14th December 2003 The Anthropocene
Willam Ruddiman, of Virginia University in the US, has claimed that man has been affecting the global climate for 8,000 years, rather than just the last 200 years. He claims that agriculture and forest clearance are to blame.

 

14th December 2003 C and C
With the Kyoto Protocol under real threat of disintegration as a result of political disagreement, a back-up plan called Contraction and Convergence is gaining increasing support as a viable alternative.

 

14th December 2003 $60 Billion Question
Klaus Toepfer, of the United Nations, has warned of the growing welfare and economic impacts climate change is having on mankind. Natural disasters, such as flooding, have cost over $60 billion over the past 12 months.

 

14th December 2003 Battered Cod
Gregory Beauregard, and colleagues at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, have reported on the double impact suffered by North Sea cod stocks as a result of over fishing and rising water temperatures.

 

14th December 2003 Human Rights Act
Countries refusing to ratify the Kyoto Protocol have been blamed for violation of human rights in the Arctic. Global warming in the region is threatening the way of life for many thousands of Inuit people.

 

9th December 2003 Forest Restoration
Three large companies are helping to restore damaged forest in Brazil as part of their commitment to offset their own greenhouse gas emissions. The forests have been badly damaged due to clearance for livestock farming.

 

9th December 2003 Low Flying Aircraft
David Lee of Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, and colleagues, have suggested that the climate change impact of aircraft could be reduced if they flew lower. Flying at lower altitudes would reduce aircraft contrails.

 

5th December 2003 Russian Roulette
The debate revolving around Russia's intention, or otherwise, to ratify the Kyoto Protocol is continuing. Andrei Illarionov, a senior adviser to President Putin had indicated no ratification, but others have dismissed this.

 

5th December 2003 Apres Ski
The UN's Environment Program has revealed that hundreds of ski resorts around the world may have to shut down as a result of climate change. Global warming will leave many resorts without reliable snow.

 

5th December 2003 Self Service
The US administration has been promoting its own efforts to tackle climate change at a climate meeting in Milan, despite its decision to opt out of the limits on greenhouse gas emissions set out in the Kyoto protocol.

 

5th December 2003 Cars and Climate
The European Environment Agency has warned that many EU states will not reach their targets for cuting greenhouse gas emissions because of the rapid rise in emissions from transport, particularly road traffic.

 

1st December 2003 No Amazon Answer
Scott Salesk, of Harvard University, and colleagues in the US and Brazil, have reported that the ability of the Amazonian rainforest to soak up carbon dioxide may be much more limited than previously thought.

 

1st December 2003 Talk Time
The ninth UN Conference of the Parties (COP9) aimed at tackling global warming has got underway in Milan. The meeting will centre on the use and effectiveness of forestry to meet Kyoto Protocol commitments.

 

1st December 2003 Speedy Development
Joke Waller-Hunter, of the UN, has highlighted the efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions in many developing nations, despite these countries not being obliged to do so as part of the Kyoto Protocol.

 

29th November 2003 Flat Liner
Levels of the greenhouse gas methane in our atmosphere have levelled off for the first time in two hundred years. Ed Dlugokencky and colleagues in the US found a steadying of methane between 1999 and 2002.

 

22nd November 2003 Winds of Change
The first major offshore wind farm in the UK is going online. The turbines, situated off the coast of North Wales, are aimed at supplying electricity for thousands of homes and cutting UK greenhouse gas emissions.

 

17th November 2003 Them and US
Peter Stott, and colleagues from the Met Office in the UK, have revealed the human impetus behind climate warming in the US. Their study showed a direct link between rising greenhouse gas emissions and warming.

 

13th November 2003 The Ice Age Cometh?
Bill McGuire, writing in the Guardian newspaper, has highlighted recent research which suggests that, far from global warming meaning rising temperatures in the UK, it could instead plunge Britain into Arctic conditions.

 

11th November 2003 Wet Monarchs
Karen Oberhauser and colleagues at the University of Minnesota, US, have warned that Monarch butterflies face the loss of their winter habitat within only 50 years as a result of climate change driven increases in rainfall.

 

10th November 2003 Shipping News
James Corbett, from the University of Delaware, US, has highlighted the extent of NOx gas emissions from shipping. He reports that the world's trawlers and tankers emit more NOx than the whole of the USA.

