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Seems the US media – rather like dear old George “Warmer” Bush – is having a tough time getting to grips with global warming, and the magnitude and immediacy of the issue.
Media analysis by Fairness and aAccuracy in Reporting includes:
Quote:The first IPCC report, issued on February 2, focused on the now-overwhelming evidence that the dramatic rise in global temperatures over the last century (about 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit total), and especially the last decade, is due to human emissions of greenhouse gases. “Warming of the climate system is unequivocal,” concluded the IPCC, noting that 11 of the 12 warmest years on record have occurred since 1995, while the polar ice caps are melting and sea levels rising at increasing rates. The panel concluded that there is greater than 95 percent certainty that human activity is to blame.The next day (2/3/07), alarmed headlines greeted newspaper readers: “Official: Global Warming Is All Our Fault.” “World’s Scientists Convinced That Humans Cause Global Warming.” “Worse Than We Thought: Report Warns of 4 C Rise by 2100: Floods and Food and Water Shortages Likely.”
None of those, though, were seen by readers of U.S. newspapers–they appeared in, respectively, Britain’s Daily Telegraph, Financial Times and Guardian. The same day’s U.S. headlines were mostly far more demure: “U.N. Study Spurs Call to Fight Warming” (Boston Globe); “From Global Warming Report, U.S. Feels Heat” (Chicago Tribune). The New York Times titled its front-page story “Science Panel Calls Global Warm-ing ‘Unequivocal'”–ducking the more significant finding that not only is climate change underway, but that human-created greenhouse gases are the culprit.
Doubt Global Warming? Read Different News
Major U.S. Papers Less Likely Than International Counterparts To Confront Threat – short intro, then includes the analysis.
Big article on dead chickens from battery farms in China, includes:
Quote:Now battery farming is the norm in China, but its problems are becoming ever more apparent. It ignores the birds’ real needs, and crams seven or eight of them into each square metre. Additives, antibiotics and drugs are used in great quantities to increase production and profits – not to mention hormones that are harmful to human health. And the farmers themselves will admit these problems, saying: “We’re not going to eat the chickens – we just sell them to the cities.”Many chickens die in the battery farms, despite farmers’ efforts to prevent this. A large farm will house 20,000 to 30,000 birds, and every year an average of at least 1,000 will die. But what happens to all these carcasses? To find out, we conducted a survey in a number of northern Chinese provinces, and the results were chilling: 80% of the dead birds end up in the human food chain.
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Stall-holders selling roast chicken also see the profits to be made from dead or sick birds, since they are much cheaper than healthy ones. They choose chickens that are close to death and get them onto the spit as soon as possible. Think about that next time you are tempted by a street-side chicken leg in China. An avian disease specialist once told me he bought a roast chicken before boarding a train, and was shocked to discover millimetre-thick, yellowish-white protein deposits in its heart and liver, indicating the chicken had died of an infection. The stall-holder obviously had not had time to clean the bird properly before cooking and selling it. The expert may have been able to tell the difference, but who else could? It was the last chicken he ate.
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So what can we do, when China consumes 4.7 billion chickens a year? Chickens must be free of their cages and given space to roam on China’s grasslands, hills and forests – and live their natural lives – only then should China’s people feel safe to eat chicken.Jiang Gaoming is a Professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Botany and a doctoral candidate tutor, Vice Secretary-General of UNESCO’s China-MAB Committee and member of the UNESCO MAB Urban Group. He is recognized for his introduction of the concepts of “urban vegetation” and “using natural forces to restore China’s ecosystems.”
Tang Aimin is chair of the China Scientific View of Development Research and Development Centre. His work on how Guizhou will develop in the knowledge economy was well-received by leaders in Guizhou and Guiyang.
From Reuters report:
Quote:China blamed global warming on Wednesday for this year’s weather extremes, which have led to more than 700 deaths from flooding and left more than seven million with little access to water.Such extremes are likely to get worse and more common in the future, said Song Lianchun, head of the China Meteorological Administration’s Department of Forecasting Services and Disaster Mitigation.
“It should be said that one of the reasons for the weather extremes this year has been unusual atmospheric circulation bought about by global warming,” Song told a news conference carried live on the central government Web site (www.gov.cn).
“These kind of extremes will become more frequent, and more obvious. This has already been borne out by the facts,” he said. “I think the impact on our country will definitely be very large.”
Some parts of China have had too much rain, and others too little this summer.
China blames climate change for extreme weather
Here in Hong Kong, we’re in a heatwave – most sustained hot, sunny summer weather I’ve known in 20 years here. Seen forecast suggesting this is set to change – maybe next week will see typhoons hit Hainan and Taiwan, shortly after one bashing Japan.
