climate-change – 4VF News – Daily News Channel

Three Months From a Climate Summit, Agreement Far Off

If you happened on Friday morning to walk into the Temple of Earth in Beijing — the nearly 500-year-old monument where Chinese emperors once prayed for good harvests — you would have noticed a steady drip. The environmental group Greenpeace placed ice sculptures of 100 children — made of the glacial meltwater that feeds China’s great rivers — inside the temple, to symbolize the risk that climate change and disappearing ice poses to the more than 1 billion people in Asia threatened by water shortages.

Laughing Gas: The Latest Threat to the Ozone Layer

Humankind doesn’t have a great track record when it comes to cleaning up environmental messes, but there was one time we really outdid ourselves. That was back in 1989, when over 190 nations signed the Montreal Protocol, phasing out the use of chlorofluorocarbons

Study: Global warming sparked by ancient farming methods

Ancient man may have started global warming through massive deforestation and burning that could have permanently altered the Earth’s climate, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Virginia and the University of Maryland-Baltimore County. The study, published in the scientific journal Quaternary Science Reviews and reported on the University of Virginia’s Web site, says over thousands of years, farmers burned down so many forests on such a large scale that huge amounts of carbon dioxide were pumped into the atmosphere. That possibly caused the Earth to warm up and forever changed the climate

Environmentalists hope UN talks tough on climate change

You’re probably not thinking about what you would like for Christmas yet.

Extinction ‘Gene’: Why Some Species Are More at Risk

In the tree of life, we often envision evolution working like a patient gardener, pruning species that don’t quite fit, bit by bit. But that’s not how extinction works in practice. Throughout our planet’s history, mass extinction has occurred five times — most recently 65 million years ago, when the dinosaurs finally died out — taking out vast amounts of life all at once, usually due to a catastrophic and sudden climatic change

Fastest solar boat attempts round-the-world challenge

The world’s largest, fastest fully solar-powered boat is being built in preparation for a round-the-world challenge. The futuristic-looking “Planet Solar,” which is 100 percent powered by sunlight, is the brainchild of Swiss engineer Raphael Domjan, a former paramedic with a passion for innovative design and renewable energies.

U.S. and China launch ‘new dialogue’

Top U.S. and Chinese officials launched an expanded discussion of the crucial relationship between their two countries Monday, holding the first meeting of a "Strategic and Economic Dialogue" in Washington

How Does Cloud Cover Affect Climate Change?

Add CO2 to the atmosphere and the climate will get warmer — that much is well established. But climate change and carbon aren’t in a one-to-one relationship

Clinton begins Asia trip on somber note

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s first day in India began on a solemn note as she signed a condolence book at a Mumbai luxury hotel ravaged last year by terrorists. Clinton also expressed sorrow over Friday’s bombings of the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta, Indonesia, saying they serve as reminders that the threat of terrorism and extremism is real.

Secretary of state on weeklong trip to India, Thailand

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton traveled Friday to Mumbai, India, the first stop on a weeklong visit to that country and Thailand, where she will attend meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.