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Climate change: latest news |
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This section keeps you up to date with the latest news on climate change issues.
 | 2007 to be 'warmest on record'
BBC News Online - 4 January 2007
The world is likely to experience the warmest year on record in 2007, the UK's Met Office says. An extended warming period, resulting from an El Nino weather event in the Pacific Ocean, will probably push up global temperatures. There is a 60% chance that the average surface temperature will match or exceed the current record from 1998. The scientists also revealed that 2006 saw the highest average temperature in the UK since records began in 1914.
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| Climate 2006: Rhetoric up, action down
BBC News Online - 4 January 2007
"The gap between what the science tells us is necessary and what the politics is delivering is still significant." Not the words of a environmental campaigner or a frustrated climate scientist, but the plain assessment from Britain's Environment Secretary David Miliband as the 2006 round of United Nations climate negotiations whimpered to a close. But campaigners obviously agreed and some groups even began direct action during the year.
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 | London-on-Sea: the future of a city
Daily Telagraph - 28 December 2006
A map reveals how Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament and Canary Wharf will be among the areas at risk of flooding as sea levels may rise more quickly in the coming decades than previously thought. A sea level rise of a metre or more would be "very bad news" for major coastal cities, greatly increasing the risk of devastating storm surges. Particularly at risk are cities on or close to North Atlantic shores, such as London.
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| Polar bear issue could cut US emissions
Daily Telagraph - 28 December 2006
The Bush administration could be forced to limit carbon dioxide emissions after proposing to list the polar bear as an endangered species because of the threat from global warming. Once a species is listed as being threatened, a government is prevented from doing anything to jeopardise the animal's existence or its habitat.
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 | More than just hot air
The Guardian - 24 December 2006
As polar bears start to drown in the Arctic, scientists warn that global warming may be worse even than their previous worst-case scenario.The world seems to get the message at last: climate change is serious and unavoidable. A draft version of the next report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reveals that scientists are no longer able to put reliable upper limits on man-made heating of the atmosphere.
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| Australia ponders climate future
BBC News Online - 24 December 2006
Parts of Australia are in the grip of the worst drought in memory, sparking an emotional debate about global warming. Rainfall in many eastern and southern regions has been at near record lows. On top of that, the weather has been exceptionally warm.
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| Birds and bees in winter denial
Daily Telagraph - 21 December 2006
Less than a week before Christmas there were reports of swallows still swooping for insects across the country. These summer migrants might usually be expected to be 5,000 miles away in southern Africa. The unusually long run of mild weather - in what experts say could be Britain's warmest year on record - has seen leaves hanging stubbornly on the trees and butterflies that should have hibernated still on the wing.
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| Do they care it's Christmas time?
BBC News Online - 21 December 2006
'Tis the season when concerned present-buyers choose to sponsor goats for families in drought-hit regions. Schemes like this are little more than token gestures; a real gift would be serious political action to help those struggling with climate change. The growing damage wrought by climate change in sub-Saharan Africa demands more than seasonal good will; it needs true political will, matched by real action, if we are to halt the ever growing problem of world hunger.
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| The year the world woke up
The Guardian - 20 December 2006
In 2006, the public, politicians and industry have all shown significant signs that tackling global warming is on the agenda after scientific studies showed the pace of change gathering speed.
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| Charles urges action on climate
BBC News Online - 17 December 2006
Climate change is the "biggest threat to mankind", the Prince of Wales has said in an article. He called on governments across the world to act before it was too late, but paid tribute to the work of groups working for sustainable development. Greater determination and political will was needed from leaders who find it easy to ignore the problem, he said.
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| Global warming could spell ruin for Alps
Daily Telagraph - 14 December 2006
Snow may finally have started falling in the Alps, but global warming poses a potential disaster for the European ski industry. The Alps have just had the warmest succession of years in five centuries, and many resorts could see massive falls in revenue, employment and economic expansion even if the climate heats up by just one further degree.
