Global warming headlines and climate change news for September 2009

September 30 - Emissions growth - don't blame the poor
According to a report from the International Institute for Environment and Development, rapidly growing populations in developing countries will contribute little to climate change and is a dangerous distraction from what will - the hyperconsumption of people in in rich nations. While sub-Saharan Africa has 18.5 per cent of the world’s population growth, it only has 2.4 per cent of the growth in carbon dioxide emissions. Read more

September 29 - Australia's emission scheme still shaky
According to The Australian, a majority of Australia's Opposition remain opposed to the Rudd government's emissions trading scheme. Mr Rudd has in return accused the Opposition of being "chock full of climate-change sceptics". The ETS in its original form was rejected in June, if it is rejected again, it could provide the trigger for a double-dissolution based election. Read more

September 28 - 4 degree Celsius rise by 2050 possible
A study by Britain's Met Office concurs with a recent UN report that the effects of climate change are on track to be more dramatic than worst case scenarios detailed by the IPCC's report of 2007. The Met says global temperatures may be 4 degrees Celsius hotter by the middle of this century if current greenhouse gas emission trends continue - and this would spell disaster for the planet. Read more

September 26 - EU concerned over climate negotiations
With just weeks to go before crucial climate change related decisions will occur in Copenhagen, the European Union has expressed deep concern, saying that lead up negotiations are moving too slowly and are not going in the right direction. Read more.

September 23 - China comes in from the CO-ld
After having previously resisted to committing to a carbon pollution reduction strategy, China now says it will take steps to educe the growth rate of its carbon pollution as measured against economic growth. The announcement, while scant on details, has been heralded as a breakthrough; turning the tables somewhat on developed nations. Read more

September 20 - The fossil fuel gravy train continues
According to a study by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Environmental Law Institute, between 2002 to 2008, the U.S. government gave more than double as much funding to research initiatives, tax incentives and other perks benefiting fossil fuels than it supplied to renewable energy. Read more

September 19 - More Arctic geese resisting migration
Back in the 1970's 4000 birds toughed out the winter in Izembek Lagoon on the Alaska Peninsula. Two years ago, the number had climbed to 40,000; nearly 30 percent of the total population had decided not to fly south for the winter. Read more

September 18 - Arctic summer ice cover low again.
Arctic ice thawed to its third-lowest summer level on record. While the melt was slightly less than the last couple of years, it still signifies a continuing overall decline; with climate change to blame according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. This years low was 20 percent below the 30-year average minimum ice cover for the Arctic summer since satellites began measuring it in 1979. Read more

September 17 - Global warming: tsunamis & earthquakes?
The implications of global warming keep coming. A meeting of vulcanologists, seismologists, glaciologists, climatologists and landslide experts have hypothesized that when ice is lost from glaciers, the earth's crust bounces back up  and that can trigger earthquakes, which can trigger submarine landslides, in turn causing tsunamis. Read more

September 16 - Greenpeace shuts down oil sands project
According to the Greenpeace blog, activists have shut down all of Shells Albion Sands oil sands operations in Canada. Greenpeace says that by 2020, Alberta's oil sands projects could generate more greenhouse gas emissions than the entire Czech Republic and raze an area larger than England. Read more

September 15 - Droughts force Indian women into slavery
As a result of continual severe droughts, many Indian farmers have committed suicide. Equally tragic is the increasing occurrence of farmers forcing wives and daughters into prostitution in order to pay off farm debts. Read more

September 14 - Northeast passage conquered
Two German merchant ships have made it through the fabled Northeast Passage. Global warming induced ice melting has opened a route from South Korea to Siberia, saving the ship over 3,000 miles of travel. Read more

September 12 - CO2 increase turns staple food crop toxic
Cassava, a staple food for more than half a billion of the world's poorest people may be drought resistant, but an Australian research team has found increasing carbon dioxide in the air boosts cyanide levels in its leaves. Read more

September 11 - Climate change threatens North Sea cod
In the past 4 decades, the average temperature of the North Sea has increased by 1C. It may not sound like much, but the increase has played havoc with its aquatic ecosystems and may mean the end for the North Sea cod, an important commercial species. Read more

September 9 - Australians top carbon emitters.
Australia has overtaken the USA in per capita carbon emissions; making the country's population the most carbon intensive in the world. According to Maplecroft, a UK based global risks analyst, Australians generate 20.58 tons of carbon dioxide per person annually, whereas American emit 19.78 tons and Canadians, 18.81 tons per person. Read more (PDF). 

September 8 - Warm winter cuts Australia's CO2 emissions
It's quite ironic, but climate change spurred on by greenhouse gas emissions has seen South Australia cut emissions by 8 percent this winter due to less of a need for heating. However, climate expert Professor Barry Brook warns warmer winters would likely also result in hotter summers, cancelling out and possibly outweighing any greenhouse gas emission reductions due to increased use of air conditioners. Read more

September 6 - The new Iraq war - water
The previously fertile plains south of Baghdad are said to be the cradle of civilization; but are now becoming a desert due to the effects of climate change and dam projects by neighbouring states that are turning the mighty Tigris and Euphrates rivers into trickles. Read more

September 5 - Climate change - some species won't adapt
While humans are very adaptable creatures and can change to suit living in unfavorable conditions, other species living in restricted environment may lack adequate variation in their genes and be unable to adapt to the effects of climate change. Read more

September 4 - Arctic temperatures highest in 2,000 years
Greenhouse gas emissions have raised Arctic temperatures in the last ten years to the highest levels in at least 2,000 years -  working against a natural cooling trend that should have lasted another four thousand years. Read more

September 3 - Climate change: the spirit is willing but..
While people express concern about climate change and the environment, a straw poll by Reuters shows while many will make small changes for the environment such as recycling, many are also unwilling to make radical lifestyle changes like giving up air travel or red meat. Read more

September 3 - Geoengineering - man's last hope?
The Royal Society says huge geoengineering schemes, such as massive tree-planting initiatives or shooting sulfur into the atmosphere to block sunlight, may be needed to stop global warming if other bids fail. The Society says that efforts to date will not see the reductions needed to avoid dangerous climate change. Read more

September 2 - EPA to declare CO2 a dangerous pollutant
The head of the US Environmental Protection Agency says that carbon dioxide will soon be declared a dangerous pollutant. The formal declaration of an "endangerment finding" is expected to be made in the next couple of months. Read more

September 2 - Arctic ice-free by 2015?
A conference in Denmark has hear that if current melting trends continue, the Arctic Ocean is likely to be free of summer sea ice by 2015. Scientists at the conference also reported a "rapid increase" in ice loss for the Greenland ice sheet. Read more

September 1 - Australia's record breaking warm winter
Warm temperatures across Australia should see the winter of 2009 rewrite the record books. In the outback Queensland town of Windora, records for the August maximum temperature were broken and re-set six times in the past month. Melbourne's rainfall for the first eight months of the year has been the lowest on record. Read more

September 1 - Yemen water riots
Water shortages in the Yemen city of Aden are  fuelling violence. One person was shot dead and three were wounded during recent water protests. Some residents receive piped city water only once every nine days and others get none at all. Read more