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What A Week It Was: Apocadocuments from
View By Scenario:
Species Collapse:(2)
Plague/Virus:(1)
Climate Chaos:(15)
Resource Depletion: (7)
Biology Breach:(13)
Recovery:(13)
This Week's Top Ten Very Scary Tags:
global warming  ~ arctic meltdown  ~ unintended consequences  ~ smart policy  ~ ecosystem interrelationships  ~ climate impacts  ~ faster than expected  ~ feedback loop  ~ anthropogenic change  ~ rain forest depletion  ~ efficiency increase  



ApocaDocuments (4) matching "anthropogenic change" from this week
[see full week] ~ [see all stories tagged "anthropogenic change"]
Fri, Feb 20, 2009
from Telegraph.co.uk:
Customising clouds to stop global warming
Stephen Salter, professor of engineering design at the University Edinburgh, and Professor John Latham, from the National Centre for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, have been using Salt Flares to test if it is possible to seed or even create Marine Stratocumulus Clouds. These clouds, which are common, low-flying clouds, could help reflect the suns rays and therefore combat global warming. Prof Salter said: "We need to make them reflect about 10 per cent more than they are reflecting now." Prof Latham added: "We’ve got the most massive global problem that we’ve ever had, so we’ve got to think big." The flares will spray up salt water into the clouds. When the particles rise into a cloud they redistribute the moisture, increasing its reflectivity. As a result the cloud bounces more sunlight back into space. ...


I smell the salt breeze of... Denver?

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Thu, Feb 19, 2009
from Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, via EurekAlert:
Cleaning the atmosphere of carbon: African forests out of balance
"If you assume that these forests should be in equilibrium, then the best way to explain why trees are growing bigger is anthropogenic global change -- the extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could essentially be acting as fertilizer." says Muller-Landau, "But it's also possible that tropical forests are still growing back following past clearing or fire or other disturbance. Given increasing evidence that tropical forests have a long history of human occupation, recovery from past disturbance is almost certainly part of the reason these forests are taking up carbon today." Muller-Landau, who directs a project to monitor carbon budgets in forest study sites worldwide as part of the Smithsonian's Center for Tropical Forest Science and the HSBC Climate Partnership, advises that this newfound sink shouldn't be taken for granted, or presumed to continue indefinitely. "While we still can't explain exactly what is behind this carbon sink, one thing we know for sure is that it can't be a sink forever. Trees and forests just can't keep getting bigger. Tropical forests are buying us a bit more time right now, but we can't count on them to continue to offset our carbon emissions in the future." ...


Just a wee bit more time.

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Thu, Feb 19, 2009
from Slashdot:
Arctic Ice Extent Understated Because of 'Sensor Drift'
In May, 2008 they went so far as to predict that the North Pole would be ice-free during the 2008 'melt season,' leading to a lively Slashdot discussion. Today, however, they say that they have been the victims of 'sensor drift' that led to an underestimation of Arctic ice extent by as much as 500,000 square kilometers. The problem was discovered after they received emails from puzzled readers, asking why obviously sea-ice-covered regions were showing up as ice free open ocean. It turns out that the NSIDC relys on an older, less-reliable method of tracking sea ice extent called SSM/I that does not agree with a newer method called AMSR-E. So why doesn't NSIDC use the newer AMSR-E data? 'We do not use AMSR-E data in our analysis because it is not consistent with our historical data.' Turns out that the AMSR-E data only goes back to 2002, which is probably not long enough for the NSIDC to make sweeping conclusions about melting. The AMSR-E data is updated daily and is available to the public. Thus far, sea ice extent in 2009 is tracking ahead of 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008, so the predictions of an ice-free north pole might be premature. ...


Thank goodness! It's all a mistake! It's not happening after all!

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Wed, Feb 18, 2009
from NOAA, via Mongabay:
CO2 levels rise to a new record
Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations climbed 2.28 parts-per-million (ppm) in 2008 to the highest level in at least 650,000 years -- and possibly 20 million years -- reports NOAA. The average annual growth rate of CO2 concentrations this decade is now 2.1 ppm a year or 40 percent higher than that of the 1990s. CO2 emissions from the burning of fossil fuels are increasing at four times the rate of the previous decade.... Some scientists, including James Hansen of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, warn that CO2 levels must be kept below 350 ppm to avoid serious impacts from climate change. CO2 concentrations are presently around 386 ppm. ...


Guinness didn't want to see this.

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