26 Die in Northern Indian State Cold Snap
December 31 — At least 26 people have died from a cold wave in northern India since the start of winter, officials said. (Agence France-Presse)

Malaysian Floods Death Toll Rises
December 30 — The death toll from Malaysia's disastrous floods has risen to 12, but authorities said fears of another round of flooding had been averted. (Agence France-Presse)

Portugal Posts One of the Warmest Years on Record
December 29 — This year was the fifth warmest in Portugal since records started being kept in 1931, the national weather office said. (Agence France-Presse)

Ice Mass Snaps Free from Canada's Arctic
December 29 — The Ayles Ice Shelf snapped free from an island south of the North Pole, scientists said, citing climate change as a "major" reason for the event. (Associated Press)

North Europe to Ring in New Year with Ice-Free Baltic Sea
December 29 — Northern Europeans were poised to celebrate the passage to the New Year in a way that is out of the ordinary for them: with an ice-free Baltic Sea, scientists said. (Agence France-Presse)

Waning El Nino Offers Hope of Break in Australian Drought
December 29 — Australia's worst drought in a century could be about to break, following signs the El Nino weather pattern, blamed for record low rainfall levels, has peaked, a government scientist said. (Agence France-Presse)

Researchers: Warming May Change Amazon
December 29 — Global warming could spell the end of the world's largest remaining tropical rain forest, transforming the Amazon into a grassy savanna before the end of the century, researchers said. (Associated Press)

Antarctic Scientists Work on Map of Climate Change
December 29 — Scientists in Antarctica are finishing work that may show the effects of global warming -- drilling for clues about how massive ice sheets responded to past temperature changes -- part of a project to map how Earth may react to higher temperatures. (Reuters)

Researchers Use Yellowstone as Carbon Dioxide Lab
December 29 — Researchers studying plants and trees near Yellowstone National Park's thermal vents hope to glean an indication of how rising carbon dioxide emissions could affect vegetation worldwide a century from now. (Associated Press)

Mild Weather Sends Bald Eagles Inland
December 28 — Wildlife officials say many eagles in Iowa are remaining near inland waterways because of the mild weather; typically the state's winters drive the birds to rivers to forage for food when inland waters freeze over. (Associated Press)

Australia's Drought Is Natural, Say Researchers
December 28 — Australia's crippling drought, which some have called the worst in 1,000 years, is a natural occurrence and has no link to global warming, the country's top science organization said. (Reuters)

Polar Bears May Get 'Threatened' Listing
December 27 — Polar bears are in deep trouble because of global warming and other factors and deserve federal protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, government officials said. (Associated Press)

China Fears Disasters, Grain Cut from Global Warming
December 27 — Global warming threatens to intensify natural disasters and water shortages across China, driving down the country's food output, the Chinese government has warned. (Reuters)

Two Killed in Powerful Taiwan Quake
December 27 — Taiwan was taking stock after a powerful 7.1-magnitude earthquake that left two people dead, at least 42 injured and caused millions of dollars in damage. (Agence France-Presse)

Indonesia Faces Further Disasters if Forests Not Replanted
December 27 — Disasters such as the flash floods that have killed 100 people and displaced more than 400,000 will be repeated unless Indonesia takes swift action to restore forests lost to logging, analysts have said. (Agence France-Presse)

Study Links Fires to Ocean Temperatures
December 26 — Using fire scars on nearly 5,000 tree stumps dating back 450 years, scientists have found that extended periods of major wildfires in the West occurred when the North Atlantic Ocean was going through periodic warming. (Associated Press)

USGS Works to Advance Quake Warnings
December 26 — The U.S. Geological Survey will soon upgrade its rapid earthquake notifications to include a projection of hazard to human beings and potential economic losses. (National Public Radio)

Nature Sends Reminder of 2004 Tsunami
December 26 — A powerful earthquake struck off southwestern Taiwan, prompting fears of a tsunami on the second anniversary of the quake and deadly waves that killed thousands in south Asia. (Associated Press)

