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• Info: home
• Impacts - Arctic, Antarctic and ice sheets
• Impacts - Australia
• Impacts - extinctions
• Impacts - climate
• Impacts - oceans
• Impacts - regional
• Impacts - security
• Impacts - water and drought
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Info: Impacts
IMPACTS - ARCTIC, ANTARCTIC AND ICE SHEETS
Will polar bears go extinct by 2030? (2 parts)
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/9/10/10141/7952
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/9/11/12513/3266
Joseph Romm, Gristmill, 10 September 2007
On the myth that polar bear populations are flourishing.
Melting ice cap triggering earthquakes
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2164776,00.html
Paul Brown, The Guardian, September 8 2007
The Greenland ice cap is melting so quickly that it is triggering earthquakes as pieces of ice several cubic kilometres in size break off. Scientists monitoring events this summer say the acceleration could be catastrophic in terms of sea-level rise and make predictions this February by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change far too low.
ALSO
http://www.ecoearth.info/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=83753
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070907224237.htm
Loss of Arctic ice leaves experts stunned
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/sep/04/climatechange
David Adam, Guardian Unlimited, September 4 2007
The Arctic ice cap has collapsed at an unprecedented rate this summer and levels of sea ice in the region now stand at record lows, scientists have announced. If the increased rate of melting continues, the summertime Arctic could be totally free of ice by 2030.
Arctic sea ice 'lowest in recorded history'
http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/11/2002466.htm
ABC News, Aug 11, 2007
Sea ice in the northern hemisphere has plunged to the lowest levels ever measured, a US Arctic specialist says, adding that it is likely to be part of a long-term trend of polar ice melt driven by global warming.
ALSO
Arctic sea ice watch
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2007/08/arctic-sea-ice-watch/
Climate change and permafrost thaw alter greenhouse gas emissions in northern wetlands
http://msutoday.msu.edu/research/index.php3?article=10Aug2007-6
by Sue Nichols, MSU Today, 11 August 2007
In the report, “The Disappearance of Relict Permafrost in Boreal North America: Effects on Peatland Carbon Storage and Fluxes,” in this week’s online edition of Global Change Biology, Turetsky and others explore whether melting permafrost can lead to a viscous feedback of carbon exchange that actually fuels future climate change.
Global Warning: Brutal lessons from an Antarctic summer
http://environment.independent.co.uk/climate_change/article2876800.ece
The Independent, 20 August 2007
What can dying penguins tell us about the future of the planet? Meredith Hooper spent a 'ferocious' summer in Antarctica and discovered a living experiment going horribly wrong.
Arctic sea ice free by 2030, say scientists
http://www.theecologist.org/news_detail.asp?content_id=1038
20/08/2007
Arctic sea ice is melting faster than climate models predicted and there is less sea ice in the Arctic now than at any time since records began, scientists from the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) have discovered.
Climate tipping points loom large
Fred Pearce, NewScientist, 18 August 2007
http://environment.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg19526173.900
SOME climate tipping points may already have been passed, and others may be closer than we thought, it emerged this week. Runaway loss of Arctic sea ice may now be inevitable. Even more worrying, and very likely, is the collapse of the giant Greenland ice sheet.
'Siberian forest fires due to climate change'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/08/01/scisiberia101.xml
By Roger Highfield, Telegraph UK, 01/08/2007
Devastating forest fires in Siberia that send a pall of smoke worldwide are happening more frequently because of climate change and in turn accelerating the pace of global warming, scientists claim. .
China glaciers melting at alarming rate
http://www.france24.com/france24Public/en/administration/afp-news.html?id=070713025743.meqo2ql0&cat=null
A message from the melting slopes of Everest
http://environment.independent.co.uk/climate_change/article2739751.ece
Cahal Milmo and Sam Relph, Independent, 06 July 2007
Fifty-four years after Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first men to scale Everest, their sons have said the mountain is now so ravaged by climate change that they would no longer recognise it.
Rising sea levels could divide and conquer Antarctic ice
http://environment.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn12118
NewScientist.com news service, 23 June 2007
EARTH'S largest ice sheet has till now seemed well able to withstand the effects of climate change, but it may have a hidden weakness.
