I am not a Bird Watcher
Tue - June 27, 2006
Global Warming Fastest For 20,000 Years
Global warming is made worse by man-made
pollution and the scale of the problem is unprecedented in at least 20,000
years, according to a draft report by the world's leading climate
scientists.
...A draft copy of the report by a working group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases are at the highest for at least 650,000 years.
...The US Climate Change Science Programme, which yesterday released its own report saying climate change was being affected by man-made pollution, said it wanted as many experts and stakeholders as possible to comment on the draft IPCC report.
..."And it is likely that greenhouse gases alone would have caused more warming than has been observed during this period, with some warming offset by cooling from natural and other anthropogenic factors."
...Satellite data since 1978 shows that the Arctic sea ice has shrunk by about 2.7 per cent each decade, with even larger losses of about 7.4 per cent during the warmer summer months.
...Man-made emissions of greenhouse gases have probably already caused the increase in sea levels observed over the past century, says the report.
"Anthropogenic forcing, resulting from thermal expansion from ocean warming and glacier and ice sheet melt, is likely the largest contributor to sea level rise during the latter half of the 20th century," the report says.
...* Arctic sea ice has shrunk by 2.7 per cent per decade since 1978 and by 7.4 per cent each decade during the summer months.
...A draft copy of the report by a working group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases are at the highest for at least 650,000 years.
...The US Climate Change Science Programme, which yesterday released its own report saying climate change was being affected by man-made pollution, said it wanted as many experts and stakeholders as possible to comment on the draft IPCC report.
..."And it is likely that greenhouse gases alone would have caused more warming than has been observed during this period, with some warming offset by cooling from natural and other anthropogenic factors."
...Satellite data since 1978 shows that the Arctic sea ice has shrunk by about 2.7 per cent each decade, with even larger losses of about 7.4 per cent during the warmer summer months.
...Man-made emissions of greenhouse gases have probably already caused the increase in sea levels observed over the past century, says the report.
"Anthropogenic forcing, resulting from thermal expansion from ocean warming and glacier and ice sheet melt, is likely the largest contributor to sea level rise during the latter half of the 20th century," the report says.
...* Arctic sea ice has shrunk by 2.7 per cent per decade since 1978 and by 7.4 per cent each decade during the summer months.
Posted at 12:10 PM Read More
Sat - June 3, 2006
For Sound Energy Policy, Don't Look to Congress
Bush and Cheney know the oil is running
out
Posted at 08:33 AM Read More
Wed - March 22, 2006
UN report warns on overuse of water for farming
OSLO (Reuters) - The overuse of water for farming
is the biggest environmental threat to the world's freshwater resources and
damage is likely to worsen until 2020, an international report issued on Tuesday
said.
..."Overall, agriculture ranks highest as the key concern on the freshwater front," the U.N. Environment Programme said of the conclusions of the report, which also examined risks such as pollution and global warming until 2020.
"Falls in river flows, rising saltiness of estuaries, loss of fish and aquatic plant species and reductions in sediments to the coast are expected to rise in many areas of the globe by 2020," it said of the side-effects of irrigation.
...Gotthilf Hempel, professor emeritus of biological oceanography at Germany's Kiel University and a leader of the study, said water shortages could spur more human conflicts in future.
...The report said rising demand for fresh water was caused partly by demand for food from an increasing human population of 6.5 billion and a "shift to more water-intensive food such as meat rather than vegetables and fruit rather than cereals."
..."Overall, agriculture ranks highest as the key concern on the freshwater front," the U.N. Environment Programme said of the conclusions of the report, which also examined risks such as pollution and global warming until 2020.
"Falls in river flows, rising saltiness of estuaries, loss of fish and aquatic plant species and reductions in sediments to the coast are expected to rise in many areas of the globe by 2020," it said of the side-effects of irrigation.
...Gotthilf Hempel, professor emeritus of biological oceanography at Germany's Kiel University and a leader of the study, said water shortages could spur more human conflicts in future.
...The report said rising demand for fresh water was caused partly by demand for food from an increasing human population of 6.5 billion and a "shift to more water-intensive food such as meat rather than vegetables and fruit rather than cereals."
Posted at 02:57 PM Read More
Mon - March 6, 2006
Surf's Up: Antarctic Ice Sheet Is Melting Steadily
Melting Antarctic ice is adding so much
fresh water into the oceans every year that it could signal higher tides
globally, according to scientific research published
yesterday.