Tsunami Data Point to Value of Reefs in Warming Era
December 26 — Scientists who have studied the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami conclude that coral reefs helped to save many people, raising both the value of reefs as well as alarm over their rapid disappearance. (National Public Radio)

Warmer Winter Changes Washington Foliage
December 26 — Fifteen years of warm winter weather is beginning to change the Washington area's landscape, with southern species like crape myrtles having an easier time and northern types feeling less welcome, according to the National Arbor Day Foundation. (Associated Press)

Cleanup Begins After Four Florida Tornadoes
December 26 — Four Christmas Day tornadoes damaged hundreds of Florida homes, with one tornado flipping airplanes at a flight school, officials confirmed. (Associated Press)

Two Dead in Madagascar Cyclone
December 26 — Two people were killed when a cyclone hit the northern coast of Madagascar, meteorological authorities said. (Agence France-Presse)

Study Shows Extreme Contrast in Ozone Losses at North, South Poles
December 25 — A new study shows just how dramatic the ozone loss in the Antarctic has been over the past 20 years compared to the same phenomenon in the Arctic. (Agence France-Presse)

Australia Ponders Future Climate
December 24 — Parts of Australia are in the grip of the worst drought in memory, as rainfall in many eastern and southern regions has been at near-record lows. (Reuters)

Indonesia Fears Another Massive Tsunami
December 24 — Two years after an earthquake off western Indonesia unleashed a monster tsunami, scientists expect the same fault to rupture again within the next few decades. (Associated Press)

Strong Quake Hits India's Archipelago
December 23 — A 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck India's Andaman islands, prompting residents to flee their homes, geologists said. (Agence France-Presse)

India, China to Study Warming
December 22 — A joint Indian-Chinese team plans to chart remote Himalayan glaciers that scientists fear are rapidly melting because of global warming, threatening the great rivers that give life to one of South Asia's most fertile regions. (Associated Press)

How to Super-Size a Volcanic Eruption
December 22 — Super eruptions that blast loads of ash sky high can change the climate, and now scientists are finding that the relationship could go both ways with the climate having an impact on huge volcanic eruptions. (LiveScience.com)

Six Die in South Malaysia Floods, 75,000 Homeless
December 22 — Relentless floods in southern Malaysia have now killed six people and forced around 75,000 from their homes, national media report. (Reuters)

Eye in the Sky for Wildfire Risks
December 21 — By studying shrublands in California, U.S. researchers found that NASA orbiters can accurately detect factors that contribute to fire development. (BBC)

'Sunshade' Could Ease Warming
December 21 — A scientist says an orbiting sunshade, made of trillions of transparent, platter-sized spacecraft flying together in an elliptical formation, could block sunlight in the event of a global warming emergency. (Discovery.com)

Report Says Tides Affect Speed of Antarctic Ice Slide
December 21 — Tides affect the speed at which an Antarctic ice sheet bigger than the Netherlands is sliding towards the sea, adding a surprise piece to a puzzle about ocean levels and global warming, a study found. (Reuters)

Study: Less Acid Rain Not Always So Great
December 21 — Acid rainfall in the Appalachian Mountains has decreased in recent years and organisms in its streams are thriving, but the environmental comeback could be creating new problems of its own, scientists said. (LiveScience.com)

Scientists Say Rainfall-Vegetation Link May Be Drought-Breaker
December 20 — A group of scientists working on Western Australia's south coast say their findings linking rainfall to vegetation types could help provide insight into the region's drought. (Australian Broadcasting Corp.)

Balmy Winter Puts Chill on Bird Migration
December 20 — Some European birds have failed to fly south for the winter, apparently lured to stay by weeks of mild weather that experts widely link to global warming. (Reuters)

Visitors Kept Away from Hawaii Volcano
December 19 — Visitors to one of the world's most active volcanoes are being kept hundreds of feet away from a 55-acre lava delta that authorities believe may soon collapse into the ocean. (Associated Press)

Mount St. Helens Belches Steam
December 19 — Mount St. Helens has been undergoing a low-key eruption since September 2004, and recent cold weather combined with the volcano�s ongoing release of water vapor are making the display particularly impressive, scientists said. (Associated Press)

