14th December 2004 Bottom Line
At the current United Nations climate conference in Buenos Aires the cost effectiveness of greenhouse gas reductions, such as those set out in the Kyoto Protocol, is continuing to cause a great deal of debate.

 

14th December 2004 China and Brazil
China and Brazil have set out their plans to tackle climate change through cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. China represents a potentially huge source of greenhouse gas emissions in years to come.

 

14th December 2004 No and No Again
Harlan Watson, senior US negotiator at the UN climate conference in Buenos Aires, has defended the decision of the US administration to stay outside of the Kyoto Protocol saying it carries with it a political agenda.

 

14th December 2004 Icy Evidence
Chronis Tzedakis of Leed University, UK, and colleagues, has been examining the potential for elevated greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere to cause the climate to flip into a new ice age.

 

14th December 2004 Coral Complexity
Ben McNeil, and colleagues at the University of New South Wales in Australia, have modelled the effect of elevated carbon dioxide and temperature on corals. Higher temperatures may actually be beneficial.

 

30th November 2004 Developing Issue
Wangari Maathi, winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize, has urged greater action by African nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions and tackle climate change. She has been responsible for large scale reforestation.

 

30th November 2004 SUV Health Warning
The New Economics Foundation has said that four wheel drives should be made to carry a health warning due to the environmental threat they pose. Some have greenhouse gas emissions of over 12 tonnes a year.

 

30th November 2004 Warm Colours
The Tree Council, in the UK, has said that this year's stunning Autumnal clours may be a result of global warming - hotter, drier summers meaning more stressed trees and so more intense autumn leaf colours.

 

30th November 2004 Plane and Simple
The House of Lords in the UK has added its weight to calls for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from air-travel. Prime Minister Tony Blair is set to target rapidly increasing emissions from aircraft during 2005.

 

16th November 2004 Mountain Desert
Arun Bhakta Shrestha, of Nepal's Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, is one of many calling for action in the face of potentially devastating water shortages caused by glacial melt in the Himalayas.

 

16th November 2004 Peat Pressure
Jack Rieley, of the University of Nottingham, UK, has highlighted the huge carbon dioxide emissions arising from out of control peat fires. The fires can burn underground for many years if left unchecked.

 

16th November 2004 Hot China
Energy consumption in China is expanding at breackneck speed. The increase in consumption is largely being met by coal-fired power stations, with soaring particulate and greenhouse gas emissions.

 

16th November 2004 Warming Wildlife
Camille Parmesan, and colleagues at the University of Texas at Austin, have reported that climate change is affecting US wildlife. Some southern species are pushing north, while some northern species are in retreat.

 

8th November 2004 Krill in Crisis
Angus Atkinson, and colleagues at the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, UK, have revealed that krill - a key component of the food chain in the Southern Ocean - are in serious decline. Disappearing sea ice is blamed.

 

8th November 2004 Ticking Clock
Crispin Tickell, a former UK government adviser, has sounded an optimistic note on action to tackle greenhouse gas emissions. Given the huge threat climate change poses, he believes concerted action will come.

 

8th November 2004 Costs and Benefits
John Schellnhuber, research director at the Tyndall Centre in the UK, has said that the cost of avoiding runaway global warming could be a minute fraction of the huge costs we may incur by doing nothing.

 

8th November 2004 South Bank Gondolas
David King, the UK government's chief scientist, has warned that the rises in sea level likely to occur as a result of global warming will flood huge areas during this century, redrawing coastlines around the world.

 

8th November 2004 Deep Sinks
Elliot Morley, UK environment minister, is seeking support from key industrial nations for a plan to store carbon dioxide in geological sinks. Old North Sea oil and gas fields may provide large storage capacities.

 

28th October 2004 Keep it Simple
Robert Jackson and William Schlesinger of Duke University in the US have revelaed the huge swathes that could be cut through US greenhouse gas emissions (about 10 percent) by increasing car fuel efficiency.

