Have you been feeling a bit warm lately? You may eventually get some relief - UN meteorologists have said that temperatures this year will decrease slightly. This change in climate is attributed to the La Nina phenomenon, which will likely make itself felt well into the summer.  More "cool" news follows after the jump.

Global warming has been a hot topic for a few years now and while efforts by numerous organizations have made headway in global awareness, one question is yet to be answered: are we too late? In a new research, scientists have calculated that we may see long-term consequences on the Earth's climate due to human activity as early as the next decade. Details in the full article.

Eastern Pacific whales appear to be starving, and this causes scientists a big deal of distress as they cannot identify what seems to be causing this decline. Over the past few years, Dr. William Megill of Earthwatch and his team have been noticing that at the end of the migration of the grey whales, their fat has gone, and they don't seem to be as interested in breeding anymore.

One hypothesis is that there's not enough food stock going around for the whales to be kept nourished. So instead of breeding, they busy themselves looking for their food. Talk about getting their priorities straight, eh? Another guess is that the warming waters affect their productivity, as well as the number of tiny crustaceans, which are the staple dish of the grey whales.

Then again, it could just be because the population of the grey whales became "unsustainably high", especially since they bounced back from the slump during the 1997 to 1998 El Nino event. "It could just be the whales ate them all," Megill acknowledges of the lack of food for the whales, "and what we're seeing is the same thing that happens to wolf and lynx populations when they eat too much of their prey."

But could this decline in the grey whales of the Pacific be just the tip of the iceberg? "It may be a lot more serious than just grey whales - they may just be the early warning sign of changes for the whole Pacific [Ocean], and we urgently need to know what's going on."

Watching the documentary film "An Inconvenient Truth" made me squirm - not because it's fugly, but because of the thought that those documentary scenes could happen to our Earth if we don't take appropriate actions.

So what's with the global warming talk? If you live in the Midwest and East parts of North America, then you'd know that these places are experiencing an unusually warm winter.

MSNBC reports that temperatures are running 10 and 10 degrees higher than normal in those places. Ice fishing tournaments in Minnesota were cancelled for lack of ice and golfers at Chicago are having a grand time at the fairways.

Nothing wrong with that, but heck, it's still January. In fact, New York City experienced a November and December without snow for just the second time. The first time that happened was way back in 1877.

Meteorologists have given explanations as to the possible reasons of the weird weather. They said that this due to the combination of El Nino and jet stream. El Nino can lead to milder weather especially now that it is under way in the Pacific Ocean; while jet stream, which is a high-altitude air-current responsible for holding back warm Southern air, is going farther north than usual over the East Coast.

This is also affecting winter-related businesses. Ski resorts are praying for cold weather to arrive soon and firewood businesses are struggling to make ends meet. As for the global warming clause, meteorologists also said that this weather change isn't caused by global warming since weather is somewhat prone to short-term fluctuations. That's the silver lining in this scenario...for now.

Everything is interconnected in the cycle of life, no matter how big or small. And its never too late to do something about the continuous degeneration of our environment. Every action can cause a series of effects, some good but sometimes it also causes awful things. Take for example the issue on global warming. This is one of the most widely discussed issues, but the funny thing is, a large number of people are not aware of it.

If you've felt a piercing cold during a clear winter night and wondered why you feel warmer on a cloudy winter night, well, you have experienced the atmospheric greenhouse effect first hand. Remember what they taught you at school that the Earth is surrounded by a shield of atmospheric gas? Well, these are called greenhouse gases and they are a vital element in the survival of life forms in the Earth. Without these gases, the Earth's surface would be up to 30 degrees cooler.

The greenhouse gases absorb infrared radiation from the Sun to warm the planet, but a chain of human activities such as the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) gas from burning of fossil fuels, the use of materials that emit chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), methane and nitrous oxide (N2O), alters the process, hence harming the natural balance of the Earth.

