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Sore Throat
Joined: 01 Sep 2000
Posts: 1802
Location: x |
Arctic Lakes Show Signs of Global Warming
 Fri Mar 04, 2005 2:42 am
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http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2005/2005-03-03-10.asp
Arctic Lakes Show Signs of Global Warming
Arctic Lakes Show Signs of Global Warming
By J.R. Pegg
WASHINGTON, DC, March 3, 2005 (ENS) - A major study of Arctic lake sediments provides new evidence of human-induced climate change and concludes it may soon be impossible to find "pristine Arctic environments untouched by climate warming."
Arctic lakes have undergone dramatic ecological change in the past 150 years, the study finds, and the timing of these changes mirrors the warming trend that commenced when humans began the widespread burning of fossil fuels.
The findings, which represent the largest study of its kind, were published this week in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."
Coauthor Alexander Wolf said the new research provides key data on a region that is on the frontlines of climate change but can be difficult to study.
"Polar regions are expected to show the first signs of climatic warming, and are therefore considered sentinels of environmental change," explained Wolf, an earth scientist from Queen's University in Canada. "Unfortunately, long term monitoring data are generally lacking in these areas, which makes it difficult to determine the direction and magnitude of past environmental changes."
But microfossils of aquatic organisms preserved in lake sediment offer an archive of the lake's history - and lakes are abundant in the Arctic.
"If you look at one lake at a time, you still get important information, but it is hard to make large scale, regional assessments," said lead author John Smol, an Arctic lake expert from Queen's University. "Once you compile the larger dataset of all these lakes and ponds, striking and consistent patterns become evident. Taken together, it is a very powerful message."
To determine that message, the international team of 26 researchers analyzed lake sediment from 46 Arctic lakes in four polar nations.
They produced 55 historical profiles of algal and invertebrate animals, covering an area that extends halfway around the world and 30 degrees of latitude spanning boreal forest to high arctic tundra ecosystems.
Changes in the community composition of freshwater algae, water fleas and insect larvae in the majority of lakes reflect the impact of warming, the researchers said.
The study reports little change in these communities until the mid-1800s, with dramatic shifts occurring in the past three decades.
These organisms make up the base of most aquatic food webs, the researchers said, and impacts are likely to trickle up the food chain and affect larger animals.
The findings are consistent with data that show climate change has lengthened summers and reduced lake ice cover across much of the Arctic.
These changes in turn prolong the growing season available to highly sensitive lake organisms, the researchers said, and opens up new habitats for others.
The researchers also found the most intense population changes occurred in the northernmost study sites, where the greatest amount of warming appears to have taken place.
Changes in the Arctic are considered bellwethers of what is to come further south, the study's authors said, and should sound an urgent environmental wakeup call.
It shows that "human interference is affecting ecosystems on a profound scale," Smol said.
"We are crossing ecological thresholds here, as shown by changes in biota associated with climate related phenomena like receding ice cover in lakes," he added. "Once you pass these thresholds it is hard to go back."
Findings from one area in the Canadian sub-Arctic did not show similar patterns of biological change.
But this area appears not to be warming to the same extent as other areas, the researchers said, and this actually boosts the overall conclusions of the study.
The region represents an important control region, according to researcher Reinhard Pienitz from Université Laval in Quebec City.
The Arctic is considered the front line for global warming. (Photo courtesy Arctic Council)
It supports the determination that the changes observed in lakes where warming has occurred "have not been primarily caused by, for example, atmospheric deposition of contaminants," Pienitz explained.
Smol noted that an earlier lake sediment study he coauthored, published in the journal "Science" in 1994, caused controversy with its interpretation of climatic warming in three high Arctic ponds.
But now "the tide has turned," Smol said, "and some of the strongest skeptics of that 1994 study are co-authors on this paper." |
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Sore Throat
Joined: 01 Sep 2000
Posts: 1802
Location: x |
| U.S. Must Address Global Warming, Bush Ally Says
Fri Mar 04, 2005 2:45 am
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http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=7803787
U.S. Must Address Global Warming, Bush Ally Says
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Former Secretary of State James Baker, a close ally of the Bush family, broke ranks with the Bush administration on Thursday and called for the United States to get serious about global warming.