 

6th November 2003 Warming Welcome
William Precht and Richard Aronson, marine scientists in the US, have suggested that global warming may not be all bad for tropical reefs. At least one coral species has expanded its range as temperatures have increased.

 

6th November 2003 Grand Cru Growth
A report by Gregory Jones, a climatologist from Southern Oregon University in the US, suggests that rising temperatures in the wine growing regions of the world will boost the number of vineyards.

 

1st November 2003 Bill Kill
US senators have voted against a bill designed to limit carbon dioxide emissions from industrial power plants. Opponents of the bill claimed it would have increased household energy bills and damaged the US economy.

 

1st November 2003 On Thin Ice
Accelerated rates of Arctic ice melt are threatening the habitat of polar bears. Seymour Laxon and colleagues at University College London and the Met Office Hadley Centre report rapidly thinning Arctic ice.

 

1st November 2003 Foresight is 2020
The UK Environment Agency has predicted how lifestyles in the UK will have changed by the year 2020. They predict mass immigration due to global climate change and greenhouse gas allowances for households.

 

1st November 2003 My 15 Megabytes
GreenHouse Gas Online has become the world's number one website on 'greenhouse gas' according to search engines Google and Yahoo. Great that it's popular, hopefully it will just get better and better...

 

26th October 2003 Self-consumption
The huge emissions of greenhouse gas in the US, and the potential threat sea-level rise and climate change pose to US communities, is highlighted this week by Matthew Engel writing in the Guardian Newspaper.

 

26th October 2003 Tapping a New Resource
Larry Kosituk, and colleagues at the University of Alberta in Canada, have discovered a new way of grenerating electricity from water which has the potential to rival wind and solar power as a clean energy source.

 

20th October 2003 Climate Migrants
The Guardian newspaper (UK) has warned that climate change threatens to force 150 million people from their homes over the next 50 years, vastly increasing the immigration pressure on countries like Britain.

 

20th October 2003 Going, going, gone
Patricia Iturregui, and colleagues at the National Council for the Environment in Peru, have warned of the threat posed to thousands of people in the Andes by glacial melt resulting from global warming.

 

20th October 2003 Blooming Lovely?
The gardens of Europe and North America are set for big changes as result of global warming and elevated carbon dioxide levels in coming years. Rapid growth rates and much longer growing seasons are forecast.

 

9th October 2003 High Water Mark
Through the discovery of a fossilized albatross colony, Sorrs Olson, of the National Museum of Natural History Museum in Washington DC, has found evidence for a huge sea-level rise around 400,000 years ago.

 

9th October 2003 Natural Irony
Valentin Meleshko, from the Central Geophysical Observatory, has warned Russia may pay for its non-ratification of the Kyoto protocol through widespread damage to its infrastructure caused by climate change.

 

9th October 2003 Empty Tank?
A controversial analysis of oil and gas reserves has predicted that the most catastrophic climate change scenarios can never happen. Burning of all oil and gas supplies would be insufficient for such extreme warming.

 

9th October 2003 Immigration Impact
A report by a London based campaign group has highlighted the plight of refugees forced from their homes by climate change. The report estimates that 150 million people may be forced from their homes by 2050.

 

9th October 2003 Global Killer
Global warming is currently killing around 160,000 people every year, according to Andrew Haines and colleagues at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medecine. Numbers could double by 2020.

 

9th October 2003 Baked Alaska
John Whitfield, writing for the journal Nature, has revealed the numerous impacts climate change is already having on the Alaskan environment and its inhabitants. Alaska is warming faster than anywhere else on earth.

 

29th September 2003 Russia Decides
Russia takes it place at the international climate change conference in Moscow this week with the ability to bring the Kyoto Protocol into force by its own ratification. Their final decision still remains unknown.

 

29th September 2003 Acid Test
Ken Caldeira, and colleagues at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, US, have warned of the acidification of the world's oceans which may occur as a result of elevated carbon dioxide.

 

29th September 2003 Dust Storms
Natali Mahowald and Chao Luo, from the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, have revealed the potential of decreasing dust levels in our atmosphere leading to more intense climate warming.