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| The hottest year since 1659 spells global doom
Daily Telagraph - 14 December 2006
Central England sweltered in temperatures that are likely to make this year the hottest since records began in 1659. Worldwide, the provisional figures for 2006 place the year as the sixth warmest in a global record that stretches back to 1850 and around 0.42C above the average.
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| Sea level rise 'under-estimated'
BBC News Online - 14 December 2006
Current sea level rise projections could be under-estimating the impact of human-induced climate change on the world's oceans, scientists suggest. By plotting global mean surface temperatures against sea level rise, the team found that levels could rise by 59% more than current forecasts.
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 | By 2040: an Arctic with no ice?
The Times - 12 December 2006
Ice is melting so fast in the Arctic that the North Pole will be in the open sea in 30 years. Ships will be able to sail over the top of the world and tourists will be able visit what was, until climate change, one of planet's most inaccessible landscapes. American researchers have calculated that late summer in the Arctic will be ice-free by 2040 or earlier.
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| Nepal's farmers on front line of climate change
The Guardian - 2 December 2006
Nepal is on the front line of climate change and variations are now being recorded in communities from the freezing Himalayas of the north to the hot lowland plains of the south. For some people the changes are catastrophic. Anecdotal observations are backed by scientists who are recording in Nepal some of the fastest long-term increases in temperatures and rainfall anywhere in the world.
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| Climate 'altering UK marine life'
BBC News Online - 29 November 2006
The biodiversity and productivity of seas around the UK could already be suffering the consequences of climate change. Damaging storms have become more frequent, and rising sea surface temperatures have led to an apparent northward shift of warm-water plankton.
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| Warmer oceans storing climate change dangers
The Guardian - 29 November 2006
Global warming is creating a climate time bomb by storing enormous amounts of heat in the waters of the north Atlantic. Marine researchers have found that the upper ocean from western Europe to the eastern US has warmed by 0.015C in seven years. The capacity of the oceans to store heat means that a rise of that size is enough to warm the atmosphere above by almost 9C.
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| British coast faces 2ft rise in sea levels
The Times - 26 November 2006
Britain's coasts and oceans are being changed for ever by rising sea levels, bigger waves and stronger storms, a government report will warn this week. The study, the most thorough yet carried out into the impact of climate change on the country's marine environment, warns that sea levels could rise by as much as 2ft-3ft by 2080 and that the height of the biggest waves hitting our shores is already rising.
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| Mountain melt
The Times - 18 November 2006
Mount Kilimanjaro could lose its breathtaking ice cap by 2018 as global warming hits one of the great symbols of wild Africa ? also known as "the roof of Africa". Scientists working for the Tanzania National Parks Authority say that unless climate change is halted, ice on the highest peaks of the famous mountain will melt.
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| Climate threat to mobile species
BBC News Online - 16 November 2006
Some of the world's most spectacular migratory animals will be severely affected by climate change, according to a new United Nations report. The UN Environment Programme (Unep) says that rising temperatures spell extinction for some mobile species.
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| Climate change bill laid out
The Guardian - 15 November 2006
The government announced in the Queen's speech that it will introduce the long-awaited climate change bill during the coming session of parliament. The bill will make up part of the government's "policy to protect the environment, consistent with the need to secure long-term energy supplies".
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| African nomads to be first people wiped out
The Guardian - 12 November 2006
Kenya's herdsmen are facing extinction as global warming destroys their lands. They are dubbed the 'climate canaries' - the people destined to become the first victims of world climate change.
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| Protect forests to soak up emissions
The Guardian - 11 November 2006
The world must pay to protect tropical rainforests from destruction if it is to combat rising greenhouse gas emissions. Urgent financial incentives to stop land being cleared for farming were crucial for tackling global warming and the most cost-effective way of soaking up greenhouse gases.
