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Ancient city discovered deep in Amazonian rainforest linked to the legendary white-skinned Cloud People of Peru

(Daily Mail Reporter, December 4, 2008)
A lost city discovered deep in the Amazon rainforest could unlock the secrets of a legendary tribe. . . . Little is known about the Cloud People of Peru, an ancient, white-skinned civilisation wiped out by disease and war in the 16th century. . . . But now archaeologists have uncovered a fortified citadel in a remote mountainous area of Peru known for its isolated natural beauty. . . . It is thought this settlement may finally help historians unlock the secrets of the 'white warriors of the clouds'. . . . The tribe had white skin and blonde hair - features which intrigue historians, as there is no known European ancestry in the region, where most inhabitants are darker skinned. . . . The citadel is tucked away in one of the most far-flung areas of the Amazon. It sits at the edge of a chasm which the tribe may have used as a lookout to spy on enemies. . . . The main encampment is made up of circular stone houses overgrown by jungle over 12 acres, according to archaeologist Benedict Goicochea Perez. . . . Rock paintings cover some of the fortifications and next to the dwellings are platforms believed to have been used to grind seeds and plants for food and medicine. . . . The Cloud People once commanded a vast kingdom stretching across the Andes to the fringes of Peru's northern Amazon jungle, before it was conquered by the Incas. . . . Named because they lived in rainforests filled with cloud-like mist, the tribe later sided with the Spanish-colonialists to defeat the Incas. . . . But they were killed by epidemics of European diseases, such as measles and smallpox. . . . Much of their way of life, dating back to the ninth century, was also destroyed by pillaging, leaving little for archaeologists to examine. . . . Remains have been found before but scientists have high hopes of the latest find, made by an expedition to the Jamalca district in Peru's Utcubamba province, about 500 miles north-east of the capital, Lima. . . . Until recently, much of what was known about the lost civilisation was from Inca legends. . . . Even the name they called themselves is unknown. The term Chachapoyas, or 'Cloud People', was given to them by the Incas. . . . Their culture is best known for the Kuellap fortress on the top of a mountain in Utcubamba, which can only be compared in scale to the Incas' Machu Picchu retreat, built hundreds of years later. . . . Two years ago, archaeologists found an underground burial vault inside a cave with five mummies, two intact with skin and hair. . . . Chachapoyas chronicler Pedro Cieza de Leon wrote of the tribe: 'They are the whitest and most handsome of all the people that I have seen, and their wives were so beautiful that because of their gentleness, many of them deserved to be the Incas' wives and to also be taken to the Sun Temple. . . . 'The women and their husbands always dressed in woollen clothes and in their heads they wear their llautos [a woollen turban], which are a sign they wear to be known everywhere.' . . . The Chachapoyas' territory was located in the northern regions of the Andes in present-day Peru. . . . It encompassed the triangular region formed by the confluence of the Maranon and Utcubamba rivers, in the zone of Bagua, up to the basin of the Abiseo river. . . . The Maranon's size and the mountainous terrain meant the region was relatively isolated.

[Click the link above to view photos of this discovery.]

posted by Lorenzo 9:11 PM

 

Nature reserve surrendered to rising seas

A major nature reserve is to become one of the first casualties of the rising seas around Britain. . . . Part of Titchwell Marsh, a favourite spot for birdwatchers on the north Norfolk coast, is to be sacrificed to the waves to save the rest of the site from destruction. . . . The site, owned by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, has seen its sea defences starting to give way after years of coastal erosion, exacerbated by global sea level rises, according to Dr Mark Avery, the RSPB's Director of Conservation. . . . Visited by about 90,000 people a year, Titchwell is home to rare species such as bitterns, avocets, bearded tits and marsh harriers, and in spring and autumn hosts migrating wading birds such as ruffs and curlew sandpipers. But coastal erosion has put the reserve's mixture of brackish and freshwater marshes and reedbeds at risk of inundation, as the sea walls protecting the northerly part of the site are being undercut. . . . "The erosion has been going on for years but it is being accelerated by sea level rise, so we have to act earlier than we would have had to," said Dr Avery. . . . Sea levels are rising because of climate change. The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates sea levels are rising at a rate of about 3.1 millimetres per year.