 

28th October 2004 Tall Towers
John Moncrieff and colleagues at the University of Edinburgh are set to measure greenhouse gas fluxes over Scotland using samples taken atop a 750ft radio mast. There are now 6 such sites across Europe.

 

28th October 2004 Climate Tax
The Policy Studies Institute has warned that taxes designed to increase recyling rates and reduce wastage of energy and natural resources may hit the poorer sections of society more than the richer ones.

 

28th October 2004 Sunspotty
Sami Solanki, and colleagues at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, report that sunspot activity has been greater in the last 70 years than in the preceeding 8,000, though this cannot explain current warming.

 

28th October 2004 Sunfish Suppers
The Energy Saving Trust in the UK has warned of the changes to the British way of life we can expect as a result of climate change. The impacts they highlight include disappearing lawns, cod and ski resorts.

 

21st October 2004 Fifth Horseman
The Working Group on Climate Change and Development has issued a report warning of the great threat climate change poses to the developed world and any efforts efforts to fight famine and poverty.

 

21st October 2004 Shortlisted
Greenhouse Gas Online is a finalist for 'Best Scientific Resource Website' at the Laboratory News Awards 2004. It's great to have such recognition given the quality of the other three finalists.

 

21st October 2004 Remote Emissions
The WWF has drawn attention to the problems of greenhouse gas accounting. Their report suggests that UK emissions are higher than those currently reported due to the embodied emissions of imported goods.

 

21st October 2004 Biofuel Injection
The UK government is forming a task force designed to drive forward the development of biomass fuel production and use in Britain. Biofuels such as Miscanthus, straw and forest wastes may be used.

 

21st October 2004 Bok Book
The South African government has launched a new national strategy guide aimed at better preparing the country for the impacts of climate change, such as the threats to health, food production and water resources.

 

14th October 2004 Steep Rise
Charles Keeling, and colleagues at Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii, has revealed that carbon dioxide concentrations jumped by 2ppm in 2003 - the second consecutive such jump in a non-El Nino year.

 

14th October 2004 Hydrogen Hyped
Andrew Oswald, an economist at the University of Warwick in the UK, has estimated that a transition to 'green' hydrogen power for US cars would require enough wind turbines to cover half of California.

 

14th October 2004 Twins of Evil
Robert Watson, and colleagues in the World Bank's Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, has highlighted the twin threat to the environment of increasing nitrogen pollution and rising greenhouse gas emissions.

 

14th October 2004 Green BT
British Telecom has announced that it is switching the energy supply for its many offices and exchanges to renewably produced electricity. The move will cut greenhouse gas emissions by thousands of tonnes.

 

14th October 2004 Twelve Keys
Ian Sample, writing for The Guardian newspaper in the UK, has identified 12 areas of the world most prone to climate change, including the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets, the ozone layer and Amazonia.

 

7th October 2004 In from The Cold
Russian president Vladimir Putin has said that he wants Russia to sign up to the Kyoto Protocol. This move will bring the Protocol into force, making commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions legally binding.

 

7th October 2004 Littoral Zonation
The Environment Agency in the UK have released a new flood risk map to allow British households to see how likely they are to face flooding. It is hoped the map will help inform future housing developments.

 

7th October 2004 Spinach Soup
Sinead Collins and Graham Bell, of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, have reported that algae exposed to elevated concentrations of carbon dioxide are not able to easily adapt and draw down this extra carbon supply.

 

7th October 2004 Counting Rings
Hans von Storch, a climate modeller in Germany, has suggested that swings in global temperature may have been more common than previously thought. As such, recent warming may not be completely unprecedented.

 

7th October 2004 Recycle Rally
Matthew Pinsent and Eddie Izzard have lent their support to a new 10 million pound boost to recycling in the UK. The project aims to push up the amount of waste recycled in the UK to 25 perecent by 2005.

 

26th September 2004 Chocks Away
Ted Scambos, of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in the US, and co-researchers, has revealed that the speed of glaciers in Antarctica is accelerating in repsonse to the loss of the Larsen B ice shelf.

