ApocaDocuments (12) matching "climate impacts" from this week
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Sun, Aug 16, 2009
from Newsweek:
Birds vs. Environmentalists?
... a growing number of species are finding themselves at the epicenter of a new battle being waged by environmentalists and developers... The encroachers aren't the usual suspects -- say, a sprawling McMansion community developer -- but the environmentally friendly wind-energy industry.. Critics charge that wind-energy development can cause habitat fragmentation -- a displacement of a species that can eventually reduce its numbers -- as well as the deaths of birds and bats (a species that is especially vulnerable due to its low reproductive rates) that collide with the wind turbines' massive rotor blades. A 2007 study by the National Academy of Sciences puts the number of birds killed each year at about 20,000 to 30,000. That's a low estimate, says Michael Fry of the American Bird Conservancy. According to his group, turbines kill three to 11 birds per megawatt of wind energy they produce. ...
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If only dead birds could be turned into biofuels...
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Sun, Aug 16, 2009
from Sydney Morning Herald:
Study links drought with rising emissions
DROUGHT experts have for the first time proven a link between rising levels of greenhouse gases and a decline in rainfall.
A three-year collaboration between the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO has confirmed that the drought is not just a natural dry stretch but a shift related to climate change.
Scientists working on the $7 million South Eastern Australian Climate Initiative said the rain had dropped away because the subtropical ridge - a band of high pressure systems that sits over the country's south - had strengthened over the past 13 years.
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The rain was full of acid anyway.
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Sat, Aug 15, 2009
from Discovery News:
Air Pollution Travels, Kills Thousands Annually
Unseen and odorless, microscopic particles of air pollution wafting overseas and across continents kill some 380,000 people each year, according to a new study.
Exhaust from diesel engines, sulfur from coal-fired power plants, and desert dust swirl into an insidious cocktail of of tiny particles that can spend weeks airborne.
The most harmful are the smallest, less than 2.5 microns in diameter; when inhaled they can irritate the lungs or pass directly into the bloodstream and damage arteries. ...
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Well, at least it doesn't smell bad.
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Fri, Aug 14, 2009
from University of Leeds, via EurekAlert:
Antarctic glacier thinning at alarming rate
The thinning of a gigantic glacier in Antarctica is accelerating, scientists warned today.
The Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica, which is around twice the size of Scotland, is losing ice four times as fast as it was a decade ago. The research, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, also reveals that ice thinning is now occurring much further inland. At this rate scientists estimate that the main section of the glacier will have disappeared in just 100 years, six times sooner than was previously thought.... "Because the Pine Island Glacier contains enough ice to almost double the IPCC's best estimate of 21st century sea level rise, the manner in which the glacier will respond to the accelerated thinning is a matter of great concern," says Professor Shepherd. ...
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"Great concern" is only one of the things I'm feeling!
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Fri, Aug 14, 2009
from Reuters:
Millions of salmon disappear from Canadian river
Millions of sockeye salmon have disappeared mysteriously from a river on Canada's Pacific Coast that was once known as the world's most fertile spawning ground for sockeye.
Up to 10.6 million bright-red sockeye salmon were expected to return to spawn this summer on the Fraser River, which empties into the Pacific ocean near Vancouver, British Columbia. The latest estimates say fewer than 1 million have returned.
The Canadian government has closed the river to commercial and recreational sockeye fishing for the third straight year, hitting the livelihood of nearby Indian reserves.
"It's quite the shocking drop," said Stan Proboszcz, fisheries biologist at the Watershed Watch Salmon Society. "No one's exactly sure what happened to these fish."
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That's the very definition of "decimation"!
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Thu, Aug 13, 2009
from Christian Science Monitor:
Argentina: Farming crisis batters world food provider
...Argentina is facing its worst farming crisis since becoming one of the most prolific food providers in the world. A devastating drought, the most severe in more than 50 years, has dried up grassland and left cattle with nothing to graze... For cattle-raising regions, like San Miguel del Monte, south of Buenos Aires, the drought has cut deeply. Here, the lakes have dried; pastures are so barren that cattle graze by the roads.
On a recent day, local producer Lorena del Rio looked at two dozen cows feeding on corn from a special plastic trough, an expensive alternative to pasture. Her family has lost eight of their 600 cows, and many cows are too weak to get pregnant. "It is horrible not to be able to feed your animals," Ms. Del Rio says. ...
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Don't moooooo for me.
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Wed, Aug 12, 2009
from Penn State, via EurekAlert:
Harbingers of increased Atlantic hurricane activity identified
Mann, working with [others,] reconstructed the past 1,500 years of hurricanes using two independent methods. They report their results in today's (Aug. 13) issue of Nature.