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| Global climate efforts 'woeful'
BBC News Online - 9 November 2006
Efforts to help developing nations adapt to the impacts of climate change have been called "woefully inadequate" by a UN-commissioned report. Rich countries have focused on ways to reduce carbon emissions but have largely ignored helping poor nations cope with the consequences.
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| Only a decade left to avoid climate change
The Guardian - 9 November 2006
The world has less than a decade to reverse the growth in greenhouse gas emissions if dangerous climate change is to be avoided, according to a report from a thinktank that goes further than the landmark Stern review.
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| Climate campaigners urge action
BBC News Online - 4 November 2006
Thousands of climate change campaigners attended a rally in London, calling for world leaders to act urgently on the issue. The action included a march from the US embassy to Trafalgar Square, where celebrities joined a demonstration. 22,500 people attended the rally said the police.
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| Greenhouse gases' continued rise
BBC News Online - 3 November 2006
The steady rise in atmospheric levels of the greenhouse gases blamed for climate change shows no signs of abating, a UN agency has announced. The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide rose by about half a percent in 2005 and levels are likely to keep rising unless emissions of CO2, methane and nitrogen oxides are slashed.
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| Climate change fight 'can't wait'
BBC News Online - 31 October 2006
The world cannot afford to wait before tackling climate change, the UK prime minister has warned. A report by economist Sir Nicholas Stern suggests that global warming could shrink the global economy by 20%. But taking action now would cost just 1% of global gross domestic product.
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| Climate costs: The global picture
BBC News Online - 30 October 2006
A British government report says global warming could have a disastrous effect on the world's economy, shrinking it by 20%. BBC correspondents give the view on climate change from around the world.
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| At-a-glance: The Stern Review
BBC News Online - 30 October 2006
The world has to act now on climate change or face devastating economic consequences, according to a report compiled by Sir Nicholas Stern for the UK government. Here are the key points of the review written by the former chief economist of the World Bank.
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| £3.68 trillion: The price of failing to act
The Guardian - 29 October 2006
The most authoritative report on global warming warns it will cost the world up to £3.68 trillion unless it is tackled within a decade. Unchecked climate change would turn 200 million people into refugees, the largest migration in modern history, as their homes succumbed to drought or flood.
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| Climate change 'hitting Africa'
BBC News Online - 28 October 2006
Climate change is already affecting people across Africa and will wipe out efforts to tackle poverty there unless urgent action is taken. Droughts are getting worse, climate uncertainty is growing and climate change is an "unprecedented" threat to food security.
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| Why global warming could leave Britain feeling cold
The Guardian - 27 October 2006
Scientists have uncovered more evidence for a dramatic weakening in the vast ocean current that gives Britain its relatively balmy climate by dragging warm water northwards from the tropics. The slowdown, which climate modellers have predicted will follow global warming, has been confirmed by the most detailed study yet of ocean flow in the Atlantic.
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| Climate change will increase risk of war
The Times - 25 October 2006
Failing to tackle climate change will increase the risk of fragile states falling into civil war and chaos, Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, said yesterday. An unstable climate would place huge additional strains on the tensions caused by overpopulation and scarcity of resources.
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| Blair calls for urgent action
The Times - 20 October 2006
Tony Blair issued a domesday warning to fellow European leaders yesterday to take decisive action to halt climate change while there is still time. In an open letter the British Prime Minister warned that the window of opportunity to reverse global warming was rapidly closing.
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| Climate water threat to millions
BBC News Online - 20 October 2006
Climate change threatens supplies of water for millions of people in poorer countries, warns a new report from the Christian development agency Tearfund. Recent research suggests that by 2050, five times as much land is likely to be under "extreme" drought as now.
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| Warming will cost trillions
The Guardian - 13 October 2006
Failure to take action to combat climate change will cause environmental catastrophe and cost the global economy $20 trillion (£10.8 trillion) a year by the end of the century, according to Friends of the Earth. Allowing global warming to continue unchecked will mean a temperature rise of 4C by 2100, causing economic damage worth up to 8% of global GDP.