Spain Set for Warmest Year on Record
December 19 — This year is on track to be the warmest on record in Spain, a country which was already hot before global warming set in, the government said. (Reuters)

Quake in Indonesia Kills Seven, Injuries Hundreds
December 18 — A moderate earthquake killed at least seven people and injured hundreds, spreading panic across a large swath of the Indonesian island worst hit by the 2004 Asian tsunami, witnesses and officials said. (Associated Press)

Manila Says a Billion Dollars Needed to Rebuild Typhoon Areas
December 18 — The Philippines needs about $1.01 billion to rebuild villages and farms destroyed after four typhoons crashed into the country in the past three months, a Cabinet official said. (Reuters)

Air Pollution Killer in Asian Cities
December 17 — Air pollution is killing more than half a million people in Asian cities each year and shows no sign of improving as urban centers expand, studies by the Asian Development Bank show. (Associated Press)

Penguins Offer Evidence of Global Warming
December 16 — The first Adelie penguin chicks of the season -- black fluff balls small enough to hold in the hand -- started hatching this month, and the simple fact that there are more of them in the south and fewer of them further north is a sign of global warming, scientists say. (Reuters)

Climate Change Melts Kilimanjaro's Snow
December 16 — The total loss of ice masses ringing Africa's three highest peaks, projected by scientists to happen sometime in the next two to five decades, fits a global pattern playing out in South America's Andes Mountains, in Europe's Alps, in the Himalayas and beyond. (Associated Press)

Global Warming Trend Continues in 2006, Climate Agencies Say
December 15 — A decades-long global warming trend that most climate experts say is linked to rising levels of heat-trapping smokestack and tailpipe gases continued apace this year, according to summaries issued yesterday by several national and international climate agencies. (New York Times)

Three Dead as Storm Spatters Northwest
December 15 — About 1.5 million homes and businesses in Washington and Oregon had no power early Friday after howling windstorms and heavy rains caused at least three deaths, closed two major bridges and prompted flooding. (Associated Press)

Ancient Antarctic Winds Mapped
December 15 — U.S. scientists have reconstructed a 40,000-year record of wind conditions at the South Pole by measuring the distribution of dust layers seen in two ice boreholes. (BBC)

Europe's Air Getting Cleaner
December 15 — European emissions of acid rain-causing sulfur dioxide have declined by 65 percent since 1990, contributing to a decline in air pollution across Europe, a United Nations agency said. (Reuters)

New Quake Prediction Method Announced
December 15 — U.S. scientists unveiled a new system that combines geological records with GPS tracking to help assess earthquake risk. (Reuters)

Climate Change Has Animals Heading for the Hills
December 14 — Chipmunks, mice and squirrels are heading for the hills, perhaps chased to higher elevations by a changing climate, scientists report. (LiveScience.com)

Mountains Revealed under Greenland Ice
December 14 — Veiled by more than a mile of ice, an expanse of heavily scoured mountains and valleys in Greenland has remained out of sight until now. (MSNBC)

2006 Sees Record Number of Wildfires
December 14 — The nation set a record for wildfires this year and climate experts say 2006 will probably end as the third warmest year on record for the contiguous United States. (Associated Press)

Asia's Greenhouse Gas 'to Treble'
December 14 — Asia's greenhouse gas emissions will treble over the next 25 years, according to a report that provides detailed analysis of the link between transport and climate change in Asia. (BBC)

NASA Tropical Ozone Studies Yield Surprises
December 14 — Two new NASA-funded studies of ozone in the tropics using NASA satellite data are giving scientists a fuller understanding of the processes driving ozone chemistry and its impacts on pollution and climate change. (Terra Daily)

Sea Level May Rise Higher Than Predicted
December 14 — Global warming could push sea levels about 40 percent higher than current models predict, according to a study that takes a new approach to the calculation. (National Geographic News)

Climate Change Threatens Alpine Results
December 13 — Global warming poses a serious threat to Alpine ski resorts and the regional economies that depend on them, especially in Germany. (Associated Press)

