Global Warming Partly Sun's Fault
	There is little doubt now about what causes climate change, but whether or not carbon dioxide is the sole factor responsible for global warming is another subject of debate, says Manuel Vazquez of the Canary Islands' Astrophysics Institute. Statistics indicate that the Sun could account for as much as 20 percent of the climate change effects the planet is currently experiencing. In fact, it is widely believed that along with volcanic ... [read more >>]
	21 July 2008, 11:22GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Wind Speed, Key Component for Climate Change During Last Ice Age
	The change in the circulation patterns of oceanic currents is likely to have been the key mechanism for the abrupt climate change that took place during the last glacial period of Earth more than 21,000 years ago. If this is indeed true, then air temperature and wind speed could have also had a significant contribution to the process. Now, researchers from the Complutense University and the Potsdam-Institute for Climate Impact Research bri ... [read more >>]
	21 July 2008, 05:53GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Ocean Floor Has Great Potential to Store Carbon Dioxide
	For the last two centuries or so people have been continuously emitting large quantities of carbon dioxide into Earth's atmosphere, a careless action currently considered the number one factor triggering the global warming phenomenon. The burning of fossil fuels isn't going to stop any time soon, which is likely to exacerbate the effects of climate change, but since we are so self-important, we are determined to do something so t ... [read more >>]
	16 July 2008, 05:45GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Rock Port, Missouri, US' First Wind Powered Town
	The small town of Rock Port is currently the first community in the United States to be powered 100 percent with energy generated by wind turbines. Its 1,400 habitants consume about 13 million kWh of electric energy every year and since April the town has been powered only with electricity provided by the Loess Hills Wind Farm. "That's something to be very proud of, especially in a rural area like this - that we' ... [read more >>]
	16 July 2008, 03:45GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Global Warming Now Synonymous with Kidney Stones
	As if global warming weren't bad enough as it is, researchers now say that the extra amount of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere will strike us in one of the most painful ways possible: kidney stones. And this time it's not selective and it's most certain that some of the leaders of the G8 states will feel head on at least one of the effects of global warming. Luckily, they agreed last week to cut even more of the ca ... [read more >>]
	15 July 2008, 06:00GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

More Food and Fuel, Less Forests
	The Rights and Resource Initiative warns that by 2030 yet another massive chunk of the tropical rainforest will be gone in favor of agriculture as the demand for food and biofuels increases. The organization also points out that the governments of developing countries are rather reluctant in applying any reforms at all regarding land ownership or governance. "Arguably, we are on the verge of a last great global land grab. It will m ... [read more >>]
	14 July 2008, 09:46GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

A Quarter of All Corals Will Go Extinct within a Generation
	The group of most threatened animal species on Earth was extended recently to include the corals, which, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, will lose more than 25 percent of all species within the next couple of decades. Currently, there are 845 registered species of corals, out of which 141 are relatively unknown to researchers while out of the remaining 704 species 32,8 percent are running the risk of ex ... [read more >>]
	11 July 2008, 05:44GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Germany Goes Green. Target: 25,000 Megawatts from Wind Power
	According to the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, quoting the Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee, Germany will build up to 30 offshore wind farms by the end of 2030 in order to increase the contribution of the renewable energy sources to the total amount of power produced by the country, thus cutting a significant mass of greenhouse gases currently emitted while generating energy by burning fossil fuels. The wind farms wi ... [read more >>]
	07 July 2008, 04:08GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Extinction Comes in the Weirdest Possible Forms
	When it comes to reptiles, temperature, rather than chance, decides the sex of their young ones. In most species of reptiles, an increase in nesting temperature usually gives rise to more females than males, although for a unique species of reptiles known as tuatara the situation is exactly the opposite. This basically means that if the Earth continues its global warming trend, in less than eight decades this particular species will be com ... [read more >>]
	02 July 2008, 10:05GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

North Pole Iceless by the End of the Summer, Scientist Say
	The news regarding climate change has recently gone from bad to the very worst. By predicting the weather and ocean conditions in the following months researchers discovered that there is a relatively good chance than at the end of this summer there will be little or no ice left at the North Pole. The probability of 2008 marking the first year in recorded history with no ice at the North Pole is about 50 percent. Senior resear ... [read more >>]
	01 July 2008, 05:26GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Water Acidification Process Revealed by Marine Life
	Water surfaces, oceans and seas in particular, are natural sinkholes for carbon dioxide gas. And it just so happens that man made sure that Earth's atmosphere has plenty of carbon dioxide, which is absorbed into water, thus making it more acidic in the respective areas. This in turn affects the marine life such as snails and their shells that are being dissolved by acidified water. Jason Hall-Spencer of the University of Plymouth says ... [read more >>]
	09 June 2008, 04:43GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Logging Will Consume Half of Papua New Guinea's Forests in a Decade
	A study carried out by the University of Papua New Guinea shows that unless logging is dramatically reduced, at least one half of the forests in Papua New Guinea will be lost in about a decade, which would accelerate the local climate change. Satellite images of the forests taken between 1972 and 2002 show that at the current logging rate, at least 53 percent of the forests will be gone by 2021. Alternatively, the study that ... [read more >>]
	02 June 2008, 07:41GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Temperature Increase Will Completely Paralyze Wine-Making in the UK by 2080
	A new study claims that if climate change continues at this rate, then by 2080 areas such as the Thames Valley, some areas in Hampshire and the Severn valley would ultimately become too hot to be able to continue wine production. The study was published today in a book written by Emeritus Professor Richard Selley from the Imperial College London. Selley believes that in the next 75 years or so, the locations in the UK used tod ... [read more >>]
	26 May 2008, 10:09GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Pacific Coast Lines Turn Acidic
	An international team of researchers participating in a study on board the Oregon State University vessel have discovered high levels of acidified ocean water within as little as 32 kilometers away from the shoreline of the West Coast of the North American continent. The acidic water is probably 50 years old and is brought up by deep oceanic currents in concordance with the rise of atmospheric temperatures and carbon dioxide concentrations ... [read more >>]
	23 May 2008, 03:00GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Climate Change Strikes Again. Bird Species in Danger
	According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, climate change is now severely affecting the population of birds around the world. The IUCN meeting taking place this week in Bonn, Germany, has updated the catalogue of 1226 species of threatened birds in the Red List of endangered bird species released this week by the organization. The paper reveals that the situation of 26 species of birds has worsened, ... [read more >>]
	20 May 2008, 09:01GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

ESA Initiates CryoVEx 2008
	The CryoSat Validation Experiment 2008 will be carried out during a period of three weeks in the northern regions of Greenland and Canada by ESA scientists from Denmark, UK, Germany and Canada, during which time they will collect data regarding the properties of snow and ice covering both the land and sea regions of the Earth. The data will be later used in the Earth Explorer CryoSat mission to monitor the variations of ice thickness with ... [read more >>]
	12 May 2008, 05:18GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia