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Editor's Note: Published on page A1 of the February 12, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer NOT everyone was pleased with the way former US Vice President Al Gore was given "celebrity" treatment when he spoke as a crusader against global warming in Manila. Two scientists from the University of the Philippines yesterday lamented how Gore's "doomsday" pronouncements apparently received more attention than the more detailed analyses and solutions offered by Filipino environmental experts. They also challenged and branded as "exaggerated" what the former US leader said about Manila Bay "overflowing" because of the greenhouse effect. Too much use...

The world has seven years to take vital decisions and implement measures to curb greenhouse gas emissions or it could be too late, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Tuesday. Blair said the battle against global warming would only be won if the United States, India and China were part of a framework that included targets and that succeeded the 1992 Kyoto Protocol climate pact. "If we don't get the right agreement internationally for the period after which the Kyoto protocol will expire -- that's in 2012 -- if we don't do that then I think we are in...

Corporate America must face up to green and ethical challenges if they are to avoid disaster, former US Vice President Al Gore has told the BBC. Firms are so focused on delivering quarterly financial figures, he said, they lose sight of long-term trends. "The quarterly reports might look good for a little while and then they fall off a cliff," he told BBC Radio 4 In Business presenter Peter Day. The US car industry's problems is an example of consumer power, he said. "Ford and General Motors are now in a state of crisis in the United States because they...

As used by the media, "global warming" refers to the theory not only that the earth is warming, but doing so because of human industrial activity. -snip- All we have is hypothesis. -snip- So how else might an intelligent layperson judge the matter? -snip- Well, he could begin by evaluating the claim that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased from 0.028% to 0.036% without necessarily taking the measurements himself. This finding is so straightforward, it's reasonable to assume it would have been widely debunked if unreliable. Next, the claim that this should lead to higher temperatures because of the...

It appears global warming is not for the thin-skinned — and that’s bad news for amphibians. Frogs, toads, newts and the like have permeable skins, which makes them especially sensitive to environmental change. It also makes them good species to monitor to get an idea of the health of our planet. In 2004, researchers conducting a global assessment concluded that almost a third of the world’s known amphibian species were threatened with extinction. Now, a new study suggests that global warming may be to blame for amphibians’ precarious state. The study, published last week in the scientific journal Nature, found...

Gregory Stone was on a diving expedition off Fiji on December 26, 2004, when the first sketchy reports reached his ship about the undersea earthquake that had spawned a catastrophic tsunami in South Asia. Amid his horror over the human toll, another thought quickly formed in the scientist's mind: What would be the impact of this natural disaster on the region's stunningly beautiful and ecologically critical coral reefs? ADVERTISEMENT Several months later Stone, vice president of global marine programs for the New England Aquarium, traveled with a team to Phuket, the Thai resort island that became well-known to the world...

I have been perusing both the press release from Gov. Ted Kulongoski (April 13, "Governor announces new steps to curb global warming in Oregon"), and then have spent several hours reading the "Oregon Strategy for Greenhouse Gas Reduction." What I was searching for in both documents was how the governor intends to engage Oregonians in sustainability, of which greenhouse gas reduction is only one component. With the exception of a few oblique references, I searched in vain. I suggest that these well-meaning, and very worthwhile recommendations will fail because critical participants, citizens, have been generally ignored. In my course at...

We can thank our Creator for providing us with Global Warming. Sunshine provides heat. This is Global Warming. Mankind could not survive without it. The temperature at the sun's core is 27 million degrees Fahrenheit. There are 93 million miles of cold space between the sun and the Earth. Sunshine is composed of microwaves. Matter on Earth is composed of atoms. When the sun's microwaves contact the Earth's atoms, increased electron activity produces heat. None of the sun's heat reaches the Earth. The correct name for the disaster warnings triggered by "Global Warming" is the greenhouse effect. The theory is...

A new study by two physicists at the University of Rochester suggests there is a mechanism at work in the Earth’s atmosphere that may blunt the influence of global warming, and that this mechanism is not accounted for in the computer models scientists currently use to predict the future of the world’s temperature. The researchers, David H. Douglass and Robert S. Knox, professors of physics, plotted data from satellite measurements of the Earth’s atmosphere in the months and years following the volcanic eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991. The results, published in an upcoming issue of Geophysical Research Letters (and...

Have the nuclear industry and its supporters suddenly gained an environmental consciousness? While they're not planning to close their dangerous, polluting reactors nor begin dealing responsibly with their legacy of toxic radioactive wastes, they are now professing deep concern about climate change — and argue that nuclear power is the only solution. Even environmentalists are turning to nuclear power, we're told. It's not true — you could count them on one hand — but the nuclear boosters and the mainstream media aren't letting the facts get in the way of a good story. Proponents of nuclear power downplay or ignore...

