Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions from land-use change have increased by a third over the past 30 years and could increase by another 40 percent by mid-century if current rates of development, plowing and logging do not slow. Meanwhile, emissions from land-use changes in agriculture have declined by four percent. Researchers believe this has been helped by the adoption of conservation practices. The study is published in the journal Global Change Biology.

A historic lake effect snowstorm has pummeled many areas in Ontario, leaving communities buried under metres of snow and grappling with ongoing cleanup efforts. The storm, which began last Wednesday, has set new records for snowfall in several regions, with reports including significant totals, particularly in cottage country and the Sault Ste. Marie region. In the latest update released Tuesday morning from Environment Canada, the preliminary totals reveal startling figures.

Global warming continues every year - the changes in climate are already strongly felt by most of the world's inhabitants. Both last year and this year have repeatedly set temperature records, and in both years the average temperature was about 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Accumulated greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and some natural phenomena such as El Niño (a sudden abnormal change in the temperature of water in the Pacific Ocean off South America) and volcanic eruptions are partly to blame. But none of these fully explain such extraordinary heat.