Clipmarks | JICWyllie's 'i-climate change' clips

Index Research: On The Road To Extinction

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:49:20 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

A history lecturer recently said that if one doesn’t believe in ‘global warming’ one is put in the same category as those who do not believe in the Nazi holocaust. This research of summer 2008 articles is not only about global warming but also about species that have become extinct or are an endangered species.

1. Planet Earth: General; Air pollution; Biofuels; Coral Reefs; Dead Zones; Depleted Uranium Contamination; “Democracy,” Food (corn, rice, wheat, famine); Lakes (extinct: Greenland Lake: endangered Baikal); Nuclear Holocaust; Oil (Peak Oil, U.S. exploitation, The Car); Polar Ice; Rainforest; Water; Wetlands

2. Towards Extinction: General; Amphibians (frogs); Bees; Birds; Deer; Elephant; Fish (salmon, shark, sturgeon, tuna) Flora and Fauna (Lichen, Orchid); Mammals (deer, (elephant, lynx, kangaroo, mustang, polar bear, seal, tiger, whale, wolf, wolverine); Mammoth rhino), Primates (Great Ape, Homo Sapiens, Lemur, Monkey, Orangutan); Reptiles (lizard, turtle, tortoise.

Tags: environment, i-climate change, i-consequences, i-extinction

Global warming time bomb trapped in Arctic soil: study

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:25:08 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie
clipper's remarks: Le coup de grace, tabernaque. Meme moi, j'ai peur, colis.

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Climate change could release unexpectedly huge stores of carbon dioxide from Arctic soils, which would in turn fuel a vicious circle of global warming, a new study warned

current models of climate change have not taken this extra source of greenhouse gas into account.

The study, published in the British journal Nature Geoscience, found that the stock of organic carbon "is considerably higher than previously thought" -- 60 percent more than the previously estimated.

This is roughly equivalent of one sixth of the entire carbon content in the atmosphere.

And that is just for North America.

And the danger of a thaw is real, note climate scientists.

the climate change models upon which future projections are based, do not include the potential impact of the gases trapped frozen Arctic soils.

"Releasing even a portion of this carbon into the atmosphere, in the form of methane or carbon dioxide, would have an significant impact on Earth's climate," he noted

Tags: environment, forest, taiga, water, i-climate change, i-melting, i-heating, i-consequences

The oxygen crisis

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:53:06 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Compared to prehistoric times, the level of oxygen in the earth's atmosphere has declined by over a third and in polluted cities the decline may be more than 50%. This change in the makeup of the air we breathe has potentially serious implications for our health. Indeed, it could ultimately threaten the survival of human life on earth, according to Roddy Newman, who is drafting a new book, The Oxygen Crisis.

the planet's forest cover was at least twice what it is today, which means that forests are now emitting only half the amount of oxygen.

Desertification and deforestation are rapidly accelerating this long-term loss of oxygen sources.

The story at sea is much the same. Nasa reports that in the north Pacific ocean oxygen-producing phytoplankton concentrations are 30% lower today, compared to the 1980s. This is a huge drop in just three decades.

This oxygen starvation is reducing regional fish stocks and diminishing the food supplies of populations that are dependent on fishing.

Tags: environment, oxygen, i-climate change, i-decrease

Climate change: Prepare for global temperature rise of 4C, warns top scientist

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 15:49:16 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie
clipper's remarks: Like so many other things, the trend seems to be towards accelerating change in an unpleasant direction. It's almost like time is speeding up.

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

In policy areas such as flood protection, agriculture and coastal erosion Professor Bob Watson said the country should plan for the effects of a 4C global average rise on pre-industrial levels. The EU is committed to limiting emissions globally so that temperatures do not rise more than 2C.

"There's no choice here between adaptation and mitigation, we have to do both."

Other experts were concerned that Watson's comments might be seen as defeatist and an admission that emissions reductions were impossible to achieve.

"There is no science on how we are going to adapt to 4 degrees warming. It is actually pretty alarming,"

said Prof Neil Adger

Watson's plea to prepare for the worst was backed up by the government's former chief scientific adviser, Sir David King. He said that even with a comprehensive global deal to keep carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere at below 450 parts per million there is a 50% probability that temperatures would exceed 2C and a 20% probability they would exceed 3.5C

Tags: environment, i-climate change, i-warming, i-increase, i-forecast, i-record

Climate Change And Species Distributions

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 17:06:28 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.terradaily.com

Scientists have long pointed to physical changes in the Earth and its atmosphere, such as melting polar ice caps, sea level rise and violent storms, as indicators of global climate change. But changes in climate can wreak havoc in more subtle ways, such as the loss of habitat for plant and animal species.