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| Living on the edge
The Guardian - 9 October 2006
Is the only solution for us to abandon the shore? Britain's coastline has remained more or less intact since the end of the last ice age. But as sea levels rise, erosion is accelerating and more than a million homes are now under threat.
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| Climate change threat 'daunting'
BBC News Online - 4 October 2006
One of the world's most prominent business leaders has expressed his fears over the "daunting" challenge of preventing dangerous climate change. He said politicians had to act fast and set targets to cut CO2 emissions.
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| Warning over climate 'time bomb'
BBC News Online - 2 October 2006
Scotland is sitting on a global warming time bomb according to a former government adviser on the environment, who says greenhouse gas released from moorlands could make climate change irreversible.
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| I'm scared by climate threat, says Miliband
The Telegraph - 28 September 2006
The Environment Secretary has conceded that he's "scared" about the growing threat of climate change. He said learning more about the problem since taking over his ministerial brief had brought home the extent of the danger.
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| World 'warmest for 12,000 years'
BBC News Online - 26 September 2006
The world is the warmest it has been in the last 12,000 years as a result of rapid warming over the past 30 years. Nasa climatologists say the Earth has warmed by about 0.2C in each of the last three decades and pollution from human activity is pushing the world towards dangerous levels of climate change.
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| Breathing Space
BBC News Online - 19 September 2006
Parks without grass? It sounds absurd, but in the future climate change is likely to transform our urban green spaces. Think pine trees and wind turbines. As climate change takes hold parks will have to undergo drastic changes if they are to survive.
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| Why next summer could well be even longer and hotter
The Times - 18 September 2006
Man-made CO2 pollution will continue to alter the world's climate. This month is on track to become one of the hottest Septembers on record, July was the warmest month yet recorded in the UK, and the summer was the second hottest in England and Wales.
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| Climate change 'proved' in central England
The Guardian - 18 September 2006
Man-made global warming has been proved in central England, according to a ground-breaking and "deeply worrying" new study published today. The Met Office research found that temperatures in the centre of England have warmed by one degree celsius since 1960.
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| Climate change threat to gardens
BBC News Online - 14 September 2006
The English cottage garden with its lush green lawns is under threat from climate change. Gardeners are being urged to adapt to climate change now or face a bleak future where their prized lawns and herbaceous borders could become a thing of the past.
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| Climate fears for Bangladesh's future
BBC News Online - 14 September 2006
Masuma is an environmental refugee, fleeing from the floods which have always beset her homeland but which are predicted to strike more severely with climate change. As the world warms, the monsoon rains in the region will concentrate into a shorter period, causing a cruel combination of more extreme floods and longer periods of drought.
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| Increasing ocean temperatures fuelling more powerful hurricanes
The Guardian - 12 September 2006
Hurricane breeding grounds in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans are being warmed by greenhouse gases, raising fears that more intense and devastating storms will be unleashed on nearby coastlines. Katrina-like storms could become more common and the effects can't be explained by a natural cycle.
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| Siberian thaw to speed up global warming
The Guardian - 10 September 2006
The release of trapped greenhouse gases is pushing the world past the point of no return on climate change. The frozen bogs of Siberia are melting, and the thaw could have devastating consequences for the planet, scientists have discovered.
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| Climate change will reach point of no return in 20 years
The Guardian - 5 September 2006
The world only has 10 years to develop and implement new technologies to generate clean electricity before climate change reaches the point of no return - something the UK government failed to appreciate in its recent energy review, according to an expert.
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| Britain gets a monsoon forecast
The Times - 3 September 2006
Britain's gentle drizzle is giving way to tropical-style downpours and cloudbursts as accelerating climate change disrupts weather systems. Rainstorms have doubled in intensity in parts of the country and are becoming more concentrated in autumn. "Extreme" events, associated with the onset of climate change, are occurring almost a century earlier than had previously been predicted.