Baker, in a speech to an audience that included a number of oil company executives, said "orderly" change to alternative energy was needed.
"It may surprise you a little bit, but maybe it's because I'm a hunter and a fisherman, but I think we need to a pay a little more attention to what we need to do to protect our environment," he told the Houston Forum Club.
"When you have energy companies like Shell and British Petroleum, both of which are perhaps represented in this room, saying there is a problem with excess carbon dioxide emission, I think we ought to listen," Baker said.
Baker ran presidential campaigns for George Bush and served in his Cabinet and led George W. Bush's controversial legal fight to win the Florida vote in the 2000 election.
The current Bush administration has been skeptical about global warming and refused to sign on to the international Kyoto Treaty to combat climate change, saying it would hurt the U.S. economy.
Baker said he agreed with the decision not to join Kyoto, calling it "a lousy treaty" because it did not include China and India.
But he said he supported "a gradual and orderly transition" to new fuels.
"I think we need to go forward with some sort of gradual, resourceful search for alternative sources," Baker said.
Many scientists blame the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil for creating a "greenhouse" effect that is warming the world climate.
The United States is the leading oil consumer and top producer of greenhouse gases. Most U.S. energy companies reject the idea that global warming is occurring. |
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Swamp Gas
Joined: 06 Jun 2001
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Location: On a Hill in the Lowlands |
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Fri Mar 04, 2005 3:12 am
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James Baker!! The Oil-Soaked, humans-have-nothing-to-do-with global-warming, Neo-Cons should have a séance and bring back Nixon. He was responsible for the EPA, and they actually did something. Again, Bush's administration and it's army/lobby of energy companies, chemtrail debunkers, and media whores downplay this danger, and since wrecking the environment is part of the Rapture and Apocalypse, why not make a ton of money before getting lifted off to heaven?
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Heard it from a pilot who spoke real gooooood! |
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increase 1776
Joined: 07 Oct 2000
Posts: 3097
Location: Bizzaro World |
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Fri Mar 04, 2005 5:39 am
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James Baker, another old D.C.prostitute.He's setting things up, so the taxpayers pay for the developement and research for the alternative energy.I'll bet James knows a couple 'good old boys' that are up to the task to handle that energy problem.Just mail the checks in care of James Baker,Dickhead Cheney,Poppy Bush,or some Saudi"Laundry" co.Let's not leave out the Queen Bitch and the incestuous royal family.Taxpayers will pay going both ways.Pay to develop,then the Corporations will say," they developed the new energy," and the taxpayer pays again.Same s!@#, different day.
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"The police are not here to create disorder.
The police are here to preserve disorder." Mayor Richard Daley |
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Deborah
Joined: 30 Jul 2000
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Sat Mar 05, 2005 4:37 am
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Swamp Gas and Increase 1776:
You're both right.
So what do you suggest we do, spend the rest of our lives being pissed off at these b*stards or get busy and work around them?
The system as we are now witnessing it is so fragmented and corrupt that it seems to me the one real hope for change lies in working locally. |
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increase 1776
Joined: 07 Oct 2000
Posts: 3097
Location: Bizzaro World |
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Sat Mar 05, 2005 6:35 am
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Deborah, starting at the local level and work from there,is indeed the way to go.You will find the corruption at the local level to be almost as bad.Working locally, fighting the water fluoridation cabal is a real eye opener and an excellant example.A hand full of doctors,and I use that word loosely,have the backing from the Aluminum companies,the CDC,all, or most, of the Dental groups,and some ,sit on the city council.In the short time I have been involved,doing polling,writing letters to the editor,and researching,I will never see doctors in the same light again.It's disgusting.Doctors,wanting to medicate an entire community,that has some of the purest water that is still available anywhere on this planet.These guys want to dump fluoride in everyones drinking water and their motivation is not our dental health. Personally, I like to vent my frustrations on this site like many others.Therapy,if you will,and also informative to others. I suggest getting involved in a local level cause, or run for office, to anyone that cares.