Climate change can result in animals and plants migrating northward to escape the heat, but in many cases suitable habitat becomes scarce or unavailable farther away from the species' natural range.

large variability in climate causes an increasing number and intensity of fires and droughts, as well as extreme weather events that could kill long-lived trees and allow short-lived grasses to colonize the leftover space.

His models predict that year-to-year variability in precipitation and temperature reduces the Earth's total vegetation cover, expanding its relative grass cover and diminishing its relative tree cover.

Tags: environment, species, i-climate change, i-migration, i-risks, i-increase

Climate pain ahead for folk in the 'kidney stone belt'

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:51:47 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: environment.newscientist.com

Kidney stones will strike up to 2.25 million more Americans per year by 2050 because of temperature increases, research suggests.

"We're certain that climate change will continue and increase, and we're equally certain that increased temperatures will lead to increased kidney stone formation," says Tom Brikowski, a hydrologist at the University of Texas, Dallas.

The team hasn't yet crunched the numbers for the rest of the world, but Asians and Eastern Europeans, in particular, could be in for a painful future, Brikowski says.

"This may be an underestimate based on what we know," says Paul Epstein, of the Harvard Medical School. Brikowski's projections are "based on mean annual temperature, and we know that the extremes, Iike heat waves, could play an even more severe role."

Tags: environment, i-climate change, i-health, i-consequences

China: Melting glacier leaves world's worst polluter with no room for doubt

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:13:31 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Link to this video
Glaciers in the Tian Mountains in western China are melting because of global warming. Jonathan Watts went to see how this affects local people

There is concern because this glacier - more than almost any other in China - is a natural water regulator for millions of people downstream in the far western region of Xinjiang. In winter, it stores up snow and ice. In summer, it releases meltwater to provide drinking and irrigation supplies to one of the country's most arid regions. It brings hope because its rapid shrinkage is helping to set off climate-change alarm bells in a country that emits more greenhouse gases than any other.

the glacier has lost more than 20% of its volume since 1962 as the temperature has increased by almost 1C.

And the rate of shrinkage is accelerating. For the first time last year, it was so warm in the summer that rain rather than snow fell on the glacier.

Tags: environment, water, glaciers, i-climate change, i-melting, i-accelleration

Warming world 'drying wetlands'

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:57:08 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie
clipper's remarks: Combine this clip with http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/21CE9FEA-934E-421B-808D-A1CB1F01AA2E/
also today.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Rising temperatures are not only accelerating evaporation rates, but also reducing rainfall levels and the volume of meltwater from glaciers.

Although only covering 6% of the Earth's land surface, they store up to an estimated 20% of terrestrial carbon.

"Humanity in many parts of the world needs a wake-up call to fully appreciate the vital environmental, social and economic services wetlands provide," said conference co-chairman Paulo Teixeira.

These included absorbing and holding carbon, regulating water levels and supporting biodiversity,

Scientists warn that if the decline of the world's wetlands continued, it could result in vast amounts of carbon being released into the atmosphere and "compound the global warming problem significantly".

Data shows that about 60% of wetlands have been destroyed in the past century, primarily as a result of drainage for agriculture.

Tags: environment, water, wetlands, i-climate change, i-drought, i-emissions, i-increase

Paying To Save Tropical Forests Could Be A Way To Reduce Global Carbon Emissions

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:20:25 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.terradaily.com

Columbus OH (SPX) Jul 29, 2008
Wealthy nations willing to collectively spend about $1 billion annually could prevent the emission of roughly half a billion metric tons of carbon dioxide per year for the next 25 years,

It would take about that much money to put an end to a tenth of the tropical deforestation in the world, one of the top contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, researchers estimate.

If adopted, this type of program could have potential to reduce global carbon emissions by between 2 and 10 percent.

Tropical deforestation, the cutting and burning of trees to convert land to grow crops and raise livestock, accounts for about a fifth of all human-caused carbon emissions in the world.

Carbon at $2 per ton could translate into rental values of $20 to $35 per hectare per year, and carbon prices of $10 per ton would trigger land rental values of $85 to $252 per hectare annually.

"These payment levels could generate substantial financial flows to landowners who reduce deforestation,"

Tags: environment, forests, i-climate change, i-policy, i-emissions, i-decrease

Costly biofuel support offers few benefits-OECD

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:06:22 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Public support for biofuels is costly and has little impact in cutting greenhouse gas emissions so governments would do better promoting lower energy consumption to fight climate change, the OECD said on Wednesday.

Governments should also boost the so-called second generation biofuels that do not use food crops,

The study comes as the latest blow to biofuels, made from grains, oilseeds and sugar, which were once hailed for providing a clean alternative to fossil fuels but are now blamed for a surge in food prices.

Many European Union countries including Britain, Italy or France recently for a review of the EU's ambitious and sometimes confusing blending targets -- notably that 10 percent road transport fuel be derived from renewable sources by 2020.

