Climate change is occuring beyond any doubt. At least part of it is human induced. Deal with it and get on with it, what do we do?

‘Global warming real’ say new studies

A leading US team of climate researchers on Friday released “the most compelling evidence yet” that human activities are responsible for global warming. They said their analysis should “wipe out” claims by sceptics that recent warming is due to non-human factors such as natural fluctuations in climate or variations in solar or volcanic activity.

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Ecological Internet is very pleased that at long last the Kyoto Treaty has entered into effect. This is the beginning of international efforts to mitigate global environmental impacts of haphazard industrialization that has swept the globe to the detriment of natural ecological systems. Sadly, the evil duo of Australia and the United States remain outside the pact. And the whole world must soon reconcile with the fact that current minimal cuts are far below the estimated 60% reductions necessary by 2050 to truly stabilize global climate. Nonetheless, a global framework is in place and all of us - particularly EI's network that lobbied ferociously for Canada and Russia's ratification - should enjoy a moment of pride.

Guardian Unlimited | Kyoto Global Warming Pact Takes Effect

The Kyoto global warming pact went into force Wednesday, seven years after it was negotiated, imposing limits on emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases scientists blame for rising world temperatures, melting glaciers and rising oceans.

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Eventually America will come around, the only question is whether it will be too late to stabilize climate in an acceptable range for long-term human habitation.

CLIMATE CHANGE-U.S.: Momentum Builds for Emissions Bills

With most of the world about to leave the United States in the dust on climate change policy, the fray is shifting from global summits to Washington's Capitol Hill, where a growing coalition of Democrats and Republicans is lobbying for a national cap on carbon dioxide emissions.

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If climate change leads to dieback of forests - the Amazon in particular - as many models are forecasting; there will be a surge in carbon dioxide. In conjunction with fossil fuel dependency, this may well push the Earth into inescapable positive feedback that makes the world largely uninhabitable for advanced societies. Climate and forests are the key to global ecological sustainability (ok, water and oceans too).

Amazon forest breathing uneasily

"In the Amazon, the vegetation dies back because there won't be enough rain," explained climatologist Vicky Pope, detailing one of the most sophisticated studies yet -- by Britain's Hadley Center -- of what a warmer world would mean.

For South America's rain forests, such a "dieback" would mean steady decomposition of dead vegetation and the release into the atmosphere of massive amounts of carbon dioxide, the "greenhouse gas" that itself is blamed for much of climate change.

Posted by Dr. Glen Barry | Permalink | Comments (29) | More on climate forest interactions