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"The police are not here to create disorder.
The police are here to preserve disorder." Mayor Richard Daley |
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Swamp Gas
Joined: 06 Jun 2001
Posts: 4254
Location: On a Hill in the Lowlands |
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Sat Mar 05, 2005 4:09 pm
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Being pissed off is the first step. Never repress anger. I believe it can manifst as disease. One cannot take a "detached" approach to these usurpers of enenrgy. I start at the local level. The information and food/water that comes in and goes out of my mind and body. Don't buy products from Jackal companies like McDonald's, GE, Exxon, Proctor and Gamble, etc. Then vote in all the local elections. I got to speak to a few of the candidates personally. Make copies of Chemtrails videos yourself and give them out. Call air traffic controllers and ask them what type of clouds are the ones formed by jet exhaust that you seeing at the time of a heavy spray day. Find out who you can talk to about Bush and the Destroyers, and stay in contact with them. Have get togethers with like-minded people to re-inforce what you all already know. Stock up on three months supply of food and water. Look at local candidates. What do they stand for? Watch out for union busters. That's a sure sign they are fascists.
Write music, poetry, make videos, art, journals, blogs, everything you can do to get the word out. The two thngs that must be remembered.....Be relentless is dismantling BushCo, and remember who loves ya!
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Heard it from a pilot who spoke real gooooood! |
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mark sky
Joined: 14 Oct 2000
Posts: 3616
Location: SW coast of Oregon |
| The Flouride introduction in Oregon
Sun Mar 06, 2005 4:49 am
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is a very good example increase 1776
their massive proposition is to "flourodate" evey water system
in the State of Oregon over a population of 5000
if you have been paying any attention
there has been activity to upserp WATER
vapor, in wells, and from Your very tap
"medicating" this "water source" with "flouride"
is all "for your [health]"
yet where are the "environmentalist" mynds as this occures?
Flouride accummulates, as the "water" evaporates
from cooked and canned foods, the food increases its content
so much that the effluents from sewer systems now realese F contents
"that worroy salmoniod activists"
while i salute their "efforts" to save the cold blooded fish
from the destitution of preditors, and wish that their oceans conditions
will be favorable
i can not bring myself yet to the abiss
off intentional global suiside
and the new world orders solution |
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Sore Throat
Joined: 01 Sep 2000
Posts: 1802
Location: x |
| No Stopping Global Warming, Studies Predict
Sat Mar 19, 2005 2:56 am
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http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050317/sc_nm/environment_climate_dc_1
No Stopping Global Warming, Studies Predict
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Even if people stopped pumping out carbon dioxide and other pollutants tomorrow, global warming would still get worse, two teams of researchers reported on Thursday.
Sea levels will rise more than they have already risen, worsening the damage caused by extreme high tides and storm surges, and droughts, heat waves and storms will become more severe, the climate experts predicted.
That makes immediate action to slow global warming even more vital, the teams at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado report in the journal Science.
"Even if we stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations, the climate will continue to warm, and there will be proportionately even more sea level rise," said the NCAR's Gerald Meehl, who led one of the two studies.
"The longer we wait, the more climate change we are committed to in the future."
Virtually no one disagrees human activity is fueling global warming, and a global treaty signed in Kyoto, Japan, aims to reduce polluting emissions. But the world's biggest polluter, the United States, has withdrawn from the 1997 treaty, saying its provisions would hurt the U.S. economy.
Meehl's team ran two computer simulations of climate change -- complex programs, he said, that took months to run on supercomputers.
Those models included as many variables as the researchers could think of, such as human carbon emissions, other pollution, current temperatures and their rate of change, emissions from volcanoes, changes in solar radiation and shifts in the ozone layer.
"Then we ran for the 21st century three different scenarios," Meehl said in a telephone interview.
One scenario assumed human production of carbon dioxide and other so-called greenhouse gases stabilized in 2000 and ran the model to the year 2100.
