According
to NASA, every year for the last decade alone, 130 billion tons of
ice have melted in Antarctica. For context, that is the weight of
more than 356,000 Empire State Buildings and enough ice melt to fill
more than 1.3 million Olympic swimming pools. And the melting is
accelerating at a pace that is making scientists' heads spin.
To
make matters worse, recent research casts doubt on other studies that
have oversold the role of the natural climate's ability to halt
anthropogenic climate disruption (ACD) during the next 15 years.
Climate scientist Dr. Michael Mann, one of the authors of the study
said, "Our work reinforces the notion that there is no pause in
human-caused global warming. If anything, we've been lulled into a
false complacency by the fact that internal oscillations in the
climate system temporarily masked some of that warming.
That
may come back to bite us as these oscillations swing back in the
other direction and add to global warming in the decades ahead."
Among the best preserved kitchen-middens in the world, the Qajaa
site has until now been preserved by permafrost in one of the most
Northern World Heritage sites. Credit: Bo Elberling
Among the best preserved kitchen-middens in the world, the Qajaa
site has until now been preserved by permafrost in one of the most
Northern World Heritage sites. Credit: Bo Elberling
Among the best preserved kitchen-middens in the world, the Qajaa
site has until now been preserved by permafrost in one of the most
Northern World Heritage sites. Credit: Bo Elberling
A
small team of researchers working in Greenland has found that as
microbes become active in permafrost, they produce heat, which can
increase the rate of permafrost loss. In their paper published in
Nature Climate Change, the researchers, affiliated with the
University of Copenhagen and the National Museum of Denmark describe
simulations they created that showed possible impacts of microbe
activation in permafrost areas.
"Cannot be directly attributed to climate change" .So they say!
A
remarkable heat wave warmed Antarctica’s northernmost peninsula to
slightly above 63 degrees Fahrenheit (17 degrees Celsius) in March —
a record high for the normally cold continent. But scientists say the
balmy conditions were caused by a "freak weather event,"
and cannot be directly attributed to climate change.
These two videos illustrate the effects of rapid climate change in areas we rarely hear about. From Davao City in the Philippines
Bandila:
Beware of summer diseases; El Nino drying up rice and corn fields
Walking
under the scorching sun during midday is a terrible task due to the
extreme heat and humidity. Health officials warn the public to be
cautious to prevent having summer diseases. The weak El Nino affects
thousands of hectares of corn and rice fields.
“The
almond boom may prove bad news for everyone who relies on
California's farms for sustenance. You might have heard that the
state, supplier of half of US-grown produce, is locked in its worst
drought on record. Meanwhile, it takes 1.1 gallons of water to
produce a single almond, as my colleagues Alex Park and Julia Lurie
have shown. You don't have to scramble to figure how many almonds
make up 2.1 billion pounds to realize that that's a hell of a lot of
water.”
A time series of California annual
temperatures, with an arrow pointing to the incredible heat of the past
few years. Credit: NOAA
The
dubious records keep piling up for California, a state wracked by
four years of drought brought on by a pernicious weather pattern that
has kept rains at bay and exacerbated by human-induced warming. Just
one week after the state measured its lowest-ever snowpack, U.S.
scientists have announced that the year so far has been the warmest
on record, setting expectations for a long, hot, dry year ahead.
“2015
to date has been truly astonishingly warm in California, and we're
breaking almost all the temperature records there are to break,”
Daniel Swain, an atmospheric science PhD student at Stanford
University, said in an email.
April
1 snowpack the 3d-lowest in 30 years; state preps for low runoff and
summer streamflows.
Colorado snowpack started to decline in March, a month ahead of schedule.
Colorado
water users need to prepare for below-average spring and summer
runoff and streamflow based on the all-important April 1 snow survey,
which showed a startling drop in the state’s snowpack since early
March.
After
tallying readings from automated SNOTEL sites and manual snow
surveys, the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service said the
water content of the snowpack is just 64 percent of average, down
from 89 percent at the beginning of March.
This aerial photo taken earlier this month shows a record
number of harbor seals and California sea lions resting on a sandbar in
the Columbia River estuary.
Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2015/03/21/3693522_harbor-seals-sea-lions-gather.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy
At
low tide, a record 6,500 harbor seals sprawl like maggots across the
exposed carcass of the lower Columbia River estuary.
An
estimated 1,600 California sea lions are so brazen in Astoria’s
East Mooring Basin that some shuffle up the ramp and threaten
tourists on the viewing causeway.
Biologists
and sport and commercial fishing fleets alike are fearfully watching
as the smelt that brought them here fade to spring chinook salmon.
Ezequiel
Antônio Castanha accused of operating network that illegally seized
federal lands and is blamed for 20% of Amazon deforestation in recent
years
The
Chevron Tapes: Video Shows Oil Giant Allegedly Covering Up Amazon
Contamination
Another twist has emerged
in a decades-long legal battle pitting residents of Ecuador's Amazon
forest and their controversial trial attorney against one of the
world's largest energy companies.
