US climate change bill is blocked

A US attempt to establish a system of caps and tax relief to cut carbon emissions has been blocked in Congress. The bill was backed by most senators, but did not get the 60 votes needed to stop a delaying tactic - a filibuster - used by the bill's opponents. Even if it had succeeded in passing Congress, President George W Bush had pledged to veto the bill.

Lawmakers will now wait until next year - when there will be a new president - before attempting to pass a new bill.

The bill - sponsored by Republican John Warner and Independent Joe Lieberman - would have introduced caps on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, oil refineries and factories.

Google Earth to Showcase Climate Change

Together with Britain’s environment ministry and the country’s Meteorological Office, Google has created a new animated map that layers over its Google Earth program to illustrate the potential impact of global climate change over the next century.

The project, called Climate Change in Our World, allows viewers to run a series of time lapse sequences to watch earth warm under a medium case scenario up to the year 2100.

Another animation, developed in conjunction with the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), shows the retreat of Antarctica’s ice caps since the 1950s, with numerous factoids about climate change science, and its specific impact on the Antarctic.

“Climate change is redrawing the map of the world. Unless we act, its impacts will be felt everywhere, as sea levels rise, crops fail, extreme weather increases and more areas are at risk of drought and flooding,” said British environment secretary Hilary Benn.

“This project shows people the reality of climate change using estimates of both the change in the average temperature where they live, and the impact it will have on people’s lives all over the world, including here in Britain. By helping people to understand what climate change means for them and for the world we can mobilize the commitment we need to avoid the worst effects by taking action now.”

Warming Climate Is Changing Life On Global Scale

ScienceDaily (May 15, 2008) — A vast array of physical and biological systems across the earth are being affected by warming temperatures caused by humans, says a new analysis of information not previously assembled all in one spot. The effects on living things include earlier leafing of trees and plants over many regions; movements of species to higher latitudes and altitudes in the northern hemisphere; changes in bird migrations in Europe, North America and Australia; and shifting of the oceans' plankton and fish from cold- to warm-adapted communities.

"Humans are influencing climate through increasing greenhouse gas emissions, and the warming world is causing impacts on physical and biological systems attributable at the global scale," said lead author Cynthia Rosenzweig, a scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the Columbia Center for Climate Systems Research. Both are affiliates of The Earth Institute at Columbia University.

Observed impacts included changes to physical systems, such as glaciers shrinking, permafrost melting, and lakes and rivers warming. Biological systems also were impacted in a variety of ways, such as leaves unfolding and flowers blooming earlier in the spring, birds arriving earlier during migration periods, and plant and animal species moving toward Earth's poles and higher in elevation. In aquatic environments such as oceans, lakes, and rivers, plankton and fish are shifting from cold-adapted to warm-adapted communities.

Rosenzweig and researchers from 10 other institutions across the world analyzed data from published papers on 829 physical systems and some 28,800 plant and animal systems, stretching back to 1970. Their analysis of revealed a picture of changes on continental scales; previous studies had looked mainly at single phenomena, or smaller areas. In physical systems, 95% of observed changes are consistent with warming trends. These include wastage of glaciers on all continents; melting permafrost; earlier spring river runoff; and warming of water bodies. Among living creatures inhabiting such systems, 90% of changes are consistent with warming.