 

21st September 2003 Sundarbans Sinking
The Sundarbans, a huge delta area dominated by mangrove forest, is threatened with complete destruction by rising sea levels. Many thousands of people may lose their homes as a result of the flooding.

 

15th September 2003 PCs do their Bit
An ambitious and highly novel project aimed at better predicting future climate change has been launched by ClimatePrediction.net. Individuals download a program which then runs a range of climate change scenarios.

 

15th September 2003 Heated Atmosphere
A new study of variations in the temperature of the earth's atmosphere since 1978 has concluded that the troposphere has warmed substantially. The study goes against previous reports which suggested no warming.

 

15th September 2003 Data Mining
An Antarctic ice core believed to contain the longest continuous record of climate and greenhouse gases ever recovered. It is hoped the core will shed light on climate variability going back over 750,000 years.

 

8th September 2003 Deep Storage
The UK government is considering plans to store large amounts of the carbon dioxide produced by fossil fuelled power stations underneath the North Sea. However, the reliability of this approach is uncertain.

 

8th September 2003 Glacial Scale
Stephan Harrison, of Oxford University, and co-workers, have warned of the threat to livelihoods in Kazakhstan from climate warming. Rapidly diminishing glaciers threaten the agricultural water supply.

 

1st September 2003 Rings True
A study of climate history by Philip Jones and colleagues at East Anglia University, UK, has confirmed that our climate is now warmer than at any time in the last 2000 years. Tree rings were used to gauge variations.

 

1st September 2003 Global Cred
Keith Tovey and colleagues at East Anglia University, UK, have set themselves the task of beating the UK government target for cutting GHG emissions. The project involves community awareness and action.

 

1st September 2003 Desert Agriculture
A report by the EC Joint Research Centre has revealed drops in crop yields across southern Europe as a result of the 2003 heatwave. Through such impacts, global warming is predicted to transform farming worldwide.

 

1st September 2003 Impact Assessment
The hot summer here in the UK has prompted further examination of the impacts climate change will have on all our lives. Even in a rich country such as ours the impacts are likely to be large and widespread.

 

25th August 2003 Loopholes in the US
American environmentalists are reeling from yet another blow to their hopes of US action on greenhouse gas emissions. The Bush administration is set to allow big increases in GHG emissions from old power stations.

 

25th August 2003 Tke Kraken Awakes
Gregory Riskin, of Northwestern University, Illinois, USA, has suggested that a massive release of methane from the world's oceans may have been responsible for Earth's largest mass extinction 250 million years ago.

 

17th August 2003 Naming and Shaming
Friends of the Earth have published a league table of the most polluting power stations in the UK. The report names two coal fired power stations in Scotland as among the worst for greenhouse gas emissions.

 

17th August 2003 Fish Stock
Catherine O'Reilly, and colleagues at New York's Vassar College, have revealed that the huge drop in fish stocks in Lake Tanganyika is primarily a result of climate warming. The warming causes less mixing in the lake.

 

17th August 2003 Kyoto Protocol Problems
The Institute for Public Policy Research has warned that the Kyoto Protocol will not stop climate change, its small targets meaning that global greenhouse gas emissions will increase by 70 percent anyway.

 

17th August 2003 Hotter Pace
John Schnellhuber, of the Tyndall centre in the UK, has warned that the extreme weather conditions encountered across much of Europe this summer may indicate a global acceleration in climate change.

 

5th August 2003 Extremes Becoming the Norm
Europe is experiencing record breaking temperatures and the extended period of drought is having a drastic effecton agricutlure. Concern is growing that such extreme conditions may become increasingly common.

 

5th August 2003 Tax Now or Pay Later
A cross-party committee of UK MPs has called for airline passengers to pay an emissions charge to help to compensate for the environmental damage air travel causes. They recommend a sharp increase in prices.

 

5th August 2003 Inuit Threat
The warmer climate being encountered in the north of Canada is causing areas of permafrost to melt and stark changes in the wildlife. The Inuit living in the region are worried that their way of life may be lost forever.

 

28th July 2003 Lettuce Tunnel Science
GHGonline.org editor Dave Reay, talks to BBC Radio 4's 'Leading Edge' program about nitrous oxide and current efforts to better quantify emissions of this powerful greenhouse gas from agriculture.

