Nuclear war between India and Pakistan would cause more than slaughter and destruction -- it would knock a big hole in the ozone layer, affecting crops, animals and people worldwide, US researchers said on Monday. Fires from burning cities would send 5 million metric tonnes of soot or more into the lowest part of Earth's atmosphere known as the troposphere, and heat from the sun would carry these blackened particles into the stratosphere, the team at the University of Colorado reported.

Fires Main Threat To Amazon In Drier Climate - Study NORWAY: April 8, 2008 OSLO - Fires set by people will be the biggest threat to the Amazon rainforest in coming decades linked to a drier climate caused by global warming, researchers said on Monday. They said swathes of the forest were more likely to be killed by blazes raging out of control than by a more gradual shift towards savannah caused by more frequent droughts predicted by the UN Climate Panel in a 2007 report.

Climate Change A Factor In Deaths From Disease - WHO PHILIPPINES: April 8, 2008 MANILA - Climate change is one of the factors causing an increase in the incidence of diseases like malaria and dengue fever, the World Health Organisation said on Monday. At least 150,000 more people are dying each year of malaria, diarrhoea, malnutrition and floods, all of which can be traced to climate change, said Shigeru Omi, the head of the WHO's Western Pacific office. More than half of those deaths are in Asia, Omi told reporters.

Scientists at two UK universities have produced evidence to debunk a popular alternative theory to explain climate change. The scientists were unable to find a link between cosmic rays and cloud cover Following a year long study, emeritus professors Terry Sloan, of Lancaster University, and Arnold Wolfendale, of Durham University, said they could find no link between cosmic rays and global warming.

Rising sea levels, melting river ice seen in Arctic Canada VANCOUVER, British Columbia

New health policy in 3 months: adviser World Health Day today Staff Correspondent The government will formulate a new health policy within three months to ensure proper healthcare services for all, health and family welfare adviser AMM Shawkat Ali said on Sunday. The new policy will make major changes to the national health guidelines so far framed or proposed to facilitate modernisation of healthcare facilities, he said at a press conference on the eve of World Health Day.

BUSINESS will be expected to massively boost investment in Victoria's stressed environment under a State Government plan to save species threatened by climate change. Launching a draft blueprint for rebuilding devastated ecosystems over the next 20 to 50 years, Environment Minister Gavin Jennings yesterday called on the community to start viewing the restoration of the environment as an economic opportunity rather than a cost.

Climate change, a creation of mankind has brought many ills to the world, but a solution is not far off as long as a concerted effort involving all countries is made to protect the environment sooner than later, Healthcare and Nutrition Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva said. Addressing media personnel at a seminar conducted to mark

Nobel Scientist Issues Warning On Global Warming US: April 7, 2008 MIAMI - The Nobel Prize-winning scientist who rang the first alarm bells over the ozone hole issued a warming about climate change on Saturday, saying there could be "almost irreversible consequences" if the Earth warmed 2.5 degrees Celsius (4.5 degrees F) above what it ought to be.

FEATURE - Iceland: Life On Global Warming's Front Line ICELAND: April 7, 2008 REYKJAVIK - If any country can claim to be pitched on the global warming front line, it may be the North Atlantic island nation of Iceland. On a purely physical level, this land of icecaps and volcanoes and home to 300,000 people is undergoing a rapid transformation as its glaciers melt and weather patterns change dramatically. But global warming is also having a profound effect on Iceland economically -- and in many ways the effects have actually been beneficial.