From AP via CTV.ca:

Antarctic glaciers are melting faster than previously thought, which could lead to an unprecedented rise in sea levels, scientists said Wednesday.

From AP via TheStar.com:

An international team of climate experts has taken a new look at the threat of global warming, and they do not like what they see.

The Earth will not have to warm up as much as had been thought to cause serious consequences, including more extreme weather and increasing threats to plants and animals, the scientists report in this week's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Sometime after the stock market collapse of last fall, I remember reading somewhere that the markets usually start taking flight about a month after a new U.S. president is sworn in.

Fortunately, instead of investing in the stock market based on that advice, I pissed away $2 on a Lotto 6/49 ticket last Saturday. As a result, I'm only down two bucks.

As for Monday, however, the North American markets tanked.

In the Swat valley, Pakistan has signed a peace deal with the Taliban that will lead to the imposition of Sharia law -- exactly what the Taliban was fighting for.

On Valentine's Day, tech thingee Cali Lewis of Dallas, Texas wrote the following on Twitter:

It's so sad that smart people don't pay attention to the science that proves global warming is a hoax.

Alas, she doesn't appear to be willing to publish the comment I left on her blog. So I'll publish it.

Update: Sometime before 3 p.m. (and after I Twittered about it), the comment was approved -- more than 14 hours after I left it, and long after other, later ones were approved.

From the UK's Met Office (posted Feb. 11):

Dr Vicky Pope, Met Office Head of Climate Change, calls on scientists and the media to ‘rein in’ some of their assertions about climate change.

She says: “News headlines vie for attention and it is easy for scientists to grab this attention by linking climate change to the latest extreme weather event or apocalyptic prediction. But in doing so, the public perception of climate change can be distorted. The reality is that extreme events arise when natural variations in the weather and climate combine with long-term climate change. This message is more difficult to get heard. Scientists and journalists need to find ways to help to make this clear without the wider audience switching off. ...

“For climate scientists, having to continually rein in extraordinary claims that the latest extreme is all due to climate change is, at best, hugely frustrating and, at worst, enormously distracting. Overplaying natural variations in the weather as climate change is just as much a distortion of the science as underplaying them to claim that climate change has stopped or is not happening. Both undermine the basic facts that the implications of climate change are profound and will be severe if greenhouse gas emissions are not cut drastically and swiftly over the coming decades.

“When climate scientists like me explain to people what we do for a living we are increasingly asked whether we “believe in climate change”. Quite simply it is not a matter of belief. Our concerns about climate change arise from the scientific evidence that humanity’s activities are leading to changes in our climate. The scientific evidence is overwhelming.”

As jobless rates rise, so do signs of social instability around the globe, including protests and strikes.

From the BBC:

The severity of global warming over the next century will be much worse than previously believed, a leading climate scientist has warned.

The BBC and ABC News do a poll of Afghans. It has usually come out in December, but this one came out on Feb. 9. Here's the quick version from the BBC:

People in Afghanistan have far less confidence in the direction their country is taking than four years ago, a new BBC/ABC opinion poll suggests.

The approval rating for the central government in Kabul is still high - but is steadily falling.

Support for the presence of foreign troops is also strong but declining, compared with previous polls.

But the public is still very much opposed to the Taleban, seeing them as the country's biggest threat.

Most do not want to see the militants return.

The headline on the ABC News story is disheartening: Frustration With War, Problems in Daily Life Send Afghans' Support for U.S. Efforts Tumbling

The Globe and Mail's John Heinzl points to one narrow indicator that suggests the wheels of world commerce may be starting to turn ever so slightly.

The fires that have devastated Australia in recent days may not be "caused" by climate change, but some experts think they could be a grim harbinger of what could come as the world's temperature continues to rise.

From the NYT:

Even as C.I.A. drone aircraft pound Al Qaeda in Pakistan’s tribal region, there is growing concern among American military and intelligence officials about different militants’ havens in Pakistan that they fear could thwart American military efforts in Afghanistan this year.

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From the Globe and Mail:

Health officials in Alberta confirmed Friday that there are more cases of cancer than expected in a small aboriginal village downstream from the massive oil sands plants, but they said there was no cause for residents to be alarmed.