Global warming increasing death rate of US trees, scientists warn Studies find wide range of tree species are dying with serious long-term effects fo

A black bear wanders through a meadow dotted with fallen trees on July 8, 2007 in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. Photograph: Jeff Hutchens/Getty Images

By Alok Jha, green technology correspondent

"Trees in the western United States are dying twice as quickly as they did three decades ago and scientists think global warming is to blame.

In their surveys, ecologists found that a wide range of tree species were dying including pines, firs and hemlocks and at a variety of altitudes. The changes can have serious long-term effects including reducing biodiversity and turning western forests into a source of carbon dioxide as they die and decompose. That could lead to a runaway effect that speeds up climate change."

Link to article in Guardian

Cold Truth

At a recent celebration of the International Polar Year in New York, artists and scientists share work inspired by the shifting landscape of Antarctica.

by Catrinel Bartolomeu • Posted December 17, 2008 03:11 PM

"March 2009 will mark the end of the fourth ever International Polar Year (IPY), a scientific program that intensively studies the poles. In order to have full and equal coverage of both the Arctic and the Antarctic, a polar year actually spans two annual cycles. In the era of global warming and melting icecaps, polar research reaches beyond the scientific community, agitating politicians, celebrities, artists, musicians and implicating any person, really, who has experienced the weather. "

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The Oxford Project

In the blink of an eye, children grow up and have children of their own. In the small town of Oxford, Iowa the transformations have all been caught on camera. Josh Landis reports in this clip from CBS Sunday Morning

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