Current Editorial
An Unfortunate Statement from the Editors of Nature: Last week we had to lecture the editor-in-chief of Science for his decidedly unscientific comments on President Bush's decision to not regulate CO2 emissions from U.S. power plants.  This week we do the same for the editors of Nature ... and for pretty much the same reason.

Extra!
Sea Turtles Stunned by Cold: In a time claimed by climate alarmists to be the warmest of the past millennium, it is an amazing reality-check experience to witness the largest episode of "cold-stunning" of sea turtles ever observed in the United States, and especially during the winter, when global warming, which the climate alarmists claim is already upon us, is supposed to be most pronounced.

Subject Index Summaries
Greenland: Is the Greenland ice sheet shrinking?  Or is it growing?  No one knows for sure; and it may well be several more decades before anyone can say anything definitive about the subject.

Soil (Erosion): As the air's CO2 content continues to rise, its stimulatory effect upon the aboveground growth of plants helps to shield the surface of the soil on which they grow from the ravages of wind and rain, while its inducement of greater belowground growth tends to enhance the stability of soil in the plant root zone.  Together, the two effects greatly suppress soil erosion.

Current Journal Reviews
Recent Unprecedented Glacial Retreat in the Swiss Alps?  Not During This Interglacial!: Radiocarbon dating of subfossil wood and peat debris reveals the existence of several glacial recessions in the Central Swiss Alps that are indicative of a much milder climate than that of the present over many portions of the past 10,000 years.

Permafrost Degradation in Central Alaska: Is permafrost melting in central Alaska a sign of CO2-induced global warming?  The scientific data say ...

Itching for Global Warming?: Higher temperatures will help you stop the scratching.

Effects of Elevated CO2 on Photosynthesis in a C4 Tallgrass Prairie Plant: An experimental doubling of the air's CO2 concentration stimulated photosynthesis in the dominant C4 species of a Kansas tallgrass prairie during times of reduced soil moisture; while it reduced plant stomatal conductance and transpirational water loss under both dry and wet conditions, thereby continuously increasing plant water-use efficiency.

Responses of Soil Microbiota to Elevated CO2: In experiments carried out in California, USA, CO2-enhanced carbon inputs to the soils of two annual grasslands were transferred up the soil microbial food web from fungal organisms to flagellated protozoa.