Many industrialized countries are concerned about the potential impact that mandatory carbon reduction targets would have on their economies. Among these concerns is that any plan that exempts developing countries from emissions limits would in fact not be effective because carbon-intensive industries would simply shift their operations to one of the exempt countries. Leakage may represent double trouble: the environmental benefits of the treaty would be undercut, and the competitiveness of industrialized-world industries would suffer. Just how plausible are these problems? Are these concerns real or do they serve to distract us from enacting meaningful and binding carbon reduction policies? (more…)

Climate change has the potential to have serious effects on your health.
Regional differences in warming patterns, precipitation and extreme weather events mean that the health effects of climate change will vary according to where you live. Young children, the elderly, those in poor health, or those living in poor quality housing will be most vulnerable to stresses related to weather extremes.

Researchers in Canada are working together to learn more about the effects of climate change on our health. They will help us in finding ways to adapt to the impacts of climate change on communities, vulnerable individuals, and on public health and emergency services.
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Climate change is more than a warming trend. Increasing temperatures will lead to changes in many aspects of weather, such as wind patterns, the amount and type of precipitation, and the types and frequency of severe weather events that may be expected to occur in an area.

Not all regions of the world will be affected equally by climate change. Low-lying and coastal areas face the risks associated with rising sea levels. Increasing temperatures will cause oceans to expand (water expands as it warms), and will melt glaciers and ice cover over land – ultimately increasing the volume of water in the world’s oceans. (more…)

VANISHING GLACIERS ON AFRICA’S HIGHEST MOUNTAIN

by Dan Hall

Mt. Kilimanjaro’s glaciers are melting away

Editor’s Note: Did human-built cars and generators and heaters make the gas that warmed the air and melted the ice? Or is it just a coincidence of geologic and climatological fluctuations that we arrive at this tipping point? Or is it a tipping point, or just a nudge? One thing is sure, now in the fall of 2005, the earth is warming, the northern icecap is melting away, as are the glaciers of the world.
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