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A new NASA study shows that the rate of growth of greenhouse gas emissions has slowed since its peak in 1980, due to reduced chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) use, slower growth of methane, and a steady rate of carbon dioxide emissions. Overall, the growth of emissions has slowed over the past 20 years, with the lower CFC the most important factor.

?The decrease is due in large part to cooperative international actions of the Montreal Protocol for the phase-out of ozone-depleting gases,? says James Hansen of NASA?s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. ?But it is also due in part to slower growth of methane and carbon dioxide, for reasons that aren?t well understood and need more study.?
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NOAA has announced that warming is being observed over the Tropical Pacific, which could lead to an El Nino by early spring. The U.S. is not expected to see the impact until late summer, and they will last through the fall and into next winter.

NOAA cautions that it?s too early to predict the magnitude of the 2002 El Ni?o, or how long it will last. ?The magnitude of an El Ni?o determines the severity of its impacts,? says Vernon Kousky, NOAA climate specialist. ?At this point, it is too early to predict if this El Ni?o might develop along the same lines as the 1997-98 episode, or be weaker.?
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The Earth has been granted a reprieve and will probably escape being swallowed up when the Sun dies in about 7.5 billion years. New calculations actually extend the length of time the Earth will be habitable by 200 million years.

In the end, the surface of the planet will become too hot for life to survive. Earth-dwellers will have to find alternative homes in space, says Dr. Robert Smith, of the University of Sussex in the U.K. ?We had better get used to the idea that we shall need to build our own survival capsules — the planets are simply too far apart for planet-hopping to be a viable solution,? he says. ?Perhaps this is the ultimate justification for developing an International Space Station.?
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The cause of multiple sclerosis is unknown, but a large new study suggests that a previous infection with the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) may be one cause. Epstein-Barr, which may be the cause of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, infects more than 90% of the human population and can cause mononucleosis (also known as ?mono?) in adolescents and adults. The infection can last up to a month and cause fever, sore throat and swollen lymph glands.

In a study of more than 62,000 women, Dr. Alberto Ascherio of Harvard University and his colleagues found 18 women who had blood collected prior to their diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. They found that these women had higher antibody levels to EBV in their blood compared to people who did not have multiple sclerosis.
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