I posted the following in response to an item on scienceblogs.com:
Quote:As for me, I reckon papers can be right or wrong, but I see "Heartland Institute" on anything, and think woah! – I'll be surprised if there's any truth and balance here.– and promptly received an email from the institute.
My post was prompted by a scienceblog post, titled: Alarmist global warming claims melt under scientific scrutiny? – after article of same name in Chigaco Times, which had – as you might expect – some of the silly stuff from righties and their ilk.
The blog post cited an article on Heartland Institute cite, with title: Himalayan Glaciers Are Growing … and Confounding Global Warming Alarmists This article includes statement:
Quote:Glaciers are growing in the Himalayan Mountains, confounding global warming alarmists who have recently claimed the glaciers were shrinking and that global warming was to blame. A new study of the Karakoram, Hindu Kush, and Western Himalaya mountain ranges by researchers at England's Newcastle University shows consistent recent growth among the region's glaciers.– which startled me, so googled for info. Readily found, and press release from Newcastle University on the paper says:
Quote:New research into climate change in the Western Himalaya and the surrounding Karakoram and Hindu Kush mountains could explain why many glaciers there are growing and not melting. The findings suggest this area, known as the Upper Indus Basin, could be reacting differently to global warming, the phenomenon blamed for causing glaciers in the Eastern Himalaya, Nepal and India, to melt and shrink.Mountain climate change trends could predict water resources Mountain climate change trends could predict water resources – so the paper refers to just one area of the Himalayas, where results (and conditions) differ from those elsewhere. Selective use of info by the institute, then – distorting the truth close enough to lying, I figure. Anyways, my email from the institute was a generic one, included:
Quote:I was concerned that you have the wrong impression of the Heartland Institute. We are a free market think tank based in Chicago. We are a non-partisan organization that believes free markets provide the best solutions to social and economic problems. We do not represent any business interests. … [blah blah blah] We may disagree on philosophy, but I think we are trying to accomplish the same thing.Heartland is especially interested in school choice and healthcare reform.
Regards, Tom Swiss Director – Public Relations The Heartland Institute
I emailed Tom back, saying they are trying to say global warming is a non issue; I'm trying to highlight science showing it's major problem. (Should have also mentioned he was being patronising here). No response.
Wikipedia entry on the institute tells of them receiving substantial funding from Exxon. Also, institute has long been pro-smoking, with money from Philip Morris, among others: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Heartland_Institute So, I suggest a name change, to the Heartless Institute.
Update, 16 Feb 2012, with news on BBC site after some leaked files show Heartland's strategy in attempting to ridicule global warming science, and funds from a mysterious "Anonymous Donor".
Quote:While Europe was asleep, someone mailed a bunch of internal Heartland Institute documents to a number of bloggers including desmogblog and ThinkProgress – these two and others have since posted the documents online.…
One thing that's clear from the documents is that the Heartland Institute is largely behind the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), a project that purports to mirror the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) by producing reports downplaying the extent of global warming as well as the involvement of greenhouse gas emissions in producing it.
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The next target appears to be schools. The plan is to fund a consultant, David Wojick, to develop modules for use in classrooms.
Among the statements it might promulgate, according to the "2012 Fundraising Plan" document, are that "whether humans are changing the climate is a major scientific controversy" and "natural [CO2] emissions are 20 times higher than human emissions".
Chris Rapley, a climate change scientist at University College London, described the project as "brain-washing".
"This strikes at the very roots of truth and freedom in a democratic society, something I would have felt the American people would find abhorrent," he said.
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a single source who is so important as to acquire his own set of capitals – the Anonymous Donor.
This man – the gender is specified – gave just under $1m last year, a little less than a quarter of the institute's income.
But that's small beer compared with his 2008 contribution of $4,610,000 – amounting to 58% of the organisation's entire budget for the year!
Here’s response I posted to an article by Martin Durkin in the Australian, Up against the warming zealots. Response not posted; dunno why.
Quote:Curious article; seems to slant things as if smug middle classes are behind notions re global warming.
Yet, as Martin Durkin well knows, comes from scientists:“A joint statement issued by the Australian Academy of Sciences, Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Sciences and the Arts, Brazilian Academy of Sciences, Royal Society of Canada, Caribbean Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, French Academy of Sciences, German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina, Indian National Science Academy, Indonesian Academy of Sciences, Royal Irish Academy, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (Italy), Academy of Sciences Malaysia, Academy Council of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and Royal Society (UK) said:
The work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) represents the consensus of the international scientific community on climate change science. We recognise IPCC as the world’s most reliable source of information on climate change and its causes, and we endorse its method of achieving this consensus. Despite increasing consensus on the science underpinning predictions of global climate change, doubts have been expressed recently about the need to mitigate the risks posed by global climate change. We do not consider such doubts justified.