posted by Lorenzo 8:53 PM

 

Primates 'face extinction crisis'
(Mark Kinver, BBC News, 5 August 2008)
A global review of the world's primates says 48% of species face extinction, an outlook described as "depressing" by conservationists. . . . The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species says the main threat is habitat loss, primarily through the burning and clearing of tropical forests. . . . More than 70% of primates in Asia are now listed as Endangered, it adds. . . . The findings form part of the most detailed survey of the Earth's mammals, which will be published in October. . . . "In many places, primates are quite literally being eaten to extinction," he warned. . . . "Tropical forest destruction has always been the main cause, but now it appears that hunting is just as serious a threat in some areas, even where the habitat is still quite intact." . . . "It is quite spectacular; we are just wiping out primates," said Jean-Christophe Vie, deputy head of the IUCN Species Programme. . . . He added that the data was probably the worst assessment for any group of species on record. . . . "The problem with these species is that they have long lives, so it takes time to reverse the decline. It is quite depressing."

posted by Lorenzo 8:22 PM

 

Largest Ecological Restoration in the Country's History
(DAMIEN CAVE and JOHN HOLUSHA, New York Times, June 25, 2008)
In a deal that environmental groups said would be the largest ecological restoration in the country's history, a plan for the state to buy the nation's largest producer of cane sugar was announced Tuesday by the governor and officials of U.S. Sugar Corporation. . . . The intention is to restore the Everglades by restoring the water flow from Lake Okeechobee, in the heart of the state, south to Florida Bay. That flow had been interrupted by commercial farming and the Everglades have suffered as a result. . . . Under term of the tentative deal, U.S. Sugar would continue farming and processing for six more years before closing the business and allowing 187,000 acres of land to return to its natural state. For its part the state would pay U.S. Sugar $1.7 billion. . . . Governor Charlie Crist said the deal was "as monumental as the creation of the nation's first national park, Yellowstone." . . . Environmental groups hailed the undertaking. "This is putting it back the way it was in 1890," said David Guest, a lawyer with Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund. "When you come back in 20 years, it will look indistinguishable from the way it looked before the white man."

posted by Lorenzo 4:26 PM

 

Trashy Bags: A brilliant environmental solution
Thinking of plastic packaging in a different way can bring many benefits. The problem with packaging is that after its original role has been fulfilled it is considered to be without any value. Creative and innovative solutions can be found however, that can add value to this seemingly valueless material and at the same time prolong its life by incorporating it into other products.

One such solution is to collect the discarded plastic drink sachets that are found in abundance in Ghana, West Africa, and without expending much energy (unlike some recycling solutions) patch them together and use them as the material for bags and other products. This is how we make Trashy Bags.

By encouraging people around Ghana to collect millions of discarded plastic sachets and paying them a collection fee for each batch of a thousand that they collect we are not only helping to clean up the environment but also providing casual and supplementary employment to people who otherwise would be out of a job or below the poverty threshold. In addition we are teaching people that the sachets can have an inherent value of their own and should be saved rather than discarded indiscriminately.

Once received we wash the sachets three times before disinfecting and drying them and sorting them into different types before storage, ready for sewing together and assembling into unique and useful bag designs such as brief cases, backpacks and tote bags.

Every bag that we sell is an opportunity for us to educate and inform people about the dangers of littering the environment by including a simple leaflet with every bag. We also encourage people to collect sachets and inform them where to find our collection points.

The Trashy Bags workshop is based in Madina a poor suburb of Accra and employs and trains people from the local area. This is helping to reduce the area's high rate of unemployment and bringing badly needed enterprise to Madina.