 

26th September 2004 Climate Jab
Andre-Denis Wright, and colleagues at CSIRO in Australia, have developed a jab to give to sheep which reduces the amounts of the greenhouse gas methane they burp into the atmosphere by 8 per cent.

 

26th September 2004 An Ill Wind
The Chinese and British governments have warned of the potentially devastating impact of climate change on food production in China. Falls of between 20 and 37 per cent in rice and wheat production are possible.

 

26th September 2004 Natural Disasters?
The UN agency 'International Strategy for Disaster Reduction' has said that more people are being caught up in natural disasters around the world, with global warming serving to increase their vulnerability.

 

26th September 2004 Calypso Collapse
Jon Maidens and colleagues at the World Resources Institute in theUS have warned that almost two thirds of the coral reefs in the Caribbean are under threat from humans - rising sea temperatures being a key concern.

 

17th September 2004 Micropower
So-called micropower systems, through which homes generate their own heat and electricity, are set to spread in coming years as efforts and pressure to reduce domestic emissions of greenhouse gases increase.

 

17th September 2004 Blair's Cares
UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair, has made clear just how concerned he is about the impacts of climate change. He told an audience of policy makers that climate change repsented the biggest environmnetal challenge of all.

 

17th September 2004 Storm Forcer
Robert Weisberg, a climatologist at the University of South Florida, has, along with other climatologists, has stressed that the series of hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico cannot be directly linked to global warming.

 

17th September 2004 Sun Surfers
State authorities in Uttar pradesh, India, are planning to power village school computers in the region using solar energy. Most houses have no mains power and many schools have to contend with frequent power cuts.

 

17th September 2004 Moth Eaten
Kelvin Conrad, of Rothamsted Research in the UK, has highlighted the possible link between climate change and the decline being seen in around two-thirds of moth species in the UK. A fifth are in steep decline.

 

4th September 2004 In the Wind
John Vidal of the Guardian has examined the connection between climate change, the devastating floods in India and Bangladesh, the conveyor belt of hurricanes in the US, and the generally more extreme weather of 2004.

 

4th September 2004 Tied to Sinks
Christian Azar, of Goteborg University, has highlighted the need for governments to give proper consideration to better utilising greenhouse gas sinks as a way to offset growing emissions and so help mitigate climate change.

 

4th September 2004 Acid Bath
Katherine Richardson, of the Department for Marine Ecology in Aarhus, Denmark, has warned that the acidification of our oceans due to rising carbon dioxide concentrations could destroy all coral by the year 2065.

 

4th September 2004 One in the Hand
US president George W Bush has finally admitted that emissions of greenhouse gases are likely to be the cause of global warming. However, the administration has no plans to re-enter negotations on the Kyoto Protocol.

 

4th September 2004 Banana Plant
Bill Clarke, an engineering lecturer at the University of Queensland, Australia, is developing a method of renewable electricity generation using bruised bananas. His banana power plant could power 500 homes.

 

23rd August 2004 Dry White
Christopher Field and colleagues in Stanford, California, have warned that the hugely valuable Californian wine and dairy industries face huge losses as a result of global warming-induced droughts across the state.

 

23rd August 2004 Dust Sheet
Andre Goudie, of the University of Oxford, UK, has highlighted the key role dust storms are playing in the global climate. Dust being deposited in oceans can produce huge algal blooms and affect carbon fluxes.

 

23rd August 2004 Fish Pen Message
Kurt Lambeck, of the Australian National University in Canberra, has used fish pens built by the Romans along the Italian coast to show that most sea level rise since Roman times has occurred in the last 100 years.

 

23rd August 2004 Acid Test
A research study lanuched by the Royal Society in the UK is aiming to investigate the increasing acidity occurring in our oceans as a result of increasing carbon dioxide concentrations in our atmosphere.

 

23rd August 2004 Frequent Freaks
With devastating floods in England and Scotland in the last two weeks the BBC has examined the issue and found how floods in the UK are likely to become more frequent as a result of global climate change.

 

10th August 2004 Smokescreen
Vincent Gauci, of the Open University, UK, has suggested that the sulphur in industrial air pollution may be helping to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gas methane from soils, and so helping to cool the earth.

