Feature Article

Silicate weathering reactions remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in carbonate minerals. During the high atmospheric carbon dioxide conditions of the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum, rates of chemical weathering, physical erosion and denudation in the western USA were equivalent to the highest recorded rates in the non-glacial Quaternary.

Fjords line mountainous continental margins where icesheets and glaciers once stood. A two-dimensional model simulation suggests that fjords can be eroded within one million years, primarily in response to topographic ice steering and erosion from ice discharge. Subsequent glaciers that form on these landscapes are smaller and exhibit greater responses to climate change.

Using projected boundary conditions for the end of the twenty-first century, the frequency of Atlantic tropical cyclones and hurricanes in a regional climate model of the Atlantic basin is reduced compared with observed boundary conditions at the end of the twentieth century. This is inconsistent with the idea that higher levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases will result in increased Atlantic hurricane activity.

The termination of the Marinoan glaciation 635 million years ago is one of the most spectacular climate change events ever recorded. Methane release from equatorial permafrost might have triggered this global meltdown.

The recent surge in world food prices is already creating havoc in poor countries, and worse is to come. Food riots are spreading across Africa, though many are unreported in the international press. Moreover, the surge in wheat, maize and rice prices seen on commodities markets have not yet fully percolated into the shops and stalls of the poor countries or the budgets of relief organizations. Nor has the budget crunch facing relief organizations such as the World Food Program, which must buy food in world markets, been fully felt.

What should we do about climate change? The question is an ethical one. Science, including the science of economics, can help discover the causes and effects of climate change. It can also help work out what we can do about climate change. But what we should do is an ethical question.

An index that both climate scientists and policy makers anxiously keep track of is national emission rates of carbon dioxide, particularly for China, which has quickly been catching up with the US, hitherto the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide. Despite all eff orts to the contrary, the rates for both China and the world are rapidly going up, rather than down.

A grassroots approach alone won't make the earth stop warming.

With the growing potentialities and respect of traditional knowledge for sustainable
forest management, community-based forest management (CBFM) has been advocated
in the mainstream discussion of forest management and sustaining livelihood of local

The recently published 800,000-year greenhouse-gas records from Dome C, Antarctica, show that old ice still bears surprises. As long as the records challenge our understanding, we should go back for more. (Editorial)