Biology
Breach
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Climate
Chaos
July 2, 2012, from University of Georgia
Invasive species such as kudzu, privet and garlic mustard can devastate ecosystems, and, until now, scientists had little reason to believe that native plants could mount a successful defense. A new University of Georgia study shows that some native clearweed plants have evolved resistance to invasive garlic mustard plants -- and that the invasive plants appear to be waging a counterattack. The study, published in the early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is thought to provide the first evidence of coevolution between native and invasive plant species.
July 2, 2012, from Reuters
Rising sea levels cannot be stopped over the next several hundred years, even if deep emissions cuts lower global average temperatures, but they can be slowed down, climate scientists said in a study on Sunday...
Rising sea levels threaten about a tenth of the world's population who live in low-lying areas and islands which are at risk of flooding, including the Caribbean, Maldives and Asia-Pacific island groups.
More than 180 countries are negotiating a new global climate pact which will come into force by 2020 and force all nations to cut emissions to limit warming to below 2 degrees Celsius this century - a level scientists say is the minimum required to avert catastrophic effects.
But even if the most ambitious emissions cuts are made, it might not be enough to stop sea levels rising due to the thermal expansion of sea water, said scientists at the United States' National Centre for Atmospheric Research, U.S. research organization Climate Central and Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research in Melbourne.
July 2, 2009, from Telegraph.co.uk
Company records for 2008 show that ExxonMobil gave $75,000 to the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) in Dallas, Texas and $50,000 to the Heritage Foundation in Washington.
It also gave $245,000 to the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research in Washington.... All three groups have raised questions about global warming.
The Heritage Foundation published note last year that said: "Growing scientific evidence casts doubt on whether global warming constitutes a threat, including the fact that 2008 is about to go into the books as a cooler year than 2007".
ExxonMobil promised in 2006 to stop funding climate change sceptics after it was criticised by the Royal Society for giving money to researchers who were "misinforming the public about the science of climate change".
July 2, 2009, from BusinessGreen
Speaking at the World Conference of Science Journalists, King said that while much of the attention in recent months had focused on the Obama administration's engagement with the so-called Copenhagen negotiations to agree a successor to the Kyoto Treaty, Canada and Japan were quietly undermining the talks.
"Copenhagen is faltering at the moment," he said. "The Americans are now fully engaged. But several countries are blocking the process."
Both countries are believed to oppose demands for stringent emission reduction targets at the behest of powerful business lobby groups, such as the energy company's push to exploit Canada's oil sands.
"These people are very outspoken, aggressive lobbyists," Dr Robert Falkner at the London School of Economics told The Times. "They are gung-ho about rising oil prices and want to exploit that."
July 2, 2009, from G Magazine
There is double the amount of carbon stored in frozen soils than previously thought, new research has found, which could significantly increase global temperatures by the end of this century if released.
"Massive amounts of carbon stored in frozen soils at high latitudes are increasingly vulnerable to exposure to the atmosphere," said Pep Canadell, from the CSIRO's Global Carbon Project.
"The [newest] research shows that the amount of carbon stored in soils surrounding the North Pole has been hugely underestimated."... Canadell and colleagues have revealed that frozen high-latitude soils have the potential to release vast quantities of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere, and subsequently influence carbon-climate feedbacks.
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Resource
Depletion
July 2, 2009, from BBC
An unacceptable number of species are still being lost forever despite world leaders pledging action to reverse the trend, a report has warned.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) says the commitment to reduce biodiversity loss by 2010 will not be met.
It warns that a third of amphibians, a quarter of mammals and one-in-eight birds are threatened with extinction.
The analysis is based on the 44,838 species on the IUCN Red List.
"The report makes for depressing reading," said co-editor Craig Hilton Taylor, manager of the IUCN's Red List Unit.
"It tells us that the extinction crisis is as bad, or even worse than we believed.
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Recovery
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