[COMMENT by Lorenzo: Why not do your part and get your Trashy Bag backback, briefcase, or or other cool product today.]

posted by Lorenzo 11:58 AM

 

Giant Antarctic Ice Shelf Collapses
(National Geographic, March 25, 2008)
New satellite images reveal what scientists call the "runaway" collapse of an enormous ice shelf in Antarctica as the result of global warming. . . . The chunk of coastal ice was some 160 square miles (415 square kilometers) in area—about seven times the size of Manhattan. . . . The shelf's rapid collapse began on February 28 (see image sequence at top right), sending a giant swath of broken ice into the sea (detail at bottom). . . . "[It's] an event we don't get to see very often," Ted Scambos, lead scientist at the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, said in a press statement. . . . "The collapse underscores that the [Wilkins Ice Shelf] region has experienced an intense melt season. Regional sea ice has all but vanished, leaving the ice shelf exposed to the action of waves." . . . David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey noted that the larger formation from which the chunk detached—the Wilkins Ice Shelf—could itself collapse in 15 years. . . . "Wilkins is the largest ice shelf on West Antarctica yet to be threatened," Vaughan said in the statement. "This shelf is hanging by a thread." . . . As summer in the Southern Hemisphere draws to a close, further disintegration of the shelf seems unlikely, Scambos added. . . . "But come January, we'll be watching to see if the Wilkins continues to fall apart," he said.

[PHOTO courtesy of National Geographic via above link.]

posted by Lorenzo 3:56 PM

 

Antarctic shelf 'hangs by thread'
(Helen Briggs, BBC News, 25 March 2008)
A chunk of ice the size of the Isle of Man has started to break away from Antarctica in what scientists say is further evidence of a warming climate. . . . Satellite images suggest that part of the ice shelf is disintegrating, and will soon crumble away. . . . The Wilkins Ice Shelf has been stable for most of the last century, but began retreating in the 1990s. . . . Six ice shelves in the same part of the continent have already been lost, says the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). . . . Professor David Vaughan of BAS said: "Wilkins is the largest ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula yet to be threatened. . . . "I didn't expect to see things happen this quickly. The ice shelf is hanging by a thread - we'll know in the next few days or weeks what its fate will be." . . . Jim Elliott, who was on board the plane, said he had never seen anything like it before. . . . He said: "We flew along the main crack and observed the sheer scale of movement from the breakage. . . . "Big hefty chunks of ice, the size of small houses, look as though they've been thrown around like rubble - it's like an explosion." . . . A 41-by-2.5km (25-by-1.6 mile) berg appears to be breaking away, with much of the Wilkins Ice Shelf protected only by a thin strip of ice spanning two islands. . . . Since an ice shelf is a floating platform of ice, the break-up will have no impact on sea level. But scientists say it heightens concerns over the impact of climate change on this part of Antarctica. . . . "What we're actually seeing is a chunk of the ice shelf drop off in a way that suggests it is not just a normal part of iceberg formation. . . . "This is not a sea level rise issue, but is yet another indication of climate change in the Antarctic Peninsula and how it is affecting the environment."

posted by Lorenzo 3:40 PM

 

Asteroid to make close approach
(BBC News, 29 January 2008)
A asteroid some 250m (600ft) across is about to sweep past the Earth. . . . There is no chance of it hitting the planet, but astronomers will train telescopes and radar on the object to learn as much about it as they can. . . . The asteroid - which carries the rather dull designation 2007 TU24 - will pass by at a distance of 538,000km (334,000 miles), just outside Moon's orbit. . . . Scientists who study so called near-Earth objects say similar-sized rocks come by every few years. . . . The moment of closest approach for 2007 TU24 is 0833 GMT. The asteroid is only expected to be visible through amateur telescopes that are three inches (7.6cm) or larger. . . . Detailed observations of 2007 TU24 could reveal whether the asteroid is a solid object or simply a loose pile of space rubble. . . . Given the estimated number of near-Earth asteroids of this size (about 7,000 discovered and undiscovered objects, says the US pace agency), an object similar to 2007 TU24 would be expected to pass this close to Earth, on average, about every five years or so. . . . The average interval between actual Earth impacts for an object of this size would be about 37,000 years, Nasa adds. . . . A little over a year-and-a-half ago, a 600m-wide (2,000ft) asteroid known as 2004 XP14 flew past the Earth at just about the Earth-Moon distance.

posted by Lorenzo 5:42 PM

 

The Fate of the Ocean ... not good
(Julia Whitty, Mother Jones, March/April 2006)

Our oceans are under attack, and approaching a point of no return. Can we survive if the seas go silent?

