by Nadia Teskrat

The residents of this island village eat dried seal meat, sell animal skins and hop on snowmobiles to hunt down polar bears and caribou.

But the age-old traditions of Shishmaref are threatened by global warming, which has already forced the 600 residents to vote to move to the continent as the sea chips away at the village's eroding shore.

The receding ice in the Arctic will cause certain animals such as polar bears, walruses and seals to become rare, according to Robert Corell, who wrote a study on climate change's impact on the Arctic.

Mark Lynas

You may find it hard to believe, but most environmentalists are optimists. Their doom-monger image is actually the opposite of the truth: their most consistent message is not that we are doomed, but that we have the time and the technology to avoid the worst calamities, if we act now. This insistence on human agency irritates true doom-mongers, such as John Gray, who, reviewing George Monbiot's new book Heat (NS, 18 September), complained: "The assumption that we can stop [global warming] becomes less scientifically tenable by the day, and is in fact not much more than a green version of anthropocentrism." In this, Gray was echoing James Lovelock, who told the New York Times of 12 September that solar panels and wind turbines are "largely gestures", but "no answer at all to the problem" of global warming, which is already essentially out of control.

by Lawrence Bartlett

Millions of people in the Asia-Pacific region could be forced from their homes and suffer increasing disease, cyclones and floods caused by global warming, scientists have warned.

Climate change will seriously threaten regional human security and national economies this century, according to a report by the Australian government's Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organisation (CSIRO).

After New World producers Australia and Chile, French winegrowers could soon face new competition from Britain, as global warming helps grapes take root in milder cross-Channel climes, scientists say.

Commonly found on the British Isles from the Roman occupation until the 13th century, vineyards all but disappeared during the so-called Little Ice Age, a cooler period that lasted from the mid-14th to mid-19th centuries.

Now the climate clock seems set to reverse.

Global warming could strain the Northeast's power grid, farms, forests and marine fisheries by the next century unless carbon dioxide emissions are reduced by 3 percent each year, according to a report released Wednesday.

The climate in the nine states — from New Jersey and Pennsylvania up to Maine — could become like that of the South with longer, much hotter summers and warmer winters with less snow, the report by the Union of Concerned Scientists said.

"This has enormous implications for human health. It puts a lot of stress on the energy system. It could lead to blackouts,"

Britain told the world's worst polluting nations on Tuesday that acting now to cut emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases would be vastly cheaper in the long run than doing nothing.

British government scientist and former World Bank chief economist Nicholas Stern told a meeting in northern Mexico that it makes economic as well as environmental sense to pursue green energy sources.

A long-awaited study by Stern on the economic effects of combating global warming is due in the coming days.

The film, shot on four continents and narrated by Keanu Reeves and Alanis Morissette, will be shown in the top 50 U.S. markets.

New York, NY (PRWEB) October 3, 2006 -- A new documentary film, The Great Warming, examining world-wide issues of climate change and offering many real-world solutions, will be released nationwide through the Regal Cinema chain on Nov. 3, with an initial showing in the top 50 (ADI) markets in the country, it was announced today by producer Karen Coshof of Stonehaven Productions.

JORGE BARRERA, Ontario Sun
Municipalities are facing a "perfect storm" once the era of cheap oil, cheap water and altered weather patterns hits with full force, says Ontario's environmental commissioner.

In a chilling speech to municipal leaders yesterday, Gord Miller said municipalities are not ready for the massive effect on communities.

"We are entering a period of consequences," said Miller. "Our present public policy is inadequate to deal with these immense problems that are upon us right now."

Jad Mouawad
...Americans are increasingly recognizing that the effects of carbon emissions on global warming are a serious problem, but there are no rules in the United States regulating heat-trapping gases comparable to those that most other developed countries have adopted under the Kyoto Protocol. Some United States businesses, though, are responding for a variety of reasons anyway: to satisfy customers or shareholders who worry about the environment, to improve their public image or to drive down their energy costs. In addition, some states and local authorities have stepped in to try to curb their contributions to global warming.

Canadian Press via Globe & Mail

Ottawa — Canada has agreed to negotiate a second phase of the Kyoto Protocol, dispelling concerns that the Conservative government would try to block progress at a major climate conference in Bonn.

Richard Kinley, acting head of the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat, hailed the international consensus at a final news conference Friday from Germany.