Seasonal Arctic sea-ice recovery has been slower than many hoped this fall, erasing modest gains achieved during the relatively cool summer.
 

Daily observations of sea-ice extent this November are currently below the levels for corresponding dates from November 2007, when record lows were observed. November 2007 sea-ice extent was 11 percent below the long-term average. The next few weeks will be critical for building up enough new ice to avoid setting a new record low for November.
 

The rapid Arctic sea-ice melting during the last three decades is due to global warming and has even outpaced the projections of most climate models. Based on the rapid melt, NASA scientist Jay Zwally has projected summer sea ice could be essentially gone by as early as 2012.
 

"Sea-ice decline is another sign that the effects of global warming are already upon us," said Dr. Amanda Staudt, climate scientist for National Wildlife Federation. "The big picture is that the 10 warmest years on record all occur within the 12-year period 1997-2008," according to NASA.
 

"The loss of Arctic sea ice has huge implications for polar bears," said Dr. Doug Inkley, senior scientist for National Wildlife Federation. "U.S. Geological Survey studies and models indicate that two thirds of polar bears will disappear by 2050, due to ice loss."
 

"We need urgent action to move climate and clean energy legislation from the Senate to President Obama's desk, while there is still time to avoid global warming's most damaging effects," said Dr. Staudt.

Climate and energy legislation, passed recently by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and now up for broader deliberation, could benefit most major American crops and generate up to $13 billion in profits for the agriculture industry, according to a new report.
 

"Agriculture comes out a winner, environmentally and economically, in this scenario," said Roger Johnson, president of the National Farmers Union, which supported June's House-passed American Clean Energy and Security Act.
 

The study, which was published by the University of Tennessee, mirrors economic analyses surrounding the House bill and predicts farm incomes in most U.S. regions rising above baseline trends projected by the Agriculture Department.
 

Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and nine others signed off on the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act early this month, passing the bill out of committee and continuing the momentum toward passage of comprehensive clean energy legislation in the Senate.

According to a new study to be published in Geophysical Research Letters, global warming is distorting the ratio of record high temperatures to record low temperatures in the continental United States.
 

Record high days have outpaced record lows by about 2-to-1 this decade, and even greater increases are projected by century's end-up to 20-to-1 without efforts to curb carbon pollution, according to the National Center for Atmospheric Research's Gerald Meehl, lead author of the study.
 

"Climate change is making itself felt in terms of day-to-day weather in the United States," said Meehl. "The ways these records are being broken show how our climate is already shifting."

 

Between Jan. 1, 2000, and Sept. 30, 2009, the U.S. experienced 291,237 record high temperatures and 142,420 record low temperatures. The ratio without global warming is generally expected to be about 1-to-1.

National Wildlife Federation released its new report, Generation E: Students Leading for a Sustainable, Clean Energy Future, today.  

 

The report highlights 165 campus examples in 45 states, covering 35 categories of creative student effort. The time for climate action is now-the release of Generation E comes just weeks before major international climate negotiations kick off in Copenhagen, Denmark. The report is a story of student leadership, showcasing how individuals, teams of peers, as well as faculty, can all have a positive impact on our environment. 

 

Report topics range from renewable energy and conservation to dorm move-out programs; from campus food systems to wildlife habitat restoration. Students have creatively stepped up to raise funds for efficiency projects; there is great community outreach through weatherization projects; and we are seeing some campuses leap over hurdles to achieve behavior change in dorms. 

 

NWF and partners released the guide today with a press call moderated by Scott Carlson, reporter at the Chronicle of Higher Education. The teleconference included students highlighted in the report who are making a difference on their campuses and in their communities.

 

Campuses featured in Generation E are encouraged to enter NWF's Chill Out national competition this fall. The Chill Out: Campus Solutions to Global Warming competition rewards and recognizes all the cool things our campuses do to reduce the impacts of global warming. Students, faculty and staff can create a two minute video that shows what their college or university is doing to reduce global warming pollution and filling out the entry form.

The National Wildlife Federation has honored former Sen. John Warner of Virginia with the National Conservation Achievement Award for his extraordinary environmental leadership in the political and nonprofit sectors, naming him "Conservationist of the Year" at its annual awards banquet.

