About 700 to 800 US annual deaths in the most recent years can be attributed to human-caused carbon emissions.

Climate-warming carbon dioxide spewed by coal-fired power plants and fossil-fueled vehicles has been causing hundreds of premature US deaths each year over the several decades, a new study reported.
The deaths were due to lung and heart ailments linked to ozone and polluting particles in the air, which are spurred by carbon dioxide that comes from human activities, according to the study’s author, Mark Jacobson of Stanford University, Reuters reported.
As the planet warms due to carbon dioxide emissions, the annual death rate is forecast to climb, with premature deaths in the United States from human-generated carbon dioxide expected to hit 1,000 a year when the global temperature has risen by 1.8 degrees F (1 degree C).
When the planet gets that hot, which could happen this century, the world annual death rate is estimated to rise to 21,600, Jacobson said in a telephone interview.
Earth has warmed about 1.4 degrees F (0.8 degrees C) in the last 150 years, with most of that gain in the last three decades. Jacobson said about 700 to 800 US annual deaths in the most recent years can be attributed to human-caused carbon emissions.
Greenhouse gas pollution has spurred global warming which resulted in a damaging rise in the sea level, droughts and possibly more severe storms this century.
This is the first time a scientist has specifically linked one human-generated greenhouse gas to human mortality.
Carbon dioxide is one of several greenhouse gases blamed for climate change, but it is the one humans have the most ability to control through regulation of activities that burn fossil fuels like coal and oil.
It is also emitted by natural processes.

Polar bears depend on sea ice as a platform for hunting seals, and without it, the bears could be forced onto land, where they are inefficient hunters.

The United States delayed a decision on whether global warming threatens polar bears, saying new data and public comment required more time.
Environmentalists vowed to sue for quicker action.The deadline for deciding whether to list the big white bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act was last Wednesday (Jan. 2) but Dale Hall, head of the Fish and Wildlife Service, told reporters it would take as much as a month more to analyze all the information, said AP.
This is the first time global warming has been a factor in proposing threatened status for any US species, Hall said, and that has added to the complexity of the decision.
Polar bears depend on sea ice as a platform for hunting seals, and without it, the bears could be forced onto land, where they are inefficient hunters.
As sea ice melts, the bears are forced to swim long distances and footage of polar bears drowning has fueled the debate over their fate.
The act indicates the one allowable reason for a delay in adding a species to the list is “substantial scientific uncertainty“ but Hall denied in a telephone news conference that this was the reason.
“I’m not saying that there is scientific uncertainty under the act and it’s unfortunately one of those times ... we’ll have to miss the deadline in order to provide the quality product that needs to be provided,“ he said.
While all the other 1,300 or so species on the list were clearly threatened by deforestation or vanishing wetlands, Hall said the climate connection to the polar bear case required help from government scientists to understand the various impacts of global warming.

A man walks near heaps of uncollected garbage in a suburb of Naples, southern Italy, Jan. 5.

The Italian government pledged a speedy, “radical“ solution to a mafia-linked rubbish disposal crisis in the Naples region following fresh clashes between residents and police.
“Within 24 hours we will be ready to confront the situation radically,“ government spokesman Silvio Sircana told journalists.
Residents in the Pozzuoli suburb west of Naples, up in arms over a plan to reopen a landfill closed 11 years ago over public health concerns, have mounted a series of protests, setting up roadblocks with tree trunks, torching buses and clashing repeatedly with police, reported AFP.
They claimed a victory when security forces moved away from the Pianura landfill, allowing the protesters to occupy the site.
The right-wing opposition claims that Pecoraro Scanio, who is also the head of Italy’s Green party, is partly to blame for the crisis for having refused to allow the building of new incineratorsin the Naples region, home to some six million people.
A single incinerator is set to go into operation in early 2009.
Authorities dodging stones hurled by protesters removed two roadblocks on the road leading to the Pianura dump.
Television footage showed one police officer dealing baton blows to a protestor who had climbed onto a bulldozer.
Authorities want to add tens of thousands of tons of waste to the Pianura site, only a fraction of the more than 110,000 tons that have accumulated over the past week with existing treatment centers operating beyond capacity.
“We are really afraid for our health,“ 42-year-old Pozzuoli resident Roberto Calvello told AFP.
“It’s not just the toxic fumes in the air, but the pollution seeping into the ground,“ he said, adding that flora and fauna at the Astroni Crater, a WWF nature reserve abutting the dump, were also at risk.
Across the region, residents upset by growing mountains of uncollected rubbish have set dozens of fires, sending dioxin and other toxins into the air.

