Scientists fear climate change speed-up as oceans fail to hold greenhouse gases: The role of oceans to act as a “carbon sink” soaking up greenhouse gases has reduced, leading to new fears about global warming. Measurements of the north Atlantic taken by UK-based scientists over the decade from the mid-1990s to 2005 show the level of carbon dioxide in its waters reduced by about half over that time. Scotsman

Climate change blamed for fading foliage: Every fall, Marilyn Krom tries to make a trip to Vermont to see its famously beautiful fall foliage. This year, she noticed something different about the autumn leaves. “They’re duller, not as sparkly, if you know what I mean,” Krom, 62, a registered nurse from Eastford, Conn., said during a recent visit. “They’re less vivid.” Other “leaf peepers” are noticing, too, and some believe climate change could be the reason. Forested hillsides usually riotous with reds, oranges and yellows have shown their colors only grudgingly in recent years, with many trees going straight from the dull green of late summer to the rust-brown of late fall with barely a stop at a brighter hue. Associated Press

Honour for first wind-powered school: A village primary school was celebrating last night after bringing a new sense of pride to a former mining community devastated by a pit closure. The 107-pupil Cassop Primary School in Durham has become the first in the UK to be wind-powered through a wind turbine located in the school grounds. The school’s dedication to teaching about the environment, which has led to a host of educationalists visiting from abroad to see what they can learn from it, stems from a biologist, Jim McManners, becoming its headteacher thirty years ago. Independent

Scientists have a new way to reshape nature, but none can predict the cost: If you’ve never heard of synbio, you will hear plenty in the next decade. Synthetic biology now occupies roughly the same space on the public’s radar that computing might have done in the 1960s or genetic modification in the 1970s – it’s largely unheard of by anyone except the scientific community and its geeky observers. But as the pace of breakthrough in this area quickens, the sense of being on the edge of an extraordinary technological revolution is giving even the scientists involved vertigo. Guardian

Environmental danger to growth: Economists have rightly emphasised the risks to globalisation from economic and financial instability. But they have ignored environmental destruction, and the resulting global warming which now is the central global concern. Fast growing middle income nations, such as Chile, China, Malaysia (and India about to join their ranks) have a big stake in globalisation — and therefore, in confronting this environmental danger. India Economic Times