Global warming headlines and climate change news for February 2009
February 28 - Drought: California declares emergency
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency and forewarned of mandatory water rationing potentially being implemented. He has
already called on urban users to reduce their water consumption by 20 per cent. California is experiencing its third consecutive year of drought.
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more
February 25 - Orbiting Carbon Observatory crashes
A NASA satellite with the task of monitoring greenhouse gases and studying how they affect the Earth's climate crashed back to Earth about three minutes after launch early Tuesday. The USD $273 million Orbiting Carbon Observatory also would have provided more information about Earth's carbon sinks.
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more.
February 22 - Island nations plan for possible evacuation
While some people still persist in debating whether climate change is occurring,
the governments of The Maldives and Kirabati, two of the lowest lying
regions on Earth, are already in planning stages of evacuating their
nations as the sea increasing laps at their doorsteps. Read
more.
February 21 - Australian heatwave killed hundreds
The tragedy of the Australian bushfires has overshadowed an equally deadly
yet less dramatic disaster - the deaths of hundreds of Australians in
southern states who succumbed to the temperatures during the recent
heatwave. The majority of victims were elderly or frail people. Read
more
February 20 - Arctic erosion rates double in 50 years
New research reports that the rate of erosion along a stretch of Alaska's north-eastern
coastline has doubled over the past 52 years. Between 1955 and 1979, the coastline retreated an average of 6.8 meters per
year, then increased 28% over the next 23 years. And from 2002 to 2007, erosion
destroyed 13.6 meters of land per year. Read
more
February 18 - World Bank warns of looming Andean crisis
According to a report from the World Bank, climate change could cause the complete disappearance of the Andes' tropical glaciers within the next 20 years, putting millions dependent on melt water from the glaciers at risk.
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more
February 17 - EPA official advocates geoengineering
A top U.S. Environmental Protection Agency scientist has advocated the possible use of drastic and highly controversial geoengineering to battle global warming, stating it could potentially buy the time needed to make the necessary adjustments in energy and industrial infrastructure.
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more.
February 16 - Hansen: coal plants are death factories
James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and
the world's foremost climate change expert has lashed out at governments
for their continued support of coal. Dr Hansen believes the German and Australian governments pretend to be
green and stated "These governments are not green. They are black -
coal black". Read
more
February 15 - Humans adding CO2 at blistering pace
A researcher from the Carnegie Institution for Science has warned humans are adding carbon to the atmosphere even faster than in the 1990s.
Christopher Field told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science that no part of the world had a decline in emissions from 2000 to 2008.
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more
February 14 - Australian bush fires release massive
CO2
The recent bushfires in Australia have not only cause a tragic loss of
life and destruction of habitat on a huge scale, but have generated the
equivalent of over a third of the country's carbon dioxide emissions for an
entire year. Australia's generates around 330 million tonnes of CO2 of
year and according to a researcher, the bushfires of 2003 and 2006-07 had put up to 105m tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
However, the recent fires are burning through country that has a far
higher carbon load per acre. Read
more.
February 13 - Carbon dioxide levels continue to rise
The global economic crisis has failed to make any dent in the steady rise
of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. Levels of carbon dioxide are around the highest in at least 800,000 years, and up by about a third since the Industrial Revolution.
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more.
February 10 - South Asia water crisis worsens
Unsustainable exploitation, climate change and poor cooperation among countries
are threatening river basins that sustain about half of South Asia's 1.5 billion people
according to a UN environmental agency. South
Asia is home to a quarter of the global population, who have access to
less than 5 per cent of the planet’s freshwater resources. Read
more
February 9 - Australia burns and floods
A land well known for extremes, Australia is now currently facing a
somewhat unique, but tragic mix of weather events. Flooding in the north
of the country has caused 60% of the state of Queensland to be classified
a disaster area and to the south, the state of Victoria is in the midst of
the most deadly bushfires in its history. Read
more
February 7 - Greenhouse gases slowing ozone recovery
Since the late 1980s, most countries have observed the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty to phase out production of such ozone-depleting substances.
However, increasing greenhouse gases could impede the recovery of
stratospheric ozone in some places, according to new research. Read
more
February 6 - China declares drought emergency
The worst drought in 50 years has scorched fields across a huge swathe of northern China, leaving nearly four million people without proper drinking water. No rain has fallen on Beijing for more than 100 days.
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more
February 5 - The Indian Ocean and Australia's
drought
While the phenomenon of La Nina has always been thought to bring rain to
Australia and El Nino to cause drought, the patterns have not been
followed in recent years. Scientists have found instead that Australia's severe drought
appears to be driven by temperature fluctuations in the Indian Ocean. Read
more
February 4 - Finding Nemo in a carbon soaked world
Tests on clownfish larvae, the species of fish made famous in the animated
movie "Finding Nemo" showed they became confused and unable to
find a suitable place to live if they were raised in seawater that had
absorbed carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Researchers believe the
clownfish are unable to sense vital odours in more acidic waters, likely
due to damage caused to their olfactory systems. Read
more
February 3 - Sea level rises threaten Ganges
Rising sea levels are causing salt water to contaminate India's biggest
river, threatening its ecosystem and turning vast farmlands barren. Sea
levels in some parts of the Bay of Bengal were rising at 3.14 mm each year
compared to a global average of 2 mm, threatening the low-lying areas of
eastern India with inundation. Read
more
February 3 - Australian government plans green army
Millions of Australia homes will have ceiling insulation installed free of charge and a slew of infrastructure projects will be rolled out by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in the latest economic rescue package.
An army of green workers will help deliver the Government's plans to make
homes and buildings more energy-efficient. Read
more
February 2 - A two children limit to save the planet
A UK government's green advisor has warned that couples who have more than
two children are being “irresponsible” in relation to the environment.
Jonathon Porritt believes that green groups are betraying the interests of
their members by refusing to address population issues based on the
problem of the topic being too controversial. Read
more
February 2 - Australia facing climate change
collapse?
Already enduring a severe drought, the recent heatwave in Australia that
has killed dozens of people is causing some experts to fear that the
country may be the first to "implode" due to the effects of
climate change. Australia was already the driest inhabited continent on
earth and recent trends such as the ongoing 12 year drought in
Australia's south are expected to dry up the Murray-Darling river
system, which runs through Australia's food bowl, by another 25
per cent. Read
more
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