Many other science academies and scientific organizations support the conclusions of the IPCC.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming_controversy“Hockey stick” not really discredited.
Medieval warming disputed: maybe just localised, rather than global.“backward-looking bigotry”?? – good grief; global warming is about the present and the future.
If any bigots around, Durkin is clearly among them.Might wonder what the Durkins of the day might have said on places like Easter Island, where islanders chopped down the last of the trees, in part to move around immense statues – and in doing so, taking their society huge leaps backwards, so the first Europeans to arrive there found a sad bunch of people, scratching a living from a rough, grassy landscape.
“God bless Australia. The DVD will be out soon.” – I hope readers don’t fall for Durkin’s attempts at smooth talking salesmanship (Ooh, those of you who liked my documentary are so wonderful and sane … and while you’re at it, maybe give me some money.)
Plenty more re his dodgy documentary on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Global_Warming_Swindle
– includes, if you scroll down, rebuttals from scientists, including this in press release from the Royal Society:Quote:Those who promote fringe scientific views but ignore the weight of evidence are playing a dangerous game. They run the risk of diverting attention from what we can do to ensure the world’s population has the best possible future.From email I’ve been forwarded, from Nial Moores of Birds Korea:
http://www.restoresaemangeum.com
Takes only a minute to send a mail either to a South Korean embassy/consulate in a given nation (4 or so countries so far on the list, and we will extend the reach over the coming months) or to a Min of Env official here in Korea. From an announcement made in spring looks like we might have won the Geum Estuary battle…just need a little more pressure to make sure!
For some years, I’ve figured China set to be the largest country to undergo ecocide on grand scale. Maybe not really so enormous an issue as that, but several recent stories show the environment in too many places is highly strained, or even at critical point.
For instance, algal blooms in three major lakes recently; at one or two, leading to severe problems with supplying water to people. In all, harm to fisheries etc.The Financial Times has carried reports on a World Bank report that’s due out soon, and saying Chinese officials have argued for not publishing several of figures, such as 750,000 premature deaths per year because of env problems.
In today’s South China Morning Post, these reports denied by China, but World Bank refusing to comment.From FT of 2 July:
Quote:Beijing engineered the removal of nearly a third of a World Bank report on pollution in China because of concerns that findings on premature deaths could provoke “social unrest”.The report, produced in co-operation with Chinese government ministries over several years, found about 750,000 people die prematurely in China each year, mainly from air pollution in large cities.
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Advisers to the research team said ministries told them this information, including a detailed map showing which parts of the country suffered the most deaths, was too sensitive.“The World Bank was told that it could not publish this information. It was too sensitive and could cause social unrest,” one adviser to the study told the Financial Times.
Sixteen of the world’s 20 most polluted cities are in China, according to previous World Bank research.
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Missing from this report are the research project’s findings that high air-pollution levels in Chinese cities is leading to the premature deaths of 350,000-400,000 people each year. A further 300,000 people die prematurely each year from exposure to poor air indoors, according to advisers, but little discussion of this issue survived in the report because it was outside the ambit of the Chinese ministries which sponsored the research.Another 60,000-odd premature deaths were attributable to poor-quality water, largely in the countryside, from severe diarrhoea, and stomach, liver and bladder cancers.
The mortality information was “reluctantly” excised by the World Bank from the published report, according to advisers to the research project.
750,000 a year killed by Chinese pollution
A report in the FT the next day included:Quote:Residents of polluted cities do not need the World Bank to tell them the air is filthy. They breathe the stuff every day. But Chinese officials are right to be nervous. Environmental protests – rural and urban – have proliferated in recent years as Chinese citizens become better educated and more forceful in defence of their rights. In Xiamen, angry residents have stalled plans to build a petrochemical plant seen as a source of lethal pollution.However, the correct response to the sort of grim news contained in the World Bank report is not to suppress the truth but to tackle the underlying problem. Reducing emissions from coal-fired power stations, for example, is neither as expensive nor as difficult as businesses and the provincial governments with which they collude often pretend.
Moreover, China can tie the essentially domestic crisis of urban air pollution into solving the international problem of climate change. Spewing out local air pollutants and carbon, the main global warming gas, often go hand in hand. The same holds for modernising plants to avoid either type of emissions. Many foreign companies are eager to fund these clean-up projects in exchange for carbon credits valued at home. In the meantime, these could help China solve its local air pollution problem.
All of the above can only happen if Chinese leaders overcome their fear of the facts and start telling the truth. They may find it easier than they think and it would certainly produce better results.