The 25 years I’ve spent at sea filming nature documentaries have provided a brief yet definitive window into these changes. Oceanic problems once encountered on a local scale have gone pandemic, and these pandemics now merge to birth new monsters. Tinkering with the atmosphere, we change the ocean’s chemistry radically enough to threaten life on earth as we know it. Making tens of thousands of chemical compounds each year, we poison marine creatures who sponge up plastics and PCBs, becoming toxic waste dumps in the process. Carrying everything from nuclear waste to running shoes across the world ocean, shipping fleets spew as much greenhouse gases into the atmosphere as the entire profligate United States. Protecting strawberry farmers and their pesticide methyl bromide, we guarantee that the ozone hole will persist at least until 2065, threatening the larval life of the sea. Fishing harder, faster, and more ruthlessly than ever before, we drive large predatory fish toward global extinction, even though fish is the primary source of protein for one in six people on earth. Filling, dredging, and polluting the coastal nurseries of the sea, we decimate coral reefs and kelp forests, while fostering dead zones. . . . "The root cause of this crisis is a failure of both perspective and governance," concludes the seminal Pew Oceans Commission’s 2003 report to the nation. "We have failed to conceive of the oceans as our largest public domain, to be managed holistically for the greater public good in perpetuity." Instead, we have roiled the waters, compromising the equilibrium that allowed our species to flourish in the first place, and providing ourselves with a host of challenges that will test our clever brains and our opposable thumbs as never before. Afloat on arks of dry land, we sail toward a stormy future. . . . No one knows if we’re instigating another ice age. But what we do know is that the tropical ocean is saltier than it was 40 years ago, and the polar ocean fresher. Furthermore, this salinity differential accelerates the earth’s freshwater cycle—creating faster rates of evaporation and precipitation, which release more water vapor into the atmosphere, thereby increasing the greenhouse effect and invigorating the global warming that caused the whole problem in the first place. . . . Fishing provides a vivid illustration of the differences in our attitudes toward the land and the sea. Nowadays we refrain from indiscriminately mowing down wildlife for food; imagine slaughtering lions by the hundreds or bears by the hundredweight, along with all the antelope, deer, wolves, raccoons, and wildebeest around them, in government-funded operations, no less. Yet that’s what we do at sea, with the world’s nations subsidizing 25 to 40 percent of total global fishing revenues. The National Marine Fisheries Service estimates that $8 billion in revenue and 300,000 jobs could be created simply by better management of U.S. fish stocks, not by continuing subsidies of fishers, their boats, and their gear. . . . Increasingly, persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as DDT and PCBs are being found in such high levels in marine animals that some living creatures meet our definitions of toxic waste, including many whales, dolphins, and seals. Female mammals off-load POPs in their breast milk, lessening their own toxic load while poisoning their children. Perhaps consequently, killer whale calves from Puget Sound and the Canadian Southwest are dying in the first year; adult male orca, which have no off-loading capabilities, are also dying off. In 2005, the National Marine Fisheries Service listed this population as endangered. Currently, there is no such listing for the people who rely on marine mammal meat, even though the accumulation of POPs in the tissues of Greenland Inuits has nearly reached levels known to suppress the immune system.

[CLICK the link above for the complete essay.]

posted by Lorenzo 10:31 AM

 

The Future of Food

posted by Lorenzo 11:26 AM

 

I wonder what this is?
I have also viewed this apparent object using Google Earth, which it seems to me would be a difficult place to insert a hoax. Check it out for yourself. It is at 70 33' 07.67" N, 40 02' 17.71" W.

posted by Lorenzo 5:18 PM

 

The Spirit of NOW ... Peter Russell's World Clock
Click the link above to see (in real time) how fast the forests are being cut down, how many cars, bicycles, and computers were produced today, etc.