 

28th July 2003 Global Warming as a WMD
John Haughton, respected meteorologist and author of 'Global Warming: the Complete Briefing' has attacked the inaction of western governments over global warming. He draws comparisons with WMDs.

28th July 2003 Conference Call
Could the climate change impact of conference travel be greatly reduced by the use of new virtual conferencing technology such as the Access Grid? The editor of GHGonline discusses its potential in Nature.

 

28th July 2003 Dead Wood
Gunter Hoch, and colleagues at Basel University in Switzerland, have revealed the limited extent to which mature trees can take up carbon dioxide as concentrations in our atmosphere increase.

 

7th July 2003 Sun Ray Rationale
Henrik Svensmark, of the Danish Space Research Institute, has been re-examining the relationship between solar activity and variations in our climate. He is focusing on the idea that cosmic rays may drive cloud formation.

 

7th July 2003 The Crutzen of the Matter
The well renowned and hugely respected climate change scientist Paul Crutzen has recently given an interview to New Scientist Magazine. Paul, a nobel laureate for his work on ozone depletion, discusses his life's work.

 

7th July 2003 Hydrogen Hopes
Progress continues to be made in teh search for an efficient, low greenhouse gas, method to produce hydrogen for fuel cells. James Dumesic and colleagues have developed a low cost catalyst for the process.

 

30th June 2003 Home Work
Erasmia Kitou and Arpad Horvath of the University of California, US, have revealed the potential cuts in greenhouse gas emissions made possible by home working and related changes in travel and energy use.

 

30th June 2003 Virtually Carbon Neutral
Using internet services, such as online banking, rather than using the traditional modes of service, such as visiting your local branch in person, could significantly reduce related greenhouse gas emissions.

 

23rd June 2003 A Whiter Shade of Green
A report by the US Evironmental Protection Agency, including discussion of the importance of global warming, has allegedly been watered down as a result of pressure from the current US administration.

 

23rd June 2003 Wind Tax
Farmers in New Zealand face paying a tax based on the amounts of methane produced by the cattle and sheep on their farms. The move is part of NZ governmental efforts to reduce national greenhouse gas emissions.

 

23rd June 2003 Runaway Disaster
Michael Benton, of Bristol University, UK, has revealed the devastating effects runaway global warming may have had on life on earth 250 million years ago. Such huge impacts could be repeated in the 21st century.

 

17th June 2003 Methane Moos
Stephen Ragsdale, and colleagues at Nebraska University, are developing a cattle feed additive which they hope will substantially reduce the amount of methane emitted from cows as they breath and belch.

 

17th June 2003 Ozone H-bomb
Yuk Yung and colleagues in the US have warned that future increases in hydrogen emissions, arising from its wider use in the batlle against global warming, may create larger and longer-lasting ozone holes.

 

10th June 2003 For Peat's Sake
The UK's garderners are helping to drive exploitation of natural peatlands in Estonia, destroying a key habitat and adding to global warming through the big emissions of carbon dioxide which result from peat digging.

 

10th June 2003 Smoke Screen
Smoke in our atmosphere has served to reduce the impact of the greenhouse effect in previous decades, but as power stations and other big smoke emitters are cleaned up we may be see more intense global warming.

 

10th June 2003 Cloud Seekers
Bas Amelung, an economist from the University of Maastrict, Netherlands, has warned of the huge impact increasing summer temperatures may have on the tourist industry. The Med may become too hot for many of us.

 

3rd June 2003 High Water Mark
David Paterson and Mireille Consalvey, of St Andrews University, UK, are examining the impacts of sea level rise in Scotland, as part of a wider study aimed at assessing the impact of global warming across Europe.

 

3rd June 2003 Hot Bricks
Eugenia Kalnay and Ming Cai of the university of Maryland, US, have revealed a bigger impact of land-use on rising temperatures than previously thought. Both urban and agricultural land-uses can have big impacts.

 

3rd June 2003 Battle Bleach
The Australian government is intensifying efforts to protect its famous Great Barrier Reef from the combined onslaught of over-fishing, pollution and global warming. Large, fishing free, 'green zones' are planned.

