Cranberries are headed north: When Rod Serres thinks about cranberries, he doesn’t see them beside a Thanksgiving turkey. Another bird comes to mind: a canary in a coal mine. That’s because, like all berries, cranberries are very sensitive to climate, making them the agricultural harbinger of global warming in America’s Northeast. “The cranberry is pretty highly adapted to its specific environment, its niche in life,” says Mr. Serres, principal scientist for Ocean Spray, an agricultural cooperative and juice company headquartered in Lakeville-Middleboro, Mass. “And if you change its environment, it’s probably going to be affected more than most species”. Christian Science Monitor

Intellectual climate change: The United States, long a laggard, is fast catching up on the issue of climate change. A rapidly growing share of Americans accepts that global warming is a serious, man-made problem and that something must be done about it. Evangelical Christians, many originally hostile, are coming to agree. Politically engaged evangelicals are fighting over whether climate change should join – or replace – such familiar issues as abortion on their agenda. A bipartisan US Senate bill, now in committee hearings, would establish a serious, comprehensive scheme to govern American emissions of greenhouse gases. Guardian

Greenhouse gases at near-record levels in 2005: The volume of greenhouse gases emitted by industrialized nations rose to near-record levels in 2005, the United Nations said Tuesday, two weeks before political leaders meet in Bali, Indonesia, to agree on a road map for negotiations on a new global treaty to fight climate change. Among the nations responsible for the rising trend was the United States and a number of former Soviet bloc countries that advanced economically without restraining their pollution levels, said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. International Herald Tribune

Ancient Chinese town on front lines of desertification battle: Towering sand dunes loom over the ancient Chinese city of Dunhuang like giant waves about to break, and they are already lapping at Ma Wangzhen’s onion farm. She points a rough finger at a line of dead trees, half-buried in sand, planted years ago as part of her 20-year losing battle to halt the once-distant dunes which now threaten to spill into her onion crop. “It moves very fast, much faster than anything I can do to stop it,” said Ma, 60. Ma is on the front lines of a national struggle against a relentless foe: desertification. An ancient oasis in destitute Gansu province along the historic Silk Road, Dunhuang is in danger of being swallowed by the sands of the adjacent Kumtag desert, which are creeping closer at a rate of up to four metres (13 feet) a year. AFP

India rejects curtailing tourism to check global warming: India has turned down UN’s World Tourism Organisation’s suggestion that it should curtail tourism as a measure to resist the climate change and global warming. Speaking at the Ministerial Summit on Tourism and Climate Change in London during World Travel Mart, Secretary Tourism, S Banerjee said UNWTO was not the right forum to raise such issues. “It is appropriate that matters relating to climate change are addressed at UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC),” Banerjee said. Times of India