Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Climate change and the Southwest water crisis: making a bad situation worse
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
House Will Pursue Efforts to Eliminate Funding for UN Climate Group
If House Republicans have their way, the U.S. may sever its fiscal support for the United Nations' climate group, reflecting the last lingering effects of the Climate-gate scandal that shook climate science and wobbled the world's confidence in the theory that man's actions are causing the planet to rapidly warm.
Wrapped into the many amendments recently passed by the House of Representatives -- a total of $60 billion in spending cuts that the president called a "nonstarter" -- was one by Republican Missouri Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer that would prohibit $13 million in taxpayer dollars from going to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the group whose occasional missteps have been the source of countless confrontations among climate scientists over the past year.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/03/01/house-pursue-efforts-eliminate-funding-climate-group/#ixzz1FNMz0Yxf
Wrapped into the many amendments recently passed by the House of Representatives -- a total of $60 billion in spending cuts that the president called a "nonstarter" -- was one by Republican Missouri Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer that would prohibit $13 million in taxpayer dollars from going to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the group whose occasional missteps have been the source of countless confrontations among climate scientists over the past year.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/03/01/house-pursue-efforts-eliminate-funding-climate-group/#ixzz1FNMz0Yxf
Amazon droughts increase climate change fears
(CNN) -- Two major droughts in Brazil's Amazon region in the last six years threaten to undermine its role as the planet's most important carbon sink and a vital brake on climate change, according to new research.
Scientists from Brazil and the UK concluded that last year's Amazonian drought was more widespread and damaging than in 2005, which at the time was thought to be a "once in a century" event.
The Amazon River fell to its lowest level in decades, with many of its tributaries such as the Rio Negro completely drying up in some area. With tens of thousands of people dependent in the waterways for their survival, a state of emergency was declared in a number of towns in the region.
The report, published in the journal Science, calculated that the carbon impact of the 2010 drought may eventually exceed the 5 billion tonnes of CO2 released following the 2005 event. This compares to the estimated 5.4 billion tonnes of CO2 emitted through fossil fuel use in the United States in 2009.
Tropical rainforests such as the Amazon act as a natural buffer to man-made emissions by absorbing huge amounts of carbon each year. However they become major emitters of CO2 during drought years.
At the present time we don't know whether these two droughts are just associated with natural climatic variability.
--Dr Simon Lewis
RELATED TOPICS
Brazil
Amazon Rain Forest
Global Climate Change
"In a normal year we would see these remote rainforests being net absorbers of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere," the report's co-author Simon Lewis, from the University of Leeds, told CNN.
"And a drought will kill some of those trees, and over time these trees will rot down and release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
"So over the next few years we'll see billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide going into the atmosphere from these rotting trees that were killed during the 2010 drought.
"That's enough to offset the carbon absorption, so that the rainforest becomes carbon neutral."
The research team, made up of scientists from the Universities of Leeds and Sheffield in the UK and the Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazonia (IPAM) in Brazil, compared satellite data showing rainfall across the 5.3 million square kilometers of the Amazon Basin with information about how individual trees responded since the 2005 drought.
"We knew how many trees had died in 2005," said Lewis. "So we could use that relationship between tree deaths and the drought intensity from 2005 to estimate the impact of the 2010 drought."
Lewis warned more research was needed into the relationship between the droughts and climate change, despite some global climate models suggesting Amazon droughts will become more frequent in future as a direct result of greenhouse gas emissions.
He said: "We could see an increase in the severity and the number of these droughts, which could lead into a vicious cycle: droughts, then the forests releasing carbon reinforcing those droughts.
"At the present time we don't know whether these two droughts are just associated with natural climatic variability. If so, then we may go back to a situation of not seeing these droughts. It may just be an unusual decade."
But in any case Lewis believes current emissions pathways "risk playing Russian roulette with the world's largest rainforest."
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/americas/02/04/brazil.amazon.drought/index.html?iref=allsearch
Scientists from Brazil and the UK concluded that last year's Amazonian drought was more widespread and damaging than in 2005, which at the time was thought to be a "once in a century" event.
The Amazon River fell to its lowest level in decades, with many of its tributaries such as the Rio Negro completely drying up in some area. With tens of thousands of people dependent in the waterways for their survival, a state of emergency was declared in a number of towns in the region.
The report, published in the journal Science, calculated that the carbon impact of the 2010 drought may eventually exceed the 5 billion tonnes of CO2 released following the 2005 event. This compares to the estimated 5.4 billion tonnes of CO2 emitted through fossil fuel use in the United States in 2009.
