A different take on global warming | SeacoastOnline.com

So what can be done to stop another ice age from occurring? [Meteorologist] Wysmuller suggests building a dam to control warm ocean currents working their way into the Arctic.

"If we can build a dam, we can actually control the melt and refreezing of the ocean," he said. "This will basically enable us to manage our own climate."

If those in power don't do anything, Wysmuller said, the entire Arctic will eventually be open water.

"We will inundate North America and Asia with ice," Wysmuller said. "In the next century, a billion people who haven't even been born yet would die horrible deaths."

John Warner: Author of Lieberman-Warner erroneously believed that carbon dioxide emissions caused pine beetle outbreaks

The old forest, the white pine forest in which I worked, was absolutely gone, devastated, standing there dead from the bark beetle. I said to the forest ranger, "This is such an emotional, distressing trip for me -- what is the problem?" He said, "Our climate has changed so much out here. We don't have the cold winters which used to curtail the level of the bark beetle. So it's decimating the white pine and many valuable species." That sparked my interest.

Colorado Arts & Sciences Magazine » As forests die, questionable anxieties thrive

But the latest and best scientific research does not buttress conventional wisdom. The research suggests that the pine-beetle outbreaks coincide with warmer, drier years. It finds no compelling evidence that once the dead needles have fallen from the trees (i.e. when the “red phase” disappears a few years after attack) dead stands of pine are more likely than live stands to burn. Scientists also find no evidence that this outbreak is unprecedented over time spans of several centuries, or that human fire-suppression has made western U.S. forests unusually prone to fire.

Harsh frosts cut down spring blossoms - New Zealand

"Sucker punch" frosts of -2C and -3C at the weekend burnt the petals of flowers like these magnolias, Masterton gardener Gareth Winter, pictured, said yesterday.

Mr Winter, gardening columnist for the Wairarapa Times-Age, said magnolias and camellias across the region had borne the brunt of brutal overnight cold.