Clipmarks | abailart's 'climate change' clips

Climate Chage Altering UK Bird Habits

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 06:57:52 GMT

clipped by: abailart

A number of UK bird species are laying eggs significantly earlier than they were 40 years ago, a report reveals.

A conservation coalition's report says some finches, robins and tits are all laying earlier and puts this down to warming caused by climate change.

The RSPB said birds were having to respond to climate change to survive.

"This year's report shows that climate change is with us already; and from our gardens to our seas, birds are having to respond rapidly to climate change simply to survive," said Dr Mark Avery, the RSPB's conservation director.

This response to rising temperatures has been documented in birds, insects, plants and mammals across a range of continents, and it is no surprise that the UK's birds should be changing their habits too.

Tags: climate change, bird habits

Scientist Fears Catastrophic Temperature Rises

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 08:32:14 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Stupid so-called scientists! What do they know? Only a few of them come out with nonsense like this. Most real scientists know it is all part of a socialist conspiracy. Anyway, the Singularity will be with us soon and we will all live for ever and have orgasms at the touch of a button.

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

The UK should take active steps to prepare for dangerous climate change of perhaps 4C according to one of the government's chief scientific advisers.

Globally, a 4C temperature rise would have a catastrophic impact.

According to the government's 2006 Stern review on the economics of climate change, between 7 million and 300 million more people would be affected by coastal flooding each year, there would be a 30-50% reduction in water availability in Southern Africa and the Mediterranean, agricultural yields would decline 15 to 35% in Africa and 20 to 50% of animal and plant species would face extinction.

One big unknown is the stage at which dangerous tipping points would be reached that lead to further warming - for example the release of methane hydrate deposits in the Arctic. "My own feeling is that if we get to a 4 degree rise it is quite possible that we would begin to see a runaway increase," said King.

Tags: global warming

How the Weather Affects Mood: bioweather

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:00:10 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: I'm currently wilting on a very warm, still, grey humid day. Follow the links.

Clip Source: neurologicalillness.suite101.com

Feeling a little grouchy because of summer time heat? There is a reason for that.

The body's natural method of protection for cooling down on those days of elevated temperatures is through sweating. When humidity and rising dew points factor in, the environmental temperature rises above the body's ability to regulate its internal comfort zone, and sweating becomes insufficient. A person may feel grumpy and irritable, and their otherwise stable tolerance heads into abandonment.

Manfred Kaiser, author of "How the Weather Affects Your Health" refers to this climate - health clash as "bioweather", a term that has been around since 1958. He writes, "A person is weather sensitive when his or her nervous system reacts excessively to changes in meteorological elements, such as rapid fluctuations of barometric pressure or changes in humidity and temperature".

"Sensitive people become irritated a day or two before the change and are often miserable when a weather front arrives".

Tags: bioweather

Singularity of the Apocalypse

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 10:21:54 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Goodbye Dubai.

Clip Source: www.salon.com

London Society is the world's oldest association of Earth scientists, founded in 1807, and its Commission acts as a college of cardinals in the adjudication of the geological time-scale.

To the question "Are we now living in the Anthropocene?" the 21 members of the Commission unanimously answer "yes." They adduce robust evidence that the Holocene epoch -- the interglacial span of unusually stable climate that has allowed the rapid evolution of agriculture and urban civilization -- has ended and that the Earth has entered "a stratigraphic interval without close parallel in the last several million years."

the current ruthless competition between energy and food markets, amplified by international speculation in commodities and agricultural land, is only a modest portent of the chaos that could soon grow exponentially from the convergence of resource depletion, intractable inequality, and climate change.

Tags: squirrel world

RealClimate: Real Scientists on Real Science

Fri, 02 May 2008 07:09:00 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: A bit boring. Deals with the science of climate change.

Clip Source: www.realclimate.org

Climate science is one of those fields where anyone, regardless of their lack of expertise or understanding, feels qualified to comment on new papers and ongoing controversies. This can be frustrating for scientists like ourselves who see agenda-driven 'commentary' on the Internet and in the opinion columns of newspapers crowding out careful analysis.

RealClimate is a commentary site on climate science by working climate scientists for the interested public and journalists. We aim to provide a quick response to developing stories and provide the context sometimes missing in mainstream commentary.

we will not get involved in political or economic issues that arise when discussing climate change. The validity of scientific information is completely independent of what society decides to do (or not) about that information.

Science Links

Communicating Climate

Tags: science, climate

Seven Myths about Organic Food

Thu, 01 May 2008 08:15:23 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Feed the world.

