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Thread: World Environment News , Ecology websites etc |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Warmists Sell Petermann Glacier As The Global Warming Titanic
A HUGE lump of ice has broken off from Petermann Glacier in northern Greenland. Andreas Muenchow, of the University of Delware’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment, says the ice sheet covers 100 square miles. Trudy Wohlleben of the Canadian Ice Service, was the first to report the broken ice. Neither mention global warming being behind the split. The ice did not melt. The ice cracked, or calved, as is the terminology. In all, the Petermann Glacier lost about one-quarter of its 43-mile long floating ice-shelf. It’s a pretty big deal in ice terms. But can it be made worse by a voracious media? |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
"Climate change" blamed for extreme weather
The environmentalists claim any extreme weather event that happens anywhere, ever, is now solely the result of climate change, because it will brainwash the public and frighten ignorant governments into desperately channelling even more precious taxpayer dollars to the scaremongers who claim they can "tackle climate change"................. Australian Climate Madness in Facebook |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
People remain stranded as flood situation worsens
 A Pakistani flood survivor waits for transport after evacuating a flooded area in Sukkur on August 8, 2010 ROHRI: Pakistani navy boats travelled along kilometres of flood waters on Sunday to rescue people stranded in a disaster that has angered many over the government's response. The worst floods in 80 years have killed over 1,600 people, left two million homeless, washed away crops and farm animals and overwhelmed President Asif Ali Zardari's civilian government. The military, which has maintained a dominant role in foreign and security policy even during civilian rule, is leading Pakistani relief efforts, as it has done in past crises like the 2005 earthquake. More homes and crops are likely to be swept away with heavy rain forecast to lash the country in the next 24 to 36 hours. Rubber and wooden navy boats set out from areas in Sindh province, where flood waters burst from the Indus River across vast distances, to help Pakistanis who have watched safe ground shrink by the hour and waters swallow up their livestock............... |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Stephen Hawking's Warning: Abandon EarthâOr Face Extinction
----------------------------------------Let's face it: The planet is heating up, Earth's population is expanding at an exponential rate, and the the natural resources vital to our survival are running out faster than we can replace them with sustainable alternatives. Even if the human race manages not to push itself to the brink of nuclear extinction it is still a foregone conclusion that our aging sun will expand and swallow the Earth in roughly 7.6 billion years. So, according to famed theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking it's time to free ourselves from Mother Earth. "I believe that the long-term future of the human race must be in space," Hawking tells Big Think. "It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster on planet Earth in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand, or million. The human race shouldn't have all its eggs in one basket, or on one planet. Let's hope we can avoid dropping the basket until we have spread the load." Hawking says he is an optimist, but his outlook for the future of man's existence is fairly bleak. In the recent past, humankind's survival has been nothing short of "a question of touch and go" he says, citing the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1963 as just one example of how man has narrowly escaped extinction. According to the Federation of American Scientists there are still about 22,600 stockpiled nuclear weapons .scattered around the planet, 7,770 of which are still operational In light of the inability of nuclear states to commit to a global nuclear non-proliferation treaty, the threat of a nuclear holocaust has not subsided. In fact, "the frequency of such occasions is likely to increase in the future," says Hawking, "We shall need great care and judgment to negotiate them all successfully." .............. [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Aug 9, 2010 10:03:21 AM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Ice Island Calves off Petermann Glacier
On Aug. 5, 2010, an enormous chunk of ice, roughly 97 square miles (251 square kilometers) in size, broke off the Petermann Glacier, along the northwestern coast of Greenland. The Canadian Ice Service detected the remote event within hours in near real-time data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite. The Petermann Glacier lost about one-quarter of its 70-kilometer (40-mile) long floating ice shelf, said researchers who analyzed the satellite data at the University of Delaware. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured these natural-color images of Petermann Glacier 18:05 UTC on August 5, 2010 (top), and 17:15 UTC on July 28, 2010 (bottom). The Terra image of the Petermann Glacier on August 5 was acquired almost 10 hours after the Aqua observation that first recorded the event. By the time Terra took this image, skies were less cloudy than they had been earlier in the day, and the oblong iceberg had broken free of the glacier and moved a short distance down the fjord. Icebergs calving off the Petermann Glacier are not unusual. Petermann Glacier’s floating ice tongue is the Northern Hemisphere’s largest, and it has occasionally calved large icebergs. The recently calved iceberg is the largest to form in the Arctic since 1962, said the University of Delaware. Related Links › Greenland glacier calves island 4 times the size of Manhattan › Crack in the Petermann Glacier › Greenland glacier gives birth to giant iceberg › Researchers Witness Overnight Breakup, Retreat of Greenland Glacier Annual Melt Over Greenland 1979 to 2009: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003700/a003720/index.html http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/WorldOfChange/sea_ice.php |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Water: Will There Be Enough?
