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When would global warming destroy life on Earth? Study hazards a guess.

Sun, 2013-08-04 20:35 — Maeryn Obley

This is a picture of the surface of Venus, which is hot enough to melt lead, thanks to a runaway greenhouse effect at some point in the planet's past. Two recent studies look at how such processes might occur. JPL/AP/File

Image: This is a picture of the surface of Venus, which is hot enough to melt lead, thanks to a runaway greenhouse effect at some point in the planet's past. Two recent studies look at how such processes might occur. JPL/AP/File

csmonitor.com - July 30th, 2013 - Pete Spotts

A runaway greenhouse effect – where a planet's atmosphere traps so much heat that temperatures rise to life-snuffing levels – may be easier to achieve than previously believed. And there may be more than one way to drive the increase.

Those are the implications of two recent studies looking at what planetary scientists describe as one of the fundamental processes that can render a planet uninhabitable.

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Climate research nearly unanimous on human causes, survey finds

Fri, 2013-06-07 00:38 — Maeryn Obley

'Our findings prove that there is a strong scientific agreement about the cause of climate change, despite public perceptions to the contrary'. Photograph: John McConnico/AP

Image: 'Our findings prove that there is a strong scientific agreement about the cause of climate change, despite public perceptions to the contrary'. Photograph: John McConnico/AP

guardian.co.uk - May 15th, 2013 - Suzanne Goldenberg

A survey of thousands of peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals has found 97.1% agreed that climate change is caused by human activity.

Authors of the survey, published on Thursday in the journal Environmental Research Letters, said the finding of near unanimity provided a powerful rebuttal to climate contrarians who insist the science of climate change remains unsettled.

The survey considered the work of some 29,000 scientists published in 11,994 academic papers.

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Underlying Resilience Theoretical Foundations

Thu, 2013-06-06 03:31 — mdmcdonald

Dear all,

Yesterday was a great pleasure for me, thank you all for the inspirations and very nice atmosphere.

Instead of writing a decent summary, I have summarised some notes in the way of formulating questions that could be of interest for the project. (Or, at least to myself.) I think it could also be very useful to write a paper to help structuring all ideas.

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The Dictatorship of Data

Sun, 2013-06-02 23:55 — Maeryn Obley

Body count: U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara briefing the press on Vietnam at the Pentagon in 1965.Image: Body count: U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara briefing the press on Vietnam at the Pentagon in 1965.

technologyreview.com - May 31st, 2013 - Kenneth Cukier and Viktor Mayer-Schönberger

Big data is poised to transform society, from how we diagnose illness to how we educate children, even making it possible for a car to drive itself. Information is emerging as a new economic input, a vital resource. Companies, governments, and even individuals will be measuring and optimizing everything possible.

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The Key to Running the World on Solar and Wind Power

Thu, 2013-05-02 13:44 — Maeryn Obley

Chart of energy density per energy type

Image: Chart of energy density per energy type

energytrendsinsider.com - April 30th, 2013 - Robert Rapier

Perhaps the biggest shortcoming of solar and wind power is their intermittency. In locations like Hawaii, where I live, wind and solar power are already competitive on price. My fossil-fuel supplied electricity typically costs above 40 cents a kilowatt-hour, and wind and solar power can compete with that. But since they can’t supply power that is available on demand (firm power) they must be backed up by power sources that can provide power when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing.

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The Limits of the Earth, Part 2: Expanding the Limits

Fri, 2013-04-26 19:50 — Maeryn Obley

Limits of Earth logo.Image: Limits of Earth logo.

blogs.scientificamerican.com - April 18th, 2013 - Ramez Naam

As part one of this series showed, we are up against incredible challenges: feeding a world with a rapidly growing appetite, the continuing loss of the world’s precious forests, the ongoing collapse of fish species in the oceans, the rapid depletion of our fresh water resources, and the over-arching threat of climate change, which makes all others far worse.

Ending growth isn’t a realistic option.  Billions of people in the developing world want access to more resources, deserve those resources as much as those of us in the rich world do, and need them in order to rise out of poverty.

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The Limits of the Earth, Part 1: Problems

Fri, 2013-04-26 19:47 — Maeryn Obley

Limits of Earth logo.Image: Limits of Earth logo.

blogs.scientificamerican.com - April 17th, 2013 - Ramez Naam

The world is facing incredibly serious natural resource and environmental challenges: Climate change, fresh water depletion, ocean over-fishing, deforestation, air and water pollution, the struggle to feed a planet of billions.

All of these challenges are exacerbated by ever rising demand – over the next 40 years estimates are that demand for fresh water will rise 50%, demand for food will rise 70%, and demand for energy will nearly double – all in the same period that we need to tackle climate change, depletion of rivers and aquifers, and deforestation.

One view of these looming threats is that we’ve exhausted planet’s resources.

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Verily: Crowdsourced Verification for Disaster Response

Fri, 2013-03-01 18:30 — Kathy Gilbeaux

                   

irevolution.net - by Patrick Meier - February 19, 2013

Social media is increasingly used for communicating during crises. This rise in Big (Crisis) Data means that finding the proverbial needle in the growing haystack of information is becoming a major challenge.

QCRI and Masdar have launched an experimental  platform called Verily. We are applying best practices in time-critical crowd-sourcing coupled with gamification and reputation mechanisms to leverage the good will of (hopefully) thousands of digital Samaritans during disasters.

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Veri.ly
http://www.veri.ly/

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Flu virus can tell time

Fri, 2013-01-25 19:25 — Maeryn Obley

Submitted by Luis Kun

mountsinai.org - January 17th, 2013

Scientists have discovered that that the flu virus can essentially tell time, thereby giving scientists the ability to reset the virus' clock and combat it in more effective ways. According to researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the flu knows how much time it has to multiply, infect other cells, and spread to another human being. If it leaves a cell too soon, the virus is too weak. If it leaves too late, the immune system has time to kill the virus.

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CIA-commissioned report on climate change released

Thu, 2012-11-15 00:58 — Maeryn Obley

2010 Drought in Russia. (c) New York Times.

Image: 2010 Drought in Russia. (c) New York Times.

foreignpolicyblogs.com - November 10th, 2012 - Mia Bennett

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and National Research Council (NRC) have released a report commissioned by the CIA and various other American intelligence agencies on the security threats posed by climate change. The report’s goal is to inform intelligence agencies as to how to best carry out monitoring to anticipate climate-related disasters, help prevent them from occurring, and, when they do, respond to emergencies. The report investigates how climate change could potentially induce social and political stresses that will affect U.S. security over the next decade.

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