"We found that just based on the ingredients that have already been put into the atmosphere in the 20th century, we already are committed to another half a degree (0.5 degree C or 0.9 degree F) of global warming," Meehl said.
"That's about what we saw in the 20th century. We are already committed to as much climate change in the 21st century as we saw in the 20th century."
That would mean more extreme weather and a rise in sea levels, not even accounting for melting ice, Meehl said.
Experts say sea levels have risen 4 inches already over the past century and could rise between 4 and 40 inches More in the next century.
If completely melted, the Greenland ice sheet would add 25 feet to overall sea level and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet would raise it by 16 feet -- enough to swamp most of Florida, Bangladesh and New York City's Manhattan island.
In a second study in Science, the NCAR's Tom Wigley said he used a much simpler climate model to make a similar prediction.
He found it may not be possible to reduce emissions enough to stop the sea from rising. Even if all emissions stopped now, he calculated, changes were under way that would lead to a rise in sea levels of 4 inches per century. |
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Sore Throat
Joined: 01 Sep 2000
Posts: 1802
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| Britain's ozone levels near all-time low, scientists say
Sat Mar 19, 2005 3:02 am
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1441293,00.html
Britain's ozone levels near all-time low, scientists say
Arctic's record cold winter helps deplete radiation shield
David Adam, science correspondent
Saturday March 19, 2005
The Guardian
Scientists warned yesterday that levels of protective ozone over Britain are approaching record lows.
According to a monitoring centre in Germany, the ozone layer above Britain was reduced to half its normal thickness yesterday, and could get worse today. Ozone shields us from the sun's harmful ultraviolet radiation, which can cause skin cancer and cataracts.
Markus Rex, head of a European ozone monitoring programme in Potsdam, said a combination of the coldest Arctic winter on record and the current high pressure weather system over the north Atlantic had created ideal conditions for ozone loss.
"These two processes play together, and together they result in low ozone layer concentrations over the UK. It could get worse, it depends on what happens over the next month."
Dr Rex said the ozone layer over Britain was about 2.5mm thick yesterday, down from the usual 4mm-5mm. Anything below 2mm counts as a hole. An ozone layer half as thick will let in four times as much ultraviolet radiation. Scientists measure ozone thickness in Dobson units, 100 equalling one mm.
"It is a significant effect but it is not a completely unusual situation," he said. "And even if we have a large increase in UV, the exposure is still much smaller than in summer when the sun is at its highest."
Ozone depletion is a largely forgotten problem since the Montreal protocol successfully reduced levels of CFC chemicals in the atmosphere, after British scientists in Antarctica reported they were destroying ozone. But the chlorine-containing compounds take decades to degrade, and scientists say thinning of the ozone layer will probably get worse before it gets better.
Ozone levels decline over the Arctic and Antarctic in their respective springs as the returning sunlight kicks off the destructive chemical reac tions high in the atmosphere. Low temperatures accelerate this loss and most attention until now has been on the colder Antarctic, where a hole in the ozone layer has opened each spring since the 1980s.
Following an unusually cold Arctic winter - which some have linked to global warming - European scientists raised the alarm about northern ozone loss in January.
The European commission said: "Should further cooling of the Arctic stratosphere occur, increasing ozone losses can be expected for the next couple of decades. A hole in the ozone layer can lead to intensified harmful UV radiation affecting inhabited polar regions and Scandinavia, possibly down to central Europe. This could have consequences for human health as well as for biodiversity."
European scientists have been regularly checking ozone concentrations and weather conditions 12 miles up in the stratosphere using satellites, balloons and aircraft. They are particularly concerned about the formation over the Arctic winter of large, ice-laden clouds in and around the ozone layer. These polar stratospheric clouds, which form inside a swirling mass of cold air called the polar vortex, interfere with the chemistry of the high atmosphere and help to free chlorine from CFCs and speed ozone breakdown. The clouds that formed over the most recent winter are the largest seen over the Arctic for 20 years.
