waynechecker.net

Date: 30-Jul-10

Country: USA

Author: Deborah Zabarenko

Melting glaciers, more humid air and eight other key indicators show that global warming is undeniable, scientists said on Wednesday, citing a new comprehensive review of the last decade of climate data.

Without addressing why this is happening, the researchers said there was no doubt that every decade on Earth since the 1980s has been hotter than the previous one, and that the planet has been warming for the last half-century.

via World Environment News – Ten Key Indicators Show Global Warming “Undeniable” – Planet Ark.

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Ancient hunters who stalked the world’s last woolly mammoths likely helped warm the Earth’s far northern latitudes thousands of years before humans began burning fossil fuels, according to a study of prehistoric climate change.

via World Environment News – Woolly Mammoth Hunters Helped Change Climate – Planet Ark.

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The NSW Government runs Save Power, to help the state’s residents reduce their greenhouse gas emissions at home. http://www.savepower.nsw.go…

SAN DIEGO: The retreat of glaciers and the loss of moisture from soil due to climate change will likely increase the number of large-scale dust storms, such as those that blanketed Sydney in 2009, scientists predict.

“Every year, hundreds of millions of tonnes of African dust are carried westward across the Atlantic to South America, the Caribbean and to the North America,” as well as across the Mediterranean and the Middle East, said Joseph Prospero, an atmospheric chemist at the University of Miami.

via Retreating glaciers may boost dust storms | COSMOS magazine.

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Over the last several years we have seen a drastic reduction in sea ice in the arctic region of the world. Scientist project that the summer sea ice cover of the Arctic Ocean might be lost within a decade. Half of the heat produced on earth is created in the Arctic, resulting in accelerates climate change.

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A video, Climate Patriots, was recently (19 Feb. 2010) released from the Pew Project on National Security, Energy and Climate. The video highlights the impacts environmental security, especially climate change, will have on the American military. In addition to the national security threat of America’s oil dependency, the video emphasizes the security threats from climate change, stating they are two-fold—humanitarian disasters and increased political instability. Former Captain James Morin likens the ramifications of these security threats to “… taking every hornets’ nest we already have around the world and shaking it up.”

Former Republican Senator John Warner (Virginia) calls climate change a threat multiplier because it will exacerbate already precarious situations. “Climate change affects the sons and the daughters who are currently stepping up to wear the uniform of our country; [and] who may be called upon in the future to perform missions, which missions are a consequence of erratic climate change, shortage of energy or a variety of both together.”

More Information on Climate Change & National Security:

• Quadrennial Defense Review Should Spark Interagency Climate Conversation. Climate Progress, 15 February 2010
• Climate Change Climbs the Ranks in the Pentagon and CIA (14 Dec. 2009, WWF blog post)
• U.S. military veterans travel to Copenhagen to discuss security threats of climate change (15 Dec. 2009, WWF blog post)
• Pentagon: “Climate change, energy security, and economic stability are inextricably linked.” Climate Progress, 1 Feb 2010.
• When poverty meets natural disaster & what that means with a changing climate (14 Feb. 2010)
• Climate Refugees: The Human Face of Climate Change (19 Feb. 2010, WWF blog)
• Review Aims to Rebalance Forces, Puts People First.  Press release (1 Feb 2010) from the Department of Defense.
• Greenhouse Gas Targets Announcement for DOD.  Press release (28 Jan 2010) from Department of Defense.watch?v=kjS9pU0y_JU&feature=player_embedded

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At 8.30pm on Saturday, March 27 nearly 100 iconic landmarks in 1,000 cities and towns around the world will switch off their lights for Earth Hour 2010, joining hundreds of millions of people showing their commitment to the environment.

Earth Hour will reach new heights this year, with the world’s three tallest buildings – the new Burj Khalifa in Dubai, CN Tower in Toronto and Taipei 101 in Taiwan – going dark for the global event.

Melbourne’s Luna Park, Rialto Tower, Arts Centre and Crown Casino; Brisbane’s Story Bridge; Adelaide’s Town Hall and Rundle Mall Lantern; The National Library and Australian War Memorial in Canberra and the Sydney Opera House, Sydney Tower, Harbour Bridge and Luna Park will join this growing list.

