A Vast Lake Trapped Under Ice Sheet Drained Into The Sea, Bringing Down Temperatures Paris: Canadian geologists say they can shed light on how a vast lake, trapped under the ice sheet that once smothered much of North America, drained into the sea, an event that cooled Earth's climate for hundreds of years. During the last ice age, the Laurentide Ice Sheet once covered most of Canada and parts of the northern United States with a frozen crust that in some places was three kilometres thick. As the temperature gradually rose some 10,000 years ago, the ice receded, gouging out the hollows that would be called the Great Lakes. Beneath the ice's thinning surface, an extraordinary mass of water built up

For a decade Europe has rebuffed efforts by biotechnology firms such as America's Monsanto to promote genetically modified crops. Despite scientific assurances that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are safe for human consumption, and a ruling by the World Trade Organisation against national import bans in the European Union, many Europeans have yet to touch or taste them.

Turkey and the European Union appeared ready on Friday for greater co-operation in the construction of the Nabucco natural gas pipeline aimed at enhancing Europe's energy security and reducing its dependence on Russian gas supplies. The EU had become worried about Turkey's apparent lack of commitment to the $5bn project. But Jozias van Aartsen, EU co-ordinator for natural gas projects in southern Europe, said after meeting Turkish officials on Friday that the project was nearer to realisation than before his visit.

Campaigners against airport expansion have some new evidence to support their case. A study of 140 people living near four European airports concludes that loud night-time noise raises blood pressure, even when people are asleep.

A row about milk quotas only confirms the idiocy of Europe's common agricultural policy AT LAST, say some European Union leaders, it is time for tough talk about the future of farming. Even the subsidy-mad French agree: a mid-term review of the common agricultural policy (CAP) is to begin during their stint in the EU's rotating presidency, later this year. It all sounds encouraging. Except for this: even as governments boast of tackling difficult reforms soon, France, Germany and others are trying to thwart an easy reform now that would let EU dairy farmers take advantage of soaring world prices. The row centres on the EU's milk quotas, which cap production in each country, with swingeing fines for producing too much. It offers a revealing, and depressing, case study. There may never be a less painful time to ease (or scrap) milk quotas. They were designed in 1984, when low market prices and high subsidies were filling EU warehouses with surplus "butter mountains' and mounds of milk powder, at ever greater cost to the EU budget. Liberal-minded types wondered naively if cutting subsidies might be an idea. They were outvoted by the farm lobby, which chose to curb production via quotas so as to boost prices. As an instrument, it was blunt

Human infections of bird flu have been entirely avian in origin and reflect strains circulating locally among poultry and wild birds.

Book>> The Egg and Sperm Race

Carbon footprint is a new buzzword that has gained tremendous popularity over the last few years-especially in the United Kingdom. Debates on the appropriate use of carbon footprinting are spreading through society.

The European Union is preparing to take the next step in tackling climate change after its executive arm presented a draft legislative package on 23 January 2008. The draft legislation proposes an EU-wide greenhouse gas emission trading scheme and enery related measures. Feb 2008

Set aside, for now, the really complex and costly financial implications of climate change. Ignore the tricky abstractions of carbon trading. Forget the worries over flooded cities and the ins and outs of renewable energy.

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