Carbon deposits in Arctic could worsen climate change

October 7th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The extent of the Arctic Sea ice this year or the area covered by floating ice was the third lowest since satellite measurements were first made in 1979. The ice area at minimum was an increase from the past two years, but still well below the average for the past 30 years.

September 24th, 2009 TORONTO - Capturing carbon directly from the air is the only way to prevent dangerous climate changes, says a pioneering Canadian scientist. University of Calgary scientist David Keith says governments need to earmark more research funding for technologies to capture carbon dioxide in surrounding air to save the planet.

September 16th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of scientists has warned that failure to agree radical cuts in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions at the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen this December spells a global health catastrophe. According to Lord Michael Jay and Professor Michael Marmot, the scientific evidence that global temperatures are rising and that man is responsible has been widely accepted since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's report in 2007.

September 3rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Melting permafrost in arctic regions, triggered by global warming, will release underground methane. Once released, methane would speed up global warming by trapping the earths heat radiation about 20 times more efficiently than the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide.

August 25th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new research report has determined that the world's largest companies need to double the pace of carbon dioxide (CO2) reductions to avoid dangerous climate change. According to 'The Carbon Chasm', a research report by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), based on current reduction targets, the world's largest companies are on track to reach the scientifically recommended level of greenhouse gas cuts by 2089 - 39 years too late to avoid dangerous climate change.

August 7th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A climate model has predicted that global warming, combined with nuclear waste, may make the Arctic Ocean a polluted soup by the year 2070. According to a report in New Scientist, Ola Johannessen, director of the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center in Bergen, Norway, and his colleagues, developed the model.

August 3rd, 2009 EDINBURGH - A new research has claimed that carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are rising at a faster rate than the worst-case scenario envisaged by United Nations experts, with the planet heading for "catastrophic" and "irreversible" climate change by 2040. The rise of greenhouse gases will trigger an unprecedented rate of global warming that will result in the loss of the ice-covered polar seas by 2020, much of our coral reefs by 2040 and see a 1.4-metre rise in the sea level by 2100, the research predicted.

July 18th, 2009 MUMBAI - There is "no inherent contradiction between poverty eradication and moving towards a low-carbon economy", US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Saturday, signalling her government's approach towards India in the area of combating climate change. "The United States fully supports India's efforts to move all its people out of poverty," Clinton said at a news conference here.

July 15th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of researchers has discovered an unexpected concentration of a certain isotopic molecule in parts of the stratosphere that could have implications for understanding the carbon cycle and its response to climate change. By analyzing samples of air taken from the stratosphere-the layer of Earth's atmosphere that sits between six and 30 miles above the surface-the team found a much higher concentration of 16O13C18O at high latitudes than expected.

July 5th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study by scientists has shown a dramatic increase in the amount of fresh water in the Arctic Ocean. Fresh water flowing into or out of the Arctic Ocean plays an important role in ocean circulation and may be a factor in the response of the world ocean to climate change.

July 1st, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has estimated that the vast amount of carbon stored in the arctic and boreal regions of the world is more than double that previously estimated, which raises new concerns over the role of the northern regions as future sources of greenhouse gases. "We now estimate the deposits contain over 1.5 trillion tons of frozen carbon, about twice as much carbon as contained in the atmosphere," said Dr.

June 11th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new study, a team of scientists has found a direct relationship between carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and global warming. The study was done by Damon Matthews, a professor in Concordia University's Department of Geography, Planning and the Environment, along with colleagues from Victoria and the UK.

June 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A researcher has said that scientists studying the impact of climate change on the Arctic need to consider ways to reduce their own carbon footprints. The statement has been made by Ryan Brook, postdoctoral fellow at the University of Calgary.

June 4th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new report released by the Worldwatch Institute has said that agriculture could become a big part of the solution to global warming. According to a report in Environmental News Network (ENN), innovations in food production and land use that are ready to be put to work could reduce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to roughly 25 percent of global fossil fuel emissions and be managed to reduce carbon already in the atmosphere as well.

June 2nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has suggested that ancestors of tapirs and ancient cousins of rhinos living above the Arctic Circle 53 million years ago endured six months of darkness each year in a far milder climate than today that featured lush, swampy forests. According to University of Colorado (CU) Boulder Assistant Professor Jaelyn Eberle, the study shows several varieties of prehistoric mammals as heavy as 1,000 pounds each lived on what is today Ellesmere Island near Greenland on a summer diet of flowering plants, deciduous leaves and aquatic vegetation.