Sea Creatures' Global Warming Fix
December 13 — A simple sea creature could help address the problem of global warming, a scientist claims, by mopping up greenhouse gases as it feasts on carbon dioxide-soaked algae from the oceans. (BBC)

Methane Ices Pose Climate Puzzle
December 13 — Scientists drilling ocean sediments off Canada have discovered methane ices at much shallower depths than expected. (BBC)

Satellites Weigh Africa's Water
December 13 — Africa has experienced a significant drying in the past three years, new satellite data reveals. (BBC)

NASA Outlines Recent Changes in Earth's Freshwater Distribution
December 12 — Space observations of freshwater storage by a NASA satellite are providing a new picture of how Earth's most precious natural resource is changing. (Reuters)

NASA Ice Images Aid Study of Pacific Walrus Arctic Habitats
December 12 — NASA recently collaborated with the Fish and Wildlife Service to determine the usefulness of satellite imagery in studying the effect of climate change on the Pacific walrus ice habitat in Alaska. (Topix.net)

Albatrosses on Temperature Watch
December 12 — Albatrosses are being used to gather huge numbers of sea-surface temperature readings in the North Pacific. (BBC)

Study: Global Warming Prolongs Life of Space Junk
December 12 — Human increases in carbon dioxide emissions are thinning the Earth's outer atmosphere, making it easier to keep the space station aloft but prolonging the life of dangerous space debris, scientists said. (Reuters)

Cooler Weather Brings Little Relief to Australia
December 11 — Cooler air has brought some relief to Australia's burning south but strong, erratic winds kept the heat on a 4,000-strong army of firefighters battling some of the worst bushfires in 70 years. (AFP)

Global Warming Culprits: Cars and Cows
December 11 — A U.N.-sponsored report says cattle release large amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas, and are a major player in global climate change, although affordable solutions are possible. (ABC)

Arctic Summer Could Be Ice-Free by 2040
December 11 — A new study finds that if greenhouses gases continue to be released at their current rate, most of the Arctic basin will be ice-free in September by 2040. (Reuters)

NASA Provides New Perspectives on the Earth's Changing Ice Sheets
December 11 — Recent advances in remote sensing, the use of highly sensitive instruments aboard satellites and aircraft, have enabled scientists to examine the mass balance of the ice sheets and to determine just where and how quickly the ice is growing or shrinking. (KFMB-TV, San Diego)

Moulin 'Blanc': NASA Expedition Probes Deep Within a Greenland Glacier
December 11 — A NASA scientist recently led an expedition to send a NASA-built probe into the glacial chutes in the remote and isolated Pakisoq region of the West Greenland Ice Sheet. (EIN News)

Small Nuclear War Could Lead to Cool-down
December 11 — Some of the scientists who first advanced the controversial "nuclear winter" theory more than two decades ago have come up with another bleak forecast, saying a regional nuclear war would devastate the environment. (Associated Press)

NASA Aircraft Captures Windy Details in Hurricane's Ups and Downs
December 11 — In 2005, scientists using NASA aircraft measured the internal structure of Hurricane Dennis, giving clues about the evolution of a hurricane's warm inner core and other factors related to their formation. (PhysOrg.com)

NASA Technology Peels Apart Tropical Storm Gert's Insides
December 11 — Using data gathered from a field research mission, scientists have re-created Tropical Storm Gert on a computer model as a four-dimensional structure to help them understand the mechanisms of tropical cyclone formation. (EIN News)

Five Feared Dead as Typhoon Whips Philippines
December 10 — At least five people were feared dead and tens of thousands spent the night in makeshift shelters as Typhoon Utor plowed through the central Philippines. (Reuters)

Vast African Lake Levels Dropping Fast
December 10 — Lake Victoria is the greatest of Africa's Great Lakes, but its water levels are dropping quickly, at least six feet in the past three years, and by as much as a half-inch a day this year before rains in November. (Associated Press)

Life Thrives at Searing Sea Vent, Under Ice: Report
December 10 — Marine creatures are thriving by a record hot volcanic vent in the Atlantic and in dark waters under thick Antarctic ice, boosting theories that planets other than Earth are suitable for life, scientists said. (Reuters)