 

10th August 2004 Maldives Malady
Rising sea levels threaten to engulf the Maldives, a group of 1,200 low-lying islands home to a third of a million people. Many islanders in the north have already agreed to evacuate over the next 15 years.

 

10th August 2004 No El Dorado
Climate change threatens to turn southern Spain into a dust bowl according to a report by climatologist David Viner. His model predicts temperature increases in Spain of up to 5 degrees centrigrade by 2050.

 

10th August 2004 Sounding the Retreat
A village in Alaska, Shishmaref, is being threatened with evacuation as the battle to keep rising seas from engulfing the village becomes unwinable. The tide is estimated to be encroaching a further 10 feet each year.

 

10th August 2004 Tide of Opinion
A survey on behalf of the BBC has revealed the growing concern of the British public about climate change, with 64 precent saying that climate change represented one of the most important problems facing the world.

 

14th July 2004 Historic Hint
David Beerling and colleagues at Sheffield and Bristol Universities, have cited the role that the non-carbon dioxide gases, like methane and nitrous oxide, played in past global warming and warned about ignoring them.

 

14th July 2004 Biodiesel Breathrough
The use of biodiesel in UK vehicles is set to grow rapidly due to its lower greenhouse gas emissions, as compared to traditional petrol and diesel, the easy conversion of existing diesel engines, and a falling price.

 

14th July 2004 Something Stirs
Martin Edwards, of the Alistair Hardy Foundation for Ocean Sciences, and collaborators, have warned of the changes in phytoplankton occurring as a result of increasing temperatures in the North Sea.

 

14th July 2004 Nuclear Agenda
UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has hinted that the government may turn to nuclear power to tackle greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. The government want to cut emissions by 60% by 2050.

 

14th July 2004 Bog Bomb
Chris Freeman of the University of Wales, Bangor, UK, has reported that the world's peat bogs are releasing large amounts of carbon dioxide and, as global warming intensifies, could become a major global source.

 

1st July 2004 Sleepless Nights
Kenneth Cassman, and a multi-national team of researchers, have found that rising nightime temperatures are causing a drop in rice yields. Such an impact could threaten the food security of millions.

 

1st July 2004 Hands Across The Atlantic
A cross-party committee in the UK's House of Lords have called on Tony Blair to use his 'special relationship' with George W. Bush more effectively and persuade the US to finally ratify the Kyoto Protocol.

 

1st July 2004 Popeye Power
Marco Baldo and colleagues at the Massacusetts Institute of Technology have developed electrical cells powered by photosynthetic proteins. The cells could one day provide 'green' energy for electrical appliances.

 

1st July 2004 Chain Reaction
The contribution of nuclear power to world energy output is dropping amid intense security fears and rising costs. However, some have suggested that more nuclear power is required to help mitigate climate change.

 

1st July 2004 Low on L'eau
The European Environment Agency has warned that the rate at which galciers in Europe are retreating is now greater than at any time in the last 10,000 years. Some of the galciers provide vital supplies of clean water.

 

21st June 2004 Bug's Life
Max Barclay and colleagues at the UK's Natural History Museum have identified global warming as the explanation for a new insect, the green shield bug, having been found living and breeding in the UK.

 

21st June 2004 Water Torture
A study by the UN University in Tokyo has warned that two billion people around the world will be facing the threat of flooding by the year 2050. Rising sea levels, a growing global population and deforestation are blamed.

 

21st June 2004 On Deaf Ears?
A group of leading US climate scientists, meeting in Washington, have called for urgent action to be taken to address global climate change. They include Don Kennedy, editor of the prestigious journal 'Science'.

 

21st June 2004 Word In Your Shell-like
Ron Oxburgh, chairman of oil giant Shell, has admitted that he is very worried about the threat climate change poses to the planet and that we urgently need to do more to sequester greenhouse gas emissions.

 

21st June 2004 Rain Man, Woman and Child
Householders in the UK, infamous for its rain, have been asked to do more to conserve diminishing water supplies by collecting more rain in their gardens. The UK is currently considering its first desalination plant.

