The Arctic’s alarmingly rapid loss of summer sea ice [search] continues. The fact the ice has not totally melted this year is no consolation, as last year summer sea ice shrank to a record low, and total loss of sea ice — which was predicted to occur in over sixty years only a few years ago — now seems assured by 2030 and may even be imminent. Nine polar bears were spotted swimming in open ocean [ark] off Alaska’s northwest coast, up to 65 miles offshore, indicating their difficulty in finding pack ice and food. In Northern Greenland, until now thought immune from global warming, the massive Petermann glacier [search] shows a growing giant crack [ark] — 7 miles long and half a mile wide — and an 11-square-mile chunk of ice is breaking off.

I am not sure how many more global ecological emergencies, indicative of abrupt and deadly climate change [search], I can stomach being disregarded with assurances that “scientists don’t like to attribute single events to global warming, but… events fit a pattern.” The patterns being repeated over and over again in front of our eyes include collapse of major global ecosystems [search] and societal myopic denial that the end of being is nigh. The hell emerging in the Arctic is the same force raving Australia with drought, California with wildfires and China with toxic pollution. We are witnessing the inevitable consequences of nearly seven billion humans consuming like there is no tomorrow ensuring there soon will not be one. Only profound revolutionary personal and social transformation can save us now.

Canberra Times: All of Australia’s annual carbon dioxide emissions more than 600 million tonnes can be ”easily and permanently” stored in the soil by switching to a radical new way of farming, a Senate climate change inquiry has been told. ”We are talking about a complete revolution in the way we farm … the old game is over,” West Australian pasture agronomist Tim Wiley told a Senate hearing in Canberra. Tests show microbe-rich soils produced by the new methods can store between five to …

McClatchy Newspapers: Led by billionaire Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens, pioneers in the emerging wind-power industry are touting their product as the next big thing as they chart a course to produce at least 20 percent of the nation’s electricity in just over two decades. But reaching that goal won’t be easy. The most daunting challenge centers on the fundamental question of how to get the product to customers. That will require building thousands of miles of transmission lines to carry electricity from …

BBC: Peru’s Congress has voted to repeal two land laws aimed at opening up Amazonian tribal areas to development, which led to protests by indigenous groups. Correspondents say the repeal of the laws is a blow to President Alan Garcia, who had approved the legislation by decree. Mr Garcia had described the initiative as pivotal to the improvement of life in Peru’s poorest regions. A leading indigenous rights campaigner welcomed the repeal of the laws. Alberto Pizango …

Washington Post: There are things about summer — long days, shaved ice, fresh-off-the-tree-peaches — that we love. And then there are those things we simply tolerate because, well, the pessimist in us says that life can’t possibly be that perfect, so we must suffer, just a bit. Well, it appears we could be suffering a bit more in coming days. Polar bears might be endangered because global warming is melting their homes on arctic ice shelves, but one species is thriving: poison ivy. A …

Indo-Asian News Service: Carbon emissions into the atmosphere from fossil fuel combustion worldwide in 2007 was 22 percent higher than in 2000, says the Worldwatch Institute. India accounted for eight percent of this. ‘The US and Europe accounted for roughly four and three percent, respectively, of the growth during this period,’ the Worldwatch has said in a recent report. ‘India contributed eight percent and China a staggering 57 percent.’ The Washington-based think tank says that despite the rapid …

Agence France-Presse: A rare Sumatran rhinoceros, whose species is on the brink of extinction, has been rescued injured in the Malaysian state of Sabah on Borneo island, a wildlife official said over the weekend. It was discovered after wandering into an oil palm plantation in a two week operation that saw a team from the state Wildlife Department transfer it to the Tabin Wildlife Reserve in eastern Sabah. The animal comes from the very rare Bornean sub-species of the Sumatran …

Xinhua: The latest round of UN climate talks began Thursday in Accra, Ghana, in a bid to overcome disagreements over the tools that countries can use to cut greenhouse gas emissions and accelerate progress towards a new climate treaty by the end of 2009. According to UN framework convention on climate change official website on Saturday, an official statement said "There is little time left to get a solid negotiating text on the table. Clearly the clock is ticking," Yvo de Boer, head of the …

Aberdeen Press and Journal: The Scottish Government has been accused of misrepresenting public demand for aviation to be included in proposed legislation to combat global warming. The environmental organisation WWF Scotland said the government`s summary of responses to consultation on the Scottish Climate Change Bill ’seriously underplays’ the ‘overwhelming’ support for aviation to be included. The government has pledged to bring in mandatory carbon reduction targets of 3% a year with an ultimate goal or …

Guardian: The British government will lose its leadership position on climate change and risk scuppering a global deal to cut emissions if it presses ahead with a new generation of dirty coal power, say leading US scientists and environmental leaders. The heads of three influential groups, representing more than 2 million members, have written to the foreign secretary, David Miliband, warning that the UK proposals for up to eight coal plants threaten the chance of the US joining a post-Kyoto …