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| Top scientist's fears for climate
BBC News Online - 31 August 2006
One of America's top scientists has said that the world has already entered a state of dangerous climate change. President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, John Holdren told the BBC that the climate was changing much faster than predicted.
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| Global meltdown
The Guardian - 30 August 2006
Scientists fear that global warming will bring climatic turbulence, with changes coming in big jumps rather than gradually. "We used to think that it would take 10,000 years for melting at the surface of an ice sheet to penetrate down to the bottom. Now we know it doesn't take 10,000 years; it takes 10 seconds."
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| Cities in peril as Andean glaciers melt
The Guardian - 29 August 2006
Ice sheets expected to last centuries could disappear in 25 years. Andean glaciers are melting so fast that some are expected to disappear within 15-25 years, denying major cities water supplies and putting populations and food supplies at risk.
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| Climate change may make the Med too hot for British holidays
The Telegraph - 27 August 2006
Holidays to the Mediterranean are destined for the "scrapheap of history" because climate change means that resorts will become too hot for British travellers. Rising temperatures and higher sea levels mean people will increasingly shun traditional tourist destinations in favour of holidays in the United Kingdom.
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| Climate change sends nature awry
The Guardian - 26 August 2006
Spring is arriving earlier each year as a result of climate change, the first "conclusive proof" that global warming is altering the timing of the seasons. In what is believed to be the world's largest study of seasonal events, scientists found that spring now arrives six to eight days earlier across Europe than in the early 1970s.
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| Warming 'more severe' for cities
BBC News Online - 25 August 2006
The impact of climate change is likely to be more severe in major cities, with the elderly most at risk. The predicted rise in temperatures in the coming decades will be exacerbated by what scientists call the "urban heat island effect".
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| UK 'could suffer Katrina-style flooding'
The Guardian - 22 August 2006
Experts warn that the kind of deluge that overwhelmed New Orleans a year ago could not be ruled out in Britain. Although the UK was likely to be spared the effects of a category five hurricane, the possibility of flooding caused by storm surges, high tides and heavy rain was real and likely to increase due to the effects of climate change.
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| Forecast puts Earth's future under a cloud
The Guardian - 15 August 2006
More than half of the world's major forests will be lost if global temperatures rise by an average of 3C or more by the end of the century. The prediction comes from the most comprehensive analysis yet of the effects of global warming. Extreme floods, forest fires and droughts will also become more common over the next 200 years.
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| Boiled alive
The Guardian - 26 July 2006
The 2003 heatwave killed more than 30,000 people. It was the biggest natural disaster in Europe on record. And yet, as temperatures reach new highs, Britain is fretting about dried-out lawns and stuffy offices. Alok Jha looks at the dangers that really lie ahead - and how to survive them.
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| 100º - get used to it
The Guardian - 23 July 2006
Britain experienced its hottest July day on record last week and forecasters say more is to come as climate change tightens its grip on the country. Global warming experts claim that by 2050 temperatures will regularly top 40C and warn that our health and infrastructure will be unable to cope.
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| Drought, gales and refugees as UK hots up
The Guardian - 22 July 2006
As this week's heatwave shows, climate change will affect almost every aspect of British life. This heatwave is only the beginning. The mercury may not have pipped the all-time record, but it is only a matter of time. Maybe not next week and maybe not next month, but soon. And for the rest of our lives.
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| As the planet heats up, we sit around doing nothing
The Times - 20 July 2006
Raging heat, roads melting, rails buckling, hosepipe bans, record-breaking temperatures - it is amazing how similar this summer is to the great hot summer of 1976. So, how many more record-breaking heatwaves will it take before we start to take climate change seriously?
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| Heatwave breaks record for July
BBC Online - 19 July 2006
The hottest recorded July day has emerged to have been in Wisley, Surrey, where temperatures hit 36.5C (97.7F). As the sun blazed across the country schools closed and workers dressed down while the elderly and young children were urged to drink plenty of water. The hot weather brought warnings from climate change experts that the conditions were not unique.
