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Concerns are growing in Brussels that persistent denial of human-caused global warming among Republican presidential hopefuls could damage EU-US relations and even spark a trade conflict. All the leading challengers for the White House have staked out positions on global warming that defy the international scientific consensus, causing what Thomas Legge, a climate officer for the German Marshall Fund, called “exasperation” in Brussels. Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said in September she was “shocked that the political debate in the US is so far away from the scientific facts.” “When you hear American presidential candidates denying climate change, it's difficult...

E-mail Author Send to a Friend Version December 07, 2005, 8:23 a.m. Killing Kyoto The world climate is changing. By Nick Schulz MontrealA curious thing is happening at this year's annual United Nations conference on climate change. The nasty anti-Americanism on display in years past is largely absent. To the contrary, there's a seriousness of purpose and an acknowledgement of difficult realities that's unprecedented. To give just a small example, one of the big topics of discussion to have emerged this year is something called "adaptive capacity." That's a fancy way of saying that some countries are better equipped...

<p>If the Earth's climate continues to warm up as predicted, some crab species along the Pacific coast may face extinction. A study shows that small crabs that live just off the beach in warmer waters have little tolerance for rising temperatures. Jonathon H. Stillman, a marine biologist at Stanford University, tested the heat tolerance of four species of crabs found in the shallow waters of the Pacific Ocean and reports his findings this week in the journal Science.</p>

If your dogwoods and peony patches are looking a bit more robust than they did 20 years ago, you may have climate change to thank for much of their growth. Using two decades' worth of data on climate and vegetation, a team of scientists has taken what may be the first planet-wide look at plant activity during a time when Earth's environment underwent significant change. The researchers found that globally, shifts in rainfall patterns, cloud cover, and warming temperatures triggered a 6 percent increase in the amount of carbon stored in trees, grass, shrubs, and flowers. Many scientists hold that...

International cooperation works when countries think that by acting jointly they can advance their own interests. This week, I meant to take a break from Iraq, geopolitics, the clash of civilizations, and other recent preoccupations. These topics lie outside my authorized sphere of operation anyway—battlefield commentary even more so. It seemed like a good time to write an article on international trade. Now that I weigh it up, though, this is not going to work. Trade is not really a different subject. The logic is much the same. Trade policy is in the news for a bad reason: The World...