Vanishing Himalayan Glaciers Threaten a Billion
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/42387/story.htm
Reuters, 5 June 2007
Thousands of glaciers in the Himalayas are the source of water for nine major Asian rivers whose basins are home to 1.3 billion people from Pakistan to Myanmar, including parts of India and China, conference delegates said.
Dirty Snow May Warm Arctic As Much As Greenhouse Gases
10 Jun 2007
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=73429
The global warming debate has focused on carbon dioxide emissions, but scientists at UC Irvine have determined that a lesser-known mechanism -- dirty snow -- can explain one-third or more of the Arctic warming primarily attributed to greenhouse gases.
Glacier Mass Balance: equilibrium or disequilibrium response?
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2007/05/
glacier-mass-balance-equilibrium-or-disequilibrium-response/
Mauri S. Pelto, 24 May 2007
I get asked at least once a day about the future prognosis for alpine glaciers and whether they have a future.
Antarctic surface thaw 'most significant' in 30 years
http://environment.newscientist.com/article/
dn11865-antarctic-surface-thaw-most-significant-in-30-years.html
Catherine Brahic, NewScientist.com news service, 16 May 2007
Vast areas of snow in Antarctica melted in 2005, when temperatures warmed up for a week in the summer. Snow melts such as this may have ramifications for larger scale melting of the ice sheets if they are severe or sustained over time.
Arctic ice retreating more quickly than computer models project
http://www.physorg.com/news97166140.html
physorg.com, 30 April 2007
Arctic sea ice is melting at a significantly faster rate than projected by even the most advanced computer models, a new study concludes.
SEE ALSO
http://uk.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUKN0122477020070501
Melting Greenland can raise oceans 7m
http://cooltech.iafrica.com/science/821671.htm
Deborah Jones, 02 May 2007
The world's oceans could rise by up to seven meters if Greenland's ice cap entirely melts because of global warming, climate scientists said on Tuesday.
Far North Feels Worst Effects of Warming
http://www.physorg.com/news95869506.html
By BETH DUFF-BROWN, AP, physorg.com, 15 April 2007
Inuit hunters are falling through thinning ice and dying. Dolphins are being spotted for the first time. There's not enough snow to build igloos for shelter during hunts.
Melting Himalayan glaciers pose security risk - UNEP
By Koh Gui Qing, Tue Apr 17, 2007, Reuters
Global warming will cause the Himalayan glaciers to melt, leading to mass migration and possibly conflicts over valuable resources such as agricultural land and fresh water, the U.N. Environment Programme chief said.
Arctic ice: it's a question of "when," because it's too late for "if."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17770832/site/newsweek/
Mark Serreze of the University of Colorado's National Snow and Ice Data Center says the 2040 doomsday forecast "has gotten thrown around too loosely." We might have more time than that, he says: it could be 2060, 2070, 2080. On the other hand, it could be sooner.
Arctic sea ice is shrinking in 'downward spiral'
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/climate_change/article2422640.ece
Steve Connor, Independent (UK), April 5, 2007
Winter sea ice in the Arctic has failed to reform fully for the third year in a row.
Aircraft Document Decline Of Arctic Ice Cover
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070329145756.htm
Science Daily, March 30, 2007
Central Europe is not the only place where the past, warm winter has caused record temperatures. Unusually mild temperatures also prevented ice formation in the Arctic, specifically in the region around Spitsbergen.
Farewell to a melting glacier
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6496429.stm
Tuesday, 3 April 2007
Latin America analyst James Painter returns to the Chacaltaya glacier in Bolivia for the first time in 15 years to find it is melting fast.
Antarctic ice sheet 'thinning'
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,21469179-912,00.html
from Reuters, March 29, 2007
A PIECE of the Antarctic ice sheet the size of Texas is thinning, possibly due to global warming, and could cause the world's oceans to rise significantly, polar ice experts say.