Tropical rainforests such as the Amazon act as a natural buffer to man-made emissions by absorbing huge amounts of carbon each year. However they become major emitters of CO2 during drought years.
At the present time we don't know whether these two droughts are just associated with natural climatic variability.
--Dr Simon Lewis
RELATED TOPICS
Brazil
Amazon Rain Forest
Global Climate Change
"In a normal year we would see these remote rainforests being net absorbers of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere," the report's co-author Simon Lewis, from the University of Leeds, told CNN.
"And a drought will kill some of those trees, and over time these trees will rot down and release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
"So over the next few years we'll see billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide going into the atmosphere from these rotting trees that were killed during the 2010 drought.
"That's enough to offset the carbon absorption, so that the rainforest becomes carbon neutral."
The research team, made up of scientists from the Universities of Leeds and Sheffield in the UK and the Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazonia (IPAM) in Brazil, compared satellite data showing rainfall across the 5.3 million square kilometers of the Amazon Basin with information about how individual trees responded since the 2005 drought.
"We knew how many trees had died in 2005," said Lewis. "So we could use that relationship between tree deaths and the drought intensity from 2005 to estimate the impact of the 2010 drought."
Lewis warned more research was needed into the relationship between the droughts and climate change, despite some global climate models suggesting Amazon droughts will become more frequent in future as a direct result of greenhouse gas emissions.
He said: "We could see an increase in the severity and the number of these droughts, which could lead into a vicious cycle: droughts, then the forests releasing carbon reinforcing those droughts.
"At the present time we don't know whether these two droughts are just associated with natural climatic variability. If so, then we may go back to a situation of not seeing these droughts. It may just be an unusual decade."
But in any case Lewis believes current emissions pathways "risk playing Russian roulette with the world's largest rainforest."
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/americas/02/04/brazil.amazon.drought/index.html?iref=allsearch
Climate Change Takes Toll on the Lodgepole Pine
Rising temperatures, drought and the spread of destructive insect pests will shrink the North American range of the lodgepole pine nearly 10 percent by 2020, a new study finds.
The scientists behind the report said the projected decline of the evergreen species, whose range covers much of the Pacific Northwest and extends as far south as Colorado, was backed by observed ecosystem changes dating back to 1980.
The study was conducted by forestry researchers at Oregon State University and the Department of Forest Resource Management at the University of British Columbia. It will appear in the latest edition of the scientific journal Climatic Change.
“For skeptics of climate change, it’s worth noting that the increase in vulnerability of lodgepole pine we’ve seen in recent decades is made from comparisons with real climatic data and is backed up with satellite observations showing major changes on the ground,” Richard Waring, an emeritus professor of forest science at Oregon State University, said in a statement.
The tall, slender pines, once used widely by American Indian tribes as poles for teepee lodges, could largely disappear from the Pacific Northwest by the end of the century if current climate trends persist, the researchers estimated.
The lodgepole pine is just one of a number of North American tree species suffering from climate-related changes. In 2010, an estimated 100,000 spruce trees a day were toppled by a massive spruce beetle infestation in Colorado, according to a study of the state’s forests released earlier this month.
The 2010 outbreak covered nearly 210,000 acres of spruce forests in Colorado, nearly double the size of the affected area the previous year. The state also suffered the loss of hundreds of thousands of acres of lodgepole pine and aspen forests.
The threat to lodgepole pines from the destructive bark beetle has risen as decreasing snow cover and milder winters allow more of the insects to survive from season to season.
“Bark beetles in lodgepole pine used to be more selective, leaving the younger and healthier trees alone,” Dr. Waring said.
“Now their populations and pheromone levels are getting so high they can more easily reach epidemic levels and kill almost all adult trees. Less frost, combined with less snow, favors heavier levels of bark beetle infestation,” he said. “We’re already seeing more insect attack, and we project that it will get worse.”
In Colorado, the proliferation of dead trees poses the threat of uncontrollable wildfires, Tony Dixon, the Forest Service’s deputy regional forester for the Rocky Mountains, told The Durango Herald earlier in February.
“Dead zones” where the majority of trees have been killed off by beetle outbreaks are too risky for firefighters to enter on foot because of the risk of falling trees, Mr. Dixon said. Fires fed by fallen timber also burn close to the ground, rendering aerial tankers ineffective.
“We’re probably going to have to allow these fires to grow much larger than we’re accustomed to,” he said.
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/28/climate-change-takes-toll-on-the-lodgepole-pine/
The scientists behind the report said the projected decline of the evergreen species, whose range covers much of the Pacific Northwest and extends as far south as Colorado, was backed by observed ecosystem changes dating back to 1980.