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| Climate change 'real and severe'
BBC News Online - 6 July 2006
An expert panel convened by BBC News has concluded that climate change is "real and dangerous". Temperatures are likely to rise by 3C to 5C by the end of the century, with impacts likely to be "severe" but not "catastrophic", the panel said. It also concluded that politicians are unlikely to cut emissions sufficiently to prevent dangerous global heating.
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| The illness in Planet Earth
BBC News Online - 6 July 2006
Planet Earth is unwell, argues James Lovelock. Emissions of greenhouse gases and other environmental changes have, he says, brought humanity and the natural world to the edge of crisis. These issues amount to a challenge far greater than anything humanity has faced since the shift out of the last Ice Age into the interglacial period.
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| Polar bears are left high and dry by shrinking Arctic ice
The Times - 24 June 2006
Polar bears are being forced to change their behaviour and natural habitat because of the retreating Arctic Sea ice. As the ice contracts, retreating farther each summer and returning thinner and less extensively each winter, the bears have to choose between remaining on land or swimming after the ice.
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| Backing for 'hockey stick' graph
BBC News Online - 23 June 2006
The Earth was hotter in the late 20th Century than it had been in the last 400 or possibly 1,000 years, a report requested by the US Congress concludes. It backs some of the key findings of the original study that gave rise to the iconic "hockey stick" graph.
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| Climate change a bigger security threat than terrorism
The Guardian - 12 June 2006
A new report says the government's obsession with the "war on terror" is counterproductive and distracting politicians from more fundamental threats to global security. The effects of climate change - displacement of peoples, food shortages, social unrest - have long-term security implications far greater than those of terrorism.
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| Global warming 'leading to genetic changes'
The Telegraph - 9 June 2006
Evidence is growing that climate change is leading to genetic changes that are passed down the generations in animals as diverse as birds, squirrels and mosquitoes, scientists report.
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| Gore's plea on climate change wins ovation
The Guardian - 30 May 2006
"We're running the planet like a company in liquidation," the former US vice-president Al Gore told an audience at the Hay festival, in an impassioned plea to act on climate change before it is too late. "For some reason we have now convinced ourselves, too many of us, that we don't have to care about the future".
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| Climate change ushers in new life
BBC News Online - 26 May 2006
When Philip Williams spotted an avocado growing on a tree in west London he was ridiculed, first by a taxi driver and then by his wife. This could become a more frequent sight as our climate becomes warmer. Scientific evidence currently predicts a 2-6C rise in temperature this century.
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| Global warming predictions are underestimated
The Guardian - 23 May 2006
Climate change models have dramatically underestimated the extent to which global warming will raise temperatures, scientists warned yesterday. The flaw means existing predictions for temperature rises are inaccurate and will have to be revised upwards by as much as 2C, suggesting the world could experience a hike of up to 7.7C by the end of the 21st Century.
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| Attenborough goes to war over climate
The Guardian - 21 May 2006
David Attenborough will make his first unequivocal public statement linking humans to climate change - silencing environmentalists who have criticised him for not using his popularity to highlight the dangers posed by global warming. Launching the BBC's Climate Chaos season, Attenborough will present a moving personal journey through the science of climate change and its impact around the world.
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| Climate change spreads diseases
The Times - 15 May 2006
Up to 185 million people will be killed in Africa by the end of the century because of the effects of climate change on disease patterns. This prediction is made in a report that calculates that the toll from malaria, cholera, dengue fever, meningitis and other diseases will rise rapidly because of global warming.
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| Africa climate change 'could kill millions'
The Guardian - 15 May 2006
If the world's dependence on oil continues, climate change will devastate poor countries, says Christian Aid in a report. It estimates that up to 182 million people in sub-Saharan Africa could die of diseases directly attributable to climate change by the end of the century. Many millions more poor people throughout the world face death, disease and penury if nothing is done, due to climate-induced sea level rises, floods, famine, drought and conflict.
