Editorial
Demise of the Maldives: Greatly Exaggerated?: Press reports to the contrary notwithstanding, the Maldives appear to be in no danger of disappearing under the waves of the sea any time soon.

Subject Index Summaries
Climate Oscillations (Millennial Variability: Antarctica): What can the study of millennial-scale oscillations of climate at the "bottom of the world" tell us about the cause of the global warming that has ushered in the Modern Warm Period?

Effects of Ozone on Plants (Tree Species: Birch): Rising ozone concentrations raise havoc with birch trees in a number of different ways; but concurrent increases in the air's CO2 concentration generally compensate for these negative consequences.

Journal Reviews
Six Centuries of Climate Along the Southern Norwegian Continental Margin: What do they tell us about the controversial temperature history of Mann et al. (1999)?

Breakup of the Arctic's Ward Hunt Ice Shelf: It was a big story in the fall of 2003, portrayed by the media as a harbinger of coming climatic catastrophe.  In reality, it was but another small step in the planet's recovery from the cold conditions of the Little Ice Age.

El Niño Warming: Effects on Costa Rican Corals: They're not as straightforward as climate alarmists would have one believe, nor are they any less complicated anywhere else.

CO2 Effects on Nitrogen Fixation and Growth of Common Alder Trees: The authors of this study hypothesized that unfertilized trees would show similar positive growth and physiological responses to elevated CO2 as fertilized trees.  Were they correct?

Responses of Young Beech and Spruce Trees to Atmospheric CO2 Enrichment May Be Affected by Genotype and Soil Type: A huge open-top chamber study in Switzerland demonstrates that trees of a given species don't necessarily perform alike when grown on different soils in atmospheres of different CO2 concentration.