Environmental
advocates released a video today that they describe as evidence of
attempts by Chevron to skirt Ecuadoran law and cover up contamination
of the Amazon.
The
footage, shared exclusively with VICE News by the environmental group
Amazon Watch and released to the public on Wednesday, appears to show
workers associated with Chevron looking for clean, uncontaminated
soil but instead finding samples tainted with crude oil. The work
appears to take place in an area of the jungle that has been the
focus of a lawsuit between Chevron and local residents, who claim
that the company is responsible for oil spills that have damaged
their health and the environment.
Representatives
from Amazon Watch said that they were mailed 47 DVDs of internal
Chevron videos in April 2011, including those shown to VICE News. No
return address was listed on the package, which the group says is no
longer in its possession. Along with the DVDs, the envelope included
a note that read: "I hope this is useful for you in the trial
against Texaco/Chevron! A friend from Chevron."
Chevron
purchased Texaco in 2001, assuming its assets and legal liabilities.
Steven
Donziger, the lawyer representing the Ecuadoran residents, and Amazon
Watch, which has advocated on behalf of them, say that Chevron
conducted the inspections shown on the video in anticipation of a
visit to the area by Ecuadoran court officials — a practice that
they argue violated the law while illustrating the extraordinary
lengths the company has gone to cover-up its toxic legacy.
Chevron
denies those claims and points to a recent US court ruling against
Donziger
Port
Metro Vancouver says there was an oil spill in the waters of English
Bay on Wednesday.
The
Canadian Coast Guard is leading the cleanup operation and has been
working with Western Canada Marine Response Corporation to contain
and recover the substance since last night.
The
City of Vancouver has stated that the substance is bunker fuel used
to run a vessel and is toxic. There have been social media reports
that some of the oil has reached the beaches and seawall of downtown.
The
Western Canada Marine Response Corporation has set up a boom around
ship Marathassa in an attempt to contain the spill and police, park
rangers and Stanley Park Ecology Society staff are stationed at the
beach areas to keep the public away.
Scientists
are working to pinpoint the source of a giant mass of methane hanging
over the southwestern U.S., which a study found to be the country's
largest concentration of the greenhouse gas.
The
report that revealed the methane hot spot over the Four Corners
region — where Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona meet — was
released last year.
Yesterday,
the three-person commission that oversees a public land trust in
Wisconsin voted 2-1 to block the trust's dozen public employees "from
engaging in global warming or climate change work while on BCPL
time."
McDonald’s
Peru have today announced plans to build the first fast food outlet
on Macchu Picchu, in a move they say will ‘bring the taste of
McPeru to one of the world’s greatest heritage sites’.
The
restaurant will be located in the former workers’ houses, 5 minutes
walk from the famous Temple of the Sun. In a press release,
McDonald’s have stated their commitment to building a ‘sympathetic’
addition to the complex, by using local traditional techniques such
as a straw roof and dry-stone walling. To protect the beauty of the
site, only an extractor vent and the signage will be visible from the
exterior.
For
over 5 years, a measure to cede 2,400 acres sacred to the Apache
tribe for use in copper mining has been pushed in Congress. Backed by
various well-paid corporatist congress members such as Senator John
McCain, this measure inevitably dies from the outrage of the native
tribes who care for this land. So, this year the members backed by
legalized bribes by foreign corporations have attached the measure to
the must-pass National Defense Authorization Act in a lame duck
session of congress.
The
land in question is part of the Tonto National Forest in Arizona. The
areas which would be destroyed by the mining operation include
Devil’s Canyon, a popular hiking trail, and Apache’s Leap where
75 Apache men, women and children were massacred by US troops in
1871. The loss of either would be a cultural loss not only for the
Apache nation, but for all of us.
The
attempt to hide this brazen attempt to sell off cultural heritage for
mere coin tells us how these congress members feel about their duty
to protect this nation. One must wonder how much of the estimated $61
billion in revenue is to be lining these congress members pockets if
the bill passes intact. After all, members of congress regularly reap
huge profits from bills they introduce......
Harbor
seal pups also impacted by food shortage in Monterey Bay
350.org have produced a video called "Tipping Points" How much else are they not telling us about (to please their corporate sponsors)?
Tipping Pints
Our earlier post was about a possible 9°C rise if we burn all our fossil fuels. Here's why even a 2°C rise makes us really anxious. http://watchdisruption.com
Posted by 350.org on Wednesday, 8 April 2015
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Posts
A time series of California annual
temperatures, with an arrow pointing to the incredible heat of the past
few years. Credit: NOAA
A time series of California annual
temperatures, with an arrow pointing to the incredible heat of the past
few years. Credit: NOAA
Drought Center
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.