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global warming ~ anthropogenic change ~ climate impacts ~ contamination ~ carbon emissions ~ ecosystem interrelationships ~ economic myopia ~ arctic meltdown ~ toxic buildup ~ rising sea level ~ stupid humans

ApocaDocuments (38) gathered this week:
Mon, Dec 14, 2009 from Desdemona Despair: Brazil's river of death The once free-flowing Manaquiri River, which runs through the state of Amazonas in northwest Brazil, is in the fight of its life against a spell of dry weather - and it appears to be losing the battle. Thousands of dead fish are rotting on the river banks and hundreds more float on its surface, turning the area into a toxic cesspool. Vultures circle overhead, picking away at the rotting carcasses. Even an alligator - one of the fiercest reptiles of the Amazon - floats belly up in the river. Local fishermen say it has not rained in more than 25 days, leaving the large surrounding rivers in recession. This has in turn choked off the tributaries that provide fresh water to the Manaquiri. ...	Sorry, fish. ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Dec 14, 2009 from PhysOrg.com: Decades-old dioxins pollute river, divide US community If he catches a fish that swims here year round he tosses it back. But if he hooks a walleye -- only an occasional visitor to the river and has lower dioxin levels than the year-rounders -- then it's time for dinner. "I don't think it's as big a concern as what people are saying it is," said Mitchell, 51, as he sat on a pail on the muddy bank and cast his line out into the water. "I can remember when the rivers never froze in the winters and now they're freezing over, so the pollution in the rivers has got to be a lot less than it was." The Tittabawassee may be clean enough to freeze now, but it remains one of the most contaminated waterways in the United States and a key example of the nation's struggle to deal with its industrial past.... Dioxins are chemicals so toxic they get measured in trillionths of a gram. They linger for years in both the environment and the body and pose a host of health risks from cancer to birth defects. For most of the last century, Dow Chemical Company dumped waste from the sprawling complex near its Midland, Michigan headquarters right into the Tittabawassee and burned it in unfiltered incinerators. ...	Dioxins? I call those human nutrients that strengthen the species. ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Dec 13, 2009 from New York Times: Be Careful What You Fish For Alarms are sounding near the edge of the Great Lakes. Genetic evidence of Asian carp -- a mammoth, voracious, non-native conqueror among fish, long established in the Mississippi River -- has turned up just a few miles from Lake Michigan in the waterway that links the river system to the lake. If such creatures were to swim on into Lake Michigan, some scientists say they fear the fish would ultimately upend the entire ecosystem in the lakes that make up a fifth of the earth's fresh surface water....The carp can weigh as much as 100 pounds, and the silver carp has a habit of jumping, seeming to challenge boaters as much as it does other fish. They eat pretty much all the time, vacuuming up the plankton that other fish depend on and crowding the others out. ...	C'mon, jump... Let's see who's the conqueror here! ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Dec 13, 2009 from Than Nien News (Vietnam): Pollution soon to render Dong Nai River unusable The Dong Nai River supplies water to some 15 million people in southern Vietnam, but that has not stopped callous companies from dumping so much toxic sludge in the river that scientists say it will soon be too poisonous to use. "Tests since 2006 have found pollution near the Hoa An Pump Station has increased to serious levels with an especially high concentration of organic [toxic] substances," said Truong Khac Hoanh, vice director of Thu Duc Water Supply Company in Ho Chi Minh City. "With such an increase in pollution, this water supply will soon be unusable," he said. A top official at the Binh An Water Plant in HCMC also said the Dong Nai would soon be like its tributary the Thi Vai, where aquatic life can't survive due to the high levels of pollution. ...	Chwistmas Wish: widdle aqualungs for the widdle cweatures. ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Dec 13, 2009 from 350.org: The movement is glowing From Bill McKibben: "It's been a remarkable day for those of us here in Copenhagen, but mostly not because of anything happening at the climate conference. Instead it's because of what you all did out in the rest of the world over the last 24 hours. We don't have a full count of vigils around the world, but in something like 3,000 cities and towns across the planet your vigils sent the most powerful of messages to the leaders here: stop playing games, and start protecting the planet. Here in Copenhagen, there were more than 100,000 people marching in the streets--99 percent of them peaceful and dignified--to call for climate solutions bold enough to meet the scale of the crisis. As the sun set on this city, thousands lit candles to stand in solidarity with those on the front lines of climate change--a moving and unprecedented moment in this movement. ...	