Posts tagged environment
World Bank Fears Devastating 4.0 Degree Warming: “A four-degree warmer world can and must be avoided. We need to hold warming below two degrees,” said World Bank President Jim Yong Kim. “Lack of ambitious action on climate change threatens to put prosperity out of reach of millions and roll back decades of development.”
…and as deadly Hurricane Sandy proved, after rampaging through the Caribbean and US, weather extremes are only going to get worse… Read more
Earth’s Prized Corals Discovered
A new survey of coral populations in the Western Indian Ocean reveals the home to the second most diverse population of corals on the planet.
Blues seem bluer in this vividly hued coral paradise.
The plans are risky, the timeline delayed and the weather is worsening. The ship may not survive another winter, but rather than completing the salvage by January, they’re delaying until next spring.
Yikes.
Costa Concordia Salvage Delayed
The stricken Costa Concordia cruise liner, which lies partially submerged near the coast of Giglio, will spend another winter in the waters off the tiny Tuscan island.
“I believe a structural collapse of the ship’s beam and a plunge into deep waters is very likely,” Capt Barbini said.
This photo shows the GROUND LEVEL CHANGE over 52 years. The reason for the change? People are farming water and the ground is sinking…
Sinking Tomatoes! Where Did the Farm Go?
Globally, humans are consuming 3.5 times more groundwater than aquifers can support.
In the U.S., worrisome areas include parts of the High Plains, especially in the Texas Panhandle and western Kansas, and the Central Valley of California. In the worst cases, groundwater extraction has already caused a permanent reduction in the storage capacity of the aquifer—meaning that the aquifers can never recover even if pumping stops.
NASA: “Exploring other worlds and preserving this one since 2012.”
Just made that up. *brushes off shoulder*
NASA goes green with new propellant technology
A third party manufacturer has been chosen by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to demonstrate a high performance “green” propellant alternative to the highly toxic fuel hydrazine, signaling the entry into a new era of innovative and nontoxic green fuels. The Green Propellant Infusion Mission proposal done by a team led by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation of Boulder,
![… scientists cut open the stomachs of 67 northern fulmars, a type of seabird, which had died and been beached on the coasts of British Columbia, Washington and Oregon […] Nearly 93 percent of the birds harbored plastic in their stomachs, the research team reported in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin. And each bird contained an average of nearly 37 pieces of plastic. One bird had 454 pieces in its stomach.
Read more of Emily Sohn’s article, “Pacific NW Seabirds Stuffed Full of Plastic”](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m71arcTZAo1qmkxx9o1_500.jpg)
… scientists cut open the stomachs of 67 northern fulmars, a type of seabird, which had died and been beached on the coasts of British Columbia, Washington and Oregon […] Nearly 93 percent of the birds harbored plastic in their stomachs, the research team reported in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin. And each bird contained an average of nearly 37 pieces of plastic. One bird had 454 pieces in its stomach.
Read more of Emily Sohn’s article, “Pacific NW Seabirds Stuffed Full of Plastic”
Mexico Passes Climate Change Law
As Mexico’s Popocatepetl volcano continues to spew ash and greenhouse gases, the Mexican people themselves have resolved to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide.
A law recently passed by the Mexican legislature will reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 30 percent below business-as-usual levels by 2020, and by 50 percent below 2000 levels by 2050, reported Nature. By 2024, Mexico will also derive 35 percent of its electricity from renewable resources, according to the new law.
LIVE From Gulf of Mexico Okeanos Explorer
NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer is currently on Dive 7, leg 3: looking at the outer part of a 60-meter (197-ft) long wooden shipwreck near the Mississippi River. Follow along with them in the video above and on Twitter @oceanexplorer.
Probably going to watch this all day.
Fascinating even if it’s murky waters.
Forty years ago this week, the crew of Apollo 16 captured this (top) image of Earth rising above the lunar landscape. The Apollo missions enabled us to see for the first time our planet as it appears from space.
“When I was orbiting the moon and could put my thumb up to the window and completely cover the Earth, I felt a real sense of my own insignificance. Everything I’d ever known could be hidden behind my thumb,” Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell said.
In the bottom image, Moscow is seen at night from the International Space Station, flying at an altitude of approximately 240 miles on March 28, 2012. A solar array panel for the space station is on the left side of the frame. The Aurora Borealis, airglow and daybreak frame the horizon.
Through the ages, humans have attempted to understand and portray the world around them. Here’s a look at the myriad ways people have attempted to understand.
Mutant Crabs Showing Up in the Gulf
BP’s massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico may be related to the eyeless shrimp, clawless crabs and other deformed animals now found in the Gulf, reported Al Jazeera. Fishers and marine biologists believe tremendous amounts of highly toxic chemicals may have had a negative effect on creatures that are constantly bathed in them, contrary to what BP asserts.
Al Jazeera quoted numerous fisherman who had pulled warped crustaceans from the waters where nearly 5 million barrels of oils spewed forth after the 2010 explosion that cost 11 mens’ lives on the BP-operated Deepwater Horizon oil rig.
- “I’ve seen the brown shrimp catch drop by two-thirds, and so far the white shrimp have been wiped out,” Keath Ladner, a seafood processor in Hancock County, Mississippi told Al Jazeera. “The shrimp are immune compromised. We are finding shrimp with tumors on their heads, and are seeing this everyday.”
- Tracy Kuhns and her husband Mike Roberts, commercial fishers from Barataria, Louisiana, found eyeless shrimp and: “We are also finding eyeless crabs, crabs with their shells soft instead of hard, full grown crabs that are one-fifth their normal size, clawless crabs, and crabs with shells that don’t have their usual spikes … they look like they’ve been burned off by chemicals.”
- “We also seeing eyeless fish, and fish lacking even eye-sockets, and fish with lesions, fish without covers over their gills, and others with large pink masses hanging off their eyes and gills,” Darla Rooks, a lifelong fisherperson from Port Sulfur, Louisiana said.
Buffett Has Rule for Environment, Too
Warren Buffett’s suggestion that CEOs pay at least an equal tax rate to their secretaries may have been struck down by the Senate, but Buffett also offers guidance on environmental policies in business.
Where’s the Hottest Place on Earth?
The title of “world’s hottest place” is often bestowed upon El Azizia, Libya, where the highest temperature ever measured on Earth was recorded, but the crown belongs elsewhere.