Ripple effect of warming Southern Ocean
http://theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21433350-30417,00.html
The Australian, March 23, 2007
The impact of global warming on the vast Southern Ocean around Antarctica is starting to pose a threat to ocean currents that distribute heat around the world, Australian scientists say, citing new deep-water data.
New efforts to predict when polar ice will melt
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0322/p02s02-wogi.html
Gregory M. Lamb, CS Monitor, March 22, 2007
The loss of sea ice in the Arctic may have reached a "tipping point" that could "trigger a cascade of climate change" reaching much farther south. .
Arctic ocean may lose all its ice by 2040, disrupting global weather
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,2035308,00.html
Ian Sample, The Guardian, March 16, 2007
Rapidly thinning Arctic sea ice may have reached a tipping point that threatens to disrupt global weather patterns, bringing intense winter storms and heavier rainfall to western Europe, scientists warn today.
ALSO
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070315161102.htm
IMPACTS - AUSTRALIA
No more drought: it's a 'permanent dry'
http://www.theage.com.au/news/climate-watch/australia-faces-permanent-
dry/2007/09/06/1188783415754.html
Rachel Kleinman, The Age, September 7, 2007
DROUGHT will become a redundant term as Australia plans for a permanently drier future, according to the nation's urban water industries chief.
Opera House faces watery grave, experts warn
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/08/1999665.htm
By Dani Cooper, ABC Science Online, Aug 8, 2007
The Sydney Opera House could need a surrounding dam due to rising sea levels and changing temperatures, experts will tell the Federal Government.
Climate change: shock findings for Victorians
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/climate-change-shock-findings-for-victorians/
2007/05/15/1178995158632.html
Liz Minchin, The Age, May 16, 2007
An alarming new report on the impact of climate change in Victoria has warned of risks to some of our most basic services and necessities — including water, electricity, transport, telecommunications and buildings.
Landmarks at 'high risk' from rising sea levels
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/landmarks-at-high-risk-from-rising-sea-
levels/2007/06/01/1180205515091.html
Liz Minchin, The Age, June 2, 2007
FAMOUS Melbourne landmarks including St Kilda Beach and Luna Park are at "very high risk" of damage from climate change in coming decades, along with thousands of bayside homes, a new study warns.
Climate change report paints grim picture for Australia
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2007/s1885192.htm
ABC TV 7.30 report, 29 March 2007
While the politics of climate change has been ferocious of late, the picture of the future painted by the science is becoming more and more frightening as it gets more specific.
IMPACTS - EXTINCTIONS
Animal Extinction - the greatest threat to mankind
http://www.ecoearth.info/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=73922
Julia Whitty, Independent, April 30, 2007
By the end of the century half of all species will be extinct. Does that matter?
Death in the rainforest: fragile creatures give the world a new climate warning
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/conservation/story/0,,2058785,00.html
Ian Sample, The Guardian, April 17, 2007
Amphibian and reptile numbers fall by 75% in reserve meant to save them.
Will Climate Change Kill The Amazon?
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070403143622.htm
Science Daily, April 4, 2007
One of the most profound predicted impacts of climate change was discussed in a landmark conference at Oriel College by scientists, conservationists and policymakers from Europe and North and South America
Impacts of Climate Change on Australian Marine Life
http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/impacts/publications/marinelife.html
On the slippery slope to extinction
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=52&id=424002007
SCOTLAND will fail to meet an international deadline to stop the alarming decline of its wildlife, a report seen by The Scotsman warns. Up to 60 per cent of the nation's species could be in decline.
IMPACTS - CLIMATE
Global Warming Will Bring Violent Storms And Tornadoes, NASA Predicts
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070830105911.htm
Science Daily, 31 August 2007
NASA scientists have developed a new climate model that indicates that the most violent severe storms and tornadoes may become more common as Earth's climate warms.
The climate map of Europe 2071
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/flash/page/0,,2079347,00.html
ARTICLE at
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,2079750,00.html
Is spring the new summer?
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,2060015,00.html
Hilary Osborne, Guardian, April 18, 2007
Following the second warmest winter on record two natural events suggest we have leapfrogged spring and moved straight to summer, a conservation charity said today.
