Eora Borealis

Global warming could re-make the world’s climate zones by 2100, with some polar and mountain climates disappearing altogether and formerly unknown ones emerging in the tropics.  And when climate zones vanish, the animals and plants that live in them will be at greater risk of extinction, said Jack Williams, lead author of a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“What we’ve shown is these climates disappear, not just regionally, but they’re disappearing from the global set of climates, and the species that live in these climates really have nowhere to go as the system changes,” said Williams, a geographer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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New, Previously Unknown Climate Zones Seen by 2100

Portugal has inaugurated what it says is the world’s most powerful solar power plant.

The array of electricity-generating solar panels covers about 60 hectares (150 acres) in one of Europe’s sunniest areas in southern Portugal. Officials say the plant should produce enough energy to supply 8,000 homes.

The plant is part of Portugal’s efforts to cut its reliance on imported fuel and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases that add to global warming.

The plant is also meant to bring development and jobs to the Alentejo region 200km (125 miles) southeast of Lisbon, a poor area traditionally dominated by cork and olive production.

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San Francisco has become the first American city to ban plastic bags from large supermarkets and chemists’ shops - attracting the applause of environmentalists but also scepticism from business owners and many heartland Americans who feel that the quintessential “Left Coast” city has once again dived off the deep end.

San Francisco’s board of supervisors - the equivalent of a city council - voted 10 to 1 in favour of the ban, which would oblige supermarkets with annual turnover of more than $2m (£1m) to implement the change within six months and pharmacies with more than five outlets to do so within a year.

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San Francisco bans plastic shopping bags

Environmental group WWF have released a study revealing that carbon dioxide emissions from the UK power sector have soared by 30% since 1999. WWF’s report shows that in 2006, UK emissions reached their highest level since 1992.

WWF said that carbon emissions from UK power stations stood at 178 million tons in 2006, a 6% rise over 2005. The report has attributed this increase to a sector-wide return to coal-powered generation, as a result of high gas prices and increasing electricity demand. Coal produces twice as much carbon dioxide as gas per unit when burned.

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UK carbon emissions have soared, WWF reports

Scientists from around the world will conduct co-ordinated research in a collaborative programme called the International Polar Year (IPY) that will run from March 1, 2007 to March 9, 2009.

More than 200 projects are planned involving 50,000 people from more than 60 nations. Scientists will monitor changes to permafrost, the melting of polar ice sheets and marine life in the regions.

The research will provide a baseline for understanding future environmental changes.

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Major climate study focuses on poles

The time is not ripe for introducing a fuel tax in China to curb energy use and pollution because of the extra financial burden it would place on citizens, the country’s finance minister said Friday.

“We have to admit maybe that a fuel tax can play a certain role in regards to energy conservation, especially conservation of oil and petroleum,” Finance Minister Jin Renqing said. “But if that is the real purpose of the reform, we might increase heavily the burden on our people,” he told a news conference.

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China says too soon for fuel tax to protect environment

Forests of spruce trees and shrubs in parts of northern Canada are taking over what were once tundra landscapes–forcing out the species that lived there. This shift can happen at a much faster speed than scientists originally thought, according to a new University of Alberta study that adds to the growing body of evidence on the effects of climate change.

The boundary, or treeline, between forest and tundra ecosystems is a prominent landscape feature in both Arctic and mountain environments. As global temperatures continue to increase, the treeline is expected to advance but the new research shows that this shift will not always occur gradually but can surge ahead.

“The conventional thinking on treeline dynamics has been that advances are very slow because conditions are so harsh at these high latitudes and altitudes,” said Dr. Ryan Danby, from the Department of Biological Sciences. “But what our data indicates is that there was an upslope surge of trees in response to warmer temperatures. It’s like it waited until conditions were just right and then it decided to get up and run, not just walk.”

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George Bush says that ethanol will save the world. But there is evidence that biofuels may bring new problems for the planet.

The ethanol boom is coming. The twin threats of climate change and energy security are creating an unprecedented thirst for alternative energy with ethanol leading the way. That process is set to reach a landmark on Thursday when the US President, George Bush, arrives in Brazil to kick-start the creation of an international market for ethanol that could one day rival oil as a global commodity. The expected creation of an “Opec for ethanol” replicating the cartel of major oil producers has spurred frenzied investment in biofuels across the Americas.

But a growing number of economists, scientists and environmentalists are calling for a “time out” and warning that the headlong rush into massive ethanol production is creating more problems than it is solving…

Read the whole article: The big green fuel lie

European Union countries were divided Monday over how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and what role nuclear energy could play in the fight against climate change.

With global warming a high priority, the EU states agree that carbon dioxide emissions must be cut by 20 percent by 2020, compared to 1990 levels, but they disagree on how much renewable and nuclear energy should be used in the future.

At a meeting of EU foreign ministers, the countries were split between pro- and anti-nuclear camps with the former wanting atomic energy included in the mix, leaving the problem to be thrashed out by EU leaders later this week…

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Rainfall in the unique “wet desert” of India’s northeast has become unpredictable and the dry season longer in a disturbing sign of major changes in global weather patterns, scientists say.

Cherrapunji, in northeast India’s tiny Meghalaya state, has long been a top contender for the world’s wettest spot, with approximately 12 metres (40 feet) of rainfall annually, most of it in the summer monsoon season.

But a group of Polish and Indian scientists who have been studying the unusual ecosystem — it falls on a latitude known for some of the world’s driest areas, including the Sahara and Gobi deserts — said that was changing.

Rainfall steadily lessened in the last half of the 20th century, they said…

Read the whole article: India’s ‘wet desert’ hit by global climate change