 

26th May 2003 Holistic Approach
A team from the Hadley Centre, UK, have used an holistic approach to climate change prediction, which uses the many factors and interactions that drive our climate. They warn of a big temperature rise by 2100.

 

26th May 2003 Load of Rubbish
Households in England have slightly increased the percentage of their rubbish which they recycle, up from 11 to 12 percent, but the total amount of non-recycled waste has jumped by more than half a million tonnes.

 

20th May 2003 Reaping Rewards
Phillip Thornton, an economist in Kenya, has revealed a new technique which can estimate the local weather many decades from now and which should allow better preparation for climate change in the developing world.

 

13th May 2003 Losing Ground
Having helped to develop the modern fuel cell, the UK is now lagging behind other developed countries in developing such greenhouse gas reducing technology further. The government is blamed for poor investment.

 

13th May 2003 Europe Slip Up
The EU is failing to meet its targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Emissions rose by around 1% in the year 2000 and it seems unlikely that the cross Europe target of an 8% reduction will be met by 2012.

 

11th May 2003 Mangrove Management
Gordon Sato, a US cell biologist, has caused alarm with his plan to combat climate change by planting desert coastlines with mangrove forest. Reef scientists are worried that reefs and fisheries will be damaged.

 

4th May 2003 Escalating Problem
A report by the UK's Department of Food, Environment and Rural Affairs has suggested that increasing the cost of fuel, via taxes, would be a very effective way to cut UK emissions of greenhouse gases.

 

28th April 2003 Water Gardens
Richard Betts of the Hadley Centre, UK, has warned of the effects of elevated carbon dioxide on soil water levels. Less water loss from plants may mean more flooding and more GHG emission from soils.

 

28th April 2003 Show Stopper
An exhibition cataloguing climate change on Earth and the impact man's activities have had is now open at the Deutsches Museum in Munich. Exhibits include a pile of coal and a steam engine - icons of global warming.

 

20th April 2003 Methane Mining
Samples of methane hydrate were successfully collected by ships in the Pacific Ocean last summer. Researchers found that the samples contained bubbles of methane gas and commercial exploitation moved a step closer.

 

20th April 2003 Ice Block
Phillipe Huybrechts and colleagues in Belgium and Germany, has suggested that the melting of Greenland's ice sheet, and the consequent build up of meltwater, may one day protect Greenland from further warming.

 

13th April 2003 Steeling a Lead
The UK is beating its targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions from industry according to new figures. Most of the reduction has come from the UK steel industry, mainly as a result of falling steel production.

 

13th April 2003 Sun Factor
A US scientist has again questioned the importance of the Sun in controlling climate change over the last twenty years. Scientific opinion remains divided over the contribution of Sun activity to recent global warming.

 

6th April 2003 Digging Deep
A large group of scientists, from several different nations, are planning to investigate a record of climate change over the last one million years by examining the deep sediments of Lake Bosumtwi in Africa.

 

1st April 2003 Fire Break
Mark Litvak and colleagues at the University of Texas, US, have revealed how the frequency of forest fires affects forest carbon dioxide uptake. It seems that 20-50 year old trees are the best sink for carbon dioxide.

 

31st March 2003  Impact Factor
The UK government has announced figures showing the apparent impact of their climate change strategy on greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon dioxide emissions have fallen by more than 3 percent in the last 12 months.

 

23rd March 2003  Pressure Cooker
Nathan Gillett and colleagues at Victoria University, Canada have, for the first time, found evidence that man-made greenhouse gas emissions over the last 50 years have affected global air pressure.

 

16th March 2003  Fish Food Favourite
Veerle Fievez and colleagues at Ghent University, Belgium, have reported on the effective use of fish oil feed additives in reducing livestock methane emissions. They achieved up to 40 percent cuts in sheep methane.

 

16th March 2003  Hard Cell
The US administration's plan to develop hydrogen fuel cell technology, as a realistic alternative to fossil fuelled cars, has been undermined by a report which indicates that diesel and petrol hybrid cars remain the best option.

 

16th March 2003  Rain and Reindeer
Jaako Putkonen and Gerard Roe, of the University of Washington, US, have warned of the threat to reindeer from increased rainfall caused by climate change. In the far north, rain can form thick ice and prevent feeding.