 

8th June 2004 Write Off
Insurers in the UK have warned that the cost of house insurance could rise drastically as a result of climate change. A growing number of severe storms and greater flooding risks mean that claims could double or triple.

 

8th June 2004 Do As I Say
Despite promises to cut energy use and greenhouse gas emissions across the EU, energy use in many european countries is still on the rise according to the European Environment Agency's new report 'EEA Signals 2004'.

 

8th June 2004 Gaia Hypothesis
James Lovelock, the famous developer of the Gaia Hypothesis, has warned that only a catastrophe will result in real action being taken to mitigate climate change, such as cutting fossil fuel consumption.

 

8th June 2004 Arctic Explorer
Jan Backman, and colleagues, part of the Arctic Coring Expedition (Acex) are on their way to the Arctic to extract cores from the sea bed and so better understand the history of the ice, a key regulator of climate.

 

8th June 2004 Greening Lisbon
A project designed to show how communities can rely on renewable energy and slash their greenhouse gas emissions is underway near Lisbon. The project, Mata de Sesimbra, will eventually cover 5,000 ha.

 

27th May 2004 Biomass Answer
A report by the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution has highlighted the big potential for using biofuels in the UK. They say that more use could be made of farm and forest waste for energy production.

 

27th May 2004 More Days After Tomorrow
The new blockbuster 'The Day after Tomorrow', about the possible effects of climate change, was greeted with laughter from a group of climate reviewers able to preview it recently. The film opens worldwide today.

 

27th May 2004 Carbon Quotas
Richard Starkey and Kevin Anderson, of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, UK, have proposed the idea of giving individuals 'carbon quotas' as a way of reducing their greenhouse gas emissions.

 

27th May 2004 Global Dimmer Switch
Increasing cloud cover and particulates in our atmopshere are allowing less and less sunlight through to the earth's surface, so causing a general dimming across the planet but also potentially lessening global warming.

 

26th May 2004 Dry Climate
Climate modeller, Syukuro Manabe, and colleagues at Princeton University in the US, have predicted that the continuing rise of carbon dioxide concentrations in our atmosphere could result in severe water shortages.

 

6th May 2004 Climate Change at Home
The editor of Greenhouse Gas Online, Dave Reay, has secured a contract with publishers Macmillan to write a book about climate change and the individual entitled 'Climate Change Begins at Home'. More to follow...

 

6th May 2004 In a Nutshell
Leading science writers, Tim Radford and Paul Brown, have set out some of the key impacts of climate change that we can expect to see over the coming years - hurricanes, fish stock collapses, glacial melt and more.

 

6th May 2004 Space Oddity
Qiang Fu, and colleagues at the University of Washington, US, have suggested that the anomaly of the atmosphere warming more slowly than predicted can be explained by stratospheric cooling of greenhouse gases.

 

6th May 2004 Missing the EU Climate Target
The European Union looks likley to miss its own targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. There is concern that there is not enough financial pressure being put on heavy industries to reduce their emissions.

 

6th May 2004 Unblocked Sinks
John Sheppherd, of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in the UK, has highlighted the need for alternatives to direct cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases, such as investing more in carbon sequestration.

 

28th April 2004 Glacial Retreat
Neil Glasser, of the University of Aberystwyth, UK, and colleagues, have reported that the San Rafeal glacier in Chile - a top tourist attraction - is rapidly retreating. The glacier is around 1km shorter than it was in the 1990s.

 

28th April 2004 The Climate Group
A new organisation aimed at tackling climate change has been formed in the UK. The so-called Climate Group plans to liase between governments, businesses and industry to achieve real political progress.

 

28th April 2004 No Free Lunch
Environmental campaigners have called for greater control of the burgeoning budget airline market and the huge amounts of greenhouse gas it is responsible for. A climate change tax has been suggested for all flights.

 

28th April 2004 Saucer Seas
Simon Holgate and Philip Woodworth, of the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory, UK, have revealed that sea levels are rising faster near coasts than out at sea. It remains unclear, though, exactly why this happening.

