ApocaDocuments (15) matching "climate impacts" from this week
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Sun, Nov 8, 2009
from Cornell, via EurekAlert:
Nitrogen loss threatens desert plant life, study shows
As the climate gets warmer, arid soils lose nitrogen as gas, reports a new Cornell study. That could lead to deserts with even less plant life than they sustain today, say the researchers.
"This is a way that nitrogen is lost from an ecosystem that people have never accounted for before," said Jed Sparks, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and co-author of the study, published in the Nov. 6 issue of Science. "It allows us to finally understand the dynamics of nitrogen in arid systems"
Available nitrogen is second only to water as the biggest constraint to biological activity in arid ecosystems, but before now, ecologists struggled to understand how the inputs and outputs of nitrogen in deserts balance. ...
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Don't they say that "less is more"?
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Sat, Nov 7, 2009
from Catskill Daily Mail:
Lafarge permit would allow 176 lb. of mercury a year
The state Department of Environmental Conservation has made Lafarge Cement Plant's Title V Operating Air Permit available for public comment.
The permit, which is up for renewal, would limit mercury emissions at the plant to 176 pounds a year -- more than the company's own estimated emissions for 2008, which were 146 pounds....In September, state Wildlife Pathologist Ward Stone released his findings on mercury levels in the area around the Lafarge plant. He said that in parts per million, there was much more than the average level of mercury to be found and he also reported that he found mercury in everything he tested in the food chain, from grasshoppers to larger animals.
The plant is located in close proximity to both the Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk junior and senior high schools. ...
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That's getting tough with 'em!
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Thu, Nov 5, 2009
from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
15,000 reasons to worry about state's lakes
...The natives of the Caspian Sea region first turned up in North America in the summer of 1988, thanks to overseas freighters' longstanding - and ongoing - practice of dumping their contaminated ballast water in the Great Lakes, which are now home to more than 185 non-native species.
None has wreaked more damage than the [zebra] mussels, which feast on Great Lakes plankton and have cost the region billions of dollars in starved fish populations, beach-trashing algae blooms and plugged industrial and municipal water intake pipes.
Now, this ecological mess is spreading inland.... Wisconsin has more than 15,000 inland lakes. ...
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The United States of Zebra Mussels.
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Thu, Nov 5, 2009
from PNAS:
Recent changes in a remote Arctic lake are unique within the past 200,000 years
The Arctic is currently undergoing dramatic environmental transformations, but it remains largely unknown how these changes compare with long-term natural variability. Here we present a lake sediment sequence from the Canadian Arctic that records warm periods of the past 200,000 years, including the 20th century. This record provides a perspective on recent changes in the Arctic and predates by approximately 80,000 years the oldest stratigraphically intact ice core recovered from the Greenland Ice Sheet. The early Holocene and the warmest part of the Last Interglacial (Marine Isotope Stage or MIS 5e) were the only periods of the past 200,000 years with summer temperatures comparable to or exceeding today's at this site.... In recent decades, however, the study site has deviated from this recurring natural pattern and has entered an environmental regime that is unique within the past 200 millennia. ...
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What a coincidence!!
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Wed, Nov 4, 2009
from Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute via ScienceDaily:
Deep-sea Ecosystems Affected By Climate Change
...Historically, many people, including marine scientists, have considered the abyssal plains, more than 2,000 meters below the sea surface, to be relatively isolated and stable ecosystems. However, according to Ken Smith, a marine ecologist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) and lead author of the recent PNAS article, changes in the Earth's climate can cause unexpectedly large changes in deep-sea ecosystems. ...
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This news is abysmal!
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Wed, Nov 4, 2009
from London Guardian:
Can we manipulate the weather?
The unseasonal snow that fell on Beijing for 11 hours on Sunday was the earliest and heaviest there has been for years. It was also, China claims, man-made. By the end of last month, farmland in the already dry north of China was suffering badly due to drought. So on Saturday night China's meteorologists fired 186 explosive rockets loaded with chemicals to "seed" clouds and encourage snow to fall. "We won't miss any opportunity of artificial precipitation since Beijing is suffering from a lingering drought," Zhang Qiang, head of the Beijing Weather Modification Office, told state media... Officials said the blue skies that brightened Beijing's parade to celebrate 60 years of communism last month were a result of the 18 cloud-seeding jets and 432 explosive rockets scrambled to empty the sky of rain beforehand. Last year, more than 1,000 rockets were fired to ensure a dry night for last year's Olympic opening ceremony. ...
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No harm can come from exploding rockets full of chemicals, right?
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Wed, Nov 4, 2009
from Reuters:
Poor urge deep climate cuts
Developing countries said on Wednesday they risked "total destruction" unless the rich stepped up the fight against climate change to a level that even the United Nations says is out of reach.
Keeping up pressure at U.N. climate talks in Barcelona, the poor insisted that developed countries should cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 -- far more than on offer. ...
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Everybody listens to the poor!
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Wed, Nov 4, 2009
from Purdue University via Eureka Alert:
Study gives clearer picture of how land-use changes affect U.S. climate
Researchers say regional surface temperatures can be affected by land use, suggesting that local and regional strategies, such as creating green spaces and buffer zones in and around urban areas, could be a tool in addressing climate change.