The carbon footprint of a candle is small, but its light is mighty! ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Dec 13, 2009 from Mongabay: Unilever suspends palm oil contract after supplier found to be destroying rainforests The world's largest user of palm oil, Unilever, has suspended its $32.6 million contract with the Indonesian group Sinar Mas after an independent audit proved that Sinar Mas is involved in the destruction of rainforest, reports Reuters. The audit was conducted early this year after a report by Greenpeace alleged that Sinar Mas was engaged in deforestation and the draining of peatlands, both of which release significant amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Deforestation across Indonesia and Malaysia, in part for oil palm plantations, has also added pressure on many many endangered species, including orangutans, tigers, elephants, and rhinos.... "Unilever's decision could represent a defining moment for the palm oil industry. What we're seeing here is the world's largest buyer of palm oil using its financial muscle to sanction suppliers who are destroying rain forests and clearing peatlands," said Greenpeace director John Sauven in a statement. ...	Unilever is sure using its fulcrum here! ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Dec 13, 2009 from Associated Press: 968 detained at climate rally urging bold pact COPENHAGEN - Tens of thousands of protesters have marched through the chilly Danish capital and nearly 1,000 were detained in a mass rally to demand an ambitious global climate pact, just as talks hit a snag over rich nations' demands on China and other emerging economies. The mostly peaceful demonstrations in Copenhagen on Saturday provided the centerpiece of a day of global climate activism stretching from Europe to Asia. Police assigned extra officers to watch protesters marching toward the suburban conference center to demand that leaders act now to fight climate change... Police said they rounded up 968 people in a preventive action against a group of youth activists at the tail end of the demonstration. ...	Would that such preventive action were being taken regarding the planet. ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Dec 12, 2009 from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: It's best to avoid BPA, federal official says The head of the primary federal agency studying the safety of bisphenol A said Friday that people should avoid ingesting the chemical - especially pregnant women, infants and children. "There are plenty of reasonable alternatives," said Linda Birnbaum, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Toxicology Program, in an interview with the Journal Sentinel. While stressing she is not a medical doctor, Birnbaum said she has seen enough studies on the chemical to be concerned about its effects on human health... Asked if consumers should be worried about BPA, Birnbaum said, "Absolutely." ...	Then what are we grown men? Chopped liver? ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Dec 12, 2009 from Associated Press: AP IMPACT: Science not faked, but not pretty E-mails stolen from climate scientists show they stonewalled skeptics and discussed hiding data - but the messages don't support claims that the science of global warming was faked, according to an exhaustive review by The Associated Press. The 1,073 e-mails examined by the AP show that scientists harbored private doubts, however slight and fleeting, even as they told the world they were certain about climate change. However, the exchanges don't undercut the vast body of evidence showing the world is warming because of man-made greenhouse gas emissions. The scientists were keenly aware of how their work would be viewed and used, and, just like politicians, went to great pains to shape their message. Sometimes, they sounded more like schoolyard taunts than scientific tenets. ...	Whew! Thank goodness the Apocalypse is going to transpire as planned! ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Dec 12, 2009 from Alaska Journal of Commerce: Climate change eroding coast at accelerating rate, scientists find Coastal erosion isn't the only climate-related problem confronting rural communities. Health officials now are concerned about food and water safety in northern villages as warming temperatures thaw ice cellars and melting permafrost increases the organic content in rivers, creating problems in village water treatment plants. Increased erosion is presenting problems within the petroleum reserve. Erosion has the potential to expose old oil and gas drill sites and reserve pits, where contaminants are stored. ...	The Great Thaw is going to unearth a whole lotta old shit. ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Dec 12, 2009 from Canadian Press, via DesdemonaDespair: Climate change played key role in B.C. sockeye stocks collapse, say scientists Food-poor, predator-rich ocean waters caused by climate change likely played a significant role in decimating millions of sockeye salmon in British Columbia's Fraser River ahead of what was supposed to be a bumper year, says a scientific think tank. A group of more than 20 ocean and ecology experts gathered in Vancouver this week to discuss possible explanations for this year's salmon collapse and announced their assessment on Wednesday, saying they want to keep the issue afloat with a judicial inquiry approaching.... The federal Fisheries Department had estimated more than 10 million sockeye would return to the Fraser River this year, but only about one tenth of that figure showed up. ...	