China must come clean about its poisonous environment
Post edited by: Martin, at: 2007/07/06 11:47
British Medical Journal editorial includes:
Quote:Somewhere, I imagine, there’s a small group of people proud to be counted among the Friends of Avian Flu, or FAF for short. I suspect they have a catchy mission statement, such as “Keeping the nightmare alive,” and lapel badges of vaguely bird-like shape.Their challenge is to keep bird flu forever in the public eye. This should be getting harder, as influenza H5N1 is proving particularly resistant to undergoing the killer mutation that would allow efficient human to human transmission of the virus. Ten years after the strain first appeared in humans, it has killed just 191 people. This is despite the most propitious of circumstances: millions of people and poultry living in very close proximity in South East Asia. Although these deaths are a tragedy for the victims and their families, it’s as well to remember that a similar number of people die on the roads world wide every 84 minutes.
Traditionally, we’ve blamed the drug companies for talking up the risks of diseases, or even inventing diseases, but this is not the case with bird flu. The track record of oseltamivir (Tamiflu) as a treatment for H5N1 is decidedly mixed, and its use in seasonal flu has been linked to suicides and neuropsychiatric symptoms in Japanese teenagers. FAF has incorporated this pharmaceutical failure into its story for bird flu: The Drugs Don’t Work. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
FAF knows that the best way to generate column inches is high profile scientific conferences with well oiled media machines, and in this week’s BMJ Richard Smith, our previous editor, reports on a session he chaired at a conference of Health Technology Assessment International (doi: 10.1136/bmj.39255.606713.DB). Some of the observations were familiar: the inevitability of the pandemic and the possibility of drug resistance. But others were relatively new: the terminological mutation from “avian flu” to “pandemic flu,” in recognition of H5N1’s failure to mutate genetically.
OK, other post deleted.
Thanks for the info; will be interesting to see if anyone finds the source of the H5N1 in these birds (which, partly from date, I guess are resident swans and goose – maybe rather tame birds?)
Martin
Big article in the Rolling Stone, includes:
Quote:the Bush administration has never felt bound by the reality-based nature of science – especially when it comes from international experts.
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the White House has implemented an industry-formulated disinformation campaign designed to actively mislead the American public on global warming and to forestall limits on climate polluters.“They’ve got a political clientele that does not want to be regulated,” says Rick Piltz, a former Bush climate official who blew the whistle on White House censorship of global-warming documents in 2005. “Any honest discussion of the science would stimulate public pressure for a stronger policy. They’re not stupid.”
Bush’s do-nothing policy on global warming began almost as soon as he took office. By pursuing a carefully orchestrated policy of delay, the White House has blocked even the most modest reforms and replaced them with token investments in futuristic solutions like hydrogen cars. “It’s a charade,” says Jeremy Symons, who represented the EPA on Cheney’s energy task force, the industry-studded group that met in secret to craft the administration’s energy policy. “They have a single-minded determination to do nothing – while making it look like they are doing something.”
…The Secret Campaign of President Bush’s Administration To Deny Global Warming
Quote:Plants and animals in upper Greenland have adapted their lifecycles to the arrival of the Arctic spring several weeks earlier than a decade ago.In a study that underscored the impact of global warming on the northern polar region, researchers discovered that plant, insect and bird life native to the High Arctic had made dramatic seasonal cycle adjustments to the region’s earlier snowmelt in the space of just 10 years.
In some cases, flowers are emerging from buds and chicks are hatching a full 30 days sooner than they did in the mid-1990s in response to sharply increased temperatures burning off the winter’s snow layer.
Birds such as the Sanderling and the Ruddy Turnstone had moved their springtime rituals forward by an average of two weeks by 2005, compared to 1996.
Global warming brings early spring to Arctic
– adaptations clearly proving possible, but will also be losers here, with some species finding conditions no longer really suit them, inc as more southerly species spread north.
From the Guardian:
Quote:In the last six years, the Chinese coal industry, with reserves put at more than 1 trillion tonnes, has doubled production to more than 1.2bn tonnes a year. The country is now building 550 coal-fired power stations – opening at the equivalent of two a week – and in the five years to 2005, electricity generation rose 150%.But while the Chinese economy has tripled in size in a decade, it has been at the expense of carbon dioxide emissions, which were yesterday put at more than 6.2bn tonnes in 2006, compared to nearly 5.8bn tonnes for the US.
China is well aware of its impact on climate change. Its Himalayan glaciers are melting at an unprecedented rate, its deserts are encroaching on cities in the north-west, and rivers are drying up as a result of temperature rises and over-exploitation. According to the Worldwatch Institute thinktank in Washington, Chinese air pollution from coal-burning cost its economy more than $63bn (£31bn) in 2004, or roughly 3% of GDP.
