KidsGCCI

Great 'sponges'/icebreakers and activities that can be use more than once in a classroom

GLAND, SWITZERLAND -- (Marketwire) -- 09/02/09 -- The new report, Arctic Climate Feedbacks: Global Implications, outlines dire global consequences of a warming Arctic that are far worse than previous projections. Peer-reviewed by the world's top climate scientists, this report reinforces that there's no time to waste in tackling climate change, because this meltdown will have major implications for people around the world - not just in the Arctic.

From Colorado to Washington state, an unprecedented, years-long epidemic of mountain pine beetle has killed 2.6 million hectares (6.5 million acres) of forest. The insect has struck even more devastatingly to the north, in British Columbia, where clouds of beetles have laid waste to 14 million hectares (35 million acres) - twice the area of Ireland. It is expected to kill 80 percent of the Canadian province's lodgepole pines before it's finished.

Farther north, in the Yukon, the pine beetle isn't endemic - yet. Here it's the spruce bark beetle that has eaten its way through 400,000 hectares (1 million acres) of woodland, and even more in neighboring Alaska, in a 15-year-old epidemic unmatched in its longevity and extent.

Climate Change - ADB Programs: Strengthening Mitigation and Adaptation in Asia and the Pacific

Oxfam Australia says that climate change could leave up to 75 million people in the Asia-Pacific region homeless by 2050. The Future is Here: Climate Change says that these island nations are already suffering from drought, food shortages and rising water levels.

"Unless we act dramatically and act fast, science tells us our way of life is in jeopardy," [Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Kerry] said.

shorten multiple urls
works like a slide show

A majority of Americans continue believe that climate change is correctly portrayed or even underestimated in the news media, but a record high 41 percent believe risks are exaggerated.

It's a vocal 41 percent, and they draw on a stock set of arguments to attack the credibility of scientists, politicians and environmentalists who claim that humans are spurring dangerous climate change. Like me, you may wonder where these arguments come from and whether they have any validity.

The most common argument, and the one I will focus on in this first of several installments, is that many credible scientists dispute the theory of anthropogenic (or human-caused) climate change asserted by U.N. scientists in the 2007 IPCC report that found that humans were almost certainly causing the climate to change.

A majority of Americans continue believe that climate change is correctly portrayed or even underestimated in the news media, but a record high 41 percent believe risks are exaggerated.

It's a vocal 41 percent, and they draw on a stock set of arguments to attack the credibility of scientists, politicians and environmentalists who claim that humans are spurring dangerous climate change. Like me, you may wonder where these arguments come from and whether they have any validity.

The most common argument, and the one I will focus on in this first of several installments, is that many credible scientists dispute the theory of anthropogenic (or human-caused) climate change asserted by U.N. scientists in the 2007 IPCC report that found that humans were almost certainly causing the climate to change.

San Francisco Chronicle : The Thin Green Line : Cameron Scott

Though simultaneously praising the 2-degree commitment as "clearly a big step forward" in international talks, IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pachauri told reporters here yesterday that G-8 leaders failed to heed warnings that global greenhouse gas emissions levels must peak by 2015. Nations must also start to come up with concrete plans for rapidly slashing emissions afterward, Pachauri said.