May 2013 global warming news

May 31 - Climate change impact on Australian deaths 'detectable'
Australian researchers have found climate change's impact on Australia's mortality record is detectable, with few people dying during the nation's winters; but more during the summers. Read more.

May 30 - Grannies against global warming
100 Grannies is a enthusiastic band of mature age women who are taking on the global warming challenge and doing their bit to alleviate impact on the environment. Read more.

May 28 - Plants emerge after centuries under ice
The greening of recently melted landscapes may happen faster than we think. Scientists have found primitive plants covered with ice for hundreds of years to have regrown on a melting glacier. Read more.

May 27 - Indonesian coal fired power plant to proceed
Construction of a 2000MW coal fired power station in Batang, Central Java looks set to proceed. Greenpeace says the plant will emit 10.8 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere each year; which is more than all the carbon emissions generated in Myanmar in 2009. Read more.

May 23 - Chainsaws to return to Queensland
The Government of the Australian state of Queensland has backflipped on an election promise and opene up millions of hectares of bushland to be clear-felled for farming; which the WWF says will result in increased extinction risk, soil erosion, water pollution and release millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide. Read more.

May 22 - Oklahoma City tornado aftermath
The tornado that struck the Oklahoma City area had winds exceeding 200 miles per hour and left a trail of death and destruction 17 miles long and 1.3 miles wide. An estimated 2,400 homes have been damaged or destroyed, with an estimated 10,000 people affected. At this stage the death toll is 24. Read more.

May 21 - New York heat wave deaths to increase
A study published in Nature Climate Change says heatwave deaths in New York city could rise by up to 22% over the next decade. Furthermore, deaths caused by extreme temperatures would dramatically increase in the later decades of this century. Read more.

May 18 - America's first climate change refugees
The people of Newtok, on the west coast of Alaska, face a disaster that will culminate with their entire village being washed away in as little as 5 years. The entire community is in the process of being relocated on higher ground nine miles away. Read more.

May 17 - It's not just the big glaciers
Thousands of small glaciers disconnected from ice sheets are adding 260 billion tons of meltwater into the ocean annually and contributing around 7 millimeters per year to sea level rise - which is as much as the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. Read more.

May 16 - Scientific opinion on climate change is not divided
The myth that the scientific community is divided over humanity's role in climate change has now been well and truly busted. Of 4,000 published climate research papers written by more than 10,000 scientists between 1991 and 2011, just over 97 per cent of the scientists agreed man-made warming was a reality. Read more.

May 15 - Sea level rises could be 10cm higher than IPCC estimates
Sea levels may rise as much as 69 centimeters by 2100, 10 centimetres more than the prediction from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007. The reason for the difference is the IPCC didn’t fully account for the effects of melting ice according to Ice2sea project researchers. Read more.

May 14 - Climate change could impact a third of land animals
Based on computer simulations and study of information gleaned from a biodiversity database listing 48,786 animal and plant species; University of East Anglia researchers fear one-third of common land animals and more than half of plant species could see dramatic losses during this century due to climate change. Read more.

May 12 - Cassava's climate change threat.
Rising temperatures in Africa are boosting populations of whiteflies, which carry viruses that can impact cassava, a staple food crop for 300 million people. Read more.

May 11 - Migratory waterbirds avoiding Britain
Climate change has resulted in fewer migratory waterbirds wintering in France, Ireland and Switzerland as they shift northwards to Finland and Sweden. Read more.

May 11 - Marshall Islands declares state of disaster
Salt intrusion from rising sea levels contaminating water supplies have been exacerbated by a drought in the Marshall Islands, leading to a state of disaster being declared. The Marshall Islands are located in the northern Pacific Ocean. Read more.

May 9 - Prince Charles blasts climate skeptics
Prince Charles has again taken aim at climate change skeptics, stating they and corporate lobbyists are turning the Earth into a "dying patient". The comments were made at a conference for forest scientists at St James's Palace in London. Read more.

May 7 - Valley fever's climate change link
Valley fever is infecting increasing numbers of of people in the USA as drought, heat and wind spreads the spores that cause it. The number of valley fever cases has skyrocketed more than 850 percent from 1998 to 2011. Read more.

May 5 - Malaria a possibility in the UK
Tropical diseases are inching their way towards the UK. Dengue fever came as close as France in 2010 and fears are growing it won't be long before the UK sees malaria. Read more.

May 4 - WMO: climate change contributing to extreme weather
The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has stated the physical characteristics of extreme weather and climate events are being increasingly shaped and worsened by climate change. Read more.

May 4 - Concerns over solar geoengineering
Solar geoengineering, methods of cutting incoming sunlight by artificial means, may not be of any use if carbon dioxide is not also removed removed from the atmosphere. In fact, it's thought solar geoengineering could even lead to widespread drought in Africa. Read more.

May 4 - Climate change could affect indoor air quality
A recent study states climate change may boost concentrations of various outdoor pollutants, increasing indoor exposure. Temperature variations may also lead to increased or decreased ventilation in a home, compounding the problem. Read more.

May 4 - Climate change impacting indigenous Amazon peoples.
Native populations in the Amazon, some who have lived in their areas for thousands of years, are witnessing changes in rain, humidity and temperature patterns plus shifts in river levels, fire behavior and agricultural cycles. Read more

May 2 - Arctic melt season starts in a hurry
Artic ice melted in April at more rapid rate than it did in April last year; heralding what could be another record melt year. Read more.

May 2 - 2012 ninth hottest year
2012 was the 27th year in a row the global average temperature was higher than the 1961-1990 average and 2012 was the ninth hottest year since 1850. Read more