Actually, decimate means one in every ten dies, not nine in ten. I suspect the bears that bulk up for winter on salmon are at least decimated. ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Dec 11, 2009 from PhysOrg.com: AGU session marks 30th anniversary of report on climate change projections In 1979, the National Academy of Sciences issued a report estimating that global average temperatures would increase between 2 and 3.5 degrees Celsius by the middle of the 21st century if carbon dioxide concentrations were to double. This report, Carbon Dioxide and Climate: A Scientific Assessment, became known as the "Charney report" after the report committee's chair.... One of the first climate change assessments designed for policymakers, the Charney report found that regional shifts in climate would be significant, particularly in high latitudes where warming would exceed the global average. The report also found that the deep oceans' capacity to absorb heat had been underestimated, and that the rates of circulation between the upper oceans and the cold deeper oceans would slow the rate of warming. ...	Is thirty years long enough to be convincing? ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Dec 11, 2009 from Bloomberg News: Fishermen Say Carbon Dioxide Having 'Really Scary' Ocean Effect Jeremy Brown, a fisherman from the Pacific Northwest, is pulling things from the ocean he says are so disturbing that he came to Washington to warn U.S. lawmakers about it.... the ocean is becoming more acidic because of carbon-dioxide emissions that are damaging coral reefs, decimating populations of tiny animals at the base of the food chain and eating away at the shells of clams, mussels and oysters. "Every so often we snag a piece of coral on the gear," Brown, of Bellingham, Washington, said in an interview. "It doesn't look healthy, the color has gone out of it. The evidence is that we have instabilities in the system, and this last year was really scary."...Small snails and other tiny animals at the base of the food chain are disappearing at alarming rates, jeopardizing the health of pink salmon and other fish that feed on them... ...	When the fishermen are scared, I'm hooked! ApocaDoc permalink
Want more context? Try reading our book FREE online: Humoring the Horror of the Converging Emergencies! More fun than a barrel of jellyfish!
Fri, Dec 11, 2009 from National Geographic News: 2000-2010: A Decade of (Climate) Change A decade ago, global climate change was largely considered a problem for the distant future. But it seems that future has come sooner than predicted. ...In 1997, a study published in the journal Nature tallied the value of 17 services provided by the environment, including water purification through wetlands, pollination, and recreation. The total was estimated at U.S. $33 trillion. The findings were largely ignored by policy makers, according to Stuart Pimm, a conservation biologist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, who wrote an accompanying perspective piece on the study. Here we are just over a decade later and people are talking about tens of billions of dollars in financing to help developing countries do things like reduce carbon emissions from deforestation, he said. To me, that's the story of the decade, added Pimm... ...	Has this guy never heard of Michael Jackson, Anna Nicole Smith, etc.? Get a life, loser! ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Dec 11, 2009 from Christian Science Monitor: Nuclear waste: Canada asks its towns if they'll give it a home If they were to take out a classified ad, it would read something like this: "Wanted: safe, willing home for 40,000 metric tons of nuclear waste. Must be Canadian. Phone for details."... Canada, like the United States, is seeking a long-term solution for storing spent nuclear fuel, which will remain toxic for more than 10,000 years. But the Canadian approach to finding a central depository site has fundamental differences, most strikingly that potential host communities must volunteer. But, like the stalled US effort, its success or failure will bear on any decision to expand the country's nuclear power sector. ...	There goes the neighborhood. ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Dec 11, 2009 from EcoWorldly: Only 8 Northern White Rhinos Still Survive As Controversy Brews Among Rhino Experts Now believed extinct in the wild, the world's only surviving northern white rhinos are currently in captivity in just two locations: ZOO Dvur Kralove in the Czech Republic and San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park.... Most rhino experts understand that the window for achieving a "pure" population of the northern white rhino (NWR) subspecies (Ceratotherium simum cottoni) is now tragically closed. And while it is generally acknowledged that the best chances of preserving any genetic material is via hybrid offspring of NWR and the southern white rhino (Ceratotherium simum simum), rhino experts are currently divided on how to successfully preserve the NWR genes. At the heart of the controversy is a plan to move four of the eight surviving NWR from the Czech Republic to Africa. ...	