However the latest survey -- using a new technique to measure the mass of ice with NASA satellites -- has become the first to suggest that overall it is in "significant decline." They found it was losing 36 cubic miles a year, enough to raise global sea level by 0.4 millimeters a year.
The Antarctic ice sheet contains 70 percent of the world's fresh water and if all of it was to melt -- along with the more vulnerable Arctic and Greenland ice sheets -- sea levels would rise by a catastrophic 84 meters.
Environmentalist campaigners urged the world to go on a "war footing" to fight climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions before it was too late.
"It showed the glaciers in the west were accelerating and losing more mass. In the east, there have been surveys showing there is growing mass in the interior. What our study showed was the east is in balance between what's growing and what is being lost at the edges."
Velicogna said: "What we found is the ice sheet is losing mass quite a bit, so we should pay attention. I think we have to be careful. It's unlikely this is going to stop tomorrow."
Richard Dixon, of WWF Scotland, has maintained an optimistic stance -- despite warnings from several leading environmentalists who believe global warming is now irreversible -- that something can be done to stave off the worst effects of climate change.
However the latest survey -- using a new technique to measure the mass of ice with NASA satellites -- has become the first to suggest that overall it is in "significant decline." They found it was losing 36 cubic miles a year, enough to raise global sea level by 0.4 millimeters a year.
The Antarctic ice sheet contains 70 percent of the world's fresh water and if all of it was to melt -- along with the more vulnerable Arctic and Greenland ice sheets -- sea levels would rise by a catastrophic 84 meters.
Environmentalist campaigners urged the world to go on a "war footing" to fight climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions before it was too late.
"It showed the glaciers in the west were accelerating and losing more mass. In the east, there have been surveys showing there is growing mass in the interior. What our study showed was the east is in balance between what's growing and what is being lost at the edges."
Velicogna said: "What we found is the ice sheet is losing mass quite a bit, so we should pay attention. I think we have to be careful. It's unlikely this is going to stop tomorrow."
Richard Dixon, of WWF Scotland, has maintained an optimistic stance -- despite warnings from several leading environmentalists who believe global warming is now irreversible -- that something can be done to stave off the worst effects of climate change.
Posted at 02:26 PM Read More
Wed - March 1, 2006
Global Warming: Passing The 'Tipping Point'
Research commissioned by The Independent reveals
that the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has now crossed a
threshold, set down by scientists from around the world at a conference in
Britain last year, beyond which really dangerous climate change is likely to be
unstoppable.
...Agricultural yields will have started to fall, not only in Africa but also in Europe, the US and Russia, putting up to 200 million more people at risk from hunger, and up to 2.8 billion additional people at risk of water shortages for both drinking and irrigation. The Government's conference on Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change, held at the UK Met Office in Exeter a year ago, highlighted a clear threshold in the accumulation of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, which should not be surpassed if the 2 degree point was to be avoided with "relatively high certainty".
This was for the concentration of CO2 and other gases such as methane and nitrous oxide, taken together in their global warming effect, to stay below 400ppm (parts per million) in CO2 terms - or in the jargon, the "equivalent concentration" of CO2 should remain below that level.
...Some scientists have been reluctant to talk about the overall global warming effect of all the greenhouses gases taken together, because there is another consideration - the fact that the "aerosol", or band of dust in the atmosphere from industrial pollution, actually reduces the warming.
...However, as James Lovelock points out - and Professor Shine and other scientists accept - in the event of an industrial downturn, the aerosol could
...Agricultural yields will have started to fall, not only in Africa but also in Europe, the US and Russia, putting up to 200 million more people at risk from hunger, and up to 2.8 billion additional people at risk of water shortages for both drinking and irrigation. The Government's conference on Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change, held at the UK Met Office in Exeter a year ago, highlighted a clear threshold in the accumulation of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, which should not be surpassed if the 2 degree point was to be avoided with "relatively high certainty".
This was for the concentration of CO2 and other gases such as methane and nitrous oxide, taken together in their global warming effect, to stay below 400ppm (parts per million) in CO2 terms - or in the jargon, the "equivalent concentration" of CO2 should remain below that level.
...Some scientists have been reluctant to talk about the overall global warming effect of all the greenhouses gases taken together, because there is another consideration - the fact that the "aerosol", or band of dust in the atmosphere from industrial pollution, actually reduces the warming.
...However, as James Lovelock points out - and Professor Shine and other scientists accept - in the event of an industrial downturn, the aerosol could
Posted at 06:32 PM Read More
Sun - February 19, 2006
Could Global Warming Become a Runaway Train?