"The polar vortex is where the action takes place and where the situation gets bad," Dr Rex said. "If the vortex remains stable over the next few weeks, we would certainly expect to see much more ozone loss."
High pressure reduces ozone levels because it squeezes the protective gas away from the top of the troposphere, the lowest region of the atmosphere where most of the weather occurs.
The Arctic polar version moves around, unlike the Antarctic version that remains in the same place each year. This prevents concentrated ozone loss in a localised area, as occurs in the southern hemisphere each spring, but it makes UV exposure on the ground less predictable. The polar vortex was over Britain and parts of central Europe last week but has now passed further north. It could return next week, but some forecasts suggest it will start to break up.
John Pyle, an atmospheric chemist with the European ozone research coordinating unit in Cambridge, said: "It is interesting to us scientists and it is of concern, but we are not yet at the stage we have been at in the Antarctic for the last 15 years. I certainly would not want to create a scare story over it. If people ask if should they be staying indoors, the answer is no."
Rapid ozone loss begins when the temperature high in the stratosphere drops to around - 78C - until this year, only occasionally reached in the Arctic ozone during winter.
Much of the springtime ozone loss is usually made up by the formation of new ozone in the tropics, which is transported to the Arctic. "The chemical ozone loss should have been balanced by ozone transport," Dr Rex said. "This increase has been chewed away by the chemical ozone losses this winter." |
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halva
Joined: 04 Apr 2003
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Location: Greece |
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Sat Mar 19, 2005 5:45 am
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http://news.mywebpal.com/partners/356/public/news618658.html
Evangelical Leaders Swinging Influence Behind Effort to Combat Global Warming
Stewardship of God’s Creation
03/18/05
Chronicle News Services
Rev. Rich Cizik, an evangelical leader who speaks out on environmental issues.
NEW YORK--A core group of influential evangelical leaders has put its considerable political power behind a cause that has barely registered on the evangelical agenda, fighting global warming.
These church leaders, scientists, writers and heads of international aid agencies argue that global warming is an urgent threat, a cause of poverty and a Christian issue because the Bible mandates stewardship of God's creation.
"I don't think God is going to ask us how he created the earth, but he will ask us what we did with what he created," Rev. Rich Cizik, vice president of government affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals, said.
The association has scheduled two meetings on Capitol Hill and in the Washington suburbs on Thursday and Friday where more than 100 leaders will discuss issuing a statement on global warming.
The meetings are considered so pivotal that U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Dem., Conn.) and officials of the Bush administration, who are on opposite sides on how to address global warming, will speak.
People on all sides of the debate said that, if evangelical leaders take a stand, they could change the political dynamics on global warming. The administration has refused to join the international Kyoto treaty and opposes mandatory emission controls.
The issue has failed to gain much traction in the Republican-controlled Congress. An overwhelming majority of evangelicals are Republicans, and about four out of five evangelicals voted for President George W. Bush last year, according to the Pew Research Center.
Rev. Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, an umbrella group of 51 church denominations, said he had become passionate about global warming because of his experience scuba diving and observing the effects of rising ocean temperatures and pollution on coral reefs.
"The question is will evangelicals make a difference, and the answer is the Senate thinks so," Mr. Haggard said. "We do represent 30 million people, and we can mobilize them if we have to."
Last October, the association paved the way for broad-based advocacy on the environment when it adopted "For the Health of the Nation: an Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility," a platform that included a plan on "creation care" that many evangelical leaders say was unprecedented.
"Because clean air, pure water and adequate resources are crucial to public health and civic order, government has an obligation to protect its citizens from the effects of environmental degradation," the statement said.
It has been signed by close to 100 evangelical leaders.
However, it is far from certain that a more focused statement on climate change would elicit a similar response.
In recent years, however, whenever the association latched onto a new issue, Washington paid attention, on questions like religious persecution, violence in Sudan, AIDS in Africa and sex trafficking of young girls.
Environmentalists said they would welcome the evangelicals as allies.