A team of UK researchers claims to have new evidence that global warming is melting the ice in Antarctica faster than had previously been thought. Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (Bas) say the rise in sea levels around the world caused by the melting may have been under-estimated. It is thought that over 13,000 sq km of sea ice in the Antarctic Peninsula has been lost over the last 50 years. The findings were announced at the Climate Change Conference in Exeter. Rising sea level Professor Chris Rapley, director of (Bas), told the conference that Antarctica could become a...

It is not front-page news, but it is a fact that in the not-too-distant future, global warming will be the world’s biggest problem. This means that rising sea levels will be irreversible and the hardest hit countries will be archipelagos like the Philippines. Many islands may totally disappear and the ones that survive will have widespread droughts and severe crop failures. This is why an international climate change task force is asking the Group of 8 leading industrial nations to drastically reduce their carbon emissions. It has been said that the world is now a global village. This is because...

WASHINGTON - A provocative new novel that says fears of global warming are unjustified and stoked by an environmentalist-media conspiracy is taking Washington by storm. “State of Fear,” a novel by Michael Crichton, the best-selling author of “Jurassic Park,” and the creator of the TV show “ER”, compares scientists who warn of global warming to advocates of eugenics who said that the mixing of races would ruin the world’s genetic stock. In an appendix explaining his position, Crichton writes: “Nobody knows how much of the present warming trend might be a natural phenomenon. Nobody knows how much of the present...

Experts at the University of Oxford, England have said that the global warming had the possibility of raising earth's atmospheric temperature by as much as 11 degree centigrade. According to Nature, researchers have opined that based on studies conducted through climate modelling study, they have come to the conclusion that the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would double compared to the amount of carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere in the pre-industrial times. The results, the first from climateprediction.net, a project that harnesses the world's desktop computers to predict climate change, further states that the worldwide rise in...

It got bigger only recently, but now it may be shrinking. What on earth is happening to Mount Everest? News reports from China yesterday said there was official concern that the top of the world's tallest mountain is getting lower ­ and melting glaciers caused by global warming may be to blame. A scientific team is to be sent to the mountain ­ known in Chinese as Mount Qomolangma, or Goddess Mother of the World ­ to remeasure its height, according to the state-run newspaper China Daily . But Everest was last measured in 1999, and found to be higher...

President George Bush and Sen. John Kerry are sharply at odds on the issue of global warming, which many scientists rank as the greatest environmental challenge of our age. Bush opposes mandatory caps on greenhouse-gas emissions from industrial plants, while Kerry backed a failed Senate bill seeking such regulation and fought unsuccessfully to improve the gas efficiency of U.S. automobiles. The debate over what to do about global warming appears certain to intensify. A series of major studies in recent years has helped strengthen the scientific consensus about the buildup of heat-trapping greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases...

University of Florida researchers finds that Northern Ecosystems excel global warming. The study shows how vegetation and plants work together and how they may alter the climate. Findings indicate that carbon dioxide released from plants has the ability to further increase global warming. Professor Michelle Mack, one of the lead researchers on the study says plants decomposition can have a positive and negative affect to the climate thus effecting global warming. Professor Mack also says that by setting up a mock tundra and greenhouse researchers were able to discover the reason for climate change.

The recent onslaught of hurricanes has prompted some media outlets to mention "global warming" as a possible cause, but a team of climate researchers set the record straight. A group of climatologists, scientists, professors and other experts in climate change on Tuesday pointed out two "misconceptions" reported in the press about hurricanes and their relation to climate change, in a letter to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who chaired a Commerce Committee hearing examining recent scientific research concerning climate change impacts. "First is the erroneous claim that hurricane intensity or frequency has risen significantly in recent decades in response to the...

The Earth is getting warmer, according to most scientists. In recent years that phenomenon has prompted researchers to investigate what effect rising temperatures are having on cold-loving penguins and other wildlife species. Les Underhill directs the Avian Demography Unit at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. He suspects that global climate change may be responsible for declining penguin populations on South Africa's Prince Edward Islands. The islands dot the Indian Ocean some 1,000 miles (1,770 kilometers) off the South African coast. Most of the islands' penguin colonies are dwindling. According to Underhill, one reason for the decline may...

ENVIRONETDAILY Whites more to blame for 'global warming'? New study claims blacks at greater risk, but less responsible for climate change Posted: July 22, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Joe Kovacs © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com A new study released by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation suggests rising temperatures will kill more black citizens than whites in the U.S., while claiming African-Americans are less responsible than others for causing so-called "global warming." The research, conducted by Oakland, Calif.-based group Redefining Progress, is being billed as the first-ever comprehensive examination of the health and economic impact of climate change on the black population....