Scientists say the warm weather adds to global
warming because of "feedback
loops."
...As the frozen sea surface of the Arctic Ocean melts back, there's less white to reflect the sun's heat back into space — and more dark open water to absorb that heat, which then melts the floating sea ice even faster.... In the ground next to the ocean, scientists say, warming has also awakened another enormous danger — billions of tons of carbon locked up for eons by was once frozen ground.... Oechel discovered that as global warming thaws and dries out the vast tundra, old decayed vegetation releases carbon dioxide. That's the same greenhouse gas that comes from car and plane exhausts, and power-plant chimneys — and the tundra releasing carbon dioxide warms the atmosphere even more.
...Oechel and other scientists now report that there are an additional 200 billion metric tons of carbon now beginning to leak from the northern boreal forests that encircle the Arctic tundra — apparently for the same reason: The rising temperatures are drying out these forests, which means more decayed vegetation releasing yet more carbon dioxide.
Oechel says new carbon-free energy technologies, such as injecting greenhouse gas from power plants back into the ground, or zero-emissions cars, will be vital for maintaining a livable planet — eventually, once they're developed.
...Oechel says that, by his calculations, the only possibility for preventing a runaway greenhouse effect on earth is to start reducing the use of fossil fuels like oil, gas and coal immediately.
...As the frozen sea surface of the Arctic Ocean melts back, there's less white to reflect the sun's heat back into space — and more dark open water to absorb that heat, which then melts the floating sea ice even faster.... In the ground next to the ocean, scientists say, warming has also awakened another enormous danger — billions of tons of carbon locked up for eons by was once frozen ground.... Oechel discovered that as global warming thaws and dries out the vast tundra, old decayed vegetation releases carbon dioxide. That's the same greenhouse gas that comes from car and plane exhausts, and power-plant chimneys — and the tundra releasing carbon dioxide warms the atmosphere even more.
...Oechel and other scientists now report that there are an additional 200 billion metric tons of carbon now beginning to leak from the northern boreal forests that encircle the Arctic tundra — apparently for the same reason: The rising temperatures are drying out these forests, which means more decayed vegetation releasing yet more carbon dioxide.
Oechel says new carbon-free energy technologies, such as injecting greenhouse gas from power plants back into the ground, or zero-emissions cars, will be vital for maintaining a livable planet — eventually, once they're developed.
...Oechel says that, by his calculations, the only possibility for preventing a runaway greenhouse effect on earth is to start reducing the use of fossil fuels like oil, gas and coal immediately.
Posted at 04:02 PM Read More
Evangelicals issue warning on warming
A prominent group from the nation's conservative
religious movement released a dramatic endorsement of the mountainous scientific
evidence that human activities and their pollution are changing the Earth's
climate.
...Eighty-six supporters from Christian denominations, colleges, seminaries, big churches and relief organizations, all with the evangelical stamp, signed the document, "Climate Change: An Evangelical Call to Action."
...The process warms the planet's biosphere, stresses the environment and endangers people, especially the world's poor, the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
President Bush has issued only tepid acknowledgment of the evidence, so it is still politically bold for conservatives -- including Christian evangelicals, many of whom stand along the political right -- to side with scientists.
The group, Evangelical Climate Initiative, also began running print, radio and TV ads claiming that a "commitment to Jesus Christ compels us to solve the global warming crisis."
...Eighty-six supporters from Christian denominations, colleges, seminaries, big churches and relief organizations, all with the evangelical stamp, signed the document, "Climate Change: An Evangelical Call to Action."
...The process warms the planet's biosphere, stresses the environment and endangers people, especially the world's poor, the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
President Bush has issued only tepid acknowledgment of the evidence, so it is still politically bold for conservatives -- including Christian evangelicals, many of whom stand along the political right -- to side with scientists.
The group, Evangelical Climate Initiative, also began running print, radio and TV ads claiming that a "commitment to Jesus Christ compels us to solve the global warming crisis."
Posted at 01:39 PM Read More
Earth 'on fast track' to warming
The findings came from probing sediments on the
ocean floor Greenhouse gases are being released 30 times faster than the rate of
emissions that triggered a period of extreme global warming in the Earth's
past.
...By probing sediments on the ocean floor, Professor Zachos was able to determine that about 4.5 trillion tonnes of carbon entered the atmosphere over a period of 10,000 years.
If present trends continue, this is the same amount that will be emitted by burning fossil fuels during the next 300 years, according to the UC Santa Cruz geologist.