The study was conducted by forestry researchers at Oregon State University and the Department of Forest Resource Management at the University of British Columbia. It will appear in the latest edition of the scientific journal Climatic Change.
“For skeptics of climate change, it’s worth noting that the increase in vulnerability of lodgepole pine we’ve seen in recent decades is made from comparisons with real climatic data and is backed up with satellite observations showing major changes on the ground,” Richard Waring, an emeritus professor of forest science at Oregon State University, said in a statement.
The tall, slender pines, once used widely by American Indian tribes as poles for teepee lodges, could largely disappear from the Pacific Northwest by the end of the century if current climate trends persist, the researchers estimated.
The lodgepole pine is just one of a number of North American tree species suffering from climate-related changes. In 2010, an estimated 100,000 spruce trees a day were toppled by a massive spruce beetle infestation in Colorado, according to a study of the state’s forests released earlier this month.
The 2010 outbreak covered nearly 210,000 acres of spruce forests in Colorado, nearly double the size of the affected area the previous year. The state also suffered the loss of hundreds of thousands of acres of lodgepole pine and aspen forests.
The threat to lodgepole pines from the destructive bark beetle has risen as decreasing snow cover and milder winters allow more of the insects to survive from season to season.
“Bark beetles in lodgepole pine used to be more selective, leaving the younger and healthier trees alone,” Dr. Waring said.
“Now their populations and pheromone levels are getting so high they can more easily reach epidemic levels and kill almost all adult trees. Less frost, combined with less snow, favors heavier levels of bark beetle infestation,” he said. “We’re already seeing more insect attack, and we project that it will get worse.”
In Colorado, the proliferation of dead trees poses the threat of uncontrollable wildfires, Tony Dixon, the Forest Service’s deputy regional forester for the Rocky Mountains, told The Durango Herald earlier in February.
“Dead zones” where the majority of trees have been killed off by beetle outbreaks are too risky for firefighters to enter on foot because of the risk of falling trees, Mr. Dixon said. Fires fed by fallen timber also burn close to the ground, rendering aerial tankers ineffective.
“We’re probably going to have to allow these fires to grow much larger than we’re accustomed to,” he said.
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/28/climate-change-takes-toll-on-the-lodgepole-pine/
Green Deisel Exceeds Specs
/article4133668.ece
The bioengineering company LS9 has successfully produced an organism that consume simple fibers like wood chips or wheat straw, and produce petroleum as waste. Greg Pal, 36 year old CEO of LS9 says he is still amazed at the level of the product's success. Dubbed LS9 Ultraclean Diesel, the microbe produced fuel can be altered to meet a number of prospective needs in fuel consumption such as volatility, oxidative stability, cetane, and cold-flow.
While engineering a fuel producing organism that could make Saudi oil obsolete may constitute a grand success, LS9 has far surpassed conventional fuels with their new found biofuel. In addition to cutting greenhouse emissions by 85% compared to standard gas, the fuel does not produce any carcinogens and is ready for use right out of the (fermenting) tank which means the fueling infrastructure can remain intact.
The pilot facility for LS9 Ultraclean or 'Green Diesel' is up and running in San Francisco with 50k-100k barrels of Green scheduled to be ready by this year. With a product that is consumer ready, involves a 1 step production process (once facilities are operational), is less harmful to both humans and the environment, can be tailored to personal use and decrease our dependency on foreign oil, LS9 projects to have a customer base in the billions in the short future.
Full article at :http://gas2.org/2009/07/20/ls9-ultraclean-diesel-green-diesel-exceeds-fuel-specs/
with more at: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment
The bioengineering company LS9 has successfully produced an organism that consume simple fibers like wood chips or wheat straw, and produce petroleum as waste. Greg Pal, 36 year old CEO of LS9 says he is still amazed at the level of the product's success. Dubbed LS9 Ultraclean Diesel, the microbe produced fuel can be altered to meet a number of prospective needs in fuel consumption such as volatility, oxidative stability, cetane, and cold-flow.
While engineering a fuel producing organism that could make Saudi oil obsolete may constitute a grand success, LS9 has far surpassed conventional fuels with their new found biofuel. In addition to cutting greenhouse emissions by 85% compared to standard gas, the fuel does not produce any carcinogens and is ready for use right out of the (fermenting) tank which means the fueling infrastructure can remain intact.
The pilot facility for LS9 Ultraclean or 'Green Diesel' is up and running in San Francisco with 50k-100k barrels of Green scheduled to be ready by this year. With a product that is consumer ready, involves a 1 step production process (once facilities are operational), is less harmful to both humans and the environment, can be tailored to personal use and decrease our dependency on foreign oil, LS9 projects to have a customer base in the billions in the short future.
