Global warming raises concerns
Change is all around us. But the changing weather phenomenon has become a fear-factor for environmentalists all across the world. The reason attributed to rising temperature of earth’s surface is the rising level of carbon dioxide in atmosphere. "Things are changing in an uncertain way. The problem is not that things are changing. But the problem is that the change itself is unpredictable," Ministry of Earth Sciences Secretary Harsh K Gupta says.

In Bolivia, tea leaves of global warming
The short border that separates Chile and Bolivia is packed with glaciers, bright blue lakes and breathtaking mountains. I stopped there recently to have my passport stamped and struck up a conversation with Luis Mena, a rugged old man selling tea beside the immigration post. What he told me in the course of a two-minute talk revealed something deeply important about the age in which we're living. I asked Mena, who had sold tea in the same spot since the mid-1970s, if he had seen the nearby glaciers recede in that time. "Of course," he replied in Spanish, pointing out the distance the closest of these great ice sheets once extended. "That massive lake is all melted water."

Global warming case going to Supreme Court
In a historic first, a case involving global warming is going to the U.S. Supreme Court. What is being called the "most diverse coalition ever" has joined in an amicus brief to be heard by the court this fall. The National Wildlife Federation filed the brief on Aug. 31 on behalf of itself and 73 other sporting and conservation organizations, professional fish and wildlife societies, zoos and aquariums and even religious organizations.

Siberian thaw to speed up global warming
The frozen bogs of Siberia are melting, and the thaw could have devastating consequences for the planet, scientists have discovered. They have found that Arctic permafrost, which is starting to melt due to global warming, is releasing five times more methane gas than their calculations had predicted. That level of emission is alarming because methane itself is a greenhouse gas. Increased amounts will therefore accelerate warming, cause more melting of Siberian bogs and Arctic wasteland, and so release even more. 'It's a slow-motion time bomb,' said climate expert Professor Ted Schuur, of the University of Florida.

First climate change refugees
THE first mass exodus of people fleeing the disastrous effects of climate change is not happening in low-lying Pacific islands but in the world's richest country. "The first massive movement of climate refugees has been that of people away from the Gulf Coast of the United States," said the Earth Policy Institute. Institute president Lester Brown said that about a quarter of a million people who fled the devastating impact of Hurricane Katrina a year ago must now be classed as "refugees". "Interestingly, the country to suffer the most damage from a hurricane is also primarily responsible for global warming."