"They have good friendships in places where the rest of the environmental community doesn't," Larry J. Schweiger, president and chief executive of the National Wildlife Federation, said. "For instance, in legislative districts where there's a very conservative lawmaker who might not be predisposed to pay attention to what environmental groups might say, but may pay attention to what the local faith community is saying."
It is not as if the evangelical and environmental groups are collaborating, because the wedge between them remains deep, Mr. Cizik said.
He added that evangelicals had long been uncomfortable with what they perceived to be the environmentalists' support for government regulation, population control and, if they are not entirely secular, new age approach to religion.
Over the last three years, evangelical leaders like Mr. Cizik have begun to reconsider their silence on environmental questions. Some evangelicals were speaking out, but not many.
Among them was the Rev. Jim Ball of the Evangelical Environment Network, who in 2002 began a "What Would Jesus Drive?" campaign and drove a hybrid vehicle across the country.
Mr. Cizik said that Mr. Ball "dragged" him to a conference on climate change in 2002 in Oxford, England.
Among the speakers were evangelical scientists, including Sir John Houghton, a retired Oxford professor of atmospheric physics who was on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a committee that issued international reports.
Sir Houghton said in an interview that he had told the group that science and faith together provided proof that climate change should be a Christian concern.
Mr. Cizik said he had a "conversion" on climate change so profound in Oxford that he likened it to an "altar call," when nonbelievers accept Jesus as their savior. Mr. Cizik recently bought a Toyota Prius, a hybrid vehicle.
Mr. Cizik and Mr. Ball then asked Sir John to speak at a small meeting of evangelical leaders in June in Maryland called by the Evangelical Environmental Network, the National Association of Evangelicals and Christianity Today, the magazine.
The leaders read Scripture and said they were moved by three watermen who caught crabs in Chesapeake Bay and said their faith made them into environmentalists.
Those leaders produced a "covenant" in which 29 committed to "engage the evangelical community" on climate change and to produce a "consensus statement" within a year.
Soon, Christianity Today ran an editorial endorsing a bill sponsored by U.S. Sen. John McCain (Rep., Ariz.), along with Sen. Lieberman, that would include binding curbs on greenhouse gases.
Mr. Ball said the strongest moral argument he made to fellow evangelicals was that climate change would have disproportionate effects on the poorest regions in the world. Hurricanes, droughts and floods are widely expected to intensify as a result of climate change.
He said evangelical leaders of relief and development organizations had been very receptive.
"Christ said, 'What you do to the least of these you do to me,' " Mr. Ball said, “and so, caring for the poor by reducing the threat of global warming is caring for Jesus Christ."
Among those speaking at the two meetings this week are Sir Houghton and Dr. Mack McFarland, environmental manager for DuPont, who is to describe how his company has greatly reduced gas emissions.
Such an approach appeals to evangelicals, Mr. Haggard said.
"We want to be pro-business environmentalists."
Mr. Cizik said he was among many evangelicals who would support some regulation on greenhouse gases.
"We're not adverse to government-mandated prohibitions on behavioral sin such as abortion," he said. "We try to restrict it. So why, if we're social tinkering to protect the sanctity of human life, ought we not be for a little tinkering to protect the environment?"
"Support from the evangelical and broader religious community," Sen. Lieberman said, "can really move some people in Congress who feel some sense of moral responsibility but haven't quite settled on an exact policy response yet. This could be pivotal." |
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Sore Throat
Joined: 01 Sep 2000
Posts: 1802
Location: x |
| Himalayan glaciers 'melting fast'
Sun Mar 20, 2005 9:26 pm
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4346211.stm
Himalayan glaciers 'melting fast'
Melting glaciers in the Himalayas could lead to water shortages for hundreds of millions of people, the conservation group WWF has claimed.
In a report, the WWF says India, China and Nepal could experience floods followed by droughts in coming decades.
The Himalayas contain the largest store of water outside the polar ice caps, and feed seven great Asian rivers.
The group says immediate action against climate change could slow the rate of melting, which is increasing annually.
"The rapid melting of Himalayan glaciers will first increase the volume of water in rivers, causing widespread flooding," said Jennifer Morgan, director of the WWF's Global Climate Change Programme.