You can change the view to day, week, and year to see some interesting statistics. For example, in the past 30 days more people have died from suicide than from wars and violence, and during the same period 332 species went extinct. ... Fascinating!

posted by Lorenzo 11:41 AM

 

Ghawar Is Dead!
(Matthew S. Miller, ICH, 03/09/07)
...It was also announced recently, without the same media feeding frenzy (as Anna Nicole Smith), that another queen of mass-culture is dead too. Few of us even know her name. Rather than being the personification of the contemporary zeitgeist, she is one of the cornerstones of what Marx called global capitalism’s base. She was an integral part of the concrete material conditions that make our peculiar form of social organization possible. Her name is Ghawar, and she is the mother-of-all oil fields. She was once a veritable sea of light sweet crude 174 miles long and 12 miles wide, under the sands of the eastern province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), and now she is dead. Ghawar is by far the largest conventional oil field ever discovered. Since first tapped in 1948, Ghawar has produced some 60 billion barrels of oil and accounted for 60-65% of Saudi production from 1948-2005. While actual field by field production numbers remain a Saudi State secret, Ghawar is estimated to produce more than five million barrels per day or 6.5% of the planet’s daily production total of 84 million barrels. Ghawar’s obituary has already been written, but the Saudis have thus far prevented the appropriate authorities from entering the house to inspect the body. We have only second hand reports of her demise. ****COMMENT: Peak Oil is Now. Time to face the facts.*****

posted by An Old Curmudgeon 8:14 AM

 

Western states united to bypass Bush on climate
(Timothy Gardner, Reuters, February 26, 2007)
Five Western U.S. states have formed the latest regional pact to bypass the Bush administration to cut emissions linked to global warming through market mechanisms. . . . The Western Regional Climate Action Initiative requires Oregon, California, Washington, New Mexico and Arizona to develop a regional target in six months for reducing greenhouse emissions according to statements from the states' governors. . . . During the next 18 months, the states will devise a market-based plan, such as a load-based cap-and-trade program, to reach the target. They also have agreed to participate in a multi-state registry to track and manage greenhouse gas emissions in their region. . . . Several eastern U.S. states have signed a similar agreement called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Utility TXU Corp. (TXU.N: Quote, Profile , Research) on Monday scrapped plans to build eight of 11 new coal-fired power units in Texas as part of a buyout by private equity firms. . . . Bicoastal regional greenhouse pacts could force U.S. smokestack and transportation businesses to lobby more intensely for a national greenhouse plan, rather than face patchwork local regulations, said Jeremiah Baumann, an advocate with the Oregon State Public Interest Research Group. . . . "With the Western states you've got a huge part of the U.S. economy ... beginning to regulate greenhouse gases, that should send a message to business that national regulations are coming" Baumann, said. . . . California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently passed the country's toughest greenhouse emissions laws which aim to reduce state output of the gases by 25 percent by 2020. . . . The regional agreement "shows the power of the states to lead our nation" and "sets the stage for a regional cap-and-trade program, which will provide a powerful framework for developing a national cap and trade program," Schwarzenegger said in a statement. . . . The other states in the Western pact also have passed greenhouse gas reduction initiatives. The regional deal would allow the states to use market mechanisms more efficiently to reduce output of the gases, said Baumann. . . . Unlike developed countries that ratified Kyoto, the United States does not regulate carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases. President George W. Bush withdrew the country from Kyoto early in his first term. . . . Like California's laws, the Western pact seeks to regulate imports of electricity from dirty coal-burning power plants from surrounding states outside of the agreement.

posted by Lorenzo 6:18 PM

 

Ten Ways to Prepare for a Post-Oil Society
(James Howard Kunstler, Kunstler.com, February 10, 2007)
[Click on the link above for detalis about the following steps.]

1. Expand your view beyond the question of how we will run all the cars by means other than gasoline.

2. We have to produce food differently.

3. We have to inhabit the terrain differently. Virtually every place in our nation organized for car dependency is going to fail to some degree.

4. We have to move things and people differently.

5. We have to transform retail trade.

6. We will have to make things again in America.

7. The age of canned entertainment is coming to and end.

8. We'll have to reorganize the education system.

9. We have to reorganize the medical system.

10. Life in the USA will have to become much more local, and virtually all the activities of everyday life will have to be re-scaled.

posted by Lorenzo 2:42 PM

 