But China argues that even with its surging economy, it is a relatively minor villain. The carbon footprint of the average Chinese last year was only a quarter of an American, or half that of a Briton.
…As glaciers melt and rivers dry up, coal-fired power stations multiply
· Energy efficiency plan proves hard to implement
· Chinese carbon footprint a quarter of an American’sAfter several h5n1 records indicating bird markets in Kowloon are source of H5N1 (in turn from markets in China?), now a positive result from bird in the market:
Quote:The H5N1 virus has been detected in a daurian starling faecal swab sample taken from a pet shop in Yuen Po Street Bird Garden in Mong Kok.The Agriculture, Fisheries & Conservation Department tonight temporarily closed the shop and took its birds for observation and further testing. It also ordered all nearby bird shops to undergo thorough cleansing.
The sample was collected on June 4 under the department’s routine avian influenza surveillance programme.
The Leisure & Cultural Services Department will enhance cleansing of the Bird Garden, and the Food & Environmental Hygiene Department will boost street cleaning near it.
The Centre for Health Protection has put all stall operators and workers under medical surveillance. It has launched a hotline (2125 1122) to provide health advice to people who may have recently visited bird pet shops.
Griffin has since expressed some regret re his remarks, said the world is clearly warming.
But, there’s clearly no shortage of high profile idiots ready to spout nonsense on the issue. Here’s another:
Quote:A theology professor who speaks for the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation says global warming isn’t all bad.…
Professor Calvin Beisner noted that carbon dioxide emissions blamed for global warming also enhance plant growth, which will help feed the world’s poor.Beisner said the plants and animals that died for mankind’s sin in Noah’s flood were compressed into the fossil fuels we now burn to fuel growth.
He compared that to Jesus dying, being buried and then resurrected to give people new life.
He said, “Added carbon dioxide from fossil fuels isn’t pollution — it’s part of the solution to human poverty and to the thriving of the whole Earth.”
Another H5N1 casualty in Hong Kong – a Common or Black-billed Magpie found at Sha Tin (a new town/city to the north of Kowloon). Fits previous pattern – likely a wild bird, but scavenger, as others in crow family.
Quote:The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said today (June
that the Common Magpie found earlier in Sha Tin was confirmed to be H5N1 positive after a series of laboratory tests.The carcass of the bird was collected at 13 Jat Min Chuen Street, Sha Tin on May 31 by department staff following a public referral.
From a Reuters interview:
Quote:SWISS CAMP, Greenland Ice Cap, June 6 (Reuters) – Dr. Konrad Steffen is the director of University of Colorado at Boulder’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences and a veteran researcher of Arctic climate. He discussed the accelerating melting of Greenland’s ice cap and its effects on global ocean levels in an interview with Reuters on May 18 at his field research camp.
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Q: Did the last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report underestimate the forecast for the rise in ocean levels?A: I think it definitely underestimated. We complained heavily before it was released
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Right now we have warming all the way down to the mid-latitudes.
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We have never had such a high carbon dioxide level in the past 500,000 years.
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Q: How do you view the media coverage of climate change?A: One disappointment I would raise is if you look at the understanding of climate change by scientists — let’s be generous — 95 percent of scientists say we understand the process and we are convinced there is global warming. The media reports it, like a lot of other stories, as 50-50. …
Hi deron:
Thanks for the info (and, err, the links…)
I haven’t been to mainland Spain, but did make a trip to the Canary Islands – visited Tenerife, Lanzarote, La Palma, Fuerteventura – had great time, especially as the islands differ considerably from one another.
Martin
If to have a thread with this title, may as well add some posts about George "Warmer" Bush, the world’s leading Anti-Scientist (leading as in his powerful position, has downplayed science, notably re global warming). Now this buffoon is presiding over major cut in satellite monitoring that’s important for knowing what’s happening with global warming. (Any skeptics wander by: important, too, for showing whether and to what extent global warming really is an issue.) From AP report, here in the Guardian:
Quote:The Bush administration is drastically scaling back efforts to measure global warming from space, just as the president tries to convince the world the U.S. is ready to take the lead in reducing greenhouse gases. A confidential report to the White House, obtained by The Associated Press, warns that U.S. scientists will soon lose much of their ability to monitor warming from space … the Pentagon and two partners – the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA – will rely on European satellites for most of the climate data. “Unfortunately, the recent loss of climate sensors … places the overall climate program in serious jeopardy,” NOAA and NASA scientists told the White House in the Dec. 11 report obtained by the AP. They said they will face major gaps in data that can be collected only from satellites about ice caps and sheets, surface levels of seas and lakes, sizes of glaciers, surface radiation, water vapor, snow cover and atmospheric carbon dioxide. Rick Piltz, director of Climate Science Watch, a watchdog program of the Washington-based Government Accountability Project, called the situation a crisis. “We’re going to start being blinded in our ability to observe the planet,” said Piltz, whose group provided the AP with the previously undisclosed report. “It’s criminal negligence, and the leaders in the climate science community are ringing the alarm bells on this crisis.” … Jerry Mahlman, a former scientist at NOAA who is now at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, said he and other colleagues warned of problems as far back as 1995. He compared the preparations for the satellites to a “planned train wreck.”U.S. Cuts Back Climate Checks From Space
Closely related to the above, a new report from UNEP.
