The adaptation of Phillip Pullman’s bestselling novel ‘The Golden Compass’ will be hitting the movie screens in December in the US, bringing to life a fantasy world where humans have permanent animal companions known as daemons and polar bears where armor – and these links with the animal world are the reasons why the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) has teamed up with New Line Cinema to bring attention to the plight of animals at risk from climate change.

Through the partnership, visitors will be able to log on to a special web site at worldwildlife.org/goldencompass where they can view a panoramic lineup of the animal spirits or "daemons" featured in the film, many of which are the same species that WWF works to protect in the real world. Fans of the film can also show their support for WWF and its message of species protection by "adopting" a real-life animal whose species is featured in the film - including polar bears, snow leopards, and monkeys.

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The impact of global warming is not just restricted to increasing levels of sea water and climate changes but also to shifting of habitats by various species of animals. Studies conducted in the mountains of Madagascar through light on this new development.

Animal species that live on the lower slopes of the mountains of Madagascar’s Tsaratanana Massif, have shifted base upwards on account of increase in global temperatures. Research indicates that this is the recipe needed for extinction of these animals. The animals shifting up will be living in close proximity to each other near the summit of the mountains and the magnitude of these shifts will combine together and cause extinction of entire species of animals. The extinction of 3 species of reptiles and amphibians found in Madagascar’s mountainous regions is predicted between the periods 2050 to 2100. Global warming will be squarely responsible for such a disaster.

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Did you know that tobacco smoke coupled with a toxic gas which is present in air pollution is responsible for tuberculosis infection? Actually this was only recently established, so how would we know. But it sure makes us wanna think about things seriously.

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The effects of global warming are seen on plants that are endemic to California. Nearly 67% of these endemic plants will disappear from 80% of the land in the region by the end of the century. Endemic plants make up nearly 50% of the plants in the State of California. So the climatic changes on account of global warming are bound to have a drastic effect on the plant population and diversity in the State.

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Huge lakes covering hundreds of square miles are hiding beneath half a mile of Antarctic ice, but their undulations cause such dramatic changes at the surface that they can be detected from space. Laser pulses sent from NASA's ICESat provided the evidence of the lakes, which are continuously draining and filling, and which scientists say are not caused by global warming. If all of Antarctica's ice were to melt, sea levels could rise by 23 feet, so detailed models of the behavior of Antartica's ice sheets are crucial to understanding the impacts of climate change. Currently those models don't take into account the subglacial lakes, which help speed the journey of glacial ice to the sea. Scientists hope that the new understanding of how the lakes work will help improve computer models that predict how the Antarctic glaciers will respond to climate change.

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Researchers at Stanford University have just published a study analyzing the relationship between biodiversity preservation and ecosystem services such as flood control, carbon storage and crop pollination on the central coast of California. Of the six ecosystem services studied, four were found to be positively correlated with biodiversity preservation, with carbon storage showing the strongest releationship. The researchers concluded that "strategically targeting only biodiversity plus the four positively associated services" could be a good strategy for conservation, resulting in biodiversity losses of only 7 percent, compared to losses of 44 percent by targeting biodiversity alone.

Source: Kai M.A. Chan, Rebecca Shaw, David R. Cameron, Emma C. Underwood, Gretchen C. Daily. Conservation planning for ecosystem services. PLOS Biology, 4(11).

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In the midst of the buzz over the latest U.N. report on global warming, a related U.N. study, scheduled for release in April but leaked early to the press, may prove to be just as important. The report predicts that between one and three billion people could be afflicted by water shortages by the end of the century, with China, Australia, and parts of Europe and the U.S. all facing critical shortages. Daniel Zimmer, executive director of the World Water Council in Marseille, France, predicts that dedicated tanker fleets will be used to bring critical drinking water supplies to parched regions of the earth. Some tankers already ply the Mediterranean, he said, bringing water from Europe to places like Israel and Algeria.

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Global warming is generally understood as a rise in the average temperature of the atmosphere, landmasses of the earth and the oceans. Particular gases in the atmosphere like carbon dioxide, water vapor, Nitric oxide and methane help conserve the heat in the atmosphere by absorbing the infrared waves radiated by the earth. Their functioning is similar to glass in a greenhouse and are thus known as greenhouse gases. Life on earth is entirely dependent on the greenhouse effect, as without it the earth would be unbearably cold and covered with ice – pole to pole. However the rapid growth in greenhouse gases has become a cause for concern as it poses a great risk to life on earth. With the average temperature of the earth having risen steadily from its average 15°C by nearly 1.4°C over the past few years the repercussions of global warming have already begun to show.

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Global warming is generally understood as a rise in the average temperature of the atmosphere, oceans and landmasses of the earth. Ever since the earth was formed approximately 4.65 billion years ago, it has continually undergone changes in temperature. In recent years however, the issue of global warming has become a cause for concern as the earth appears to be facing rapid warming, threatening its very existence. The average surface temperature of the earth is about 15°C. Over the last century this average has risen considerably. Scientists have predicted a further warming of up to 5.8°C. This high degree of warming threatens to melt snow caps and glaciers and also warm the oceans, which will consequently expand the ocean volume, flooding coastal areas and perhaps entire islands.

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Extremely important, to the Earth's ecosystem, the Amazon rainforest is under threat due to lack of clean air. Recent studies have revealed.

The Amazon is at a risk of facing a drought. This is largely due to the the reduced emissions from burning coal, along with the increase in temperatures of the sea, in the north Atlantic.

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