'Doomsday' seed vault design unveiled
(Mark Kinver, BBC News, 9 February 2007)
The final design for a "doomsday" vault that will house seeds from all known varieties of food crops has been unveiled by the Norwegian government. . . . The Svalbard International Seed Vault will be built into a mountainside on a remote island near the North Pole. . . . The vault aims to safeguard the world's agriculture from future catastrophes, such as nuclear war, asteroid strikes and climate change. . . . Construction begins in March, and the seed bank is scheduled to open in 2008. . . . The Norwegian government is paying the $5m (£2.5m) construction costs of the vault, which will have enough space to house three million seed samples. . . . The collection and maintenance of the collection is being organised by the Global Crop Diversity Trust, which has responsibility of ensuring the "conservation of crop diversity in perpetuity". . . . "We want a safety net because we do not want to take too many chances with crop biodiversity," said Cary Fowler, the Trust's executive director. . . . "Can you imagine an effective, efficient, sustainable response to climate change, water shortages, food security issues without what is going to go in the vault - it is the raw material of agriculture." . . . Dr Fowler said Svalbard, 1,000km (621 miles) north of mainland Norway, was chosen as the location for the vault because it was very remote and it also offered the level of stability required for the long-term project. . . . "We looked very far into the future. We looked at radiation levels inside the mountain, and we looked at the area's geological structure," he told BBC News. . . . "We also modelled climate change in a drastic form 200 years into future, which included the melting of ice sheets at the North and South Poles, and Greenland, to make sure that this site was above the resulting water level." . . . By building the vault deep inside the mountain, the surrounding permafrost would continue to provide natural refrigeration if the mechanical system failed, explained Dr Fowler. . . . Some crops, such as peas, may only survive for 20-30 years. Others, such as sunflowers and grain crops, are understood to last for many decades or even hundreds of years. . . . Once the collection has been established at Svalbard, Dr Fowler said the facility would operate with very little human intervention. . . . "Somebody will go up there once every year to physically check inside to see that everything is OK, but there will be no full-time staff," he explained. . . . "If you design a facility to be used in worst-case scenarios, then you cannot actually have too much dependency on human beings."

posted by Lorenzo 6:09 AM

 

Climate Report: Europe is doomed
(Michael McCarthy and Stephen Castle, The Independent, 10 January 2007)
Europe, the richest and most fertile continent and the model for the modern world, will be devastated by climate change, the European Union predicts today. . . . The ecosystems that have underpinned all European societies from Ancient Greece and Rome to present-day Britain and France, and which helped European civilisation gain global pre-eminence, will be disabled by remorselessly rising temperatures, EU scientists forecast in a remarkable report which is as ominous as it is detailed. . . . Much of the continent's age-old fertility, which gave the world the vine and the olive and now produces mountains of grain and dairy products, will not survive the climate change forecast for the coming century, the scientists say, and its wildlife will be devastated. . . . Europe's modern lifestyles, from summer package tours to winter skiing trips, will go the same way, they say, as the Mediterranean becomes too hot for holidays and snow and ice disappear from mountain ranges such as the Alps - with enormous economic consequences. The social consequences will also be felt as heat-related deaths rise and extreme weather events, such as storms and floods, become more violent. . . . "The annual migration of northern Europeans to the countries of the Mediterranean in search of the traditional summer 'sun, sand and sea' holiday is the single largest flow of tourists across the globe, accounting for one-sixth of all tourist trips in 2000. This large group of tourists, totalling about 100 million per annum, spends an estimated €100bn (£67bn) per year. Any climate-induced change in these flows of tourists and money would have very large implications for the destinations involved." . . . While they are losing their tourists, the countries of the Med may also be losing their agriculture. Crop yields may drop sharply as drought conditions, exacerbated by more frequent forest fires, make farming ever more difficult. And that is not the only threat to Europe's food supplies. Some stocks of coldwater fish in areas such as the North Sea will move northwards as the water warms. . . . There are many more direct threats, the report says. The cost of taking action to cope with sea-level rise will run into billions of euros. Furthermore, "for the coming decades, it is predicted the magnitude and frequency of extreme weather events will increase, and floods will likely be more frequent and severe in many areas across Europe."

posted by Lorenzo 11:04 AM

 