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| Climate change a 'deadly threat'
BBC News Online - 15 May 2006
The Christian Aid charity has warned that 184 million people in Africa alone could die as a result of climate change before the end of the century. Climate-induced floods, famine, drought and conflict could reverse recent gains in reducing poverty. Its report says rich nations must aid poorer ones to adopt non-fossil-fuel energy sources such as solar power.
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| Meltdown fear as Arctic ice cover falls to record winter low
The Guardian - 15 May 2006
Record amounts of the Arctic ocean failed to freeze during the recent winter, new figures show, spelling disaster for wildlife and strengthening concerns that the region is locked into a destructive cycle of irreversible climate change. Satellite measurements show the area covered by Arctic winter sea ice reached an all-time low in March, down some 300,000 square kilometres on last year -an area bigger than the UK.
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| Challenge of climate change to be Beckett's top priority
The Telegraph - 10 May 2006
Margaret Beckett indicated last night that the environment would be the big new theme of her tenure as Foreign Secretary, saying that combating climate change was to become a top priority of British foreign policy. She said that one of the reasons that Tony Blair had asked her to take over the Foreign Office was to intensify Britain's focus on tackling global warming.
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| What will happen if Britain becomes 3C warmer?
The Guardian - 8 May 2006
Three degrees... the increase in world temperature that most atmosphere scientists now believe will take place over the next century. New reports suggest an even higher figure, but 3C is slap in the middle of the range that the ultra-conservative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says is most likely. So it's official. Climate change is here: a man-made phenomenon.
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| 3C hotter. Earth's danger point
The Times - 4 May 2006
The world will warm by 3C even under emissions projections for 2050 that leading scientists consider optimistic, the United Nations group that studies global warming has said. The increase, which would cause drought and famine for 400 million people and devastate wildlife, is predicted by the IPCC in its most confident assessment yet of how greenhouse gases are affecting global temperatures.
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| US scientists reject Bush scepticism over global warming
The Telegraph - 4 May 2006
An American government report on climate change has undermined a key claim of Bush administration sceptics who have long disputed a link between carbon emissions and global warming. The study by the federal Climate Change Science Programme concluded that the atmosphere was growing warmer and that there was "clear evidence of human influences".
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| 'Clear' human impact on climate
BBC News Online - 3 May 2006
A scientific report commissioned by the US government has concluded there is "clear evidence" of climate change caused by human activities. The report, from the federal Climate Change Science Program, said trends seen over the last 50 years "cannot be explained by natural processes alone".
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| A stark message in deathly white coral
The Times - 19 April 2006
Global warming may seem a distant threat to us ? but in the seas off Tobago it is here and now. SOMETHING TERRIBLE happened last summer beneath the startlingly blue Caribbean seas off the island of Tobago, where we have just been staying. The Buccoo coral reef, home to one of the richest marine ecologies in the world, turned white.
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| Death, famine, drought: cost of 3C global rise in temperature
The Guardian - 15 April 2006
Global temperatures will rise by an average of 3C due to climate change and cause catastrophic damage around the world unless governments take urgent action, according to the UK government's chief scientist. In a stark warning issued yesterday Sir David King said that a rise of this magnitude would cause famine and drought and threaten millions of lives.
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| Africa could face more droughts
BBC News Online - 3 March 2006
Africa could be faced with 25% less water by the end of the century because of global warming, scientists have warned in a new report. The research, published in the journal Science, shows geographical factors will amplify changes in rainfall patterns resulting from climate change.
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| Climate change will hit London
BBC News Online - 2 March 2006
A World Wildlife Fund report has found London is the most likely city in the UK to be damaged by the effects of climate change. The Stormy Europe report, predicts the number of Winter storms will increase by up to 25% in the UK.