At least we know where the eight are. ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Dec 11, 2009 from USGS: Climate projections underestimate CO2 impact The climate may be 30-50 percent more sensitive to atmospheric carbon dioxide in the long term than previously thought, according to a recent study published in Nature Geoscience. Projections over the next hundreds of years of climate conditions, including global temperatures, may need to be adjusted to reflect this higher sensitivity.... These underestimates occurred because the long-term sensitivity of the Earth system was not accurately taken into account. In these earlier periods, Earth had more time to adjust to some of the slower impacts of climate change. For example, as the climate warms and ice sheets melt, Earth will absorb more sunlight and continue to warm in the future since less ice is present to reflect the sun. ...	Thank goodness we're talking about the long term. It won't affect me! ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Dec 10, 2009 from UCLA, via EurekAlert: UCLA researchers engineer bacteria to turn carbon dioxide into liquid fuel In a new approach, researchers from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have genetically modified a cyanobacterium to consume carbon dioxide and produce the liquid fuel isobutanol, which holds great potential as a gasoline alternative. The reaction is powered directly by energy from sunlight, through photosynthesis.... This new method has two advantages for the long-term, global-scale goal of achieving a cleaner and greener energy economy, the researchers say. First, it recycles carbon dioxide, reducing greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the burning of fossil fuels. Second, it uses solar energy to convert the carbon dioxide into a liquid fuel that can be used in the existing energy infrastructure, including in most automobiles. ...	Recycling -- with attitude! ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Dec 10, 2009 from UPenn, via EurekAlert: Sea level is rising along US Atlantic coast, say Penn environmental scientists An international team of environmental scientists led by the University of Pennsylvania has shown that sea-level rise along the Atlantic Coast of the United States was 2 millimeters faster in the 20th century than at any time in the past 4,000 years.... Researchers corrected relative sea-level data from tide gauges using the coastal-subsidence values. Results clearly show that the 20th-century rate of sea-level rise is 2 millimeters higher than the background rate of the past 4,000 years. Furthermore, the magnitude of the sea-level rise increases in a southerly direction from Maine to South Carolina. This is the first demonstrated evidence of this phenomenon from observational data alone. Researchers believe this may be related to the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet and ocean thermal expansion. ...	This is just "anecdotal" data... y'know, just stories that the earth is telling. ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Dec 10, 2009 from CGIAR, via EurekAlert: Disagreement over what constitutes a forest is Achilles' heel of REDD plan Disagreement over what constitutes a forest could undermine an agreement to protect forests, which is expected to be one of the bright spots at the UN climate change meeting in Copenhagen, according to an analysis by the Alternatives to Slash and Burn (ASB) Partnership for Tropical Forest Margins.... "Countries can clear massive amounts of forest and still claim that deforestation had not occurred," said Peter A Minang, ASB Global Coordinator, who has extensive experience working with the REDD initiative. For example, replacement of tropical rainforests by oil palm plantations in Southeast Asia would not be considered 'deforestation' because the plantations meet the definition of a forest. Lands that have been clear cut or burned, but which remain under control of forest institutions, are also still considered forest. ...	We can't see the forest for the nomenclature. ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Dec 10, 2009 from PNAS Special Feature: Tipping elements in the Earth System The Earth System (ES) is defined as the conglomerate formed by human civilization and its planetary matrix (i.e., all parts of the Earth that interact with the members and manifestations of our species)... Only singular transformations (that remove, add, or replace constitutive traits) are able to create entirely new characters.... but what about the monsoon systems, jet streams, coral mega-reefs, tropical rainforests, and iconic landscapes of the Holocene if the [Global Mean Temperature] rises by two, three, four, or more degrees? When answering these quintessential questions, it is natural to search for the most vulnerable ES components, i.e., those characteristic features that will be switched (out) first and (possibly) irreversibly as the planet warms. These features are the so-called tipping elements (TE)... ...	