Tiempo Climate Newswatch

Colossal areas of meltwater, held behind glaciers, threaten mountain communities as global warming breaches the glacial dams, according to European scientists. "In the Himalayas, some glaciers are up to 70 kilometres long," warned Martin Beniston of Fribourg University in Switzerland. "In Bhutan alone, there are at least 50 lakes in this category, and a similar number in Nepal as well. Towns and villages in their path could be hit by a torrent of water like a tsunami."

Last year, to avoid such flooding, engineers drained a lake that had built up behind the European Rochemelon glacier due to the summer heat. Glaciers are retreating in the Andes, Alps, Europe and the Himalayas owing to the combination of higher temperatures and lack of snowfall.

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• Terra Daily

The Chinese authorities have announced that a US$1.53 million forestry project to offset greenhouse gas emissions, combat desertification and protect biodiversity will go ahead in cooperation with the Italian government. Three thousand hectares of trees will be planted in Aohan Banner, in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of North China. Young people will carry out the work over the next five years and the project will be extended for a further five years.

"Projects like this can not only help China, a developing country, maintain a sustainable development of economy, but also satisfy the credits Italy has promised because of its commitments to the mitigation of carbon emissions as an industrialized country," said an official from the State Forestry Administration. "It will be the first project of its type in China... to take advantage of opportunities in the Clean Development Mechanism," he continued.

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• China Daily

• Tiempo Climate Newswatch

A team of Swedish and Russian scientists has developed a new record of Northern Hemisphere climate for the past 2000 years that suggests that natural climate variability may have been greater then previously thought. Over much of the 20th century, temperatures were similar to those prevailing during the 11th and 12th centuries. The most recent 15 years, though, have shown warmth unprecedented during earlier periods.

The research was based in the Department of Meteorology at Stockholm University and led by Anders Moberg. Use was made of indirect climate data, such as evidence from tree rings, ice sheets and lake and ocean sediments. The study used a different selection of climate records than previous work and a new method to reconstruct temperatures.

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• ENN