"But in a few decades this situation will change and the water level in rivers will decline, meaning massive eco and environmental problems for people in western China, Nepal and northern India."
'Catastrophe'
The glaciers, which regulate the water supply to the Ganges, Indus, Brahmaputra, Mekong, Thanlwin, Yangtze and Yellow rivers are believed to be retreating at a rate of about 10-15m (33-49ft) each year.
Hundreds of millions of people throughout China and the Indian subcontinent - most of whom live far from the Himalayas - rely on water supplied from these rivers.
Many live on flood plains highly vulnerable to raised water levels.
And vast numbers of farmers rely on regular irrigation to grow their crops successfully.
The WWF said the potential for disaster in the region should serve to focus the minds of ministers of 20 leading industrialised nations gathering in London for two meetings on climate change.
"Ministers should realise now that the world faces an economic and development catastrophe if the rate of global warming isn't reduced," Ms Morgan said.
Temperatures rising
She added that a study commissioned for the WWF indicated that the temperature of the Earth could rise by two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels in a little over 20 years.
Allowing global temperatures to rise that far would be "truly dangerous", Ms Morgan said.
Nepal, China and India are already showing signs of climate change, the WWF report claims.
Nepal's annual average temperature has risen by 0.06 degrees Celsius, and three snow-fed rivers have shown signs of reduced flows.
Water level in China's Qinghai Plateau wetlands has affected lakes, rivers and swamps, while India's Gangotri glacier is receding by 23m (75ft) each year.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/4346211.stm |
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Sore Throat
Joined: 01 Sep 2000
Posts: 1802
Location: x |
| Funnel cloud rips over roofs in South San Francisco
Mon Mar 21, 2005 5:01 pm
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http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/03/20/state/n190810S81.DTL
Growing examples in real life of "The Day After Tomorrow":
Funnel cloud rips over roofs in South San Francisco
(03-21) 00:08 PST South San Francisco, Calif. (AP) --
A rogue funnel cloud raced through South San Francisco Sunday, knocking down power lines and ripping up rooftops.
The whirling cloud — which meteorologists from the National Weather Service believe was a tornado — was spotted at 3:40 p.m. just west of the city. It appeared in the middle of a heavy thunderstorm with blue-black skies and hail.
"The floor began to shake and then all the people outside began to run indoors, yelling `tornado,'" said Jorge Lozano, 20, who was working in the Ayar Produce store. "Then everything was blowing around in the store. The windows blew out and everyone was screaming. There was glass all over."
The twister formed over the Westborough hills and headed over Interstate 280.
After wreaking havoc in an industrial park and residential area close to downtown South San Francisco, it raced northeast and eventually dissipated over San Francisco Bay about 4 p.m.
Tornado winds can reach 100 mph.
Power lines were knocked down and windows shattered in an area centered at Railroad and Commercial Ave., according to police. The storm blew out power for some 1,500 people.
At least 20 homes and 20 businesses, including the city's new fire station, were damaged. The twister also uprooted trees and triggered gas leaks. Firefighters responded to dozens of calls.
Residents had to clean up bits of roofs from houses blocks away. Traffic lights, some of them bent, were out at a number of intersections.
The funnel cloud touched down about six times, according to witnesses and damage reports.
South San Francisco police desk officer Dave Stahler said the funnel appeared in the middle of a thunderstorm "with really dark skies, tons of rain and lots of hail. It cleared immediately and we got the frantic phone calls."
No injuries were immediately reported
"It sounded like a freight train or a jet hitting my house," said construction worker James Silva, 32, who lives on South Magnolia Avenue. The storm tore down his fences and blew out the windows of his car.
Meteorologists from the National Weather Service will conduct a storm survey Monday to determine if the funnel was in fact a tornado, which is unusual for the Bay Area.
"We'll look at the path of the funnel and the damage that occurred," said meteorologist Mark Stobin.
