Scientists studying ancient fish bones in Scandinavia have discovered that warm-water species like anchovies and black sea bream that once thrived in Danish waters during a prehistoric warm period are now returning. Some cold-water species, such as cod, were also abundant during this period, having benefited from a lower fishing effort.[source]
Tag Archives: Global Warming
Fred Thompson on Global Warming
He’s trying so hard to be Ronald Regan that it makes me throw up a little bit inside my mouth. You have to just see it to believe it.
Himalayan Ice Fields Have Not Grown in Fifty Years
Starting with Los Alamos, repeated atomic explosions altered the isotopic composition of the Earth’s atmosphere in a way that is easily seen in historic proxyindicator records such as ice cores, lake cores, tree rings, and so on.Recently raised cores from the Himalayan ice fields, when analyzed, failed to show this global signal. This strongly suggests that these ice fields have not grown during the last fifty years, or more.The ice fields provide an important buffer in the headwaters of major rivers relied on today for agriculture and other uses by a very large number of people.Similar findings have occurred elsewhere. For instance, it is predicted that the glaciers on Kilimanjaro, in Tanzania, will be gone in about 7 to 10 years from now. Eighty percent of the 15,000 or so mountain glaciers in the Himalayas are expected to be melted away in about twenty to twenty five years from now.Details here.
Islands Going Under
From Obscurity to Infamy: Sidr
Sort of. The hurricane that the press ignored until it was impossible to ignore is now listed on Time’s Top Ten Natural Disasters of 2007. Continue reading From Obscurity to Infamy: Sidr
Earth to Kansas … Come in please…
How many times do the Kansans have to go out of their way to prove to the rest of the world that Kansas is a state populated by morons, psychopaths and mental defectives?
Well, OK, I admit, Kansas has no more than the normal share of psychopaths… Continue reading Earth to Kansas … Come in please…
Bush Lets Down Big Business
A sizable fraction of the international business community launched an effort to press for mandatory cuts in greenhouse gas emissions yesterday, on the eve of a major round of climate negotiations set to begin Monday in Bali.In an unprecedented show of solidarity, leaders from 150 global companies endorsed the idea of a legally binding framework in a statement published in the Financial Times newspaper.[source]
The idea is, of course, that these businesses recognize that this is gong to have to happen, but no one business can do it unilaterally. There are two reasons for that, which are closely linked. One, it is bad business, the other, that it is illegal.It is bad business to do something that cuts your profit and increases your price (thus decreasing business) unless there is some longer term gain to be had (through investment, for instance). It is illegal if you are a publicly held corporation in the United States to cause your stockholders to lose money with intentional business decisions. Not really illegal in that it is a felony, but in the sense that the CEO who does this can be sued, fired, and lose pay. Continue reading Bush Lets Down Big Business
Climate Change Matters
There are still climate change deniers out there, and if you are one, I’d like to take a moment to annoy you with the following story:
Nearly 300 cases of chikungunya fever, a virus that previously has been common only in Africa and Asia, were reported in Italy – where only isolated cases of the disease had been seen in the past.”We were quite surprised,” said Stefania Salmaso, director of Italy’s Center for Epidemiology at the National Health Institute. “Nobody was expecting that such an unusual event was going to happen.”While the outbreak was largely the result of stronger trade and travel ties, some experts believe it is a sign of how global warming is creating new breeding grounds for diseases long confined to subtropical climates.Officials at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said the particularly mild winter in Italy allowed mosquitoes to start breeding earlier than usual, giving the insect population a boost.”This outbreak is most important as a warning signal,” said Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum, a climate change expert at the World Health Organization. “Climate change affects the breeding of every mosquito on earth.”More mosquitoes will mean more disease. With warmer temperatures in the future, Europe and North America might be hit by outbreaks of diseases usually confined to southern continents.
Get your details here.
Blue Man Group on Global Warming
Limbaugh Sticks Foot In Mouth
The latest target for demonizing by right-wing talk radio is an 18-year-old Yup’ik Eskimo woman who traveled to Washington, D.C., this month to tell what global warming is doing to her remote home village of St. Michael, Alaska.Charlee Lockwood spoke of how moose have moved north, berry patches produce less fruit and the catch is declining at her family’s fish camp. “Our culture will die because everyone will have to move someplace and there will be no one to teach them,” she told a House panel.Over about 600 radio stations last week, however, talk-radio king Rush Limbaugh declared that Lockwood’s testimony made him “really want to puke. I just want to throw up.””It’s the Democrats exploiting a young child, ladies and gentlemen, for the advancement of a political issue that will grow the size of government and increase their control over everyone,” Limbaugh declared.Rush, you falsifying, pill-popping gasbag!
IPCC Summary of Fourth Report
A few tidbits — just to give a flavor — from the Summary for Policymakers, which is available here. (Good luck downloading this file! You may want to wait until everyone is asleep…) Continue reading IPCC Summary of Fourth Report
IPCC Working Group 3: Mitigation of Climate Change
This report covers six topics:
- Greenhouse gas (GHG) emission trends
- Mitigation in the short and medium term, across different economic sectors (until 2030)
- Mitigation in the long-term (beyond 2030)
- Policies, measures and instruments to mitigate climate change
- Sustainable development and climate change mitigation
- Gaps in knowledge.
This link will eventually get you to the PDF file of the summary for policy makers.The full report is here.
IPCC Working Group 1: The Physical Science Basis
The following is quoted from the Working Group I report Continue reading IPCC Working Group 1: The Physical Science Basis
IPCC Fourth Assessment Report is here
Actually, here.There are three parts from three working groups. “The Physical Science Basis,” Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability,” and “Mitigation of Climate Change.”I shall presently post excerpts summarizing the reports.
Global Warming, the Blog Epic ~ 01 ~ Introduction
This is the first in a series of reposts from gregladen.com on global warming. 
The IPCC report is out, “An Inconvenient Truth” has been honored by the academy, a sea change is happening in the way that climate change news is being reported, and you can bet the Right Wing and the Ree-pubs are as we speak working up new Talking Points and Spins to deflate the urgency of the issue. It is an axiom that in reporting science, there are two (not one, not three or four, just two) sides to every issue, and one side is the plank nailed to the Democratic Party Platform, and the other side is the plank nailed to the Ree-pub Party Platform. This is a truth as stable and reliable as the fact that Home Depot will always sell 2″ X 4″ studs and plywood in 4′ X 8′ foot pieces. We are already seeing the dubious dichotomies forming up. For instance, yes, the Antarctic Ice Sheet is sloughing off the continent, but it is opening new and wonderful opportunities for both shrimp and scientists. Yes, global warming is real and is anthropogenic, but the Average American thinks, according to Polls, that it is only the third or fourth most important issue. And so on. Continue reading Global Warming, the Blog Epic ~ 01 ~ Introduction