Feature Article

A year after sending its first fully fledged expedition to the Arctic, India has established a research station in Svalbard, about 1,200 kilometres from the North Pole.

Is Japan's research whaling, which claims about 1000 whales a year, scientific investigation or disguised commercial whaling? A new review process endorsed by the International Whaling Commission last week at its 60th annual meeting hopes to get closer to the answer.

Water stress is a major problem affecting the future of human societies around the world, particularly in the rural areas of the developing world. The Newsmakers article "Barrn to lush" (2 May, p. 593) highlighted an award for the invention of a new manual pump used for irrigation in rural Africa. We fully respect and admire the invention of efficient and affordable pumping systems to solve water shortage problems in rural areas. However, we are concerned about the intensive application of these new pumps to water-limited systems. (Letters)

Continuous Global Positioning System observations reveal rapid and large ice velocity fluctuations in the western ablation zone of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Within days, ice velocity reacts to increased meltwater production and increases by a factor of 4. Such a response is much stronger and much faster than previously reported. Over a longer period of 17 years, annual ice velocities have decreased slightly, which suggests that the englacial hydraulic system adjusts constantly to the variable meltwater input, which results in a more or less constant ice flux over the years.

Much of the scientific and public focus on anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions have been on climate impacts. Emission targets have been suggested based primarily on arguments for preventing climate from shifting significantly from its preindustrial state. However, recent studies underline a second major impact of carbon emissions: ocean acidification. Over the past 200 years, the oceans have take up `40% of the anthropogenic CO2 emissions. This uptake shows the rise in atmospheric CO2 considerably, thus alleviating climate change caused by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.

Measuring the costs and benefits of projects intended to offset the emission of greenhouse gases is one of many thorny issues that the state of California must tackle as it begins drafting a cap-and-trade system of carbon credits.

An $11 billion plan to restore the Everglades will likely get an overhaul after a major land deal last week by the state of Florida. The state's $1.75 billion purchase is intended to create wetlands that will speed up the delivery of water to the thirsty ecosystem.

Protected areas (PAs) have long been criticized as creations of and for an elite few, where associated costs, but few benefits, are borne by marginalized rural communities.

Here the authors show the effects of acidification on benthic ecosystems at shallow coastal sites where volcanic CO2 vents lower the pH of the water column. Along gradients of normal pH (8.1

Rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide lead to acidification of the oceans. A site in the Mediterranean, naturally carbonated by under-sea volcanoes, provides clues to the possible effects on marine ecosystems.