Australian animal protection groups questioned a new government guide for the humane killing of kangaroos which recommends “forcefully swinging“ the heads of young animals against a vehicle tow bar.
A proposed code of conduct for shooting young kangaroos, called joeys, and smaller wallabies released by the Department of Environment also recommended a single close-range shotgun blast, ABCNews.com wrote.
“These changes are basically saying the federal government believes it’s okay to blast a defenseless joey to bits with a shotgun,“ Pat O’Brien, president of the Wildlife Protection Association, told local newspapers.
Kangaroos are one of Australia’s national symbols and feature on the country’s coat-of-arms. But they are also hunted for their meat and in some areas are at plague proportions amid drought.
Military chiefs in Canberra recently gave the go-ahead for a euthanasia program to control kangaroo numbers on bases in the national capital to avoid a mass starvation of the animals.
The draft national code aims to guide people on humane disposal of orphaned joeys, which live in their mothers’ pouches, after the parent has either been shot or hit by a vehicle. The code rejected sending orphaned joeys to wildlife careers.
“I think we all love kangaroos. The problem is that there are too many. What we are talking about here is responsible environmental management, because if we don’t do something you won’t have pastures and viable farming,“ an Environment Department spokesman said.
“We are trying to come up with something that is practicable to use across sometimes remote parts of the country.
Both national animal protection body the RSPCA and the Wildlife Protection Association, founded by late “Crocodile Hunter“ Steve Irwin, urged the government to impose a ban on shotgun use in the draft.
Former lawmaker and conservationist Richard Jones said the code could backfire on the government in its campaign against Japanese Antarctic whaling, despite the fact kangaroos are not internationally protected like whales.

A snowy day in TehranÕs Mellat Park

Malaysia’s monkeys are being forced out of their forest habitat into cities, carrying diseases that could infect humans, veterinary experts warned in a report.
The monkeys, who are making new homes in streets and housing estates as they make way for urban development, are carrying blood parasites and the herpes virus or suffer from simian malaria and dengue, The Star newspaper reported.
“Once these monkeys carry the virus, there is a possibility that those who keep them as pets would contract the disease,“ said Veterinary Association Malaysia vice president,
S. Vellayan.
“However the situation also works in reverse, as monkeys easily catch diseases from humans.“
Vellayan said the findings were based on post mortems conducted on monkeys killed in road accidents or dead primates brought to the national zoo.
Malaysia’s monkey population is estimated at 700,000, out of which some 250,000 are found in towns and cities--mostly macaques or leaf monkeys, the paper said.
Veterinarian Roy Sirimanne said that the monkeys could also contribute to the spread of air-borne diseases.
“The mosquitoes that usually feed on the monkeys will also tag along, increasing the risk of vector-borne disease transmission,“ he said.
The environment minister said steps will be taken to combat the monkey menace after a probe is concluded.
Malaysia last year lifted a 23-year ban on the export of long-tailed macaques from the peninsula, saying they had become an urban pest and were attacking people and stealing food.

Canada Conservative government needs to quickly impose a price on carbon to stand any chance of meeting its own targets for cutting emissions of greenhouse gases, an official panel said.
The finding is unlikely to please Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who opposes the idea of a carbon tax on grounds it could damage the economy, reported Reuters.
The National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy said Ottawa had the choice of bringing in either a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade system to limit emissions by industry.
Ottawa, which has abandoned its commitments under the Kyoto climate change protocol, last year announced it planned to cut emissions by up to 65 percent from 2006 levels by 2050 and asked the round table to probe how best to achieve this.
“Market-based policies that put a price on carbon to send an economy-wide signal on emissions are the most effective way to achieve deep, long-term greenhouse gas emissions reductions of the scale being considered,“ round table Chairman Glen Murray told a news conference.
“An early and clear price signal is needed to influence the investment decisions by industry in the technology and innovation required to achieve deep reductions.“
A carbon tax would penalize the burning of fossil fuels such as oil and gas and could target industry or consumers.
The round table--which did not say what it thought a price on carbon should be--said the cost to Canada’s economy would only be between one and two years of “lost growth“ of gross domestic product between 2008 and 2050.
“This is the time to move the discussion ahead. There is a huge sense of urgency,“ Murray said.