 

28th April 2004 Costing Climate Change
A UK government study has warned that the cost of damage caused by flooding and erosion could leap by 20 times during the 21st century. Big cuts in greenhouse gas emissions have the potential to reduce the problem.

 

19th April 2004 The Day After Tomorrow
Several climate change researchers have openly criticised the new Hollywood blockbuster about climate change. They argue that the scenario, whereby climate change leads to a new ice, age is unlikely in the extreme.

 

19th April 2004 Maidstone Moet
The south of England, and in particular Kent and Sussex, may become champagne growing regions in years to come. Climate change, combined with chalky soils, could make these areas ideal for champagne.

 

19th April 2004 New Model Army
Climate modellers, meeting in Sweden last week, have criticised the pressure from policy makers to come up with specific climate change predictions for localised areas, rather than addressing change at larger scales.

 

19th April 2004 Sweep Stakes
Two US companies are attempting to develop a system which can scrub carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The aim is for the system to be effective even when carbon dioxide concentrations are close to ambient.

 

19th April 2004 Greenerland
Jonathon Gregory, and colleagues at the University of Reading, have warned that the Greenland ice sheet will completely melt within 1000 years. Their study suggests runaway melting could begin within 50 years.

 

4th April 2004 King's Comments
Sir David King, the UK government's chief scientist, has reiterated his belief that climate change poses a bigger threat to the world than terrorism and that continuing political inaction could spell disaster in years to come.

 

4th April 2004 Steamy Windows
Beate Liepert, and colleagues at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, NY, have suggested that the global warming may actually reduce rainfall in many areas, instead of increasing it as previously thought.

 

4th April 2004 Silent Spring
Two studies, funded by the UK's Natural Environment Research Council, have identified a rapid decline in the numbers of many British plant and animal species in response to human impacts, such as climate change.

 

29th March 2004 Soya Source
US biochemists are developing a new form of aviation fuel which should help to greatly reduce the climate impact of air-travel. The new fuel uses soya oil to provide a carbon neutral alternative to standard jet fuel.

 

29th March 2004 Growing Green
The United Nations Environment Programme has revealed that, over the last 25 years, the Earth has become increasingly green due to a combination of accelerated forest growth and more conservation.

 

29th March 2004 Montreal Matter
Pressure is increasing to allow wider use of the powerful greenhouse gas and ozone depleter, methyl bromide. The gas is used as a pesiticide and some developed countries want the current ban relaxed.

 

29th March 2004 Turning Tide
A company in the UK have developed a new form of tidal power turbine which promises to be both easy to install and environmentally sensitive. The company, SMD Hydrovision, plan to deploy the system next year.

 

23rd March 2004 Carbon Count
Pieter Tans, and colleagues at the US's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, have revealed that concentrations of the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, have reached a record high of 376 ppm.

 

23rd March 2004 Climate Club
Several international think-tanks have been brought together for their first meeting in Windsor, UK, to discuss how climate change can best be tackled. The 'taskforce' will make its recommendations in 2005.

 

23rd March 2004 Hot Ribena
Simon Thornton-Wood, of the UK's Royal Horticultural Society, has warned that climate change may mean traditional orchards and fruit bushes will vanish from the south of Britian due to warmer winters.

 

23rd March 2004 Pedal Medal
A new type of vibrating accelerator pedal from car giant DaimlerChrysler could cut fuel use and so greenhouse gas emissions by over 10 percent. The pedal gives motorists advance warning of when to slow down.

 

23rd March 2004 Alpine Retreat
Kevin Krajick, writing in the journal Science, has warned of the huge threat global warming poses to plant and animal species in high mountain environments. Invasion and outcompetition are the key issues.

 

14th March 2004 Sink Shrink
The large carbon sink that is the Amazon rainforest may be shrinking due to the impact of man. Even supposedly pristine forest is thought be changing in response to rapidly rising carbon dioxide concentrations.

 

14th March 2004 Green Computing
A study by a United Nations research team has established the huge environmental damage being caused by computers. They report that making an average PC uses 10 times its own weight in fossil fuels.

