shocking Rates

Feb 3, 2008 5:45 PM CST

Rainforests Still Fall at Shocking Rates

Summit proposes financial rewards for conservation efforts

(Newser) - Rainforests continue to vanish at "alarming" rates worldwide despite decades of scientific warnings, experts say. Tropical trees are falling at 60 acres per minute—up 10 from a generation ago—accounting for roughly 20% of Earth's carbon emissions. Environmental leaders plan to preserve forests with a carbon trading system,...

Climate Change May Trigger Crop Failures

Feb 3, 2008 9:21 AM CST

Climate Change May Trigger Crop Failures

Major food shortages predicted for Africa, Asia by 2030

(Newser) - Climate change could cause severe food shortages in South Asia and southern Africa, two of the poorest regions in the world, by 2030, National Geographic reports. "We were surprised by how much, and how soon, these regions could suffer if we don't adapt," said one of the study's...

Vanishing Snow Threatens West

Feb 1, 2008 11:44 AM CST

Vanishing Snow Threatens West

Global warming blamed for shrinking snowpacks

(Newser) - Blame for a dramatic decrease in Western mountain snowpacks rests squarely on global warming, researchers said yesterday. Using computer models of 50 years' worth of data, scientists confirmed warming is turning snowfall into rain, melting the packs earlier and drying up more rivers by summer. The trend threatens to trigger...

Governator Endorses McCain

Jan 31, 2008 12:24 PM CST

Governator Endorses McCain

Schwarzenegger calls candidate 'a great American hero'

(Newser) - Arnold Schwarzenegger endorsed John McCain for the GOP nomination today at a Los Angeles solar energy company, calling his fellow Westerner a hero and a great American. Standing beside the candidate and new Mac backer Rudy Giuliani, Arnie stressed their shared concern over climate change, and praised McCain as “...

Newt Argues a Conservative Green Plan

Jan 30, 2008 9:07 PM CST

Newt Argues a Conservative Green Plan

He debates critics in TNR over how to spark fuel innovation

(Newser) - Newt Gingrich has triggered a debate in the New Republic over how to inspire eco-friendly fuel innovation. He argues that tax breaks and a billion-dollar prize can spark green entrepreneurs to usurp the "oligarchies and dictatorships" that control US oil dependence. But a pair of eco-authors wants more, and...

Arctic Ice Vanishing 'Like Mad'

Jan 30, 2008 9:30 AM CST

Arctic Ice Vanishing 'Like Mad'

Researchers find Baffin ice cap shrunk by half in last 50 years

(Newser) - Ice caps on Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic are "receding like mad" and could be gone completely within 50 years, LiveScience reports. The fields of ice have shrunk by half in the last 50 years and haven't been so small for at least 1,600 years, according to...

Bush Urges Economic Boost

UPDATED

Jan 28, 2008 8:52 PM CST

Bush Urges Economic Boost

In Union speech, prez also backs climate change accord and troop funding

(Newser) - In his final State of the Union speech, an upbeat President Bush plugged his $150 billion stimulus plan today and urged lawmakers not to "load up the bill," CNN reports. He also advised cutting $18 billion in "bloated" programs, promised to veto pork-barrel funding, and asked policymakers...

Island Paradise Battles Global Warming

Jan 28, 2008 4:18 PM CST

Island Paradise Battles Global Warming

Republic of Maldives sounds alarm about rising sea levels

(Newser) - The Republic of Maldives has a lot to fear from rising sea levels, but the chain of tiny islands in the Indian Ocean is doing something to protect itself. The nation has built a concrete wall around the capital, Male, and constructed an entirely new island 7 feet higher than...

House's $89K in Carbon Offsets Do Virtually Nothing

Jan 28, 2008 3:14 PM CST

House's $89K in Carbon Offsets Do Virtually Nothing

Environmentalists call payments 'waste of taxpayer money'

(Newser) - Whatever the good intentions were, the $89,000 the House of Representatives spent on carbon offsets doesn’t seem to have done much, the Washington Post reports. Most of the money went to fund programs that were going on anyway or had already ended. “It demonstrated why offsets are...