Quote:The rapid shrinking of Himalayan glaciers, accelerating at alarming rates in past decades as a result of global warming, will have catastrophic consequences for communities living downstream and millions who rely on glacial melt water, a new report says. The report, the first comprehensive study on the impact of warming temperatures on glaciers and glacial lakes in the Himalayan region warns of impending glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) – when rising waters from glacial melt breach dams in glacial lakes – and calls for early warning and mitigation measures to avert disaster.Nearly 15000 glaciers and 9000 glacial lakes are found in the Himalayan mountain chain which stretches 2500 km across five countries – Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, India and China. The mountain range feeds nine perennial river systems in the region and constitutes a lifeline for nearly 1.3 billion people downstream.
Himalayan glaciers are shrinking at an average of 10 to 60 m annually, with some retreating by 74 m a year. In China, glaciers have been retreating at a rate of 5.5 per cent in the last three decades. With current climate change projections two-thirds of China’s glaciers are likely to disappear by 2050, and almost all would be gone by 2100.
Significant changes were also seen in the Indian Himalaya, with the highest rate of glacial retreat found in the Bada Shigri Glacier and lowest in the Chhota Shigri Glacier in the Chenab River Basin, where glaciers are retreating by 6.8 to 29.8 m each year.
In Bhutan, the Luggye Glacier retreated by 160 m yearly from 1988 to 1993 resulting in rapid growth of the Luggye Tso Lake. The Raphstreng Glacier retreated 35 m every year on average from 1984 to 1998 but from 1988 to 1993 the retreat rate almost doubled to 60 m per year.
Glacier retreat has been accelerating in Nepal since the 1990s, with dramatic retreats recorded between 1994 and 1998 especially in the Dudh Koshi sub-basin where all of the glaciers studied have retreat by 10 to 59 m yearly. The Dudh Koshi sub-basin is the largest basin and most densely glaciated region in Nepal.
Melting glaciers are also leading to some of the fastest-growing glacial lakes in the region. Some glacial lakes have grown by almost 800 per cent since the 1970s.
Thanks for this link, re Bird Flu: a virus of our own hatching by Michael Greger.
Had a look at some of the chapters; seems over-excited – working towards the flu’s gonna kill us all (or lots of us) scenario: so John Oxford liking it not real amazing, as among the folk who evidently build careers and reputations from scary flu stories.
Mentions re flu evolving in chickens – fair enough.
But then, seems no real consideration of flu also needing to evolve in humans: we aren’t going to die from a pandemic chicken flu.Any chickens who are reading should be scared – tho factory farmed chickens might think the flu could help put them out of their misery.
Readers who are humans should take with very large pinch of salt.Post edited by: Martin, at: 2007/06/09 09:45
Quote:The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) said today (June 1) that the Starling found earlier in Mong Kok was confirmed to be H5N1 positive after a series of laboratory tests.The Starling was collected at 101-109 Boundary Street on May 26 by AFCD staff following a public referral.
A department spokesman reminded the public to observe good personal hygiene.
“They should avoid personal contact with wild birds and live poultry and clean their hands thoroughly after coming into contact with them,” he said.
Starling tests positive for H5N1 virus
Another case from real near the bird markets.
A species that’s mainly a winter visitor to Hong Kong, and then found in rural areas (especially Mai Po), and is so hard to find now it’s summer that even records of one bird are “news” in local birding world.Daft to suggest avoiding contact with wild birds!
Much ado in news today re NASA administrator Michael Griffin making comments that catapult him into the ranks of idiots:
Quote:“I have no doubt that a trend of global warming exists… I am not sure that it is fair to say that it is a problem we must wrestle with.“To assume that it is a problem is to assume that the state of Earth’s climate today is the optimal climate, the best climate that we could have or ever have had and that we need to take steps to make sure that it doesn’t change,” Griffin said. “I guess I would ask which human beings — where and when — are to be accorded the privilege of deciding that this particular climate that we have right here today, right now is the best climate for all other human beings. I think that’s a rather arrogant position for people to take.”
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Griffin’s comments immediately drew stunned reaction from James Hansen, NASA’s top climate scientist at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.“It’s an incredibly arrogant and ignorant statement,” Hansen told ABC News. “It indicates a complete ignorance of understanding the implications of climate change.”