Greenhouse Gas is Ramping Up Fast
December 9 — A team of scientists is drilling burrows in Antarctica through about 260 feet of sea ice, 2,700 feet of ocean water, and into the sediments beneath to see what climate clues earlier warm periods left behind. (Reuters)

Clue Found in Mystery of How Raindrops Form
December 8 — With a new instrument, scientists have effectively reached into clouds, revealing that a process they call cloud-stirring leads to the rainfall. (LiveScience.com)

Forecaster Sees High Hurricane Activity Next Year
December 8 — The 2007 Atlantic hurricane season should have above-average activity, a top hurricane researcher said, with 14 named storms, including three major hurricanes and four other hurricanes. (Associated Press)

Scientists Observe Solar 'Tsunami'
December 8 — A major flare on the Sun this week generated what scientists are calling a solar "tsunami" that rolled across the hot surface, destroying two visible filaments of cool gas on opposite sides of the visible face of the sun. (Associated Press)

Global Warming Reducing Ocean's Food Supply
December 6 — New NASA satellite data shows phytoplankton, key to the ocean food chain, declines when the waters get warmer, causing scientists to worry about how much food marine life will have as global warming progresses. (Associated Press)

Alps are Warmest in 1300 Years
December 5 — Europe's Alpine region is going through its warmest period in 1,300 years, the head of an extensive climate study said. (Associated Press)

Pollution 'Reducing Rice Harvest'
December 5 — Pollution-laden clouds may be partly to blame for India's dwindling rice harvests, according to research. (BBC)

Earthquake Forecasts Possible with Seconds to Spare
December 4 — Italian scientists say the effects of strong earthquakes can be predicted seconds before the destruction occurs. (LiveScience.com)

Philippines Fears 1,000 Killed in Typhoon's Wrath
December 4 — The Philippines fears up to 1,000 people were killed in landslides and floods set off by Typhoon Durian, but officials said that many of the bodies might never be found. (Reuters)

Big Ice Shelf's Disappearing Act
December 4 — Sediments extracted from the Antarctic seafloor show the world's largest ice shelf has disintegrated and reappeared many times in the past. (BBC)

Study Sees Tsunami Threat to Two Indonesian Cities
December 4 — Two Indonesian cities that escaped the devastating tsunami of December 2004 are at risk of inundation over the next few decades from undersea earthquakes predicted along the coast of Sumatra, researchers say. (New York Times)

2006 Unusually Warm, But Not Hottest Year: Experts
December 4 — The average temperature in 2006 is likely to be among the hottest since records began, giving what seems to be another example of global warming, experts said. (Reuters)

Malaysia Issues Highest Warning over Typhoon Durian
December 3 — Malaysia's meteorology department issued its highest alert for strong winds and rough seas off the country's eastern states of Sabah and Sarawak as destructive typhoon Durian made its way through the region. (AFP)

350,000 Without Power in Midwest
December 3 — Frigid temperatures contributed to four deaths, pushing the toll from a devastating ice and snow storm to 19 as hundreds of thousands waited another day for their electricity to be restored. (Associated Press)

Flowers in Alps, Bears Can't Sleep as Winter Waits
December 3 — Flowers are blooming on the slopes of Alpine ski resorts and bears are having trouble hibernating in Siberia amid a late start to winter that may be a portent of global warming. (Reuters)

Researchers Target Carbon Capture
December 3 — Researchers at the University of Newcastle are developing a new technology that concentrates carbon emissions to make them easier to capture. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

U.N. Agency Sees El Nino Stretching to 2007
December 1 — A moderate El Nino event has taken hold in the tropical Pacific, threatening to trigger further weather disruption into the first quarter of 2007, the World Meteorological Organization said. (Reuters)

Humans Have Huge Impact on Erosion
December 1 — Humans cause erosion at a rate 10 to 15 times faster than any natural process, according to new research. (Associated Press)

Tsunami Buoy Laid in Indian Ocean
December 1 — The first of a planned network of tsunami early warning buoys is being laid in the Indian Ocean between Thailand and Sri Lanka, two of the countries worst-hit by the 2004 tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people. (BBC)

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