The first deliver of aid from the UN World Food Programme was stolen by officials from the Burma military Junta. As a result, the shipment of aid into the country by the UN has stopped.This is as earlier reports indicating that the death toll would surpass 100,000 are starting to look realistic, if not optimistic. Yesterday, a BBC reporter, under cover, was taken on a tour of the peninsula, where he and his crew filmed rice fields with a thin scatter of corpses. Tradition in this region dictates that the dead are cremated, but local monks claim that there is not enough firewood to cremate even a small percentage of the dead. Continue reading No More UN Aid to Burma
Tag Archives: Global Warming
Cyclone Nargis: What’s happening and how to donate
In this May 1, 2008, visible image from NASA’s Atmospheric Infrared Sounder instrument on NASA’s Aqua spacecraft, Cyclone Nargis is … a Category one hurricane located 370 miles west of Yangon, Myanmar, moving east-northeast at eight knots…. Fishermen are advised not to venture out to sea.
Continue reading Cyclone Nargis: What’s happening and how to donate
The Latest Obscenely Underreported Natural Disaster: 10,000 – 15,000 Dead in Cyclone Nargis
This is in Myanmar, where a repressive military government has yet to allow relief workers mustering now in nearby Thailand to enter the country to lend assistance.
Continue reading The Latest Obscenely Underreported Natural Disaster: 10,000 – 15,000 Dead in Cyclone Nargis
Nature and Conservation News
Canadian panel: Climate change is threat to polar bears from PhysOrg.com
(AP) — A scientific committee that advises Canada’s government on endangered species said Friday that climate change is a threat to the survival of the polar bear, but the species does not face extinction.
[…]
Narwhals more at risk to Arctic warming than polar bears from PhysOrg.com
(AP) — The polar bear has become an icon of global warming vulnerability, but a new study found an Arctic mammal that may be even more at risk to climate change: the narwhal.
[…]
CO2 Emissions
What’s in the air?
Good question … what IS in the air?The simple answer is that the air … the Earth’s atmosphere … is about 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, with a tiny amount of some other gases including water vapor. Then, there’s dirt. I want to talk a little about the oxygen, one of the other gases (carbon dioxide to be exact), the water vapor, and the dirt. Continue reading What’s in the air?
Al Gore: New thinking on the climate crisis
In Al Gore’s brand-new slideshow (premiering exclusively on TED.com), he presents evidence that the pace of climate change may be even worse than scientists were recently predicting, and challenges us to act with a sense of “generational mission” — the kind of feeling that brought forth the civil rights movement — to set it right. Gore’s stirring presentation is followed by a brief Q&A in which he is asked for his verdict on the current political candidates’ climate policies and on what role he himself might play in future.
Continue reading Al Gore: New thinking on the climate crisis
Above-Average Hurricane Season Predicted
A noted hurricane researcher predicted Wednesday that rising water temperatures in the Atlantic will bring a “well above average” storm season this year, including four major storms.The updated forecast by William Gray’s team at Colorado State University calls for 15 named storms in the Atlantic in 2008 and says there’s a better than average chance that at least one major hurricane will hit the United States.An average of 5.9 hurricanes form in the Atlantic each year.”The Atlantic is a bit warmer than in the past couple of years,” said Phil Klotzbach, a member of the forecast team. “That is something we would like to keep an eye on.”[source]
Berry Go Round #3
Welcome to Berry Go Round #3, the blog carnival deicated to all things botanical.The previous installment, Berry Go Round #2, is located here, at Further Thoughts. If you would like to submit an item to the next Berry Go Round, you may use this handy submission form. The Berry Go Round Home Page is here. Continue reading Berry Go Round #3
Give one hour to the Earth
During Earth Hour, you switch off the lights and other non-essential electronic devices. At 8:00 PM March 29th. You’ll save electricity, but more importantly, you’ll be making a point.
Created to take a stand against the greatest threat our planet has ever faced, Earth Hour uses the simple action of turning off the lights for one hour to deliver a powerful message about the need for action on global warming.This simple act has captured the hearts and minds of people all over the world. As a result, at 8pm March 29, 2008 millions of people in some of the world’s major capital cities, including Copenhagen, Toronto, Chicago, Melbourne, Brisbane and Tel Aviv will unite and switch off for Earth Hour
Polar Bears and Global Warming
The pending federal decision about whether to protect the polar bear as a threatened species is as much about climate science as it is about climate change.
The US Fish and Wildlife service is contemplating the listing of the obviusly endangered polar bear as a threatened species. Well, duh…The problem for them (the US Federal Government, which has been converted over the last 7 years into a right wing think tank) is that the main threat to the polar bear is global warming, and there are still plenty of individuals in charge of the US that want to deny global warming. Continue reading Polar Bears and Global Warming
Don’t get too close…
Are We In The Anthropocene? No.
Proposals to give the latter part of the present geological period (the Holocene) a new name … the Anthropocene … are misguided, scientifically invalid, and obnoxious. However, there is a use for a term that is closely related to “Anthropocene” and I propose that we adopt that term instead. Continue reading Are We In The Anthropocene? No.
New Study of Antarctic Ice Loss
The amount of ice lost to the sea from Antarctica has increased by 75 percent in the last 10 years. This is the result of an increase in glacial flow. It had previously been thought, and perhas was the case, that Greenland ice loss outpaced the Antarctica. This is no longer the case. Continue reading New Study of Antarctic Ice Loss
Mapping of Greenland may aid understanding of sea-level mystery
“A University of Alberta Arctic ice researcher is closing in on some real understanding about the process that might be feeding rising sea levels.” Continue reading Mapping of Greenland may aid understanding of sea-level mystery