Clipmarks | invictus's 'global warming' clips

Antarctic shelf 'hangs by thread'

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 21:44:45 GMT

clipped by: invictus

A chunk of ice the size of the Isle of Man has started to break away from Antarctica in what scientists say is further evidence of a warming climate.

Satellite images suggest that part of the ice shelf is disintegrating, and will soon crumble away.

The Wilkins Ice Shelf has been stable for most of the last century, but began retreating in the 1990s.

Six ice shelves in the same part of the continent have already been lost, says the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).

Professor David Vaughan of BAS said: "Wilkins is the largest ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula yet to be threatened.

"I didn't expect to see things happen this quickly. The ice shelf is hanging by a thread - we'll know in the next few days or weeks what its fate will be."

Tags: climate change, global warming, antarctica, wilkins ice shelf, science

Alarm over new oil-from-coal plans

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 15:13:15 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

A Chinese energy company is poised to open a chemical plant to make liquid fuels for cars and aircraft from coal, a move that has alarmed environmental campaigners who say it will increase carbon emissions and worsen global warming.

The plant, in Inner Mongolia, will use technology developed by Germany during the second world war to convert coal directly into synthetic diesel, dubbed "Nazi fuel". China says the process will help break its booming economy's reliance on foreign oil, and that it will build more such plants.

The US and India are also investing heavily in the technology, which is being heavily promoted by coal companies across the world as a cost-effective solution to soaring oil prices and concerns about energy security.

Tags: energy, oil, coal, environment, alternative energy, china, science

2007 data confirms warming trend

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 16:44:45 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks: "The 11 warmest years in this set have all occurred within the last 13 years."

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

In Spain's 2007 heatwave, people cooled off as best they could

2007 has been one of the warmest years since 1850, despite the cooling influence of La Nina conditions.

The UK's Hadley Centre and University of East Anglia conclude that globally, this year ranks as the seventh warmest.

The 11 warmest years in this set have all occurred within the last 13 years. For the northern hemisphere alone, 2007 was the second warmest recorded.

The findings come as politicians at the UN climate summit try to agree a path leading to cuts in carbon emissions.

Tags: climate change, global warming, science

Japan Sea Temperature Rise Nearly Triple 100-Year World Average

Thu, 17 May 2007 16:31:18 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: www.oceanconserve.org

Sea surface temperatures around Japan have risen as much as three times the world average over the past century, due partly to global warming, the country's weather agency said.

Average temperatures have risen in a range from 0.7 to 1.6 Celsius (35 Fahrenheit), depending on the area. World ocean temperature rose on average 0.5 Celsius from 1900 to 2006, the Japan Meteorological Agency said in a report issued yesterday.

``We assume the sea temperature change is the result of global warming,'' said Yasushi Takatsuki, a weather agency official. The JMA report itself didn't cite possible causes for the higher ocean temperatures.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says global warming is very likely the result of human activities, including gases released from burning fossil fuels, attributable to emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.

Tags: climate change, japan, sea temperatures, global warming

Snow? In Australia?!?

Mon, 25 Dec 2006 10:58:02 GMT

clipped by: thisnamecantbetaken
clipper's remarks: More freakish weather...and not a snowflake in sight here where it should be. Here in the country where I live at the moment, we've only had below freezing temps two nights in ALL! Just read, that here it's been/is the hottest winter on record EVER! No global warming some say? Yeah right!! Tell it to the Easter Bunny!

Clip Source: www.playfuls.com

Snow In Australia Whites-out Forest Fires

08:50 AM, December 25th 2006
by News Staff

Thousands of volunteers battling forest blazes in Australia's south-east corner received a timely Christmas present Monday when snow fell on fires that over the last three weeks have burned 870,000 hectares.

"I didn't actually believe it until it actually came last night," volunteer fireman Paul Koenig told national broadcaster ABC in the Mt Buller ski resort in Victoria.

"It's put the white cover across the buildings and the white cover over the ground, so it looks beautiful," he said.

In Melbourne, the state capital, it was the coldest Christmas Day in 70 years. In the neighbouring state of New South Wales temperatures also plummeted with the Thredbo ski resort receiving a dusting of snow.

In Hobart, the Tasmanian state capital, children were throwing snowballs where a week ago smoke plumed from a forest on fire.

"We've come all the way from England for a warm summer and here we are in the snow in Hobart, but we're still enjoying it," one tourist told the ABC.

Weather bureau forecaster Scott Williams said the unseasonably low temperatures meant fires in three states could be extinguished by the end of the week.

"It's a terrific Christmas present for the firefighters," Williams said. "It's going to go a long way to putting the fires out."

At their height, 4,000 firefighters were pitched against the blazes. There were contingents from New Zealand as well as from the military. Dozens of water-bombing aircraft have been in action.

Forest fires sparked by lightning or set by arsonists are a feature of the hot southern hemisphere summer. Four years ago seven people were killed, 500 houses razed and 3 million hectares of forest lost - an area three times the size of Britain.