...Professor Zachos presented his research at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in St Louis.
...By probing sediments on the ocean floor, Professor Zachos was able to determine that about 4.5 trillion tonnes of carbon entered the atmosphere over a period of 10,000 years.
If present trends continue, this is the same amount that will be emitted by burning fossil fuels during the next 300 years, according to the UC Santa Cruz geologist.
...Professor Zachos presented his research at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in St Louis.
Posted at 01:27 PM Read More
Fri - December 16, 2005
Climate,storms hit extremes in 2005-UN weather body
GENEVA, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Catastrophic storms
like Hurricanes Katrina and Stan took weather extremes to new levels in 2005,
with flooding and heatwaves touching almost every continent, the United Nations
weather body WMO said on Thursday.
But in an annual review, WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said that while high temperatures and heavy rains could probably be linked to global warming, this phenomenon could not yet be firmly blamed for the summer's Caribbean hurricanes.
...A long-time weather scientist who has headed the Geneva-based World Meteorological Organisation for the past two years, he said extreme heat -- often bringing severe drought -- had spread across all continents but Europe.
Europe itself -- mainly in its eastern and south-eastern regions -- had suffered both torrential rains and flooding, which also affected Bangladesh, China, New Zealand and Guyana in South America, among other areas.
And the tropical systems that swept around the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico trailing destruction and human tragedy were -- taken together -- the worst ever, with 26 named storms easily breaking the previous record of 21 in 1933.
Of these, 14 became hurricanes -- two more than the previous record in 1969 -- and seven were classified as "major hurricanes", including Katrina which devastated New Orleans and other U.S. Gulf cities in August and killed some 1,300 people.
...Earlier that month, Hurricane Stan had swept across Guatemala and El Salvador, laying waste to many poor communities, destroying coffee and other crops and killing more than 1,000 in mudslides and floods.
..."A lot of research is being done, and the IPCC (the U.N.'s advisory Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) will be issuing a new report in 2007, and that could shed more light on the question."
...Jarraud said Arctic sea-ice was melting -- another phenomenon linked to global warming -- more than ever before, and that the average cover in the key month of September was down 20 percent on the average for 1979-2004.
Overall, the average temperature at the earth's surface so far for 2005 had been 0.48 degrees centigrade (0.86 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than the comparable average for 1961-90 of 14 degrees centigrade, used as a reference period, the WMO said.
The hottest year since governments began sharing data was 1998, when the average surface temperature was 0.54 degrees centigrade above the reference period average.
But in an annual review, WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said that while high temperatures and heavy rains could probably be linked to global warming, this phenomenon could not yet be firmly blamed for the summer's Caribbean hurricanes.
...A long-time weather scientist who has headed the Geneva-based World Meteorological Organisation for the past two years, he said extreme heat -- often bringing severe drought -- had spread across all continents but Europe.
Europe itself -- mainly in its eastern and south-eastern regions -- had suffered both torrential rains and flooding, which also affected Bangladesh, China, New Zealand and Guyana in South America, among other areas.
And the tropical systems that swept around the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico trailing destruction and human tragedy were -- taken together -- the worst ever, with 26 named storms easily breaking the previous record of 21 in 1933.
Of these, 14 became hurricanes -- two more than the previous record in 1969 -- and seven were classified as "major hurricanes", including Katrina which devastated New Orleans and other U.S. Gulf cities in August and killed some 1,300 people.
...Earlier that month, Hurricane Stan had swept across Guatemala and El Salvador, laying waste to many poor communities, destroying coffee and other crops and killing more than 1,000 in mudslides and floods.
..."A lot of research is being done, and the IPCC (the U.N.'s advisory Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) will be issuing a new report in 2007, and that could shed more light on the question."
...Jarraud said Arctic sea-ice was melting -- another phenomenon linked to global warming -- more than ever before, and that the average cover in the key month of September was down 20 percent on the average for 1979-2004.
Overall, the average temperature at the earth's surface so far for 2005 had been 0.48 degrees centigrade (0.86 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than the comparable average for 1961-90 of 14 degrees centigrade, used as a reference period, the WMO said.
The hottest year since governments began sharing data was 1998, when the average surface temperature was 0.54 degrees centigrade above the reference period average.
Posted at 02:03 PM Read More
Tue - November 29, 2005
Global warming equals WMD
Pollution poses a threat as catastrophic as
weapons of mass destruction, Britain's top scientist has warned, as a major
international environment conference on greenhouse gases opened in
Canada.