Global climates face threat of fearsome changes
http://environment.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn11463
Andy Coghlan, NewScientist.com news service, 26 March 2007
Within a century, half of the world's climates as we know them will have vanished forever as a direct result of global warming, taking thousands of species with them.
ALSO
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,2043662,00.html
Abrupt climate change more common than believed
http://www.physorg.com/news94484313.html
30 March 2007
It came on quickly and then lasted nearly two decades, eventually killing more than one million people and affecting 50 million more. All of this makes the Sahel drought, which first struck West Africa in the late 1960s, the most notorious example of an abrupt climatic shift during the last century.
'We should be scared stiff'
The Guardian, Thursday March 15, 2007
Renowned scientist James Lovelock thinks mainland Europe will soon be desert - and millions of people will start moving north to Britain. Stuart Jeffries meets him
IMPACTS - OCEANS
Sea level rise risk exceeds forecasts
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/sea-level-rise-risk-exceeds-
forecasts/2007/08/05/1186252546302.html
Marian Wilkinson and Wendy Frew, The Age, August 6, 2007
Sea level rise caused by climate change is likely to be greater and potentially more dangerous than predicted but scientists are reluctant to "stick their necks out" for fear of being labelled alarmists, an international expert has warned
Coral reefs are vanishing faster than rainforests
http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn12441-coral-reefs-are-vanishing
-faster-than-rainforests.html
Catherine Brahic, NewScientist.com, 8 August 2007
Coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific are disappearing twice as fast as tropical rainforests, say researchers.
Sea to "engulf" tract of China's Pearl River Delta
http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-29235620070830
Reuters, Aug 30, 2007
A huge swathe of China's booming Pearl River Delta will be "engulfed" by rising sea water by the middle of the century because of global warming.
Vulnerable to rising seas, Singapore envisions a giant seawall
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/29/asia/Dikes.php
Wayne Arnold, IHT, August 29, 2007
Coral disease linked to warming
http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20070805-15731-3.html
08 May 2007, ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
An international team of scientists working on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR) has found a clear link between coral disease and warmer ocean temperatures.
ALSO
http://environment.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn11804
Upper oceans are warming after all
http://environment.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg19426013.300
New Scientist, 28 April 2007
Climate-change naysayers pounced on a report last year suggesting that the upper oceans are cooling, not warming. Now it turns out this conclusion was wrong, the result of faulty measurements.
Famous Caymans coral reefs dying, scientists say
http://uk.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUKN0627404120070506
Reuters, 6 May 2007
Ranked among the top 10 scuba diving destinations in the world, the reef system of the western Caribbean territory has lost 50 percent of its hard corals in the last 10 years in spite of strong environmental laws, scientists say.
Sudden sea level surges threaten 1 billion
Michael Kahn, Reuters, Apr 19, 2007
http://uk.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUKN1941671620070419
The team also found that a 100-foot (30-meter) rise in sea level would cover 3.7 million square miles of land worldwide. A rise of just 16 feet would affect 669 million people and 2 million square miles of land would be lost.
One in Ten at Risk from Rising Seas, Storms, Study Suggests
http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=12469
By Alister Doyle, Reuters, March 28, 2007
One in 10 people in the world, mostly in Asia, live in coastal areas at risk from rising seas and more powerful storms that may be caused by global warming, an international study showed on Wednesday.
Barrier Reef suicide risk
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,21422488-5006009,00.html
By Saffron Howden, Daily Telegraph, March 22, 2007 12:00
The scientists have found no infection responsible for the cell suicides and are turning to environmental factors to explain the deaths. "We think that maybe this is a result of continued, repeated stress," Ms Ainsworth said.
Reef 'facing extinction'
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/reef-facing-extinction/
2007/01/29/1169919274339.html
Liz Minchin, January 30, 2007
The Great Barrier Reef will become "functionally extinct" within decades at the current rate of global warming, while wilder weather is set to affect property values and drive up insurance bills in many Australian coastal communities.