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Last year, many NASA scientists were upset when reports surfaced that the agency had quietly deleted the phrase “to understand and protect our home planet” from the NASA mission statement. The scientists believe research on issues like climate change will suffer as NASA shifts priorities toward exploration missions to the moon and Mars.The stupidity here is indeed mind boggling for a man in Griffin’s position.
Yes, to anyone who reads Dilbert cartoons – with company boss who wanders around with head in the clouds – not surprising, but still, you might have figured that Griffin might have at least read some summaries of reports by NASA scientists.Quote:A NEW picture of Mount Everest have revealed what appears to be the devastating effects of climate change on one of the world’s most ecologically sensitive and important regions.
The image, taken last month, portrays a dramatically different landscape to shots taken in the 1960s.In a picture taken in 1968, the Middle Rongbuk glacier skirts through the mountain valley with the peaks above thickly covered with snow.
But almost exactly the same shot taken this year by a Greenpeace team reveals much barer peaks and a scarcely visible glacier.
And the environmental pressure group is in no doubt that the radical changes to the area are due to the effects of climate change.
“The degradation of the Everest environment and glacial retreat is, Greenpeace believes, a direct result of climate change,” a spokeswoman said.
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The Greenpeace team found that the glaciers of the Yellow River source have shrunk by 17 per cent in the past 30 years and warns that this trend could leave the region without glaciers by the end of the century.For more on the problems with biofuels, see: biofuelwatch
Quote:Biofuelwatch highlight the environmental impacts of the global biofuel market, especially the vast releases of greenhouse gases and considerable biodiversity losses they can cause. We campaign for regulation to ensure only sustainably-sourced biofuels can be sold in the EU.Email from Worldwatch had upbeat item on photovoltaic cells, which may help reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.
Quote:The solar industry is poised for a rapid decline in
costs that will make it a mainstream power option in the next few years,according to a new assessment by the Worldwatch Institute in Washington, D.C., and the Prometheus Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts.Global production of solar photovoltaic cells, which turn sunlight
directly into electricity, has risen sixfold since 2000 and grew 41
percent in 2006 alone. Although grid-connected solar capacity still
provides less than 1 percent of the world’s electricity, it increased
nearly 50 percent in 2006, to 5,000 megawatts, propelled by booming
markets in Germany and Japan. Spain is likely to join the big leagues in
2007, and the United States soon thereafter.Solar Power Set to Shine Brightly
Mentions China’s largest photovoltaic cells producer, Suntech
Suntech Power website looks well worth a visit.
Includes:Quote:Some sunny facts on solar energy:* The Sun has sufficient helium mass to provide the Earth with energy for another 5 billion years and, every 15 minutes, it emits more energy than humankind uses in an entire year.
* The Earth receives only one half of one billionth of the Sun’s radiant energy, but, in just a few days, it gets as much heat and light as could be produced by burning all the oil, coal and wood on the planet.
* The Sun represents 99.8% of the total mass of our solar system, its surface temperature is 6000ºC, and its total energy could melt an ice cube the size of planet Earth in just 30 minutes.
* Worldwide, some 2 billion people are still without electricity and, for these populations, it is more economically viable to install solar panels than to extend established electricity grids.
Post edited by: Martin, at: 2007/05/28 08:48
Quote:Gland, Switzerland – Whales, dolphins and porpoises are facing increasing threats from climate change, according to a new report published by WWF and the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) ahead of the 59th meeting of the International Whaling Commission. The report — Whales in hot water? — highlights the growing impacts of climate change on cetaceans. They range from changes in sea temperature and the freshening of the seawater because of melting ice and increased rainfalls, to sea level rise, loss of icy polar habitats and the decline of krill populations in key areas. Krill — a tiny shrimp-like animal that is dependent on sea ice — is the main source of food for many of the great whales. … “Whales, dolphins and porpoises have some capacity to adapt to their changing environment,” said Mark Simmonds, International Director of Science at WCDS, “but the climate is now changing at such a fast pace that it is unclear to what extent whales and dolphins will be able to adjust, and we believe many populations to be very vulnerable to predicted changes.” Climate change impacts are currently greatest in the Arctic and the Antarctic. According to the report, cetaceans that rely on polar, icy waters for their habitat and food resources, such as belugas, narwhals and bowhead whales, are likely to be dramatically affected by the reduction of sea ice cover.Disturbed, hungry and lost – climate change impacts on whales – you can download pdf file with the report here.
Quote:From Science news (need subscription to view after a month):
Something is harming the world’s coral reefs, and now researchers think they may have identified at least part of the problem: A devastating disease appears to attack the healthiest coral whenever sea temperatures rise. If that conclusion holds, it could force a rethinking of policies intended to protect the reefs.
