North-West Passage is now plain sailing | Environment | Guardian Unlimited

North-West Passage is now plain sailing | Environment | Guardian Unlimited

In case you needed more evidence of why governments of Canada, the US, and Russia that are otherwise climate change skeptics are all of a sudden so interested in sovereignty issues in the north. For the first time since records began, the Northwest Passage is ice free.

WP: Cost of Saving the Climate Meets Real-World Hurdles

The voluntary offset market has grown to a $55 million/year industry, prompting increased scrutiny of offset projects and companies. A look at the challenges faced in participating in an unregulated industry.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/15/AR2007081502432.html?hpid=moreheadlines

news @ nature.com - Rising temperatures "will stunt rainforest growth" - Plants suffering in the heat could make global warming worse.

news @ nature.com - Rising temperatures "will stunt rainforest growth" - Plants suffering in the heat could make global warming worse.

A lot of people hope that reforestation or avoided deforestation will limit some of the increases in greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere. Most people understand the simple story of how living plants absorb carbon dioxide, but this show how the system is more complex. Plant do increase in productivity up to a threshold and then they are not able to photosynthesise. Worst still, if trees die then they may rot, producing methane in large volumes, which is a very effective greenhouse gas. These problems apply both in northern and tropical forests. In northern forests, the other big issue is that there is actually more carbon in the soil than in the trees themselves. A study in the UK found net losses of carbon dioxide from soil reserves in recent years. So tree planting, while attractive in terms of the story, is much more complex than it seems.