Arizona: Big chill costs vineyards

A freak late freeze is expected to slash grape yields in the Sonoita/Elgin vineyards of Santa Cruz County, and at one of the higher elevation vineyards in nearby Cochise County.
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In one case, at nearby Dos Cabezas WineWorks' vineyards, the sap froze in a variety that was already in an advanced state of growth, splitting the woody vines.

But even without that, the expected result for Callaghan is a 60 to 70 percent crop reduction, Callaghan said.

[NY Times editorial: Yep, we still believe in the greatest scientific fraud in human history]

Perhaps now we can put the manufactured controversy known as Climategate behind us and turn to the task of actually doing something about global warming. On Wednesday, a panel in Britain concluded that scientists whose e-mail had been hacked late last year had not, as critics alleged, distorted scientific evidence to prove that global warming was occurring and that human beings were primarily responsible.

[Now I'm confused: In order to prevent hurricanes, we need less cows, but more otters and wolves?]: Sea Otters, the Cutest Way to Fight Global Warming : Discovery News

Apart from being one of the most adorable ocean-going animals on the planet, sea otters play a powerful role in sucking greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere. According to a new study written up this week in New Scientist, if the endangered fur balls' population were restored to pre-hunting levels, they could sequester a total of some 10 million tons of carbon in the ocean ecosystem, making them a useful weapon in the fight against global warming.
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[Chris Wilmers of the University of California, Santa Cruz] speculates that restoring wolf populations and curtailing the illegal bushmeat trade could have similar positive effects on vegetation -- and carbon sequestration -- around the world.