 

14th March 2004 Hands Across the Ocean
The UK government's chief scientist, Sir David King, has urged the US to help in the fight against global envrionmental change. Their assistance is vital given their big contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions.

 

14th March 2004 Hot Records Melt
Juerg Luterbacher, and colleagues at the University of Bern, Switzerland, have calculated that the summer of 2003 was the hottest across Europe in 500 years. The stong warming trend in Europe began in 1977.

 

14th March 2004 Early Risers
The UK's Woodland Trust and the BA believe that the public are getting used to the earlier springs resulting from climate change. As part of National Science Week they have asked to hear about signs of premature spring.

 

7th March 2004 Man Vs Mountain
Robert Wright and Luke Flynn, from the University of Hawaii, have calculated that the amount of energy released by volcanic eruptions is now dwarfed by human-made energy output and its consumption.

 

7th March 2004 Green Ken
London is set for an increasingly green future if its current mayor, Ken Livingston, is re-elected. Having cut car-use using congestion charging, the mayor is pushing for a big increase in renewable energy schemes.

 

7th March 2004 Cod Piece
Michael Heath, a fisheries expert from Aberdeen, UK, has said the damage caused to fish stocks in the Atlantic by overfishing has been exacerbated by climate change. Warming waters threaten cod and other cold water fish.

 

7th March 2004 Wind Catchers
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has warned that it is considering fighting UK government plans to build wind farms. The group is concerned that birds and their habitats would be put in danger.

 

7th March 2004 Ozone Holed
Markus Rex, and colleagues at the Alfred Wegner Institute in Germany, have revealed that global warming could be intensifying the thinning of the ozone layer in the Arctic. Climate change could treble depletion rates.

 

29th February 2004 Climate Consensus
John Schnellhuber, a leading climate scientist at the University of East Anglia, UK, has made public his feeling that most policymakers in the US do accept the major threat to humankind posed by climate change.

 

29th February 2004 Lesser Barrier Reef
Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, and co-workers at the University of Queensland, Australia, has warned that the Great Barrier Reef could lose 95 per cent of its living coral by the year 2050 as a result of increasing sea temperatures.

 

29th February 2004 Saltire Track
A study of the environmental impact of individuals in Scotland has reported that, if the whole world lived like the average Scot, we would need two extra planet Earths. Energy use in Scotland equalled a billion TVs.

 

22nd February 2004 See-Saw Situation
Vladimir Petoukhov, a climate scientist from the Postdam Climate Institute in Germany, has warned that climate change in coming years may cause Europe's weather to frequently flip from one extreme to another.

 

22nd February 2004 Climate Cash
Andrew Leakey, of the University of Illinois in the US, has predicted that climate change could boost cash crop yields in the US. He estimates that a 13 percent increase in soybean yields will be seen by the year 2050.

 

22nd February 2004 Sim Flood
A new computer game has been developed to help planners predict the impacts of flooding over the next 100 years and devise the most effective mitigation options. A range of climate scenarios are available.

 

22nd February 2004 Dusty Greenhouse
Joseph Prospero, of the University of Miami in the US, has suggested that the summertime dust storms which hit the US, and which pose a serious health hazard, are a result of greenhouse gas induced warming in Africa.

 

22nd February 2004 Bush Whacked
A statement by a group of concerned scientists, including 12 Nobel laureates, has attacked George W Bush over his handling of climate change mitigation and the US interpretation of the scientific case for action.

 

15th February 2004 Reef Grief
An extensive review of research has warned that the world's coral reefs are under a multi-pronged attack from soil run-off, pollution, fishing and climate change. More than half may be permanently damaged by 2100.

 

15th February 2004 Ski Impact
Climate change has forced the closure of two of Scotland's largest ski resorts. With a succession of warm winters and very little snow the ski industry in Scotland has seen a massive drop in visitors.

 

15th February 2004 More Baked Alaska
Despite the all too apparent effects of climate change in Alaska, many of the state's inhabitants remain committed to the oil industry and the jobs it currently provides. Mark Lynas reports on the issue in the Guardian.

