American Support for Local Action on Global Warming

(ClimateRadar.com) Recent national surveys demonstrate that Americans are increasingly convinced that global warming is occurring (in this survey, 68% are “completely” or “mostly convinced”) and favor a wide range of national and international policies to slow it.

http://environment.yale.edu/news/5323/

New forum established for sustainable nuclear energy research

(ClimateRadar.com) Energy consumption worldwide is likely to double between 2000 and 2050, and nuclear energy will remain a key element in future low-carbon energy systems. Europe has the largest nuclear industry in the world and one third of its electricity comes from nuclear plants. A Sustainable Nuclear Energy Technology Platform (SNETP) was launched in Brussels, bringing together researchers and industry to define and implement a Strategic Research Agenda and corresponding Deployment Strategy.

http://www.europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/07/1370&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

New British Academic Center to receive £1b funding

(ClimateRadar.com) The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) has been attributed to The Midlands Consortium. The Midlands Consortium is comprised of the universities of Birmingham, Loughborough and Nottingham – all with extensive and complementary energy related research activities. The new group will receive £1 billion to manage a national institute to develop cleaner energies.

http://www.lboro.ac.uk/service/publicity/newsflash/Newsflash.html

Scientific error in major “global warming” Book for Children

(ClimateRadar.com) The Science and Public Policy Institute has uncovered a major flaw, or ‘intended mistake’, by Laurie David, in her children’s book ‘The Down-to-earth Guide to Global Warming’. In it, the study claims that “The more the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the higher the temperature climbed”. However, in order to illustrate that fact, they used a graph where the labels were switched to concur that assertion.

http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/images/stories/papers/other/david_book_SPPI_paper2_9-11-07.pdf

Nature Magazine launches new climate change hub

(ClimateRadar) Nature Magazine has launched an online science resource from Nature Publishing Group. Nature Reports: Climate Change covers the news behind the science and the science behind the news of global climate change, arguably the most far-reaching challenge of this century. The site is dedicated to authoritative in-depth reporting on climate change and its wider implications for policy, society and the economy.

http://www.nature.com/climate/index.html 

Climate change may help rainforests

(ClimateRadar) A new research from Brazilian and EUropean scientists suggests that Amazon forests are vulnerable to both long- and short-term droughts, but satellite observations showed a large-scale photosynthetic green-up in intact evergreen forests of the Amazon in response to a short, intense drought in 2005. These findings suggest that Amazon forests, though threatened by human-caused deforestation, fire, and possibly by more severe long-term droughts, may be more resilient to climate changes than ecosystem models assume.

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/1146663

Arctic Ice slowly recovering from worst year in history

(left, 2007 minimum compared to previous minimum set in 2005. Source NSIDC)

(ClimateRadar) According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, ice coverage in the Arctic is slowly recovering from the lowest coverage in recorded history. The apparent 2007 minimum was 4.13 million square kilometers (1.59 million square miles). It shatters the previous five-day minimum set on September 20–21, 2005, by 1.19 million square kilometers (460,000 square miles), roughly the size of Texas and California combined, or nearly five United Kingdoms.

http://nsidc.org/news/press/2007_seaiceminimum/20070810_index.html

American Students Don’t Understand Climate Change

(ClimateRadar) According to a poll conducted by Hamilton College, NY, The average high school student fails a quiz on the causes and consequences of climate change. In addition to a limited understanding of the science behind climate change, most students don’t see themselves at risk: Only 28 percent believe it’s very likely that climate change will affect them personally in their lifetimes. Despite these findings, 70 percent think the U.S. should start reducing emissions of pollutants contributing to climate change rather than wait for more evidence about the benefits of reducing greenhouse gases. For full report >>> http://www.hamilton.edu/news/polls/Climate/HCClimateChangePoll.pdf

Global warming to increase infectious disease: study

(AFP) Global warming likely will lead to an increase in infectious disease around the world, as viruses, microbes and the agents that spread them flourish, experts at a medical conference warned Tuesday.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hjaUrZsqGno4j-bxaN7y3dKf5nHA 

Arctic Summer Ice Thickness Halves to 1m

(PlanetArk) Large tracts of ice on the Arctic Ocean have halved in thickness to just 1 metre (3 ft) since 2001, making the region more accessible to ships, a researcher said on Tuesday.

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/44396/story.htm