When scientists create a shorthand abbreviation for something, you know it's really scary! ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Dec 9, 2009 from London Daily Telegraph: Copenhagen climate summit: global warming 'caused by sun's radiation' As the world gathered in the Danish capital for the UN Climate Change Conference, more than 50 scientists, businessmen and lobby groups met to discuss the arguments against man made global warming. Although the meeting was considerably smaller than the official gathering of 15,000 people meeting down the road, the organisers claimed it could change the course of negotiations.... The meeting was organised by Danish group Climate Sense and the lobby group Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT). ...	AKA DenialFest 2009 ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Dec 9, 2009 from Anchorage Daily News: Spill is among worst ever on North Slope Officials have found a 24-inch jagged rupture in a pipeline that began pouring oil and water Nov. 29, creating one of the biggest North Slope crude oil spills ever. The on-scene coordinator for the state Department of Environmental Conservation, Tom DeRuyter, said Tuesday that the breach on the bottom of the pipe was the biggest he had ever seen and indicative of the incredible pressure the pipeline was under when it split... Officials say massive ice plugs had formed inside the pipe, which caused BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. to stop operating it a few weeks ago. Pressure then built up until the pipeline ruptured, according to BP. ...	Arguably, Sarah Palin might be considered an even bigger spill. ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Dec 9, 2009 from Knoxville News Sentinel: Report: Spill released huge load of heavy metals Last year's Kingston fly ash spill dumped more heavy metals into the Emory River than all the power plants discharged into all the nation's waters the year before, an environmental group said in a report issued Tuesday. The Environmental Integrity Project report states the spill - at 5.4 million cubic yards - released roughly 4 1/2 times more lead and 2 1/2 times more arsenic than the entire power industry released in 2007. The project based its conclusions on data that industry supplied to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In all, the report states the Kingston spill discharged 2.66 million pounds worth of 10 heavy metals that are present in coal ash. In 2007, the power industry discharged 2.04 million pounds nationwide....The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency already has announced it would propose new standards this month for coal ash, possibly classifying it as hazardous waste. ...	Or... we could classify it as "sweet soup that spilleth out of its bowl." ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Dec 9, 2009 from Telegraph.co.uk: Starving polar bears turn to cannibalism The images, taken in Hudson Bay, Canada, around 200 miles north of the town of Churchill, Manitoba, show a male polar bear carrying the bloodied head of a polar bear cub it has killed for food. Polar bears usually subsist on seals, which they hunt from a platform of sea ice. But the melting of sea ice as a result of rising global temperatures has made it more difficult for polar bears to hunt seals at sea, confining the bears to land. This has led to malnourishment and starvation as polar bears are unable to build sufficient fat reserves for winter.... Manitoba Conservation normally receive one to two reports of bear cannibalisation annually, but scientists say they are aware of eight cases so far this year. ...	"Hungry as a bear" takes on new meaning. ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Dec 9, 2009 from University of Michigan, via EurekAlert: Study reveals how Arctic food webs affect mercury in polar bears Mercury is a naturally occurring element, but some 150 tons of it enter the environment each year from human-generated sources such as coal-burning power plants, incinerators and chlorine-producing plants. Deposited onto land or into water, mercury is picked up by microorganisms, which convert some of it to methylmercury, a highly toxic form that builds up in fish and the animals that eat them. As bigger animals eat smaller ones, the methylmercury is concentrated -- a process known as bioaccumulation. Sitting at the top of the food chain, polar bears amass high concentrations of the contaminant.... The study showed that polar bears that get most of their nutrition from phytoplankton-based food webs have greater mercury concentrations than those that participate primarily in ice algae-based webs. While it's tempting to speculate that declining sea ice, due to global warming, may force polar bears to depend more on phytoplankton-based webs, thus increasing their mercury exposure, the study doesn't directly address that issue. ...	Why, it's as if everything was interconnected! ApocaDoc permalink
You're still reading! Good for you! You really should read our short, funny, frightening book FREE online (or buy a print copy): Humoring the Horror of the Converging Emergencies! We've been quipping this stuff for more than 30 months! Every day! Which might explain why we don't get invited to parties anymore.