IMPACTS - REGIONAL
Climate change to make one billion refugees-agency
http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL10710325.html
Jeremy Lovel, Reuters, 13 May 2007
Global warming will create at least one billion refugees by 2050 as water shortages and crop failures force people to leave their homes, sparking local wars over access to resources, a leading aid agency said on Monday.
ALSO
Climate will change Mideast
http://www.gulfnews.com/world/General/10125446.html
Africa ill-prepared for climate change consequences
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/PEK298448.htm
Struggling to adapt in Bangladesh: The Salty Taste of Global Warming
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,480847,00.html
Matthias Gebauer , Spiegel on-line, 3 May 2007
As sea levels rise, salt in the ground water is slowly transforming Bangladesh's breadbasket into a vast shrimp farm. Yet what may be good for the farmers is bad for everyone else. A visit to the front lines of climate change
That sinking feeling
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/that-sinking-feeling/
2007/04/21/1176697138927.html
April 22, 2007
The scientific evidence is undeniable. And sea-level rises inevitable. So why is no one interested in the plight of our nearest neighbours, asks Erin O'Dwyer.
Global warming could bring hunger and melt Himalayas
http://uk.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUKL014880320070401
Alister Doyle, Reuters, Sun Apr 1, 2007
Global warming could cause more hunger in Africa and melt most Himalayan glaciers by the 2030s, according to a draft U.N. report due on Friday which also warns that the poorest nations are likely to suffer most.
IMPACTS - SECURITY
Global warming impact like nuclear war: report
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/13/2031469.htm
ABC News, Sep 13, 2007
Climate change could have global security implications on a par with nuclear war unless urgent action is taken, a report said. The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) security think-tank said global warming would hit crop yields and water availability everywhere, causing great human suffering and leading to regional strife
Climate refugees -- the growing army without a name
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070406/lf_afp/unclimatewarming_070406200726
AFP, 6 April 2007
According to some estimates, there are already almost as many environmentally displaced people on the planet as traditional refugees," said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Climate wars
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/climate-wars/2007/04/13/1175971351656.html
Tom Allard, SMH, April 14, 2007
Experts fear the possibility of a total breakdown in society as climate change takes hold.
CIA and the Pentagon urged to assess warming's effect on security
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/09/news/climate.php
By Bryan Bender, The Boston Globe, April 9, 2007
The CIA and the Pentagon would for the first time be required to assess the national security implications of climate change under proposed legislation intended to elevate global warming to a national defense issue.
IMPACTS - WATER & DROUGHT
Gas emissions blamed for downpours
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/da3da200-397e-11dc-ab48-0000779fd2ac.html
By Fiona Harvey, Fiancial Times, July 24 2007
Global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions has triggered heavy downpours in the UK, a group of leading scientists has reported, in a study presenting the strongest case yet that rainfall has been altered by human behaviour.
Britain's floods - what's really going on
http://www.marklynas.org/2007/7/26/britain-s-floods-what-s-really-going-on
Mark Lynas, New Statesman, 26 July 2007
This is not “a poor summer”. Britain has been experiencing its worst ever climate change event. We must recognise this and our own responsibility for the emerging crisis, writes Mark Lynas.
Oh shower of Scotland, when will we see your like again?
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=52&id=710542007
by Frank Urquhart, The Scotsman, 8 May 2007
Farmers may face restrictions on their water use because of climate change - even in traditionally rain-soaked Scotland.
Global warming 'to fuel global drought'
http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Global-warming-to-fuel-global-drought/
2007/04/20/1176697054839.html
AAP, The Age, April 20, 2007
Bushfires' colossal effect
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21047926-661,00.html
Victoria produced about 7.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in the past month from burning coal, petrol and gas; while bushfires raging in the same time pumped out 10.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
EU: Climate change will transform the face of the continent
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=66497
by Michael McCarthy and Stephen Castle, Independent (UK), January 10, 2007Europe, the richest and most fertile continent and the model for the modern world, will be devastated by climate change, the European Union predicts today.
Drought will halt wildebeest trek
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1989918,00.html
Across the plains of east Africa, one of the greatest wildlife spectacles on earth is under threat
Robin McKie, The Observer, January 14, 2007
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