A tornado typically has a very focused damage area before it lifts and moves on, he said. |
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Sore Throat
Joined: 01 Sep 2000
Posts: 1802
Location: x |
| Earth has suffered irreversible damage: study
Wed Mar 30, 2005 5:22 pm
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http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1112197299985_10/?hub=World
Earth has suffered irreversible damage: study
Humans are damaging the Earth at such an unprecedented rate that the strain on the planet may destroy about two-thirds of its ecosystem services, according to a landmark international study.
The consequences of humans' activities are severe and include: new diseases, sudden changes in water quality, creation of "dead zones" along the coasts, the collapse of fisheries, and shifts in regional climate, according to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Synthesis Report.
"At the heart of this assessment is a stark warning," said the 45-member board.
"Human activity is putting such strain on the natural functions of Earth that the ability of the planet's ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted," it said.
The four-year, 2,500-page assessment was drawn up by 1,300 researchers from 95 nations in an effort to inform global policy initiatives.
Scientists warn that about 60 per cent of the ecosystem services that support life on Earth, such as fresh water, air and water regulation and natural hazards, are being destroyed.
The report warns that the consequences of this degradation of the environment will significantly worsen over the next 50 years.
"Any progress achieved in addressing the goals of poverty and hunger eradication, improved health, and environmental protection is unlikely to be sustained if most of the ecosystem services on which humanity relies continue to be degraded," said the study.
The report says humans have changed ecosystems more rapidly in the past 50 years than any other period.
"This was done largely to meet rapidly growing demands for food, fresh water, timber, fiber and fuel," a statement said, adding that this resulted in an irreversible loss of life on Earth, with some 10 to 30 per cent of mammal, bird and amphibian species threatened with extinction currently.
The changes in the ecosystem are owing to humans' efforts to meet rapidly growing demands for food, fresh water, timber, fibre and fuel, the report says.
"More land was converted to agriculture since 1945 than in the 18th and 19th centuries combined," according to the report's authors.
"More than half of all the synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, first made in 1913, ever used on the planet has been used since 1985."
And the current state of affairs is likely to be an obstacle to meeting the Millennium Development Goals agreed to by world leaders at the United Nations in 2000, the report says.
"The over-riding conclusion of this assessment is that it lies within the power of human societies to ease the strains we are putting on the nature services of the planet, while continuing to use them to bring better living standards to all," said the MA board of directors in a statement.
"Achieving this, however, will require radical changes in the way nature is treated at every level of decision-making and new ways of cooperation between government, business and civil society. The warning signs are there for all of us to see. The future now lies in our hands."
In a message launching the reports, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said the environment can only be protected by understanding how it works.
"Only by valuing all our precious natural and human resources can we hope to build a sustainable future," Annan said.
Other warnings:
Deforestation influences the abundance of human pathogens such as malaria and cholera
Scientists project there will be progress in eliminating hunger but at rates too slow to halve the number of the hungry by 2015.
It is the world's poorest people who suffer the most from changes to the ecosystem.
Only four ecosystem services have been improved in the past half-century. These include: increased crop, livestock and aquaculture production, and increased carbon sequestration for worldwide climate regulation.
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment's work was prepared under the supervision of a 45-member board of directors, co-chaired by Dr. Robert Watson, chief scientist of The World Bank, and Dr. A. Hamid Zakri, director of the United Nations University's Institute of Advanced Studies. |
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Swamp Gas
Joined: 06 Jun 2001
Posts: 4254
Location: On a Hill in the Lowlands |
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Wed Mar 30, 2005 6:59 pm
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As a point of reference, these Christo-Facsist-NeoCon-Death Cult-Corporatist-Zombies in power now believe whole heartedly in the Book of Revelation. They think "god" is behind all this eco-destruction. However, it is they who are creating it, manifest destiny. Here is a part of section 66 of the Book of revelation, to gaze upon their mindset:
008:006 And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
008:007 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
008:008 And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood
;
008:009 And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
008:010 And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
008:011 And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.
008:012 And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.
008:013 And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound
_________________
Heard it from a pilot who spoke real gooooood! |
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