Tue, Dec 8, 2009 from London Guardian: Copenhagen climate summit in disarray after 'Danish text' leak The UN Copenhagen climate talks are in disarray today after developing countries reacted furiously to leaked documents that show world leaders will next week be asked to sign an agreement that hands more power to rich countries and sidelines the UN's role in all future climate change negotiations. The document is also being interpreted by developing countries as setting unequal limits on per capita carbon emissions for developed and developing countries in 2050; meaning that people in rich countries would be permitted to emit nearly twice as much under the proposals....The document was described last night by one senior diplomat as "a very dangerous document for developing countries. It is a fundamental reworking of the UN balance of obligations. It is to be superimposed without discussion on the talks". ...	Hey you developing countries, emitting carbons just... just ain't that much fun. Really it ain't. Really. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Dec 8, 2009 from The Providence Journal: Scientist says fish can save coral reefs A marine ecologist who has studied some of the most pristine and untouched coral reefs in the world says there is a way to fight back against devastating deaths of coral reefs caused by climate change and warming oceans. Enric Sala, a former professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and now a National Geographic Fellow, said damaged coral will grow back if it is in a healthy environment with lots of predator fish. A healthy fish population will graze on algae that kills coral. Filter feeders, such as giant clams, remove harmful microbes from the water. ...	And who knows? Maybe the coral can save the fish. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Dec 8, 2009 from Los Angeles Times: China turns to Madison Avenue for an image makeover Reporting from Beijing - Plagued by recalls of toxic toys, poison pet food and other products, and facing rising trade barriers for its exports, China is taking a page from the American corporate playbook. It has hired a Madison Avenue ad agency to help burnish its image. In what is believed to be Beijing's first global ad campaign, a television commercial now airing on CNN in the U.S., Asia and Europe portrays satisfied consumers enjoying Chinese-made goods. It also touts the notion that China's manufacturing prowess benefits nations around the globe. ...	Thank goodness the US still leads the world in bullshitting. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Dec 8, 2009 from Associated Press: Historic climate debate opens, with boost from US The United States delivered a welcome boost Monday to a pivotal climate conference by saying greenhouse gases blamed for global warming should be regulated as a health hazard... Such regulation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would supplement the cap on carbon dioxide emissions being considered in the U.S. Congress, effectively raising the U.S. offer on emissions reductions in two weeks of hard bargaining in Copenhagen. "The executive branch is showing what it can do, even while legislation is pending," Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the U.N. scientific network on climate change, said of the EPA action. "It also sends a powerful signal to Congress. It shows a degree of resolve on the part of the president." ...	"A degree" may not be enough... ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Dec 8, 2009 from London Guardian: Naomi Klein kick-starts the activism at Copenhagen with call for disobedience The Copenhagen deal may turn into the worst kind of disaster capitalism, Naomi Klein said last night. In her speech to Klimaforum09, the "people's summit" she told the thousand or so campaigners and activists that this was a chance to carry on building the new convergence, the movement of movements that began "all those years ago in Seattle, fighting against the privatisation of life itself". Here was an opportunity to "continue the conversation that was so rudely interrupted by 9/11". "Down the road at the Bella Centre [where delegates are meeting] there is the worst case of disaster capitalism that we have ever witnessed. We know that what is being proposed in the Bella Centre doesn't even come close to the deal that is needed. We know the paltry emissions cuts that Obama has proposed; they're insulting. We're the ones who created this crisis... on the basic historical principle of polluters pays, we should pay." ...	Easy for her to say, she's Canadian... ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Dec 8, 2009 from London Guardian: Copenhagen climate change conference: 'Fourteen days to seal history's judgment on this generation' Today 56 newspapers in 45 countries take the unprecedented step of speaking with one voice through a common editorial. We do so because humanity faces a profound emergency. Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security. The dangers have been becoming apparent for a generation. Now the facts have started to speak: 11 of the past 14 years have been the warmest on record, the Arctic ice-cap is melting and last year's inflamed oil and food prices provide a foretaste of future havoc. In scientific journals the question is no longer whether humans are to blame, but how little time we have got left to limit the damage. Yet so far the world's response has been feeble and half-hearted... We call on the representatives of the 192 countries gathered in Copenhagen not to hesitate, not to fall into dispute, not to blame each other but to seize opportunity from the greatest modern failure of politics. ...	