 

8th February 2004 Global Thinning
John Emmert and colleagues, at the Naval Research Laboratory in the US, have found that a layer of our atmosphere, the thermosphere, is becoming thinner. Greenhouse gases are blamed for such global thinning.

 

8th February 2004 Win-Win Situation
The UK Environment Ageny has launched a scheme to reward volunteers who make an effort to improve their own communities, with a hope that local action on key issue like climate change will be encouraged.

 

2nd February 2004 Weathering Heights
Anthony Cohen of the Open University, and colleagues, have found evidence for the recovery of the Earth from a period of intense global warming through increased weathering rates and drawdown of carbon dioxide.

 

2nd February 2004 Compound Interest
Friends of the Earth have calculated that Exxon Mobil Corporation, the oil giant, has been responsible for 5 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, from 1882 to 2002. Emissions add up to about 20 billion tonnes.

 

27th January 2004 Iron Brew
A team of researchers have set off for a research cruise in the Southern Ocean, designed to test the idea that fertilising the sea with iron can reduce global carbon dioxide concentrations and so climate change.

 

27th January 2004 Usual Suspects
An international group of climate scientists have dismissed the importance of cosmic rays as leading drivers climate change. Instead they believe greenhouse gases remain the prime culprit for modern warming.

 

27th January 2004 Golden Hello
Leading US environment expert, Jonathan Lash, of the World Resources Institute, has suggested that Europe does more to encourage Russia to ratify the Kyoto Protocol and, by so doing, finally bring it into force.

 

27th January 2004 Into the Unknown
Climate change experts, Bert Bolin, Paul Crutzen, Will Steffen and Margot Wallstrom, have together warned of the new era of climatic uncertainty faced by humankind and the very limited amount of action on mitigation.

 

27th January 2004 Carbon Concious
The UK energy minister, Steven Timms, has warned that householders and businesses may face increased energy bills as part of British government efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change.

 

18th January 2004 Climate and Extinction
The leading scientific journal Nature has provided free access to its recent articles on predicted species extinction resulting from climate change. Up to a third of land plants and animals may be lost by the year 2050.

 

18th January 2004 Ever Hotter Potato
Christoph Schär and colleagues at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, have estimated the the impact of global warming on summer-time temperatures in Europe. Their work warns of more extreme heat.

 

11th January 2004 Smelling the Coffee
Sir David King, the UK Government's chief scientific adviser, has warned of the huge threat to human-kind in the 21st century posed by climate change. He criticises the market-led climate policy of the Bush administration.

 

11th January 2004 The Demise of Species
Chris Thomas, and colleagues, have published a study which predicts the loss of a million species by 2050, with only a small rise in global temperatures. Greater rises may result in the loss of a third of all species.

 

11th January 2004 Fire Engine
Guido van der Werf, and colleagues at the US Department of Agriculture and at NASA, have revealed the important role forest fires might be playing in the rise of greenhouse gas concentrations in our atmosphere.

 

11th January 2004 Blue-Sky Thinking
A group of scientists, from various fields, have been discussing a host of possible ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change. The meeting, in Cambridge, UK, aims to explore every avenue.

 

11th January 2004 Captain's Log
The Climatological Database for the World's Oceans (Cliwoc) at the University of Sunderland, UK, is planning to use the logbooks of sailing ships from the 18th and 19th century to examine our past climate.

 

4th January 2004 Happy New Year
A very happy New Year to all visitors to Greenhouse Gas Online. It's a big year for the site and its editor as things are due to come to a head for me career-wise. Here's hoping for a great 2004 for us all.

 

4th January 2004 Not Howard's Way
Australian climate scientists have sent a stark warning to their Prime Minister, John Howard, regarding the impact climate change may have on their country. Their study predicts a temperature rise of six degrees by 2070.

 

4th January 2004 Home Alone
Jan Kooijman, a Dutch academic, has underlined the problem of single-living in attempts to tackle greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. His report suggests that one-person households are a growing problem.