A greenhouse effect gone bad is what scientists call "anthropogenic climate change", and it is human induced. Yes dear citizens of Earth, WE caused it and most of us are still unaware of it! Two of the major effects of "anthropogenic climate change" are El Nino and global warming. The effects of these two phenomena are very destructive since they lead to extreme weather conditions.

A paper by James Hansen NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City, and his colleagues discuss the effects of El Nino and global warming. They said that the Earth is within 1.8 degrees F (1 degree C) of its highest temperature levels in the past million years. They noted a recent steep rise in average temperatures, with global surface temperatures increasing about 0.4 degrees F (0.2 degrees C) for each of the last three decades.

WSI Corp. predicted that the U.S. will experience warmer-than-normal weather over the Northeast and Midwest for the rest of this year. So next time you do something, think that what you do now will not only affect you, but atmospheric conditions as well.

El Nino, the Dennis the Menace of weather systems, has started to develop in the tropical Pacific and is likely to continue into early 2007 according to scientists. But scientists at the National Weather Service in Monterrey, Ca. say, "Worry about something else."

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the main U.S. agency in charge of forecasting and tracking the El Nino phenomenon, says weak conditions exist but could strengthen into a moderate event by winter. At its worst, the phenomenon was described as akin to a low-grade fever and should not cause any major upheavals.

In fact, the development of El Ni?ould help explain why the current Atlantic hurricane season has not been as active as expected. Early this week, Hurricane Gordon was downgraded to a Category 1 - one of the early effects of El Nino.

If El Nino continues to hold, scientists say the U.S. should expect wetter-than-average conditions over portions of the Gulf Coast and southeastern states in the first three months of 2007. While the West, the northern Great Plains, and the upper Midwest could experience warmer-than-average conditions.

Elsewhere, El Nino effects have already been observed in Indonesia, Malaysia and most of the Philippines with drier-than-average conditions.

New coral research says that 75% of the world’s coral reefs may not be able to cope with climate change, thus putting them in grave danger. In fact, a mere 1 degree rise in sea temperature is expected to be fatal to the coral.

Previously, it was believed corals could adapt to warmer temperatures by forming new symbiotic relationships with algae. Now, a new study revealed only 23% of the more than 442 coral species is capable of this mechanism.

The adaptive mechanism was seen during the 1997-1998 El Nino. Corals along the Panama coast were able to switch from one algae (clade C) to another (clade D.) The algae kept the coral alive by supplying them with nutrients. Coral without this adaptation becomes bleached and dies.

The world’s coral reefs also face threat from coastal pollution and acidifying oceans. These could cause coral to lose the algae that keep it alive. According to experts, 95% of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef will be gone by 2050.

Researchers say it is possible this adaptive mechanism is more widespread since the study only covered a tiny sliver of the 93,000 known coral species.

Coral is a common name for several species of invertebrate animals. Coral reefs are the animals' stony skeletons, a calcium carbonate crystalline framework secreted by the epidermis of individual coral organisms. Coral reefs in the tropics provide limestone materials for building roads and other types of coral have been used as ornaments.

Coral reef also provides protection and shelter for many species of fish and mollusks, including many commercially important species that feed between 30 and 40 million people every year.

El Nino conjures images of disasters from both ends of the catastrophe spectrum since it either brings torrential rains or scorching drought. But apprently, even El Nino-induced clouds have their silver lining.

El Nino typically appears every three to seven years which then results into the higher-than-normal warming of the equatorial parts of the Pacific Ocean. This, in turn, causes droughts in some places and  floods in others. Now, weather forecasters predict that the El Nino may also have a calming effect on the rest of the Atlantic hurricane season which peaks in late September and ends in November.

According to National Geographic, the phenomenon also suppresses the formation of potentially dangerous weather systems in the Atlantic Ocean. The Colorado State University meteorologists say that the El Nino is expected to reappear this Fall. As such, they expect no major hurricanes this October.

El Nino (roughly translated as "The Boy"), first used in 1892, got its name because it was most noticeable around Christmas.