...“The serious consequences of which are rising to levels which invite comparison with weapons of mass destruction," Lord May added, in an advance copy of his speech released to coincide with the UN conference.
...Up to 10,000 delegates from 189 nations will look at ways to help big developing nations like China and India curb their emissions.
..."Extreme weather events, drought and rising sea levels threaten the lives and livelihoods of millions of people around the world.
...But Lord May said the convention could help by agreeing to a pollution analysis that calculates the potential costs of corrective action - and the fallout if nothing was done.
"We need countries to initiate a study into the consequences of stabilising greenhouse gas concentrations at, below, or above twice pre-industrial levels, so that the international community can assess the potential costs of their actions or lack of them,” he said.
"Such an analysis could focus the minds of political leaders, currently worried more about the costs to them of acting now than they are by the consequences for the planet of acting too little, too late," Lord May said.
Lord May pointed to Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the US city of New Orleans in August, as an example of what could happen more often if global warming wasn’t tackled.
..."The estimated damage inflicted by Katrina is equivalent to 1.7 per cent of US GDP this year, and it is conceivable that the Gulf Coast of the US could be effectively uninhabitable by the end of the century," he said.
...For post-2012 Kyoto to make serious inroads into this pollution, it would have to include the United States and big developing countries.
...“The serious consequences of which are rising to levels which invite comparison with weapons of mass destruction," Lord May added, in an advance copy of his speech released to coincide with the UN conference.
...Up to 10,000 delegates from 189 nations will look at ways to help big developing nations like China and India curb their emissions.
..."Extreme weather events, drought and rising sea levels threaten the lives and livelihoods of millions of people around the world.
...But Lord May said the convention could help by agreeing to a pollution analysis that calculates the potential costs of corrective action - and the fallout if nothing was done.
"We need countries to initiate a study into the consequences of stabilising greenhouse gas concentrations at, below, or above twice pre-industrial levels, so that the international community can assess the potential costs of their actions or lack of them,” he said.
"Such an analysis could focus the minds of political leaders, currently worried more about the costs to them of acting now than they are by the consequences for the planet of acting too little, too late," Lord May said.
Lord May pointed to Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the US city of New Orleans in August, as an example of what could happen more often if global warming wasn’t tackled.
..."The estimated damage inflicted by Katrina is equivalent to 1.7 per cent of US GDP this year, and it is conceivable that the Gulf Coast of the US could be effectively uninhabitable by the end of the century," he said.
...For post-2012 Kyoto to make serious inroads into this pollution, it would have to include the United States and big developing countries.
Posted at 02:54 PM Read More
PRC OP/ED: Energy savers must be rewarded
PRC may top the world in economic
growth but that should not be achieved at the expense of the
environment.
Posted at 01:38 PM Read More
Sat - November 26, 2005
Rapidly accelerating glaciers may increase how fast the sea level
rises
Satellite images show that, after decades of
stability, a major glacier draining the Greenland ice sheet has dramatically
increased its speed and retreated nearly five miles in recent years. These
changes could contribute to rapid melting of the Greenland ice sheet and cause
the global sea level to rise faster than expected, according to researchers
studying the glacier.
...Warming air and sea temperatures in the area likely caused the glacier to speed up, said Slawek Tulaczyk, associate professor of Earth sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a coauthor of the paper.
...Although the entire ice sheet is unlikely to melt in this century, even a small change in the rate of melting could inundate low-lying coastal plains and add enough fresh water to the North Atlantic to change ocean circulation patterns, Tulaczyk said.
...Scientists use complex mathematical models to predict how climate, sea level, and ocean circulation will change in response to growing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
...Howat’s measurements also show that the Helheim glacier has sped up from around 70 feet per day to nearly 110 feet per day and thinned by more than 130 feet since 2001.
...The Helheim glacier is a river of ice that pours from the inland Greenland ice sheet, through a narrow rift in the coastal mountain range, and down into the sea at a rate of several miles per year.
...The center of the Greenland ice sheet is only 150 miles inland, and the researchers worry that the effects of the glacier’s retreat will continue to move inland, ultimately decreasing the thickness of the whole ice sheet.
..."Our research provides strong evidence that rapid melting processes such as we observed at the Helheim glacier will play a role in ice sheet reduction, but they are currently not included in the models," Tulaczyk said.
...Warming air and sea temperatures in the area likely caused the glacier to speed up, said Slawek Tulaczyk, associate professor of Earth sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a coauthor of the paper.