Global warming to melt Arctic sea ice away by 2040
(Stan Beer, IT Wire, 13 December 2006)
A new scientific research report predicts that the frozen sea areas in the Arctic circle will be completely gone by the summer 2040 due to the impact of global warming resulting from greenhouse gas emmissions. . . . According to the study, by a team of scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), the University of Washington, and McGill University, scenarios run on supercomputers show that sea ice could be reduced so abruptly that, within about 20 years, it may begin retreating four times faster than at any time in the observed record. . . . The increasing rate of melting sea ice is contributing to a positive feedback system, which feeds global warming further because open ocean absorbs heat from the sun rather than reflects back into space as does ice. . . . "As the ice retreats, the ocean transports more heat to the Arctic and the open water absorbs more sunlight, further accelerating the rate of warming and leading to the loss of more ice," says NCAR scientist Marika Holland, the study's lead author. "This is a positive feedback loop with dramatic implications for the entire Arctic region. . . . "We have already witnessed major losses in sea ice, but our research suggests that the decrease over the next few decades could be far more dramatic than anything that has happened so far," "These changes are surprisingly rapid."

posted by Lorenzo 1:56 PM

 

StopKillingUs.org Web Site Launched
To most us us, Africa is seldom in the forefront of our thoughts. Yet, with 800 million people, it is the second most populous continent on this little planet. According to scientists, like James Lovelock, it is the African continent that is going to suffer more severely from the effects of global climate change than will the western nations who are the ones most responsible for the human-added component of global warming.

If you care about helping our brothers and sisters in Africa, go to the above link and find out how you can help expand awareness of the plight of these less fortunate people. . . . And if you work at a radio station or have an Internet radio program, it would be nice of you to play the following song whenever it fits into your programming.

Listen now in MP3 audio (4MB)!!

Official Theme Song for www.StopKillingUs.org
Launched December 1st, 2006
Accra, Ghana, Africa

www.STOP KILLING US.org
Words and music: Galen Brandt, Jim Matus
Performed and Produced by Galen Brandt and Jim Matus
with a guest appearance by Pakistani Sufi M. Saud Anwa
and additional lyrics by Laila Maria Salins
Recorded at Paranoise Productions, Hartford CT (Nov 29-30, 2006)

posted by Lorenzo 9:31 AM

 

Carbon emissions show sharp rise
(BBC News, 27 November 2006)
The rise in humanity's emissions of carbon dioxide has accelerated sharply, according to a new analysis. . . . The Global Carbon Project says that emissions were rising by less than 1% annually up to the year 2000, but are now rising at 2.5% per year. . . . It says the acceleration comes mainly from a rise in charcoal consumption and a lack of new energy efficiency gains. . . . "From 2000 to 2005, the growth rate of carbon dioxide emissions was more than 2.5% per year, whereas in the 1990s it was less than 1% per year," he said. . . . The finding parallels figures released earlier this month by the World Meteorological Organization showing that the rise in atmospheric concentrations of CO2 had accelerated in the last few years. . . . The Global Carbon Project draws its data from a wide range of sources, including measurements of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and studies on fossil fuel use. . . . From that data, researchers have extracted two trends which they believe explain the sharp upturn found around the year 2000. . . . "There has been a change in the trend regarding fossil fuel intensity, which is basically the amount of carbon you need to burn for a given unit of wealth," explained Corinne Le Quere, a Global Carbon Project member who holds posts at the University of East Anglia and the British Antarctic Survey. . . . "From about 1970 the intensity decreased - we became more efficient at using energy - but we've been getting slightly worse since the year 2000," she told the BBC News website. . . . "The other trend is that as oil becomes more expensive, we're seeing a switch from oil burning to charcoal which is more polluting in terms of carbon." . . . The Project does not have data on precisely where this is happening, but there is anecdotal evidence of increases in charcoal burning in parts of Asia and Africa. . . . "At these rates, it certainly sounds like we'll end up towards the high end of the emission scenarios considered by the IPCC," commented Myles Allen from Oxford University, one of Britain's leading climate modellers. . . . The "high end" of IPCC projections implies a rise in global temperature approaching 5.8C between 1990 and the end of this century. . . . "We need to think about radical alternatives to the belt-tightening approach," said Professor Allen. . . . "At the moment, the assumption is we will solve the problem by controlling demand; but regulating at the point of use is clearly not working."

posted by Lorenzo 7:50 AM