Clip Source: www.independent.co.uk

They're not healthier or better for the environment – and they're packed with pesticides. In an age of climate change and shortages, these foods are an indugence the world can't afford, argues environmental expert Rob Johnston

Myth one: Organic farming is good for the environment

Myth two: Organic farming is more sustainable

Myth three: Organic farming doesn't use pesticides

Myth four: Pesticide levels in conventional food are dangerous

Myth five: Organic food is healthier

Myth six: Organic food contains more nutrients

Myth seven: The demand for organic food is booming

All Britain's food is safer than ever before, In a serious age, we should talk about the future seriously and not use food scares and misinformation as a tactic to increase sales.

Rob Johnston is a doctor and science writer

Interesting? Click here to explore further

Tags: organic food

Power From the People

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 01:52:27 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Interesting read

Clip Source: www.reason.com

What happens when creative consumers decide to generate their own energy?

Lately, however, concerns about depleting oil supplies and global warming have convinced many Americans that the easy, nearly free energy ride is over. From Oscar-winning movies to the Nobel Peace Prize, from government to industry, anxiety over climate change has unleashed a lot of heavy thinking about devising new systems to power our lives. Even giants in the energy industry are beginning to reconsider the top-down broadcast model that has dominated the provision of power for most of the past century.

Experiments in such “distributed generation”—where power is produced by multiple sources through multiple methods, much closer to the point of final use—are happening on industrial scales, via such means as combined heat and power (CHP) and solar. But they are also possible on a smaller scale, as part of a burgeoning “people power” movement.

Tags: energy, energy production, energy distribution

Porridge: A Good Source of Energy For Your Body & Your Factory

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 16:30:16 GMT

clipped by: urbanlife
clipper's remarks: A FIFE factory is to become one of Scotland’s greenest when it begins generating all its own energy from oat husks.

Quaker, which produces Scott’s Porage Oats at its Uthrogle Mills plant near Cupar, is to invest £6 million in a combined heat and power biomass boiler which will make it carbon neutral.

The husks, removed from the oats during the milling process, will provide 9,709 MWhrs of electricity and 10,902 MWhrs of steam a year, reducing its emissions by 9,000 tonnes a year.

“This innovative approach by Quaker to cut carbon emissions through investment in new low carbon technology will be a powerful signal to other businesses that reducing carbon emissions and looking for sustainable energy sources makes business sense.”

Clip Source: www.inhabitat.com

Scott’s Porage Oats, a Quaker Oats Factory at Uthrogle Mills in Scotland is installing a combined heat and power biomass boiler that will enable the factory to become carbon-neutral, running entirely on waste oat husks

Clip Source: www.repp.org

Clip Source: www.thecourier.co.uk

will allow oat husks—the part of the oat left over from porridge making—to generate renewable power for the entire site

the steam and electricity produced would reduce carbon emissions by 9000 tonnes a year—equivalent to the typical annual carbon emissions of 3000 cars

Surplus power will be released to the National Grid, preventing a further 1800 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually

The move will also cut out the need for transporting husks away from the site, which accounts for 172,000 miles and 600 tonnes of carbon emissions a year

Every service or product we purchase has an impact on climate change

Clip Source: www.inhabitat.com

Now none of the energy stored in the oats will go to waste.

Tags: eat your oatmeal, scotland, green factory, carbon neutral

Increased knowledge about global warming leads to apathy, study shows

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:41:43 GMT

clipped by: readmore

Clip Source: www.eurekalert.org

COLLEGE STATION – The more you know the less you care – at least that seems to be the case with global warming. A telephone survey of 1,093 Americans by two Texas A&M University political scientists and a former colleague indicates that trend, as explained in their recent article in the peer-reviewed journal Risk Analysis.

“More informed respondents both feel less personally responsible for global warming, and also show less concern for global warming,” states the article, titled “Personal Efficacy, the Information Environment, and Attitudes toward Global Warming and Climate Change in the USA.”

The diminished concern and sense of responsibility flies in the face of awareness campaigns about climate change, such as in the movies An Inconvenient Truth and Ice Age: The Meltdown and in the mainstream media’s escalating emphasis on the trend.

Tags: politics, environment

The Poison Arrow: Climate Change

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 09:56:04 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: So shouldn't we stop chattering, agree that whatever is causing potentially problematical climate we should have the sense to look ahead and resource whatever protections we may be able to?

Clip Source: feeds.feedburner.com

If we are concerned about 'what created the world?' and 'why are we here?' then consider the parable of the poison arrow.

A man went to the Buddha insisting on answers to these questions, but the Buddha instead put a question to him: "If you were shot by a poison arrow, and a doctor was summoned to extract it, what would you do? Would you ask such questions as who shot the arrow, from which tribe did he come, who made the arrow, who made the poison, etc., or would you have the doctor immediately pull out the arrow?"

"Of course," replied the man, "I would have the arrow pulled out as quickly as possible." The Buddha concluded, "That is wise, for the task before us is the solving of life's problems; until the problems are solved, these questions are of secondary importance."