 

16th March 2003  Whiter Greenland
Climatologists, Edward Hanna and John Cappelen, have revealed that, despite a consistent trend of climate warming in much of the world, temperatures in Greenland appear to have fallen over the last 50 years.

 

9th March 2003  Fight Water with Water
The RSPB has flooded an area of coastal farmland in Scotland in an attempt to create a salt marsh. The salt marsh should both protect the land from rising sea levels and provide a habitat for numerous bird species.

 

9th March 2003  Shelf Life
Hernan de Angelis and Pedro Skvarca, of the Argentinian Antarctic Institute, have confirmed that Antarctica's global warming threatened ice shelves are propping up huge amounts of glacial ice.

 

9th March 2003  Jojoba Joy
Mohamed Selim, and colleagues at UAE and Cairo Universities, have reported on the great potential of jojoba oil as an alternative to fossil fuel for cars. The oil could help cut automotive GHG emissions substantially.

 

9th March 2003  Pipe Dreams
Michael Halbwachs, from the University of Savoie in France, has proposed a plan whereby the large amounts of methane contained in the Rwanda's Lake Kivu could be tapped and used as a nationwide energy source.

 

2nd March 2003  Muted Methane
Jamie Newbold and colleagues, at the Rowett Institute in Aberdeen, UK, have developed a cattle feed additive which can reduce methane emissions by a fifth while at the same time increasing food processing efficiency.

 

2nd March 2003  Gaia Tree
Marcos Buckeridge, a Brazilian botanist, has found that the Jatoba tree is able to grown much faster at elevated CO2 concentrations. He hopes that its heightened CO2 uptake abilities can be isolated and used in other plants.

 

2nd March 2003  Energetic Step
The UK government's Energy White Paper has stated their commitment to renewable energy and their aim to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by sixty precent by the year 2050, compared to emissions in 1990.

 

23rd February 2003  Melt Down
A UK government report warns of the extreme climate changes faced by Britain and Europe in coming years. Freak weather events, Meditteranean temperatures and winters without snow will all become more likely.

 

22nd February 2003  Dead Reckoning
Etchings made in stone on the Isle of the Dead, Tasmania, over 160 years ago have provided useful information on sea levels before and after the impact of contemporary global warming.

 

16th February 2003  Burning Issue
Out of control coal fires, burning both on the surface and underground, are leading to the emission of massive amounts of GHGs to the atmosphere. Controlling the fires could therefore give huge cuts in global emissions.

 

16th February 2003  Must Do Better
The pledge of the UK government to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 12.5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012 is unlikely to be met, according to the Sustainable Development Commission.

 

16th February 2003  Growing Problems
A report by the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has revealed that background levels of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere are now the highest ever recorded.

 

9th February 2003  Green Psychology
A collaboration between the United Nations (UNEP) and psychologists is aiming to better understand consumerism, with the hope that individuals can be coaxed into less polluting, more sustainable lifestyles.

 

26th January 2003  Hydrogen Economy
US President, George W Bush, has announced over a billion dollars in funding for the devlelopment of hydrogen-powered vehicles. Such development should eventually help to reduce automobile GHG emissions.

 

26th January 2003  Woodland Drive
Researchers from three environmental think-tanks have suggested that UK vehicle emissions could be substantially cut by the increased use of biofuels, such as alcohol, derived from fast-growing trees like willow.

 

19th January 2003  Early Birds
Research covering two decades of data on great and blue tits in central Europe indicates that shifts in spring temperatures, resulting from climate change, may alter the breeding success of many common European birds.

 

11th January 2003  UK Winter Olympics
The Guardian newspaper today reported that increased melting rates, caused by global warming, in Greenland may interrupt the flow of the Gulf stream and so plunge the UK into winters comparable with those in Canada.

 

11th January 2003  Bear Facts
Polar bears may become extinct with the next 100 years, as a result of global warming induced ice-melt, according to US ecologist Andrew Derocher. Derocher used estimates of future sea-ice melt for his predictions.

 

2nd January 2003  Can't Stand the Heat
Camille Parmesan and colleagues in the US have identified a consistent trend in the response of wild species to warmer global temperatures. It seems many are now moving towards cooler and higher ranges.