Ozone hole not closing as expected

Scientists are telling us that the ozone hole is not closing as they hoped it would after 100 countries signed the historic Montreal Protocol in 1987 that regulated the release of ozone-depleting chemicals worldwide. The hole allows UV radiation to penetrate the atmosphere, leading to an increase in cancer risk and other health and environmental problems.

The good news is that the expansion of the hole has stopped, and scientists still believe that the hole will gradually get smaller as time goes by. As part of the protocol, the release of almost all ozone-depleting chemicals is not only regulated but flat-out banned by the end of next year.

There's a lesson to be learned here. While it's easy for man to cause environmental problems by releasing excess chemicals and carbon into the air, it takes decades, if not centuries, for us to reverse or stop these effects. For more info on the ozone hole, check out this story from The Daily Green.

Global poll suggests governments should be more concerned about climate change

A global poll of people in 19 countries found that the majority of people in the world think their government should put more emphasis on combating global climate change.

Respondents in 15 of the 19 countries said they believe their government should put a higher priority on climate change policy, including the three biggest greenhouse gas emitters—the U.S., China, and Russia. The poll was conducted in China, India, the United States, Indonesia, Nigeria, Russia, Mexico, Chile, Germany, Great Britain, France, Poland, Ukraine, Kenya, Egypt, Turkey, Iraq, the Palestinian territories, and South Korea, according to the press release by the polling agency.

Interestingly, the poll also found that a good number of people overestimate how much they care about climate change because twice as many respondents said they care more than the average person than respondents that said they care less than the average person.

For more info on the results of the poll, check out the full results here.

U.S. and China sign climate change pact

U.S. State Department and Chinese officials signed a pact today to work together to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions by promoting environmentally-friendly technologies.

The U.S. and China are the two leading emitters of greenhouse gases in the world. While the deal is almost entirely symbolic because it contains few specific details, the fact that the two countries can agree on this is a good thing as the U.N.-led climate change negotiations approach later this year. At the negotiations, countries from around the world will meet in Copenhagen in an effort to form a treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had this to say of the pact: "[The agreement] provides our countries with direction as we work together to support international climate negotiations and accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy."

Greenland ice sheet melting is bad news for Northeastern cities

In case Boston area residents didn't have enough reason to be concerned with the effects of global warming, a study released today by the National Center for Atmospheric Research found that melting of the Greenland ice sheet could result in much higher sea levels because of ocean circulation patterns.

"If the Greenland melt continues to accelerate, we could see significant impacts this century on the northeast U.S. coast from the resulting sea level rise," NCAR scientist and the lead author of study Aixue Hu said. "Major northeastern cities are directly in the path of the greatest rise."

The study concluded that sea levels could rise anywhere from 12 to 20 inches. Regardless of the exact increase, this much of a sea level rise would have a significant—and damaging—impact on the city of Boston.

With this news in mind, be sure you are doing everything you can to reverse the dangerous effects of global warming. For more information on the study, check out this post on The Globe's green blog.

Scientists serve as climate detectives

Scientists have to think like detectives. They look for clues to help them understand how the world works. Then, they investigate the clues to find evidence—real facts that can give them a better idea of what is going on. Here are some of the ways that scientists gather evidence about climate, both past and present:

Weather Stations

Weather stations help us find out the temperature on the surface of the Earth. Weather stations use special thermometers that tell us the temperature. They can be set up almost anywhere on land. Weather stations also can tell us how fast the wind is moving and how much rain falls on the ground during a storm.

To read the rest of this story, click here.

Spam e-mail has giant carbon footprint

A study released today found that the carbon footprint for those annoying, unsolicited e-mails we all get in our inbox is enormous.

The study estimated that 63 trillion spam messages were sent last year, resulting in a usage of 33 terawatt hours of energy. That's roughly the same energy consumption as 2.4 million houses!

While each e-mail itself only results in a very small emission, the emissions resulting from all spam e-mail are equivalent to that from over three million cars.

"There is an energy cost with the transaction, storage and deletion of any email," McAfee's Dave Marcus told Business Green. "When you start to add it up, we are talking about a significant impact."

For more info on the study, check out this story from Business Green.

Empire State Building goes green

The owners of the Empire State Building are investing $20 million in efforts to reduce the CO2 emissions of the New York City landmark.

The building, which was the tallest building in the world until 1970, will have upgrades made in an effort to increase its energy consumption by 40 percent. The upgrades include extra layers of insulation on the 6,500 windows on the structure and a new, modern cooling system to replace the current one in the basement of the building.

The upgrades will also allow officer workers in the building to take responsibility for their own carbon footprint. Each worker will be able to access information on the Web detailing how much energy in being consumed in their part of the building.

For more info, check out this story in The Guardian, a UK newspaper.

EPA proposes greenhouse gas reporting requirement

Staring in 2011, facilities around the country may be required to report their greenhouse gas emissions for the first time.

The EPA made the announcement about the proposal on Tuesday, saying that facilities with more than 25,000 metric tons of emissions would be required to report under the program. This would mean that facilities such as car manufacturing plants, power generators, industrial chemical factories, and other similar industries would fall under the regulation.

Such facilities account for 80 to 85 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, according to EPA estimates.

Awareness is certainly the first step in reversing the effects we are having on the environment with harmful emissions. Hopefully this program will increase awareness and encourage these facilities to reduce their emissions, making our environment safer for future generations.

Google Earth tool tracks CO2 emissions

The Vulcan Project, led by a team of Purdue University researchers, has created a Google Earth tool that shows you CO2 emissions coming from each county in the U.S.

The tool breaks down emissions into industrial, residential, commercial, and other categories for each county.

The team plans to be able to release emissions data by street or even by building as more data is collected.

This tool is really cool and a great way to see where most of our CO2 emissions are coming from. Check it out at the link above.

Australia's wildfires show signs of global warming

The worst wildfires in the nation's history are ravaging Australia, and there are already at least 171 people reported dead from them.

While its believed that arsonists started the initial blazes, experts are blaming two other culprits—drought and heat—for the spreading of the fires, both of which are tell-tell signs of global warming.

The L.A. Times reported that the fires "incinerated people trying to flee in their cars, sent towering walls of flames sweeping through small towns, and sparked a new debate over whether homeowners should be allowed to stay to try to protect their property."

The fires are so large that they are visible from space.

Dan Shapley, of The Daily Green, wrote that "the wildfires have struck a region suffering through the Big Dry, a multi-year period marked by drought and heat waves that has led many Australians to a new and immediate understanding of climate change."

Pictures of Antarctica show damage done by global warming

The Daily Green has some beautiful, but shocking, photos of Antarctica that demonstrate the damaging effects global warming is having on the polar regions of our planet.

Click here to see and read more about what rising temperatures are doing to the frozen continent.

United Nations reports worldwide rising carbon emissions

Worldwide carbon emissions from industrialized countries increased from 2000 to 2006, after showing a slight decline throughout the 1990s, according to a United Nations report released yesterday.

The release of the report comes two weeks before the U.N. is set to meet and discuss the issue at a major review conference. The conference is expected to work on an agreement that will serve as a successor to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The United States signed the Kyoto Protocol but never had any plans of taking the necessary steps to ratify it, which would have made it legally binding for the country to reduce the six greenhouse gases named in the protocol.