The red fox moves into his smaller cousin's territory and acts like he owns the place.

As climate change warms up the Arctic, conditions become less and less favorable to the arctic fox. It's harder to find their normal diet and they have to compete with the new kid on the block: the red fox. You see, another effect of a warmer arctic is that the red fox is more comfortable making a home up there. Not only does the artic fox have to compete for its ever-scarcer prey with its larger cousin from the south, the adorable little fuzz-ball is even finding itself the prey.

The less-than-friendly details ...

"Alaska's average temperature has increased 4 to 5 degrees in the last 50 years, compared with about 1 degree worldwide in the last century."

"Among the most visible invaders are red foxes, which are displacing Arctic foxes from territories once too cold for red foxes."

"...[the] red fox has already been moving north, and as a superior hunter it is displacing the arctic fox where they come into contact."

"...spotted a red fox chasing an Arctic fox ..."

The 2000's were warmer than the '90's, which were warmer than the '80's. Does anyone see a pattern here?

We've done it again. We've topped ourselves! Not only was last decade the warmest ever recorded, but 2009 was the fifth warmest year and 2010 (with the aid of El Nino) could be the hottest of them all. That's the combined takeaway from recent reports by the World Meterological Organization, The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the U.S., and the Met Office (the UK’s National Weather Service).

Two of the "ten warmest" slots are held by years from the 1990's, with the rest filled by years since 2001.

Warm up to the stats...

Top 10 warmest years on record

2000-2009, the warmest decade

2010 could be the warmest recorded year ever

Kito's concerned. Have government regulators turned their backs on people who like acid rain and a damaged ozone layer?

Critics of government say it can't do anything right, and that government regulation kills the economy. Skeptics of climate change say mankind can't impact nature in a significant way. Those viewpoints are tested when looking at the role government regulation has played in reducing acid rain and the hole in the ozone layer.

Governments around the world enacted the Montreal Protocol in 1989, agreeing to concrete actions aimed at fixing the hole in the ozone layer. Also around that time President George H.W. Bush implemented a cap and trade system (gasp!) to attack the problem of acid rain in the United States.

The Acid Rain Program (part of the Clean Air Act) ended up more successful and less costly than anticipated, and has been described as "...the most successful domestic environmental legislation ever enacted." It's costing utilities just 12% of the predicted expenditures and annually produces an estimated $122 billion in benefits—-healthier people, healthier forests & waterways, and more. Additionally, it has reduced acid deposition (acid deposited on the earth's surface through precipitation, or through gases and particles floating around) by an average of about 40%.

Meanwhile, benefits from the Montreal Protocol are starting to be measured. Some scientists see the hole as healing and theorize it could close completely by the end of the century.

Here are the details...

"... the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act, considered by many to be the most successful domestic environmental legislation ever enacted."

"The...Acid Rain Program...proved doubters wrong and exceeded the expectations of its proponents: The goal of reducing sulfur dioxide emissions by half from 1980 levels was achieved in 2007, three years before the statutory deadline."

"...the cap-and-trade system continues to let polluters figure out the least expensive way to reduce their acid rain emissions. As a result, the law costs utilities just $3 billion annually, not $25 billion...by cutting acid rain in half, it also generates an estimated $122 billion a year in benefits..."

The Acid Rain Program didn't hurt the economy

For consumers served by today's heavy emitters of sulfur dioxide, electricity rates could increase by as much as 10 to 15 percent. The market-based allowance trading system should save the American people about 25 to 50 percent over the same level of emission reduction without trading. This savings totals more than $1 billion annually.

"We found a global slightly positive trend of ozone increase of almost 1% per decade in the total ozone from the last 14 years: a result that was confirmed by comparisons with ground-based measurements."

Australian scientists say the ozone hole is shrinking and that it could close completely by the end of the century, bringing more rain to eastern Australia.