A high-flying NASA mission over Costa Rica and Panama in July and August should help scientists better understand how tropical storms influence global warming and stratospheric ozone depletion, says a University of Colorado at Boulder professor who is one of two mission scientists for the massive field campaign.

NASA's Tropical Composition, Cloud and Climate Coupling (TC4) field campaign will begin this summer in San Jose, Costa Rica, with an investigation into how chemical compounds in the air are transported vertically into the stratosphere and how that transport affects cloud formation and climate.

A new model that couples biotic and abiotic processes in intertidal zones predicts that salt marshes in Italy's Venice Lagoon may not survive future climate changes. These projections of the model developed by study authors Marani et al. stem from current forecasts of sea-level rise.

Articles published in the first issue of new journal, Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, describe the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) as by far the most significant accomplishment in climate policy to date, concluding that it will be central to future global climate negotiations.

For the first time climate change is expected to be a major issue in the U.S. presidential campaign. Analysts say in past campaigns candidates argued about whether global warming is actually occurring, but the results of recent scientific studies have now shifted the debate to possible solutions that could reduce the future impact of a changing climate.

Australian government scientists have found that greenhouse gases are being pumped into the earth's atmosphere faster than ever since the turn of the century. They have also found that emissions in Australia are increasing considerably faster than the global average.

Research on global warming is drawing scientists in increasing numbers to the world's polar regions. But as scientists make more journeys northward, some of them find that their mission now extends beyond the ice or sediment samples they will bring back to their labs to analyze.

Watching the ebb and flow of populations of fisheries around the world can provide some insight into understanding the effects of global warming on our planet, according to a group of researchers writing in the summer 2007 issue of Natural Resource Modeling. The fact that fisheries are closely tied to human health and species health across the globe adds to their significance.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on Friday plans to issue a third report on ways to offset global warming. Scientists and government administrators from more than 120 countries have been hammering out the text of the report this week in Bangkok, Thailand. Early drafts indicate that countries that start now to back away from fossil fuels, will not have to wait generations to see benefits.

Leading environmental experts who are meeting in Bangkok this week are hammering out details of a report on ways to fight climate change. Several leading US scientists say the report, to be released Friday, will be the most comprehensive assessment to date of research on the subject. VOA's Mike O'Sullivan has details.

Case Western Reserve University faculty member Matthew Sobel has joined a team of international scientists calling for better forecasting methods in predicting how climate changes will impact the earth's plant and animal species. They have reported eight ways to improve biodiversity forecasting in the BioScience article, "Forecasting the Effects of Global Warming on Biodiversity."