We call on these leaders: to wo/man up! ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Dec 7, 2009 from BBC: BBC climate change poll shows rising concerns Nearly two-thirds of 24,071 people polled in 23 countries said climate change was a "very serious" problem -- up from 44 percent in a GlobeScan 1998 poll. There was a roughly equal split between people who wanted their governments to push for rapid action on climate change and those favouring a gradual approach...The US and China buck the general trend, becoming less concerned about climate change over the past two years. ...	The spoiled brats of the planet -- USA -- strike again! ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Dec 7, 2009 from Agence France-Presse: Thai village disappearing as sea levels rise 20m a year AROUND 60 families have already been forced away from the once idyllic fishing community of Khun Samutchine, as the sea that local people rely on for their livelihood advances inland by more than 20m a year. "I live on somebody else's land, I can't escape the village because I'm too poor," Noo Wisuksin, 71, said as she pointed to the spot in the water where her home used to be decades ago. She is one of 25 million people under threat in Thailand's vast Chao Phraya river delta, which is sinking because of river damming and the clearing of mangrove forests, as climate change pushes up sea levels. ...	Farewell, cute little Thai village... ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Dec 7, 2009 from Kampala New Vision: Warming melts Rwenzori glaciers Ice is melting away on the world's highest mountains. The Rwenzori in western Uganda, the Himalayas of India and the world's highest mountain, Everest, are losing their glaciers due to global warming and the resultant climate change... The scientists, in their latest report based on 95 years of collecting data, stated that the rapid melting of the Rwenzori ice-cap over the past century provides dramatic evidence of global warming. Since 1912, 85 percent of the glacier has disappeared and the melting appears to be rising. Twenty-six per cent of the ice has disappeared since 2000. The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of Ohio University, concludes that the primary cause of the ice loss is the increase in global temperature. ...	Figures. I finally learn Uganda HAS a glacier... when it's almost gone! ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Dec 7, 2009 from Scientific American: Lightweight 'triple-zero' house produces more energy than it uses Overlooking the city of Stuttgart in southern Germany, a four-story modern glass house stands like a beacon of environmental sustainability. Built in 2000, it was the first in a series of buildings that are "triple-zero," a concept developed by German architect and engineer Werner Sobek, which signifies that the building is energy self-sufficient (zero energy consumed), produces zero emissions, and is made entirely of recyclable materials (zero waste). Since the construction of the first triple-zero home, Werner Sobek's firm of engineers and architects, based in Stuttgart, has designed and built five more in Germany, with a seventh planned in France. The energy used by these buildings, including the four-story tower where Sobek resides, comes from solar cells and geothermal heating. The most recent addition to the triple-zero series raises the bar for energy efficiency: It produces more energy than it uses... ...	If only the people inside would stop their ... personal emissions. ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Dec 7, 2009 from National Geographic News: "Wired" Irish River Detects Pollution in Real Time Nature has gone wireless in Ireland, where scientists have outfitted a major river with sensors that detect spikes in pollution in real time. Sensors recently placed at various points in the River Lee, near the city of Cork, send information on pollution levels back to a data center. Water managers can keep tabs on pollutants entering the river and, if need be, mount an immediate response. Called the DEPLOY project, the program was developed as a cheaper alternative to sending out scientists to collect water samples several times a day. In addition, the technology can identify a disastrous influx of pollution, such as toxic industrial-chemical spills, before fish go belly up. ...	Sweet! The Apocalypse will be monitored! ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Dec 7, 2009 from University of Bristol, via EurekAlert: Earth more sensitive to carbon dioxide than previously thought In the long term, the Earth's temperature may be 30-50 percent more sensitive to atmospheric carbon dioxide than has previously been estimated, reports a new study published in Nature Geoscience this week. The results show that components of the Earth's climate system that vary over long timescales -- such as land-ice and vegetation -- have an important effect on this temperature sensitivity, but these factors are often neglected in current climate models.... Lunt said, "We found that, given the concentrations of carbon dioxide prevailing three million years ago, the model originally predicted a significantly smaller temperature increase than that indicated by the reconstructions. This led us to review what was missing from the model." ...	All this time I thought I could slap the atmosphere around. Now I find out it's sensitive. ApocaDoc permalink