World-famous sites across the US, including the Golden Gate Bridge, Empire State Building, Mount Rushmore and even the lights of Las Vegas, will switch off in a decisive display of climate action from one of the most significant nations on the climate landscape.

Some of the world’s great metropolises will ‘flick the switch’ on their signature landmarks, marking their dedication to sustainable development and joining their citizens in adopting low-carbon practices.

Hiroshima will become the first Japanese city to show its commitment to global climate action when the lights go out on its iconic Peace Memorial. In London, lights will dim on the world-famous London Eye as the Coca-Cola sign in Piccadilly Circus switches off.

The actions shown by cities of the world and their inhabitants are crucial to leading a low-carbon resolution to climate change, says Earth Hour Co-Founder and Executive Director, Andy Ridley.

“The C40 suggests that cities are responsible for up to 75% of the world’s carbon emissions, so their role in addressing what is unequivocally the greatest threat to the planet today is absolutely vital,” Andy said.

“By turning the lights off for Earth Hour, cities are reflecting the aspirations of their citizens as a community that has resolved to take action on global warming,” he said.

As Earth Hour has grown from a one-city initiative in 2007 to a global phenomenon in 2009, renowned icons, including the Great Pyramids, Eiffel Tower, the Coliseum, Christ the Redeemer statue, Buckingham Palace, Beijing’s Olympic Stadium and many more world-famous landmarks have joined the global community in showing leadership on a resolution to climate change.

Earth Hour to show landmark action on climate change – Earth Hour Australia 2010.

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More evidence of the climate crisis is unfolding before our eyes. The situation in the Arctic is worse than data from satellite pictures have told us:

“For scientists studying the health of Arctic sea ice, satellite observations are absolutely essential for providing the big picture. It was satellites that revealed in September 2007 a record minimum ice coverage in the region — the result of a massive summer melt. And it was satellites that showed in 2008 and 2009 the modest recovery of late-summer Arctic ice that suggested to some that the specter of a totally ice-free polar ocean might be somewhat less imminent than feared.”

“But those high-altitude observations need occasional reality checks from scientists down on the surface. It was during one such on-the-ground research expedition last fall that David Barber, an Arctic climatologist at the University of Manitoba, got an unwelcome surprise.”

“Barber was aboard the Canadian research icebreaker Amundsen, checking on ice in the Beaufort Sea north of Alaska and Western Canada. The ship was well inside a region the satellites said should be choked with thick, multiyear-old ice. “That’s pretty much a no-go zone for an icebreaker of the Amundsen’s size,” says Barber. But the ship kept going, at a brisk 13 knots — its top speed in open water is 13.7 knots — and even when it finally reached thick ice, he says, “we could still penetrate it easily.”"

“In short, as Barber and his colleagues explain in a recent paper in Geophysical Review Letters, the analysis of what the satellites were seeing was wrong. Some of what satellites identified as thick, melt-resistant multiyear ice turned out to be, in Barber’s words, “full of holes, like Swiss cheese. We haven’t seen this sort of thing before.”"

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SAN FRANSISCO: The key to using trees to offset global warming is to expand tropical rainforests south of the equator, according to research announced in the U.S. on Monday.

Planting forests north of the equator appeared to either “zero-out” or be counterproductive in regard to global warming, according to the researchers.

via Forests can raise Earth’s temperature | COSMOS magazine.

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Recently the Huffington Post published a photo feature titled “Seeing the Effects of Climate Change.”

“Sometimes as we go about our daily lives, climate change can seem abstract, and not something we think we are experiencing on a daily basis. However, our planet is rapidly being altered and the physical signs of this shift can’t be ignored. These photos reveal how the world has already been impacted and what kind of changes we can expect in the future if we continue with our carbon-intense ways.”

The post contains photos of coastal erosion, the bleaching of coral reefs, melting glaciers and other catastrophes occurring around the globe. I urge you to send this to anyone who doubts that even minor changes in temperature have a huge effect on our planet.

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