One estimate of hurricane numbers is based on sediment deposited during landfall hurricanes.... The other method used a previously developed statistical model for predicting hurricane activity based on climate variables.... Both hurricane reconstructions indicate similar overall patterns and both indicate a high period of hurricane activity during the Medieval Climate Anomaly around AD 900 to 1100.
"We are at levels now that are about as high as anything we have seen in the past 1,000 years," said Mann.... "It seems that the paleodata support the contention that greenhouse warming may increase the frequency of Atlantic tropical storms," said Mann. "It may not be just that the storms are stronger, but that there are there may be more of them as well." ...
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As if the past was any predictor of the future.
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Tue, Aug 11, 2009
from Environmental Health News:
Germ-killing chemical from soaps, toothpaste building up in dolphins
Dolphins are swimming in waters tainted with germ-killing soaps, but they aren't winding up squeaky clean.
Triclosan, an antibacterial chemical found in everyday bathroom and kitchen products, is accumulating in dolphins at concentrations known to disrupt the hormones and growth and development of other animals.
Scientists have found that one-third of the bottlenose dolphins tested off South Carolina and almost one-quarter of those tested off Florida carried traces of triclosan in their blood. It is the first time the chemical has been reported in a wild marine mammal – a worrisome finding, researchers say, because it shows it is building up in the ocean’s food web.
Triclosan is the germ-killing chemical of choice in hundreds of products, including liquid hand soaps, toothpaste, deodorants and cutting boards. Now some scientists are calling for its removal from consumer products. ...
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I prefer my dolphins minty fresh!
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Tue, Aug 11, 2009
from Environmental Research Web:
Scientists expect wildfires to increase as climate warms in the coming decades
In their pioneering work, Logan and her collaborators investigated the consequences of climate change on future forest fires and on air quality in the western United States. Previous studies have probed the links between climate change and fire severity in the West and elsewhere. The Harvard study represents the first attempt to quantify the impact of future wildfires on the air we breathe.
"Warmer temperatures can dry out underbrush, leading to a more serious conflagration once a fire is started by lightening or human activity," says Logan. "Because smoke and other particles from fires adversely affect air quality, an increase in wildfires could have large impacts on human health." ... Using a series of models, the scientists predict that the geographic area typically burned by wildfires in the western United States could increase by about 50 percent by the 2050s due mainly to rising temperatures. The greatest increases in area burned (75–175 percent) would occur in the forests of the Pacific Northwest and the Rocky Mountains. ...
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If you can't stand the heat, get out of... um...
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Mon, Aug 10, 2009
from Appleton Post-Crescent:
Relentless Japanese beetle invades Fox Cities
The Japanese beetle, an invasive bug that has caused gardeners grief for years in parts of Wisconsin and elsewhere in the country, is emerging in pockets of the Valley and spreading across Green Bay.
About two years ago, the beetle was discovered near Riverview Country Club in Appleton, said David Bayer, a horticulture agent with the Outagamie County University of Wisconsin-Extension office. It's also been spotted in other areas of the Fox Valley.
The invasive beetles attack more than 300 species of plants, killing grass, eating roses and turning tree leaves to lace. Vijai Pandian, a horticulture educator with the Brown County UW-Extension office, said the beetles are especially common on the city's west side. He said 25 traps placed last year netted 76,000 beetles. ...
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76,000! Methinks we could use them as a bio-fuel.
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Mon, Aug 10, 2009
from Living on Earth:
Rock Snot
Algae blooms are usually problems for warm waters laden with excess nutrients. But they're now popping up in waters considered icons of environmental health — cold, clear, trout and salmon streams.
The alga didymo is spreading quickly, -- it's better known by its nickname -- rock snot.... If the name rock snot is not bad enough, consider its appearance. It's often described as looking like a sewage spill with wet toilet paper streaming in the water... Amy Smagula, a biologist with the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, walks to the river to pick up samples of the invader. ...
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Excuse me, but doesn't "Smagula" sorta sound like a Latin term for "rock snot"?
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Mon, Aug 10, 2009
from Telegraph.co.uk:
Ban Ki-moon warns of catastrophe without world deal on climate change
Climate change is "simply the greatest collective challenge we face as a human family", Mr Ban said in a speech on Monday in Seoul.
He urged international leaders to reach a deal to limit their countries' carbon emissions at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen in December.... "The world has less than 10 years to halt the global rise in greenhouse gas emissions if we are to avoid catastrophic consequences for people and the planet."
He called on governments to "seal the deal in the name of humankind" through a "renewed multilateralism, a compassionate multilateralism."... John Prescott, the former deputy Prime Minister, who helped broker the Kyoto deal, warned rich nations would have to make more sacrifices.... "Copenhagen is a much more difficult nut to crack than Kyoto," Mr Prescott warned, adding rich countries faced having to make a "fundamental change" to their economies. ...
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Hmmm... fundamental change by choice now, or fundamental change forced upon us by reality later?
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