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Volume 3 Number 35:  13 December 2000

Temperature Record of the Week
This issue's Temperature Record of the Week is from Mount Pleasant University, Michigan. Visit our U.S. Climate Data section to plot and view these data for yourself.

Editorial
Will Global Warming Devastate Crops?  Read All About It!: We warn of the dangers of putting too much stock in individual studies that have not been submitted to peer-reviewed scientific journals, suggesting that a much broader base of published experimental results should be consulted before leaping to dramatic conclusions that could form the basis of ill-advised energy policy recommendations.

Subject Index Summaries
Arctic: Recent research on climatic and biological phenomena occurring in the Arctic comes up short in terms of detecting impending disasters.

Senescence: Research into the effects of atmospheric CO2 enrichment on the senescence of leaves yields a mixed bag of results, in terms of both timing and effects on leaf litter quality.

Journal Reviews
Solar Variability and Climate Change: A new solar-luminosity model matches observed carbon 14 variations in tree rings over the past millennium, as well as sea level variations and major events of human history over the past 10,000 years.  Can you guess what this means?

Temperature Effects on Coronary Death in a Mild Climate: A study of over 220,000 deaths due to coronary artery disease in Los Angeles County, California, suggests that a little warming there would go a long way towards reducing such deaths.

The Demise of the Little Ice Age in Chile: Several types of proxy climate data reveal the history of the Little Ice Age in southern Chile, providing ever more evidence for the reality of this global climatic event whose existence is currently under attack by people who want to paint the world warmed by anthropogenic CO2 emissions.

Elevated CO2 Increases Seedling Biomass within Three Days of Emergence: Elevated CO2 significantly increased seedling biomass of bagpod sesbania, cotton, mesquite, cucumber, and hemp sesbania three days after emergence.  These increases did not correlate strongly with initial seed weight or seedling relative growth rate determined at ambient CO2 concentration, thus indicating that these two parameters cannot be used with great confidence to predict species responses to atmospheric CO2 enrichment.

Elevated CO2 Increases Flavonoid Concentrations in Wheat Leaves: Elevated CO2 increased total flavonoid concentrations in spring wheat leaves, indicating that future increases in the air's CO2 content may decrease yield losses by increasing flavonoid-derived plant defenses against UV-B radiation and herbivory-induced damage.