© 2006 DPA

Tags: global warming, climate change

Eating Meat Could Destroy the Planet

Wed, 06 Dec 2006 03:04:40 GMT

clipped by: mykoo

Clip Source: www.emagazine.com

Organizations from Greenpeace to the Union of Concerned Scientists, World Bank and the Pentagon, all agree that global warming is, perhaps, the most serious threat to our imperiled planet. The Pentagon report, for example, states that climate change in the form of global warming “should be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a U.S. national security concern,” higher even than terrorism.

What many people do not know, however, is that the production of meat also significantly increases global warming. Cow farms produce millions of tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane per year, the two major greenhouse gases that together account for more than 90 percent of U.S. greenhouse emissions, substantially contributing to “global scorching.”

Geophysicists Gidon Eshel and Pamela Martin from the University of Chicago concluded that changing one’s eating habits from the Standard American Diet (SAD) to a vegetarian diet does more to fight global warming than switching from a gas-guzzling SUV to a fuel-efficient hybrid car. Of course, you can do both — and more! It has been said that “where the environment is concerned, eating meat is like driving a huge SUV.... Eating a vegetarian diet is like driving a mid-sized car [or a reasonable sedan, according to Eshel]. And eating a vegan diet (no dairy, no eggs) is like riding a bicycle or walking. Shifting away from SUVs and SUV-style diets, to much more energy-efficient alternatives, is key to fighting the warming trend.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme’s Unit on Climate Change, “There is a strong link between human diet and methane emissions from livestock.” The 2004 State of the World is more specific regarding the link between animals raised for meat and global warming: “Belching, flatulent livestock emit 16 percent of the world’s annual production of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.”

Tags: health, meat, global warming, vegetarianism, vegetables, science, diet

Experts warn Fla. about climate change

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 00:08:59 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Scientists and economists Tuesday warned lawmakers of consequences Florida faces from climate change, including more destructive hurricanes and a rising sea level, but they also said the state could be a leader in reducing global warming.

Three panels of experts spoke at a symposium held by the House Environmental Resources Council and three related committees.

Climate change will figure into comprehensive energy and environmental policy legislation the lawmakers will be considering during the 2008 legislative session, said Council Chairman Stan Mayfield, R-Vero Beach.

Some legislators, though, questioned whether Florida could do much to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses, spewed mostly from power plants and vehicle exhausts, that contribute to global warming. That's because Florida emits only 1 percent of those gasses worldwide.

Tags: climate change, global warming, florida, science

Notes on a Sick Planet

Sat, 13 Oct 2007 17:45:06 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks:

The authors may reach a bit when they try to sound less square, likening the buying of compact fluorescent light bulbs to “an upgrade on your iTunes software.” But they make the science relevant and enjoyable with abundant visuals and conclude with some meaty ways for kids to make a difference. The old standbys are all there (switch light bulbs, recycle, use canvas bags at the grocery store). But I smiled on noticing something new: the authors suggest some “sustainable careers” kids can consider, like meteorologist and “glacial geologist.”

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

There’s no use avoiding it: our kids need to know about the global environmental crisis — climate change, deforestation, species extinction. And as long as we’re teaching them about all that, we may as well teach them some science at the same time. Learning about evaporation can be as boring as watching a pot boil, but if it’s part of a habitat-destroying, polar-bear-killing, actually-somewhat-interesting environmental disaster, maybe that’s something kids could enjoy reading.

Here are two new books that don’t shy away from the complexity of the science or the gravity of our environmental situation, but which also don’t forget their audience. Never before have so many serious ecological ideas been mixed so heavily with flatulence jokes and sad pictures of cute animals. The details of global warming boggle some of the world’s finest minds, but Laurie David and Cambria Gordon’s “Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming” actually makes it easy to understand.

Tags: environment, books, kids, learning, education, earth, book review, science

Hurricane Planet: Is the Worst Yet to Come?

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 21:36:01 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

Aug. 22, 2007 — If Earth is running a fever, then hurricanes like Dean and Katrina are her febrile seizures. As the rise in global temperature has accelerated over the last century, these tempestuous spasms have become more frequent and violent.

Each new spinning storm is also finding ever more victims populating its coastal targets — whether it be Mississippi or Madagascar, Kingston or Connecticut — and more ways to trigger trouble thousands of miles inland by way of an ever-more interdependent, globalized economy.

Climatologists and hurricane scientists now have little doubt there is a connection between hurricanes and global warming. Some of the strongest evidence comes from 100 years of records on Atlantic hurricanes — the most complete archive of its kind for any ocean basin. That record shows hurricanes have been increasing in a stepwise fashion since 1900.

Tags: climate change, hurricanes, weather, world

Gore and UN panel win Nobel prize

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 14:47:59 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth was an unlikely box office hit

Climate change campaigner Al Gore and the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have been jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

The committee cited "their efforts to build up and disseminate knowledge about man-made climate change".

Mr Gore, US vice-president under Bill Clinton, said he was "deeply honoured".

Mr Gore, 59, won an Oscar for his climate change film An Inconvenient Truth while the IPCC is the top authority on global warming.

