Science Daily: A University of Queensland scientist has led groundbreaking research which shows that clearing of native vegetation has made recent Australian droughts hotter. In an Australian first, they applied the CSIRO Mark 3 climate model, satellite data and the DNRW supercomputer, and showed that 150 years of land clearing added significantly to the warming and drying of eastern Australia. "Our work shows that the 2002-03 El Nino drought in eastern Australia was on average two degrees …

Age: GLOBAL warming warrior and new Nobel Laureate Al Gore went time travelling this week, imagining himself in conversation with our children and grandchildren as they reflect on 2007 - the year he is convinced will be pivotal to defining their future. "Either they will ask about us - ‘What were they doing? What were they thinking about and how could they let that catastrophe happen?’ " he said at a climate change conference in Berlin. " ‘Didn’t they listen to the scientists? Didn’t they …

Associated Press: Almost nonstop, gargantuan 145-ton trucks rumble through China’s biggest open-pit coal mine, sending up clouds of soot as they dump their loads into mechanized sorters. The black treasure has transformed this once-isolated crossroads nestled in the sand-sculpted ravines of Inner Mongolia into a bleak boomtown of nearly 300,000 people. Day and night, long and dusty trains haul out coal to electric power plants and factories in the east, fueling China’s explosive growth. Coal is …

New York Times: The human population is living far beyond its means and inflicting damage to the environment that could pass points of no return, according to a major report issued on Thursday by the UN. Climate change, the increased rate of extinction of species and the challenge of feeding a growing population are putting humanity at risk, the UN Environment Program said in its fourth Global Environmental Outlook since 1997. "The human population is now so large that the amount of …

Agence France-Presse: Health officials on Saturday warned of extremely hazardous air quality in the wake of this week’s wildfires that devoured swaths of southern California territory and spewed massive amounts of smoke into the atmosphere. Alarms were also raised about the longer-term effects of the pollution and the greenhouse gases produced by the fires, which ravaged 203,000 hectares (502,000 acres) of tinder-dry park and forest land, and destroyed as many as 1,800 homes. In one week, the …

Bloomberg: Australian Prime Minister John Howard said he would seek a new international pact on climate change and declined to comment on speculation his environment minister had urged the cabinet to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. Howard, 68, refused to answer questions today at a news conference in Sydney on an Australian Financial Review report that Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull had urged cabinet to ratify the Kyoto treaty that sets goals on cutting global warming pollution. Australia and …

Washington Post: On the 49th day of his hunger strike, Ted Glick planted himself in front of a white Pontiac SUV at Independence and New Jersey avenues. In view of the U.S. Capitol, he sat down in the crosswalk and locked arms with a half-dozen other protesters a third of his age. "NO WAR! NO WARMING!" they chanted as traffic backed up, as drivers lay on their horns, as police revved their motorcycles. "Thank you, Ted! We love you, Ted!" other protesters cried as Glick, 58, …

Associated Press: Prime Minister John Howard refused to comment Saturday on a report that some of his Cabinet ministers want Australia to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Australia and the United States are the only industrialized countries that have not signed on to the treaty setting targets to reduce carbon pollution, agreed at a U.N. climate change meeting at Kyoto, Japan, in 1997. But The Weekend Australian Financial Review reported Saturday that Environment …

Palm Beach Post: After 17 years, a tri-state water war may ultimately come down to this: Should Florida’s endangered mussels and fishing industry be protected or should Georgia residents have water to drink? Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue’s recent pleas for emergency drought relief have brought a long-simmering battle involving Florida, Alabama and Georgia to a boil. Coping with a record-setting drought and facing a potential water shortage, Georgia officials have demanded that the U.S. Army Corps …

Des Moines Register: Take elephant dung and wheat straw, and a century-old Dutch distiller thinks it could have the motor fuel of the future. Royal Nedalco wants to make alcohol for fuel out of plant cellulose, the cheap and plentiful stuff that makes up crop residue, as well as wheat straw, wood and grasses. Nedalco officials say they’ve found a key to fermenting the sugar found in cellulose cheaply and effectively by using a yeast taken from elephant dung. The European Union needs projects like this …