...Although the entire ice sheet is unlikely to melt in this century, even a small change in the rate of melting could inundate low-lying coastal plains and add enough fresh water to the North Atlantic to change ocean circulation patterns, Tulaczyk said.
...Scientists use complex mathematical models to predict how climate, sea level, and ocean circulation will change in response to growing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
...Howat’s measurements also show that the Helheim glacier has sped up from around 70 feet per day to nearly 110 feet per day and thinned by more than 130 feet since 2001.
...The Helheim glacier is a river of ice that pours from the inland Greenland ice sheet, through a narrow rift in the coastal mountain range, and down into the sea at a rate of several miles per year.
...The center of the Greenland ice sheet is only 150 miles inland, and the researchers worry that the effects of the glacier’s retreat will continue to move inland, ultimately decreasing the thickness of the whole ice sheet.
..."Our research provides strong evidence that rapid melting processes such as we observed at the Helheim glacier will play a role in ice sheet reduction, but they are currently not included in the models," Tulaczyk said.
Posted at 02:45 PM Read More
Fri - November 25, 2005
Huge rise in greenhouse gases
Levels of carbon dioxide, the principal gas
behind global warming, are now 27 percent higher than at any time in the past
650,000 years, according to newly published research
findings.
Scientists drilling ice cores in Antarctica have produced the world’s deepest sample and discovered definitive evidence that human activity since the Industrial Revolution has radically altered the planet’s atmosphere.
The 650,000-year-old ice, determined by estimated average annual snowfall levels, was extracted from the Dome Concordia (Dome C) in east Antarctica by a European team.
...“We have added another piece of information showing that the time scales on which humans have changed the composition of the atmosphere are extremely short compared to the natural time cycles of the climate system,” said the study’s lead author Thomas Stocker of the University of Bern’s Physics Institute in Switzerland.
Natural events such as volcanic eruptions release massive amounts of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide into the air and impact on the Earth’s surface temperature.
...“Without reliable information on how sea levels had changed before we had our new measures, we couldn’t be sure the current rate wasn’t happening all along,” Professor Miller said.
Scientists drilling ice cores in Antarctica have produced the world’s deepest sample and discovered definitive evidence that human activity since the Industrial Revolution has radically altered the planet’s atmosphere.
The 650,000-year-old ice, determined by estimated average annual snowfall levels, was extracted from the Dome Concordia (Dome C) in east Antarctica by a European team.
...“We have added another piece of information showing that the time scales on which humans have changed the composition of the atmosphere are extremely short compared to the natural time cycles of the climate system,” said the study’s lead author Thomas Stocker of the University of Bern’s Physics Institute in Switzerland.
Natural events such as volcanic eruptions release massive amounts of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide into the air and impact on the Earth’s surface temperature.
...“Without reliable information on how sea levels had changed before we had our new measures, we couldn’t be sure the current rate wasn’t happening all along,” Professor Miller said.
Posted at 05:54 PM Read More
Can oil production satisfy rising demand?
Can oil production
satisfy rising demand?
WASHINGTON — Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman
has asked a high-level advisory board to answer one of the toughest questions
dogging the U.S. economy: Can world oil production meet steadily rising
demand?
In a previously unreleased Oct. 5 letter to ExxonMobil CEO Lee Raymond, chairman of the National Petroleum Council, Bodman asked for a study of the industry's ability to produce enough oil and natural gas at prices that won't cripple the economy.
...But as booming economies in China and India boost demand, and production levels off, prices will rise.
...The International Energy Agency last month agreed, saying oil reserves in the Middle East are "relatively underexploited and are sufficient to meet rising global demand for the next quarter-century and beyond."
...But Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., who met with President Bush this summer to urge government action, says: "Any thinking person has to recognize at some point the world is going to face a crisis."
In a previously unreleased Oct. 5 letter to ExxonMobil CEO Lee Raymond, chairman of the National Petroleum Council, Bodman asked for a study of the industry's ability to produce enough oil and natural gas at prices that won't cripple the economy.
...But as booming economies in China and India boost demand, and production levels off, prices will rise.
...The International Energy Agency last month agreed, saying oil reserves in the Middle East are "relatively underexploited and are sufficient to meet rising global demand for the next quarter-century and beyond."
...But Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., who met with President Bush this summer to urge government action, says: "Any thinking person has to recognize at some point the world is going to face a crisis."
Posted at 05:45 PM Read More
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Published On: Jun 27, 2006 12:14 PM
Published On: Jun 27, 2006 12:14 PM