 

A leader and fighter for the public interest for the better part of a half century of his public and professional life, Warner continues as a vocal champion of global climate action and a trailblazer for new initiatives to increase America's energy independence. Since leaving the Senate early this year, Warner has worked with the Pew Environment Group to bring together state and municipal governments, the Administration, and military, security and climate experts to explore new strategies to address global climate change, strengthen our national security, increase our energy independence, and preserve our nation's natural resources.

 

"Senator Warner was and is a statesman and a true leader on the issues facing our planet now and in the years ahead," said National Wildlife Federation President and CEO Larry Schweiger. "He was always ahead of the curve during his five terms as a U.S. Senator, and he still leads the fight today. Each advancement in the effort to curb global warming owes something to his leadership and vision."

 

As Conservationist of the Year, Senator Warner joins the ranks of previous winners Vice President Al Gore, Lady Bird Johnson, and President Jimmy Carter.

 

Warner was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1978, and served in the U.S. Senate until January 2009. He holds the distinction of being the second-longest serving U.S. Senator and the longest serving Republican Senator in the state's history.

Throughout his senate career, Warner supported many legislative initiatives to enhance and preserve the outdoors for future generations. Arguably one of the most revered and respected Republicans to ever serve in Congress, Senator Warner has channeled his passion for the outdoors into a public career spent steering the earth toward a cleaner, more stable future.

A new study shows that ice loss in Greenland is speeding up global sea level rise, a phenomenon that weather conditions have masked in recent years.

 

The report finds that Greenland's ice sheet lost enough ice between 2006 and 2008 to raise sea level by three-tenths of an inch, more than a 60 percent increase over the 2000-2008 average, but snowfall and refreezing incidents have obscured many of the effects.

 

"Part of the meltwater did not reach the ocean and refroze inside the ice sheet. At the same time, snowfall increased,"said Michiel van den Broeke, a polar meteorologist at Utrecht University and lead author of the report. "The net result is about the same as the contribution from calving icebergs. We see here that melting can increase very, very quickly."

 

Van den Broeke also said warmer summers in recent years have helped hasten the ramped-up ice loss.

 

In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projected the likely sea level rise resulting from global warming at between 7 and 23 inches by century's end, but also said an additional rise could come from rapid polar ice melt.

Members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee began marking up their version of comprehensive climate and energy legislation, buoyed by a CNN poll showing that 60 percent of Americans support efforts to limit carbon pollution.

 

"The committee is laying the tracks that will carry the bill to the finish line," said Jeremy Symons, senior vice president for conservation at the National Wildlife Federation.

 

Committee chairman Barbara Boxer's (D-Calif.) recently-unveiled version of a clean energy bill calls for reducing U.S. carbon pollution, promoting energy independence, and transitioning to a clean energy economy. Since its introduction, the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, co-sponsored by Sen. Boxer and Foreign Relations Committee Chair John Kerry (D-MA), has drawn diverse allies, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, and sportsman groups.

 

The announced investments include infrastructure-boosting grants to help consumers cut utility costs, funds for the expansion of a manufacturing base to support smart grid technologies, and modernization projects intended to increase efficient energy transmission and distribution.

 

The investments are projected to create tens of thousands of jobs, reduce costly power outages, and put America on a path to get at least 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020.

 

An analysis by the Electric Power Research Institute estimates that the implementation of smart grid technologies could reduce electricity use by more than 4 percent by 2030, saving $20.4 billion for businesses and consumers nationwide.

A CNN poll shows 60 percent of Americans support a plan that restricts carbon pollution and institutes a system for trading emission allowances.

 

The survey comes as deliberations begin in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, a comprehensive clean energy and climate bill introduced earlier this month by committee chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Foreign Relations Committee Chair John Kerry (D-MA).

 

Perhaps most crucial: energy legislation enjoys significant support among those identifying as independent, with nearly 6 in 10 supporting the plan.

 

"Independents may not be red or blue, but they appear to be green," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "Earlier polls indicate that Independents believe in global warming and believe that the government can take steps to curtail the problem."

As if the thoroughly discredited theory of global cooling needed another strike against it, statistics experts have come out with a new rebuttal of the well-worn climate-denier chestnut.

 

A review of years of temperature data at the request of the Associated Press yielded evidence that the earth is, indeed, still warming - not cooling, as some have dubiously claimed.