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| Effects of emissions 'will take centuries to reverse'
The Times - 17 February 2006
Industrialised societies are releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere at a rate more than 30 times faster than when a huge increase in natural emissions triggered extreme global warming 55 million years ago, scientists said yesterday. Even after humans stop burning fossil fuels, the effects will be long-lasting.
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| 'World has only 20 years to stop climate disaster'
The Times - 31 January 2006
International action to halt climate change must be taken within 20 years or global warming will be irreversible, scientists said yesterday. By 2025 the technology needs to be in place to reduce carbon emissions by 2.6 per cent every year to avoid catastrophic climate change. Leaving it any later will mean that it will no longer be feasible to reduce levels sufficiently.
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| Stark warning over climate change
BBC News Online - 30 January 2006
Rising concentrations of greenhouse gases may have more serious impacts than previously believed, a major scientific report has said. The report, published by the UK government, says there is only a small chance of greenhouse gas emissions being kept below "dangerous" levels. It fears the Greenland ice sheet is likely to melt, leading sea levels to rise by 7m (23ft) over 1,000 years.
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| Sea level rise 'is accelerating'
BBC News Online - 27 January 2006
Global sea levels could rise by about 30cm during this century if current trends continue, a study warns. Australian researchers found that sea levels rose by 19.5cm between 1870 and 2004, with accelerated rates in the final 50 years of that period.
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| So, are we going to freeze or fry?
The Times - 4 December 2005
Scientists say that global warming is slowing the Gulf Stream and that Britain may face a new ice age as a result. Confused? Jonathan Leake explains the oddities of climate change. For two dozen climate change scientists with a theory to prove, the results were startling. The end of the world as we know it had come a little closer ? and they had the data to show it.
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| Britain faces big freeze as Gulf Stream loses strength
The Times - 1 December 2005
The Gulf Stream currents that give Britain its mild climate have weakened dramatically, offering the first firm scientific evidence of a slowdown that threatens the country with temperatures as cold as Canada's. The Atlantic Ocean "conveyor belt" that carries warm water north from the tropics has weakened by 30 per cent in 12 years, scientists have discovered.
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| CO2 'highest for 650,000 years'
BBC News Online - 24 November 2005
Current levels of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere are higher now than at any time in the past 650,000 years. That is the conclusion of new European studies looking at ice taken from 3km below the surface of Antarctica. The scientists say their research shows present day warming to be exceptional. Other research, also published in the journal Science, suggests that sea levels may be rising twice as fast now as in previous centuries.
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| Earth - melting in the heat?
BBC News Online - 7 October 2005
Predictions vary from the catastrophic to the cataclysmic. Glaciers are melting, the ice caps disappearing into the oceans. Sea levels may rise by many metres as a consequence. Indigenous Arctic peoples will find their food stocks gone, while fresh water supplies in Asia and south America will disappear as the glaciers which provide them melt away; penguins, polar bears and seals will find their habitats gone, their traditional lives unliveable.
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| Arctic ice 'disappearing quickly'
BBC News Online - 28 September 2005
The area covered by sea ice in the Arctic has shrunk for a fourth consecutive year, according to new data released by US scientists. They say that this month sees the lowest extent of ice cover for more than a century. The Arctic climate varies naturally, but the researchers conclude that human-induced global warming is at least partially responsible.
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| Health hazard
The Guardian - 30 June 2005
While warmer winters may save lives, scorching summers could have deadly consequences. Imagine a Britain where malaria could be a hazard of a trip to the coast, where new as well as old diseases are spread by swollen populations of rats and ticks, and where thousands die of heat stroke in the summer. This is no science-fiction scenario: it's the prediction of experts monitoring climate change.
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| In the land where life is on hold
The Guardian - 30 June 2005
Africa is on the front line of climate change reports John Vidal. And floods, drought and famine show the continent is in for a rough ride.
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