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The team’s research is important because it applies an epidemiological approach to an infectious disease affecting the reef, says marine scientist Richard Aronson of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama. That method has produced the key finding: “Temperature-mediated disease outbreaks will preferentially affect denser, healthier coral populations,” he says. Consequently, mirroring efforts to establish Marine Protected Areas, which are intended to increase fish populations, might not be the best strategy for protecting coral, Aronson says, unless it is coupled with an attempt to mitigate the effects of climate change, because encouraging denser populations in warming seas could render them more vulnerable to diseases.Post edited by: Martin, at: 2007/05/23 09:34
I’ve seen ideas re sprinkling iron across ocean surfaces, to enhance plankton growth in bid to soak up more carbon dioxide. But, maybe not a great idea after all:
Quote:Ocean currents that stimulate marine organisms by sucking up carbon and nutrients from the sea bottom don’t seem to mitigate the buildup of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere–and they might even constitute a net source of the greenhouse gas–new research suggests.… The researchers were able to track what happens to carbon that comes up from the deep and how it supports the local plankton populations. They found that a lot of the carbon fails to sink back down to the depths. Instead, it is recycled as organic matter, where it remains in the surface waters and can even be ejected into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, says chemical oceanographer Claudia Benitez-Nelson of the University of South Carolina in Columbia and lead author of the Hawaii paper.
…Don’t Bet on the Bloomin’ Plankton – Science news; need subscription to view after a month.
Quote:Globally, sea levels are projected to possibly rise three feet by the end of the 21st century as a result of global warming, with three of the five coastal areas in the world projected to be most at risk of flooding are in Africa. In addition, as temperatures rise and enlarge already arid regions, resources were likely to decrease — and human conflict could increase.Global warming isn’t just a matter of melting icebergs and polar bears chasing after them. It’s also Lake Chad drying up, the glaciers of Mt. Kilimanjaro disappearing, increasing extreme weather, conflict and hungry people throughout Africa.
According to a landmark effort to assess the risks of global warming, Africa — by far the lowest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world — is projected to be among the regions hardest hit by environmental change.
“We never used to have malaria in the highlands where I’m from, now we do,” said Kenyan lawmaker Mwancha Okioma, at a briefing on climate change at the Pan African Parliament Monday.
The new environmental committee, headed by Okioma, raised concerns about the severity of climate change on Africa and called for those responsible to help reduce its effects.
“Planes used to take people through Kilimanjaro to see the snows, now it’s only at the very top. We are asking the ones in North America and Europe who are producing the pollution to help us,” Okioma said.
By reviewing four years of research on projected climate change in Africa, scientists with the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change got a nuanced view of possible scenarios and assessed how these scenarios could play themselves out in a continent already stressed — water and food insecurity, infectious diseases, conflict, poverty.
“There’s a whole suite of indicators which with climate change would undoubtedly make Africa one of the most stressed regions,” said Coleen Vogel, an environmental expert at South Africa’s University of Witwatersrand and lead author of a chapter on Africa being released this month by the Intergovernmental Panel.
An orbiting satellite over Africa in 2050 might see, according to the scientists’ models, a drier north-northwest and south-southwest and wetter eastern and central regions.
Quote:At least 1 billion people will be forced from their homes between now and 2050 as the effects of climate change deepen an already burgeoning global migration crisis, predicts a new report by Christian Aid.These future migrants will swell the ranks of the 155 million people already displaced by conflict, disaster and large-scale development projects. The vast majority will be from the world’s poorest countries. Urgent action by the world community is needed if the worst effects of this crisis are to be averted, says Human tide: the real migration crisis.
‘We believe that forced migration is now the most urgent threat facing poor people in the developing world,’ says John Davison, the report’s lead author.
Published to mark Christian Aid Week 2007, the report warns that the world is now facing its largest ever movement of people forced from their homes. The predicted numbers of displaced people could dwarf even those left as refugees following the Second World War.
The impact of climate change is the great, frightening unknown in this equation. Only now is serious academic attention being devoted to calculating the scale of this new human tide. Even existing estimates, more than a decade old, predict that hundreds of millions of people will be forced from their homes by floods, drought and famine sparked by climate change.
Security experts fear that this new migration will fuel existing conflicts and generate new ones in the areas of the world – the poorest – where resources are most scarce. A world of many more Darfurs is the increasingly likely nightmare scenario.
…World facing worst migration crisis – you can download the report here
Post edited by: Martin, at: 2007/05/16 14:37
that the Common Magpie found earlier in Sha Tin was confirmed to be H5N1 positive after a series of laboratory tests.