Washington, Oct 26 : A research spanning 20 years has determined that climate change and acid rain could actually be good for forests.

The research was undertaken by scientists at Michigan Technological University’s School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science in the northern hardwood forests of Michigan.

The team reached a surprising conclusion that moderate increases in temperature and nitrogen from atmospheric pollution actually improve forest productivity.

London, Oct 11 : An example of the greenhouse effect cooling the climate has been seen in Spain, where the roofs of hothouse farms reflect so much sunlight that they may be pushing down local temperatures.

Since the 1970s, semi-arid pasture land in Almeria, south-eastern Spain, has been replaced by greenhouse horticulture.

Today, Almeria has the largest expanse of greenhouses in the world - around 26,000 hectares.

According to a report in New Scientist, Pablo Campra of the University of Almeria and colleagues studied temperature trends from weather stations inside the region, and from other areas of Spain.

Ottawa, Oct 6 : Climate scientists have said that the melting of the Arctic ice this year has been ‘fascinating’ and ‘alarming’.

According to a report in the Vancouver Sun, so much ice had melted by the end of August 2008 that it was possible for the first time in human history to circumnavigate the North Pole, prompting one prominent U. S. scientist to say that the ice cap has entered a “death spiral.”

Washington, Oct 2 : Researchers from University of Michigan suggest that shade trees can protect coffee crops from ravages of climate change.

With the increase in coffee production in recent decades the crop has become more vulnerable to higher temperatures and changes in precipitation.

However, the new study led by Brenda B. Lin, Ivette Perfecto has revealed that shade trees could improve coffee crop’s resistance to temperature and precipitation extremes triggered by climate changes.

The researchers also claimed that this procedure could be applicable to other economically important crops, including cocoa and tea.

Sydney - Australia would be foolish to act alone on global warming, the government's top climate change adviser said Wednesday.

Economist Ross Garnaut, who has recommended Canberra set itself a 10-per-cent reduction target for 2020, said those pushing for more ambitious targets would be mugged by reality at next year's climate change conference in Copenhagen.

"The very worst outcome would be a lot of high sounding principles being agreed upon at the end of next year at Copenhagen but there being no substance behind them," he said. "The world can't afford to have that happen again. It happened, more or less, at Kyoto."

Washington, September 13: A team of researchers have determined that the ongoing rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) from burning of fossil fuels might be kept below harmful levels if emissions from coal are phased out within the next few decades.

The research has been carried out by climatologist Pushker Kharecha and James Hansen, director of NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

According to them, less plentiful oil and gas should be used sparingly as well, but that far greater supplies of coal mean that it must be the main target of reductions.