Rather than promoting biofuels, governments should spend their money on projects that consume less energy, it said.

"The primary focus for fossil energy saving needs to be redirected from alternative fuels towards lower energy consumption,"

Tags: energy, biofuels, i-costs, i-increase, i-consequences

Australia faces food crisis as rivers reach new low

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 12:55:47 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.independent.co.uk

hopes of drought-breaking winter rains had faded, and low inflows were expected for the rest of the year. Temperatures are forecast to be above average for the next three months, which means rain is more likely to soak into the sun-baked earth or evaporate than flow into the rivers.

Mr Plummer said good rains early in the year had barely dented the drought, and long-term trends pointed to six to seven years of below average rain in each decade.

Scientists say the lower reaches of the Murray, where lakes and vast wetlands meet the sea, are almost "beyond recovery",

Australia's most punishing drought in a century has forced about 10,000 farming families off the land, and threatened the economic viability of some agricultural towns. Ross Garnaut, the government's chief climate change adviser, warned in a report last week that irrigated agricultural production in the Murray-Darling Basin would decline by 92 per cent by 2100.

Tags: environment, i-climate change, i-drought, i-increase, i-consequences

Antarctic ice shelf collapse 'imminent

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 11:09:28 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.independent.co.uk

Scientists are warning that an Antarctic ice shelf the size of Northern Ireland is on the verge of disintegration, even though it is now the middle of the southern hemisphere's winter.

The shelf, which lies near the base of the Antarctic Peninsula, had not been expected to collapse until the early 2020s. It provides further evidence that the planet is warming more quickly than predicted.

Scientists are stunned that it is continuing to melt in the depths of winter, and believe that warm water is welling up from the ocean to attack it from underneath. So far seven shelves on the peninsula have collapsed due to climate change.

On Friday, President Bush – who last week told the G8 summit "Goodbye from the world's greatest polluter" – defied a 2007 ruling by the US Supreme Court to take action on global warming under the Clean Air Act.

Tags: environment, ice, i-melting, i-record, i-accelleration, i-climate change, i-consequences

Britain: a leader in tackling climate change? Far from it, says new report

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 18:18:13 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie
clipper's remarks: I would not be unreasonable to assume that the UK is not the only country guilty of this under-reporting of CO2 pollution.

Clip Source: www.independent.co.uk

Britain's true contribution to global warming is much higher than official figures show, ministers admit. And it has been rising rapidly at the very time that they have been boasting that it has been falling.

Britain is responsible for 200 million more tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year than official figures admit, an increase of 37 per cent.

And whereas Britain has been officially reporting that its emissions have declined by 5 per cent since 1992, the report says that the true picture reveals that instead they rose by 18 per cent.

The difference is in fuller accounting. The official figures are confined to totting up only the amount of pollution emitted from within a country's borders, and excludes what is produced from international aviation and shipping. The report includes such transport emissions and those produced in other countries in making goods for export to Britain, mainly in the Third World.

Tags: environment, i-climate change, i-policy, i-risks, i-increase

Oil Depletion Analysis Centre - Newsletter

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:20:54 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: energybulletin.net

In the week of the World Petroleum Congress in Madrid the dominant story has been the content of the latest report by the International Energy Agency (IEA). Despite OPEC sticking to its assertion that the high oil price is mostly down to speculation, the IEA declared that the current prices are “justified by fundamentals”.

Another risk becoming increasingly apparent as a result of what IEA Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka this week described as “the third oil shock”, is that contrary to what some green campaigners may have hoped, constraints around oil and gas are likely to worsen environmental damage rather than assist in reducing it. In the UK this week John Hutton put his cards on the table saying that he will support the building of new coal plants without waiting for development of carbon capture technology. In the US a poll showed increased public support for off-shore and Arctic drilling and weakening support for conservation.

Tags: energy, i-policy, i-risks, i-increase, environment, i-climate change, i-acceleration, i-consequences

Environment: Climate risk from flat-screen TVs

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:48:07 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie
clipper's remarks: !

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

The rising demand for flat-screen televisions could have a greater impact on global warming than the world's largest coal-fired power stations, a leading environmental scientist warned yesterday.

Manufacturers use a greenhouse gas called nitrogen trifluoride to make the televisions, and as the sets have become more popular, annual production of the gas has risen to about 4,000 tonnes.

As a driver of global warming, nitrogen trifluoride is 17,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide, yet no one knows how much of it is being released into the atmosphere by the industry

Prather's research reveals that production of the gas, which remains in the atmosphere for 550 years, is "exploding" and is expected to double by next year. Unlike common greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) and perfluorocarbons (PFCs), emissions of the gas are not restricted by the Kyoto protocol or similar agreements.

Tags: environment, i-climate change, i-risks, i-increase