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The evidence for Global Warming grew more overwhelming this year as the 2006-2007 Winter became the Warmest on Record and 2007 took 7th place in the list of warmest years since 1850 according to early data, making the top 11 warmest years occurring in the last 13. The Fourth IPCC Climate Change Report dropped the wishy-washy language and argued strongly that Anthropogenic Global Warming was real, spurring many critics to declare case closed on whether it was happening and arguing that it was time to figure out what to do about it.

And the need to do something about it grew ever more urgent this year as more than one independent report called Global Warming a Security Threat, and the Pentagon announced that thawing ice would force it to close three NORAD Early-Warning Radars. The Northwest Trade Passage Opened Up as Arctic ice ebbed to record levels, prompting the Coast Guard to begin planning an Arctic Base to patrol the region.

The Great Lakes Shrank, prohibiting larger cargo vessels from trading in them. The Southeast remains in the worst drought of a century. Retreating glaciers in Greenland kept mapmakers busy, retreating ice revealed a wealth of new species in the Arctic all endangered by Climate Change, and natural resources, sparking a space-race style run on the Arctic between Russia and the U.S.

Ecological Debt Day, the day when the people of Earth have used up all the resources the planet can replenish each year, came a little earlier on the 6^th of October, and will probably come earlier still in 2008. A United Nations report made the shocking declaration that there were five years left to save the orang utan. Scientists remained baffled by the sudden and dramatic loss of Honey Bees across the world from the mysterious colony collapse disorder. An entire Salmon Farm was wiped out in a jellyfish attack, as the animals swarm in larger numbers thanks to global warming and the collapse of their predators’ fish stocks.

With all of these immense challenges facing the human race, the world’s scientists are rising to the challenge. The EDGE of Existence Programme highlighted the world’s most evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service requested $27 Million for recovery efforts to find the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker. The Congo created a Massive Reserve to protect our closest relative out of all species, the Bonobo. While video game maker EA and BP Oil collaborated to Add a Global Warming Threat To SimCity.

After the beautiful freshwater river dolphin, the baijis, went extinct last year in China, the Chinese government began taking serious steps toward ecological sustainability, pulling all stops to keep the last female Yangtze turtle on the planet alive for breeding, and establishing the country’s First National Park. However, there’s much more work for China ahead.

While the Southwestern Bald Eagle was taken off the Endangered Species list, leaving 1,926 species to go, scientists argued that the Bush Administration manipulated findings and lowered the requirements in order to claim this victory.

There were two definite positives this year, as scientists fitted a handicapped dolphin with an artificial tail, and the beaver returned to New York City after 200 years.