Full article at :http://gas2.org/2009/07/20/ls9-ultraclean-diesel-green-diesel-exceeds-fuel-specs/
with more at: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment
Global Warming will wipe out Flowers
Published on Tuesday, June 17, 2003 by the lndependent/UK
Global Warming May Wipe Out a Fifth of Wild Flower Species, Study Warns
by Steve Connor
One in every five species of wild flower could die out over the next century if levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere double in line with predictions, scientists said yesterday.
A study of the impact of global warming on plants has found that most of the environmental changes are likely to result in a substantial loss of plant life. Even though plants need carbon dioxide to survive, the research found that higher levels of the gas reduced numbers of wild flowers by 20 per cent, and cut overall plant diversity by 8 per cent.
Scientists from Stanford University in California altered the environment of 36 open-air plots of land - on which between five and 20 wild plants had been growing - over a period of three years. They doubled carbon dioxide, increased "rainfall" by 50 per cent, caused average temperatures to rise by 1.7C and added nitrogen pollutants to the soil - all of which are likely to happen because of global warming. The researchers, who published their study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, described the findings as "dramatic".
Plots that received all four treatments - which emulated the environmental conditions likely to exist 100 years from now - suffered a decline of 25 per cent in wild flowers and even those given extra nitrogen or carbon dioxide suffered a 10 or 20 per cent decline.
Only increased watering resulted in a rise in diversity. The scientists suggested that increased carbon dioxide, temperature and nitrogen allowed some plants to grow faster for longer, making it difficult for other plants to survive.
Professor Christopher Field, who led the study, said the team was surprised to find that increased carbon dioxide and watering caused such opposite effects given that they were both essential for plants to grow.
"One hypothesis is that elevated carbon dioxide added moisture to the soil, which tended to extend the growing season of the dominant plants, leaving less room for other species to grow," Professor Field said.
His colleague, Erika Zavaleta, said the study demonstrated how some wild plants would suffer while others benefited from the effects of climate change. "Certain kinds of species are much more sensitive to climate and atmospheric changes than others. It turned out that wild flowers were much more sensitive to the treatments than grasses were, no matter what combination of treatments we tried," Dr Zavaleta said.
© 2003 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
Global Warming May Wipe Out a Fifth of Wild Flower Species, Study Warns
by Steve Connor
One in every five species of wild flower could die out over the next century if levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere double in line with predictions, scientists said yesterday.
A study of the impact of global warming on plants has found that most of the environmental changes are likely to result in a substantial loss of plant life. Even though plants need carbon dioxide to survive, the research found that higher levels of the gas reduced numbers of wild flowers by 20 per cent, and cut overall plant diversity by 8 per cent.
Scientists from Stanford University in California altered the environment of 36 open-air plots of land - on which between five and 20 wild plants had been growing - over a period of three years. They doubled carbon dioxide, increased "rainfall" by 50 per cent, caused average temperatures to rise by 1.7C and added nitrogen pollutants to the soil - all of which are likely to happen because of global warming. The researchers, who published their study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, described the findings as "dramatic".
Plots that received all four treatments - which emulated the environmental conditions likely to exist 100 years from now - suffered a decline of 25 per cent in wild flowers and even those given extra nitrogen or carbon dioxide suffered a 10 or 20 per cent decline.
Only increased watering resulted in a rise in diversity. The scientists suggested that increased carbon dioxide, temperature and nitrogen allowed some plants to grow faster for longer, making it difficult for other plants to survive.
Professor Christopher Field, who led the study, said the team was surprised to find that increased carbon dioxide and watering caused such opposite effects given that they were both essential for plants to grow.
"One hypothesis is that elevated carbon dioxide added moisture to the soil, which tended to extend the growing season of the dominant plants, leaving less room for other species to grow," Professor Field said.
His colleague, Erika Zavaleta, said the study demonstrated how some wild plants would suffer while others benefited from the effects of climate change. "Certain kinds of species are much more sensitive to climate and atmospheric changes than others. It turned out that wild flowers were much more sensitive to the treatments than grasses were, no matter what combination of treatments we tried," Dr Zavaleta said.
© 2003 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
Could growing meat in labs reduce global warming?
A developmental biologist and tissue engineer at the Medical University of South Carolina has been working to grow meat in his lab for over ten years. He is among one of the few scientists in the world involved in bioengineering cultured meat. Developing cultured meat would significantly reduce the amount of livestock-based food production thus reducing greenhouse gases (20% of human caused CO2 comes from raising livestock.)
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