A study by researchers from Purdue University and the universities of Colorado and Maryland concluded that greener land cover contributes to cooler temperatures, and almost any other change leads to warmer temperatures. The study, published on line and set to appear in the Royal Meteorological Society’s International Journal of Climatology later this year, is further evidence that land use should be better incorporated into computer models projecting future climate conditions, said Purdue doctoral student Souleymane Fall, the article’s lead author. ...
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Go, astroturf!
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Tue, Nov 3, 2009
from London Guardian:
Global warming could create 150 million 'climate refugees' by 2050
Global warming will force up to 150 million "climate refugees" to move to other countries in the next 40 years, a new report from the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) warns.
In 2008 alone, more than 20 million people were displaced by climate-related natural disasters, including 800,000 people by cyclone Nargis in Asia, and almost 80,000 by heavy floods and rains in Brazil, the NGO said.
President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives, who presented testimony to the EJF, said people in his country did not want to "trade a paradise for a climate refugee camp". He warned rich countries taking part in UN climate talks this week in Barcelona "not to be stupid" in negotiating a climate treaty in Copenhagen this December.... Last month, the president held a cabinet meeting underwater to draw attention to the plight of his country. ...
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We're gonna need a lot more portajohns.
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Tue, Nov 3, 2009
from The Hindu:
As fire dies down, environmental crisis looks large
The fire raging at the Indian Oil Corporation depot at the Sitapura Industrial Area near here since last Thursday has led to an environmental crisis in the capital city. The thick black plumes of smoke have spread to dozens of villages and residential colonies, hampering visibility and creating panic.
Hundreds of people are visiting hospitals with the complaints of breathing problem, sore throat, irritation in the eye, allergy and itching. In addition to the mobile medical teams that are making rounds in the villages, all primary health centres in the rural terrain have been asked to remain open round-the-clock.
Environmental experts here fear that the smoke, apart from affecting the health of the people in and around the city, would also hit agriculture in the surrounding villages which supply vegetables and food grain to Jaipur. ...
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Another one of those "true cost of oil" moments.
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Tue, Nov 3, 2009
from New York Times:
Mt. Kilimanjaro Ice Cap Continues Rapid Retreat
The ice atop Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania has continued to retreat rapidly, declining 26 percent since 2000, scientists say in a new report.
Yet the authors of the study, to be published Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reached no consensus on whether the melting could be attributed mainly to humanity’s role in warming the global climate.
Eighty-five percent of the ice cover that was present in 1912 has vanished, the scientists said....Dr. Thompson emphasized that the melting of ice atop Mount Kilimanjaro was paralleled by retreats in ice fields elsewhere in Africa as well as in South America, Indonesia and the Himalayas.
"It's when you put those together that the evidence becomes very compelling," he said. ...
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"Kilimanjaro" means "Man Killed by Jars of Melting Ice."
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Tue, Nov 3, 2009
from National Geographic News:
Nat'l Geo: Six Degrees Would Change the World
"Like something out of a disaster movie, a six degree global average temperature rise in the next one hundred years could render the world something completely different." Their interactive map lets the reader explore one, two, three, up to six degrees, with map hotspots. At six degrees, among others, "emergency alert system disbanded," because -- it's all one giant emergency.
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Yet another "disaster movie" simile? This is becoming a trope!
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Mon, Nov 2, 2009
from London Guardian:
World leaders accused of myopia over climate change deal
...Senior officials and negotiators are increasingly gloomy about the prospects for a global warming deal next month, with the British government admitting there is now no chance of a legally binding treaty.
Speaking as officials gather in Barcelona tomorrow for a final round of negotiations, Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said: "I gave all the world's leaders a very grim view of what the science tells us and that is what should be motivating us all, but I'm afraid I don't see too much evidence of that at the current stage.
"Science has been moved aside and the space has been filled up with political myopia with every country now trying to protect its own narrow short-term interests. They are afraid to have negotiations go any further because they would have to compromise on those interests." ...
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Problem is -- myopia is youropia, too.
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Want more context?
Try reading our book FREE online:
Humoring the Horror of the Converging Emergencies!
More fun than a barrel of jellyfish!
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Mon, Nov 2, 2009
from Sydney Morning Herald:
'Disaster movie': fire breaks out on leaking oil rig
Environmental groups say the oil leak spilling into the Timor Sea should be declared a national emergency, with one expert likening it to a "disaster movie."
The situation has worsened in the last 24 hours with a fire breaking out on the deck of the West Atlas rig and Montara well head platform, when the company responsible for its operation began to plug the rig's leak below the sea bed with mud. ...
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I so hope Bruce Willis is available.
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Mon, Nov 2, 2009
from National Geographic News:
Sea Slime Killing U.S. Seabirds
Hundreds of birds ... are washing up on the shores of the U.S. Pacific Northwest coated with a foamy sea slime, scientists say.
The slime, which comes from algae blooms in the ocean, saps the waterproofing ability of the birds' feathers, experts say.... "Then they have to beach themselves, because they are cold and wet." Research suggests that recently, the blooms are larger, lasting longer, and happening with greater frequency.... "They are finding that the [nutrient] upwelling is happening at different times of the year than it used to," he said, "and that's because currents and weather are changing." ...
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We don't want slime before its time.
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