Dion gives speech on ‘polar beers’ and climate change (EdmontonSun.com) CHURCHILL, Man. — Stephane Dion used self-deprecating polar bear humour to press the grave impact of global warming as a new poll shows his Liberals closing the gap with the Conservatives. [News Source]

‘Climate change cannot be ducked’ (The Herald) AFP. PARIS. Wall Street’s sickness and its contagiousness for the world economy are bad news for the already faltering effort to craft a new pact to tackle climate change. [News Source]

Rise in carbon dioxide levels could either help or hurt crops. For a peek at what the future holds for agriculture, go to the Agriculture Department's sprawling research campus outside the nation's capital and check out the stainless steel chambers in Building 10. [News Source]

Britain’s rivers could run dry. Britain's rivers could nearly run dry because long hot summers caused by climate change will not be sufficiently compensated by wetter winters, researchers predict. [News Source]

Warming Andes stymies Peruvian potato farmers. For the first half of his life, potato farmer Gregorio Huanuco used the same formula that had dictated the survival of his ancestors for generations. But by 1990, Huanuco began noting strange climatic patterns in his village. in the Andean Cordillera Blanca. [News Source]

Seas turn to acid as they soak up CO2. In the Bay of Naples, gas streams have turned waters around the island of Ischia into acid, and this has had a major impact on sea life and aquatic plants. Now marine biologists fear that the world's seas could follow suit. [News Source]

Ocean expert helps scientists speak plain english. Besides keeping tabs on how global warming is changing the world's oceans, one of the world's leading marine biologists is teaching fellow scientists to drop the academic-ese they use among themselves and speak so regular folks can understand them. [News Source]

After lesson on sewage, Galveston to re-evaluate system. As with every hurricane that has hit Galveston — and there were 11 between 1880 and Ike that struck within 75 miles of the island — there's always a new lesson. And with Ike, one of the biggest lessons will be how to quickly restore water and sewage service. [News Source]

Climate change threatens to raise the stakes for Iowa farms. The world already counts on Iowa to meet food production needs. A warmer world will count on Iowa even more. [News Source]

Peru studies climate riddle. Scientists are using everything from a yellow submarine to weather balloons and special airplanes to solve a climate conundrum: why is Peru getting colder while the rest of the world heats up? [News Source]

90,000 yr old data suggests warming, CO2 and ocean currents are linked. New data from ice core samples and ocean deposits dating as far back as 90,000 years ago suggest that warming, carbon dioxide levels and ocean currents are tightly inter-related. [News Source]