HAVE YOUR SAY

It would have made more sense to wait and see if Gore et al actually had an effect, but at least this might serve as a wake-up call to the naysayers

Geoff, Bensberg, Germany

Send us your comments

Nobel Peace Prize quiz

Indian's surprise at award

IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri said he was "overwhelmed" by the award.

Tags: climate change, inconvenient truth, al gore, nobel peace prize

The Earth fights back

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 17:40:43 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Never mind higher temperatures, climate change has a few nastier surprises in store. Bill McGuire says we can also expect more earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides and tsunamis

Unlike most apparently intractable problems, which have a tendency to go away when examined closely and analytically, the climate change predicament just seems to get bigger and scarier the more we learn about it.

periods in our planet's history when the climate was swinging about wildly, most notably during the last ice age, it appears that far more than the weather was affected

an increase in volcanic activity, earthquakes, giant submarine landslides and tsunamis

there was a close correlation between how quickly sea levels went up and down during the last ice age and the level of explosive activity at volcanoes in Italy and Greece

how can rising sea levels cause volcanoes to erupt?

answer lies in the enormous mass of the water pouring into the ocean basins

seems to be sufficient to load and bend the underlying crust.

Tags: science, earth, global warming, earthquakes, volcanooes

Soot 'influences Arctic climate'

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 13:51:12 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Soot 'influences Arctic climate'

Human activities have left a visible mark on the Arctic

Measurements from ice cores suggest that soot released by industrial activities has influenced climate change in the Arctic.

The researchers looked at ice cores covering the period 1788 to 2002.

The natural record shows that concentrations of black carbon, or soot, were particularly bad from 1851 to 1951, Science journal reports.

Soot adds to local climate warming because dark ground absorbs energy from the Sun that white snow would reflect.

Joe McConnell and Ross Edwards from the Desert Research Institute (DRI) in Reno, US, gathered and analysed ice core samples from various regions of Greenland.

These samples allowed them to analyse annual deposits of soot and other chemicals going back 215 years.

"In addition to black carbon, we measured a broad range of other chemicals at very high depth resolution in this same ice core," said Dr McConnell.

Tags: climate change, global warming, arctic, ice cores, industry, science

Is climate change boosting hurricanes?

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 23:15:55 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks:

What it tells us, says Mooney, is that the link between climate change and hurricanes is complicated. As he emphasizes again and again, “global warming did not cause Hurricane Katrina, or any other weather disaster.” On the other hand, statistical analysis of the past century’s hurricanes and computer modeling of a warmer climate, nudged along by greenhouse gases, does indicate that rising ocean temperatures could fuel hurricanes that are more intense.

Clip Source: discovermagazine.com

More than 28 tropical storms and hurricanes, including Katrina, were spawned in the Atlantic Ocean in 2005. In fact, the season was so extreme that it instigated an ongoing debate: Has climate change made hurricanes fiercer and more frequent? As Chris Mooney relates in Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle over Global Warming (Harcourt, 2007), proponents of both sides of the dispute have had a field day with this question. Yet the danger of extrapolating from a single catastrophic season became clear in 2006, an unusually quiet year for Atlantic hurricanes. Just 10 storms brewed, only two of which became major hurricanes. So what does this mixed record say about global warming?

The basic scenario goes as follows: Hurricanes—circular storms spinning around a region of low atmospheric pressure—are powered by energy released by spiraling surface winds that draw heat from the ocean. Warmer seas should provide more energy and make hurricanes stronger.

Tags: climate change, global warming, hurricanes, weather, science

Global warming 'cannot be stopped'

Mon, 04 Sep 2006 16:02:09 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks:

“We need to think about policies that prepare for a hotter, drier world, especially in poorer countries. That may involve, for instance, developing new crops, constructing flood defences, setting different building regulations, or banning building close to sea level.”

Looks like a new level of "realism" began to emerge at "climate change" controversy.

Clip Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

Global warming 'cannot be stopped'

By Mark Henderson

THE world must be more realistic about the chances of preventing climate change and prepare for the inevitability of global warming, the head of one of Britain’s foremost scientific societies will urge today.

Politicians and environmentalists have failed to understand how difficult it will be to curb global warming and are overlooking the importance of adapting to the hotter world it will bring, according to Frances Cairncross, the President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

Tags: global warming, climate change, science

Melting Ice Threatens Sea-Level Rise

Thu, 23 Mar 2006 19:52:04 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Melting Ice Threatens Sea-Level Rise

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The rumblings of global warming are echoing across Greenland. Groups of scientists studying ancient climate, tweaking computer models of future climate and even listening to earthquakes add to the evidence that global warming is melting polar ice, according to a series of papers in this week's issue of the journal Science.

At the current rate of rising temperatures, by the year 2100 Arctic summers could be as warm as they were 130,000 years ago. Back then, in a time known as the last interglacial, the oceans were 20 feet higher than they are now.

That does not mean the researchers are predicting a 20-foot ocean rise by the end of this century; more like a couple of feet, they think. But such a warming is expected to accelerate melting of the polar ice and could lead to considerable additional sea-level rise, they said.

Tags: climate change, global warming, melting ice, sea-level rise