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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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Climate Change: Human Disaster Looms, Claims New Research

Wed, 2013-06-05 23:43 — Kathy Gilbeaux

      

A human shadow is seen on a dried out field after drought in Germany. Photograph: Patrick Pleul/EPA

guardian.co.uk - by Fiona Harvey - May 19, 2013

Some of the most extreme predictions of global warming are unlikely to materialise, new scientific research has suggested, but the world is still likely to be in for a temperature rise of double that regarded as safe.

The researchers said warming was most likely to reach about 4C above pre-industrial levels if the past decade's readings were taken into account.

That would still lead to catastrophe across large swaths of the Earth, causing droughts, storms, floods and heatwaves, and drastic effects on agricultural productivity leading to secondary effects such as mass migration.

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Study - Energy budget constraints on climate response
http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v6/n6/full/ngeo1836.html

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To stop MERS, longer quarantines may be necessary

Sun, 2013-06-02 23:11 — Maeryn Obley

usatoday.com - May 29th, 2013 - Maria Cheng

A detailed look at two cases of a deadly new respiratory virus called MERS suggests people who have the disease should be isolated for at least 12 days to avoid spreading it, doctors reported Wednesday.

The new germ, a respiratory infection, was first seen in the Middle East and so far has sickened more than 40 people worldwide, killing about half of them.

In the report published online in the journal Lancet, French scientists said the first patient visited Dubai.

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Peak Phosphorus

Sun, 2013-05-26 17:25 — Maeryn Obley

A dead agricultural field.

Image: A dead agricultural field.

foreignpolicy.com - April 20th, 2010 - James Elser and Stuart White

From Kansas to China's Sichuan province, farmers treat their fields with phosphorus-rich fertilizer to increase the yield of their crops. What happens next, however, receives relatively little attention. Large amounts of this resource are lost from farm fields, through soil erosion and runoff, and down swirling toilets, through our urine and feces. Although seemingly mundane, this process cannot continue indefinitely.

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400 Parts Per Million

Sat, 2013-05-18 00:00 — Maeryn Obley

Former Vice President Al Gore. (photo: Mario Anzuoni)

Image: Former Vice President Al Gore. (photo: Mario Anzuoni)

readersupportednews.org - May 11th, 2013 - Al Gore

Yesterday, for the first time in human history, concentrations of carbon dioxide, the primary global warming pollutant, hit 400 parts per million in our planet's atmosphere. This number is a reminder that for the last 150 years -- and especially over the last several decades -- we have been recklessly polluting the protective sheath of atmosphere that surrounds the Earth and protects the conditions that have fostered the flourishing of our civilization. We are altering the composition of our atmosphere at an unprecedented rate.

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Toxic Waste on Par with Malaria as a Global Killer

Fri, 2013-05-17 23:52 — Maeryn Obley

A child at a lead-contaminated site. Credit: Blacksmith Institute Image: A child at a lead-contaminated site. Credit: Blacksmith Institute

ipsnews.net - May 9th, 2013 - Stephen Leahy

Toxic waste sites in 31 countries are damaging the brains of nearly 800,000 children and impairing the health of millions of people in the developing world, two new studies have found.

Toxins and pollutants in the environment are major sources of illness and reduced lifespans globally. The impacts on health in some countries are on par with malaria, said Kevin Chatham-Stephens, a pediatric environmental health fellow at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

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Patuca Reserve Resilience Network

Wed, 2013-05-15 09:18 — mdmcdonald

Honduras' ecosystems are being destroyed at an incredible rate, taking with it the rich natural heritage of biodiversity that has required million of years to evolve.  In 20 years, human populations in Honduras will be be threatend from ecosystem collapses that are likely to create abect misery and population collapses at an extraordinatry level.  Already population crashes are happening in small scale collapses due to the degradation of social ecology.  

There is a need to build a Patuca Reserve Resilience Network to help preserve the remaining 30% of the Patuca Reserve that has not been destroyed by deforestation and gold mining in the rivers. Association Patuca and Dr. Perinjaquet are working on introducing Resilience Capacity Zone Assessments and Mapping in order to identify solution sets local communities would embrace for preserving their environments and livelihoods, considering that they are squating within a national preserve that to date has had no environmental enforcement. 

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Video - Scrap Fuel Subsidies and Price CO2, Urges World Bank

Tue, 2013-05-14 10:04 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Reuters - trust.org - May 6, 2013

LONDON, May 6 (Reuters Point Carbon) – The world’s nations must scrap fossil fuel subsidies and put a price on emitting carbon dioxide if the planet is to avoid dangerous climate change, according to the president of the World Bank. The two measures are part of a five-point plan that the bank urged the world’s environment ministers to take, including building low carbon cities, improving agricultural practices and sharing new technology that will save energy.

“We need a global response equal to the scale of the climate problem.

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Heat-Trapping Gas Passes Milestone, Raising Fears

Mon, 2013-05-13 16:53 — Kathy Gilbeaux

      

The average carbon dioxide reading surpassed 400 parts per million at the research facility atop the Mauna Loa volcano on the island of Hawaii for the 24 hours that ended at 8 p.m. on Thursday.  Chris Stewart/Associated Press

nytimes.com - by Justin Gillis - May 10, 2013

The level of the most important heat-trapping gas in the atmosphere, carbon dioxide, has passed a long-feared milestone, scientists reported Friday, reaching a concentration not seen on the earth for millions of years.

Scientific instruments showed that the gas had reached an average daily level above 400 parts per million — just an odometer moment in one sense, but also a sobering reminder that decades of efforts to bring human-produced emissions under control are faltering.

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National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) monitoring program
http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/weekly.html

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Locust Plague Ravages Madagascar

Sun, 2013-05-12 20:49 — Kathy Gilbeaux

                 

A swarm of the Red Locusts passes through the Madagascar town of Sakaraha, on April 27, 2013 (AFP, Bilal Tarabey) Experts estimate there are currently 100 swarms across Madagascar, made up of about 500 billion ravenous locusts

submitted by Luis Kun

Agence-France Press (AFP) - by Gaelle Borgia - May 9, 2013

ANTANANARIVO — For three quarters of an hour a giant swarm of locusts streams across the sky above southwest Madagascar.

Along National Route Seven, normally an artery for tourists enjoying breathtaking views of the island's vast open spaces, a 15 kilometre long (nine mile) swarm clouds the sky.

Travellers today see little more than a natural disaster in progress -- a plague of locusts which has already destroyed half of the Indian Ocean island's crops.

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