Tags: climate change

The cost of food: Facts and figures

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 09:04:27 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Explore the facts and figures behind the rising price of food across the globe.

Rising oil prices and fears over climate change have seen a massive rise in the use of maize to make bio-fuels, pushing up food prices

There will be billions more mouths to feed by 2050, making an increased demand for food a long-term trend

Tags: food, corn, wheat, world, population

Maybe the "energy" solution isn't "Big"

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 22:39:13 GMT

clipped by: zbeechclip
clipper's remarks: What if we could energize our societies without having to depend on large, usually corporate, centrally run and controlled energy production?

Clip Source: www.greenpeace.org.uk

EfficienCity is a virtual town, but pioneering, real world communities around the UK are using similar systems. As a result, they're enjoying lower greenhouse gas emissions, a more secure energy supply, cheaper electricity and heating bills and a whole new attitude towards energy.

What is decentralised energy? Well, it's pretty much the opposite of our present, outrageously inefficient energy system, which was designed to meet the needs of a society that hadn't even heard of climate change. This centralised system is a shambles - in fact, it would be impossible to invent a less efficient way of generating energy.

It's a little bit like putting radiators on the outside of your house instead of inside it; we're burning one lot of fossil fuels for electricity, and another lot for heat, but waste heat is a by-product of electricity generation. Can't we just burn one lot of fuel to generate electricity, and capture the 'waste' heat at the same time?

We can.

Tags: environment, economy, energy

Holland: Build an Amphibious House for a Floating Future

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 14:52:20 GMT

clipped by: urbanlife
clipper's remarks: Who says you have to live on dry land? Try a floating house...

Building floating foundations is a snap. Just fill a concrete box with some kind of plastic foam, flip it over, and you've got a stable platform that's ready to float. And the more of these platforms you join together, the more stable they are.

Zevenbergen's company has already built floating greenhouses and has plans for houses that not only float, but also move.

His idea is that you can move them along the river, and go to a city which is close to the river, and park your home there in a special harbor which is constructed for this type of boat. A nomadic way of living, that you can change the area where you live depending on the season or whatever.

Clip Source: www.inhabitat.com

Clip Source: www.npr.org

Who says you have to live on dry land?

The inevitable rise in sea level

is going to make it increasingly difficult to control flooding in low-lying Holland

architects are designing a new Holland that will float on water, and the Dutch government seems willing to try out the scheme

a house that can float because it has a unique foundation.

foundation actually sits on the river bottom

If the river level rises to flood stage, the house and the foundation float up with the water level

Flexible pipes keep the house connected to electrical and sewer lines.

Poles help steady the houses as the structures rise with the river

The concept that in fact you build in an area where a flood may occur is completely new

Go ahead and build houses in areas that might flood — just build them on floating foundations

The next step: we not only make the house floating, but we make the complete garden floating

you can fix those floating gardens to each other, and make a floating village of it

a new way of living

Clip Source: www.inhabitat.com

Clip Source: www.npr.org

Tags: floating house, holland, rising sea level, climate change, flooding, architecture

Should We Abolish Slavery?

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 22:16:39 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

"Their [the slaves'] value, at $400, average, (and they are now worth more than that,) would amount to upwards of 900 millions. The value of their annual increase, alone is 24 millions of dollars; so that to free them in 100 years, without the expense of taking them from the country, would require an annual appropriation of between 33 and 34 millions of dollars. The thing is physically impossible."
(James Henry Hammond, senator of South Carolina, 1836)

"...the course of [the abolitionists] whose precipitate and ignorant zeal would overturn the fundamental institutions of society, uproar its peace and endanger its security, in pursuit of a distant and shadowy good, of which they themselves have formed no definite conception."
(in: Simms 1852, p 98)

Davidson compares this to the often cited concerns that limiting greenhouse gas emissions will harm the US economy

Tags: economics, climate change denial

Scientists Admit IPCC computer models wrong

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 09:03:58 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: environment.independent.co.uk

Parts of the ice sheets covering Antarctica are melting faster than predicted, with the net loss of ice probably accelerating in recent years because of global warming, a study has found.

A satellite survey between 1996 and 2006 found that the net loss of ice from Antarctica rose by about 75 per cent as the movement of glaciers towards the sea speeded up.

Scientists estimate that that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet lost about 132 billion tons of ice in 2006, compared with a loss of 83 billion tons in 1996. In addition, the Antarctic peninsula lost about 60 billion tons of ice in 2006.

Computer models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which predict that sea levels will rise by no more than about 50cm by 2100, are based largely on the stability of the Antarctic ice sheets. But many scientists now believe this forecast is too restrained

Tags: climate change