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As change in the Arctic accelerates, scientists and indigenous peoples have pressing reasons to work together.

One winter in the early 18th century, it was so cold animals died in their barns, travellers froze to death, and even the Mediterranean iced over. It was Europe's coldest spell for the past 500 years.

For as long as they can recall, Kol tribals in the Chitrakut district of Uttar Pradesh, depended on the forest for food and livelihood. The jungle was an old and trusted friend yielding nutritious mahua, anvla and chiraunji. Tribals could earn money by selling such forest produce and by plucking tendu leaves. But since the last five years, this tried and tested support system is crumbling.

BEIJING: If bad weather threatens the August 8 opening of Beijing's Olympic Games, then meteorologists may change the weather, according to an official.

Chen Zhenlin, a vice director with the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), made the statement on Tuesday at a press conference held at the Beijing International Media Center.

Meteorological departments will consult the Beijing municipal government whether or not to change the city's weather, said Mr. Chen.

"Politicians seem to think that the science is a done deal," says Tim Palmer. "I don't want to undermine the IPCC, but the forecasts, especially for regional climate change, are immensely uncertain." Palmer is a leading climate modeller at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts in Reading, UK, and he does not doubt that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has done a good job alerting the world to the problem of global climate change.

The climate of the North Atlantic region exhibits fluctuations on decadal timescales that have large societal consequences. Prominent examples include hurricane activity in the Atlantic, and surface-temperature and rainfall variations over North America, Europe and northern Africa. Although these multidecadal variations are potentially predictable if the current state of the ocean is known, the lack of subsurface ocean observations that constrain this state has been a limiting factor for realizing the full skill potential of such predictions.

Ii the American Southwest heading for a megadrought? A projection based on climate models suggests this could be the outcome as global warming alters the Pacific weather patterns that normally bring rain to the region. Now tree rings are revealing just how dry things could get.

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