From this article For at least three decades, Americans have had some inkling that we face an uncertain energy future, but we’ve ignored a much more worrisome crisis—water. Cheap and seemingly abundant, water is so common that it’s hard to believe we could ever run out. Ever since the Apollo astronauts photographed Earth from space, we’ve had the image of our home as a strikingly blue planet, a place of great water wealth But of all the water on Earth only about 2.5 percent is freshwater and two-thirds of that is locked up in glaciers and ice caps. Less than one hundredth of one percent of Earth’s water is fresh and renewed each year by the solar-powered hydrologic cycle. Across the United States and around the world, we’re already reaching or overshooting the limits of that cycle. The Colorado and Rio Grande Rivers are now so overtapped that they discharge little or no water to the sea for months at a time. [1] In the West, we’re growing food and supplying water to our communities by overpumping groundwater. This creates a bubble in the food economy far more serious than the recent housing, credit, or dot-com bubbles: We are meeting some of today’s food needs with toorrow’s water. [2] Just the Facts :: Water Footprints U.S. Water Footprint A water footprint is the water you use directly—for things like drinking, bathing, and laundry—plus the water used to make the products and energy you use and to grow food. Below is a sampling of countries’ per capita annual water footprint. The world’s biggest is the United States; the world’s smallest is Yemen. Indoor Water Use In the U.S., indoor direct use for the average person is 69.3 gallons a day. Here’s how that breaks down: Outdoor Water Use Direct use for a family of four in the United States is 400 gallons a day. 30 percent of that is for outdoor use: 30 gallons per person. That’s how much a person uses for everything in Algeria. Berit Anderson researched this fact sheet for Water Solutions, the Summer 2010 issue of YES! Magazine. Berit is an editorial assistant for YES! Magazine |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Floods: U.N. Issues $459.7M Appeal For Pakistan, China Concerned About Disease Outbreaks After Mudslides
----------------------------------------The U.N. appealed for $459.7 million on Wednesday "to aid flood victims in Pakistan as the magnitude of the disaster widened, with about one-fifth of the country submerged and the annual monsoon season still potent," the New York Times reports (MacFarquhar, 8/11). "Make no mistake, this is a major catastrophe," said John Holmes, head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the Associated Press reports. "The affected population is estimated to be more than 14 million – almost one-tenth of Pakistan's population," he noted. "Before the $459.7 million appeal was launched, the U.N. already had pledges and commitments of more than $150 million but some $300 million is still needed, Holmes said" (Lederer, 8/11). "The funds requested under the initial floods emergency response plan will be revised within 30 days to reflect assessed needs as the situation evolves," the U.N. News Centre writes. Holmes noted that the death toll of 1,200 "so far [had] been relatively low compared to other major natural disasters, but the numbers affected are extraordinarily high." Without quick action, "many more people could die of diseases and food shortages," he said. Shelter, food, clean water and emergency health care are among the most pressing needs, according to the news service (8/11). "U.S. deputy ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo said the United States also has provided 400,00 prepackaged meals, 12 prefabricated steel bridges, and U.S. military helicopters which along with the Pakistani military have rescued approximately 2,300 people and transported over 200,000 pounds (90,700 kilograms) of relief supplies," the AP writes (8/11). Agence France-Presse also reports on U.S. efforts to help the country deal with the effects of the flood, noting that the U.S. "tripled the number of helicopters" for the relief effort on Wednesday. President Barack Obama "wants to lean forward in offering help to the Pakistanis," said U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates. "We will work with them (the Pakistanis) and do this at their pace," Gates added (8/11)............... [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Aug 13, 2010 1:58:05 AM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
U.N. Chief: Pakistan Floods Worst He Has Ever Seen
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Sunday the flooding in Pakistan was the worst disaster he had ever seen, and urged foreign donors to speed up assistance to the up to 20 million people affected. Ban's comments reflect the concern of the international community about the unfolding disaster in Pakistan, which is battling al-Qaida and Taliban militants, has a weak and unpopular government, and an anemic economy propped up by international assistance. "This has been a heart-wrenching day for me," Ban said after flying over the hard hit areas with President Asif Ali Zardari. "I will never forget the destruction and suffering I have witnessed today. In the past I have witnessed many natural disasters around the world, but nothing like this."........... |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
The world's first really green oil deal
Ecuador's $3.6bn scheme to save its rainforest from exploitation could point the way to sparing other threatened landscapes The world's first genuinely green energy deal is about to be sealed. In a plan which could be a blueprint for saving large tracts of the planet from exploitation, a greater value is being put on a pristine wilderness than on the oil that lies beneath. While the world's industrialised countries are building complex carbon markets to enable them to carry on polluting, Ecuador has come up with a much simpler idea for mitigating climate change: leave the oil underground. It is promising to lock up as much as a fifth of its oil reserves indefinitely, providing rich nations pay out at least half the market value of the oil – some $3.6bn – as compensation. The trail-blazing proposal was first floated in 2007, but it took a step towards reality last week when the UN Development Programme signed an agreement with the Ecuadorean government to be the independent administrator for the project's trust fund. The accord makes Ecuador the only country in the world offering to leave lucrative oil reserves untapped in an attempt to slow climate change...... |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
'Cheap' solar geoengineering plans may have unintended consequences
Attempts to control temperature by one country could affect precipitation levels in another, warn scientists  Researchers warn that individual countries looking to go it alone with 'cheap' solutions to regional climate change could inflict negative impacts on the rest of world Large-scale 'geoengineering' interventions to alter the climate, such as increasing cloud cover to deflect solar radiation, may not work on a global scale, a new study has warned. As climate change predictions worsen and international negotiations prove slow and unambitious, 'quick, techno-fix' solutions to alter the world's climate are gaining support. However, an analysis of the most discussed technique - solar radiation management (SRM), which involves changing the amount of incoming energy from the sun by using aerosols to create clouds or deflecting solar rays with mirrors - says it could create a conflict of interest between countries. The study, published in Nature Geoscience by researchers from Carnegie Mellon and Oxford Universities, says it may not possible to simultaneously control both temperature and precipitation levels with SRM. As such, attempts to reduce solar radiation in one region are likely to have knock-on effects in others..... |
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