Archive for the ‘Global Warming Reports’ Category

« Older Entries

President Obama Raises Issue of Permafrost Melt in Russia Relative to Global Warming

Monday, July 6th, 2009

President Obama’s current trip to Russia was mainly about both countries being role models for the rest of the world concerning a reduction in nuclear arms and cooperation on climate change. President Obama voiced concern over Russia’s permafrost region in Siberia. He warned, “If the permafrost in Russia completely melts, it could completely transform the weather patterns on the planet, in some cases in very dangerous ways,” according to ENS website and many others.

Environmental News Service had an article back in 2006 regarding the permafrost melt in Russia. It seems the melting permafrost is releasing ten times the methane than originally thought. The article stated, “The research team recorded the bubbling of methane at two thawing lakes in northern Siberia using aerial surveys, remote sensors and year-round measurements. The scientists found the expansion of the lakes between 1974 and 2000, fueled by a period of regional warming, increased methane emissions by 58 percent.”

The amazing thing is that the methane gas in this permafrost dates back to the Pleistocene age—”some 40 thousand years ago, according to study coauthor Jeff Chanton, a scientist with Florida State University.” The article went on to say: “More than 4 million tons of methane is being released by Siberia’s array of lakes and wetlands, the researchers said, a figure that is 10 to 63 percent higher than previous estimates.” Another study released in 2006 by the British Antarctic Survey, “found that in the past 800,000 years methane had never tipped 750 parts per billion (ppb), but [was] 1,780 ppb [already back in 2006].”

To exacerbate the problem of melting permafrost is that much of the freshwater is diluting the ocean’s saltwater content also. The NOAA Status Report: “NOAA’s Arctic Goals for IPY (International Polar Year) & Beyond” states that possible Arctic influences on global climate change include:

Increase in methane in the atmosphere due to a thaw in the permafrost on land and under water

Fresh water/salt water imbalances. Ocean circulation disruption

Changing albedo of the planet due to melting of sea ice and taller vegetation (ALBEDO refers to ratio of reflected light and incident light)

Extinction or migration of many species

Rising sea level due to Greenland’s melting ice sheet

Increase in severe weather

The NOAA also stated: “Atmospheric influences on the total system are profound.”

Read more:
2009 ENS article: http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jul2009/2009-07-06-01.asp.
2006 ENS article: http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/sep2006/2006-09-07-01.asp.
NOAA’s report: www.oco.noaa.gov/meetings/OCOSR/…/9_presentation_Calder.ppt.

Tags: ,
Posted in Environmental News Service, Environmentalism, Global Warming, Global Warming Reports, Politics, Science, Weather/Climate | 1 Comment »

The Snow Melted Awfully Fast

Monday, February 9th, 2009

 

 

Are you a little amazed at how fast the piles of snow melted here in SE Michigan? Apply that thought to the polar ice melt. Michigan was barely in the teens for daytime highs, and at zero and below with the wind chill at night. In one day’s time and with little high wind the temperatures climbed into the 40’s and the snow disappeared almost the same day.

 

Heat from the sun is more intense than it used to be. I have buds on my apple, pear, and cherry trees. My pussy willow tree is budding. The buds were there when the weather was frigid. My husband wondered what was making them do that. I said the same thing that allows you to turn off our heat in the house and open our front door that faces south. When I open that door on a sunny but frigid day, I can feel the heat hit me.

 

What makes anyone think the Arctic is any different?

Posted in Extreme Weather in U.S., Global Warming, Global Warming Reports, Polar Ice Melt, U.S. Weather Patterns, Weather/Climate | No Comments »

New Figures Released Show Protecting the Planet is Affordable

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

 

 

Another study, one of the largest and most detailed ever, a global analysis of sorts was released Monday in Belgium. What we were told from the beginning that we need to act on curbing global warming within the next decade still holds true. The study said, “that delays in action of even 10 years would mean failing to contain global warming below 2 degrees Celsius, the level most scientists say will avert its most drastic impacts.”

 

The best part of the study showed that moving to a global economy by 2030 is not only possible but also affordable even though it’s a rigorous program, concentrating on lowering greenhouse gas emissions by 40% below 1990 levels in the next 20 years. It’s not often that something urgent doesn’t cost extra. We know that when we have to accomplish something in a hurry. Expediting usually costs more no matter what. So to say we have to do this, we can do this, and we can afford to do this is a real blessing.  

 

Read more: http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2009/2009-01-26-01.asp

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in CO2 Emissions, Conservation, Environmental News Service, Global Warming, Global Warming Reports, Pollution | 1 Comment »

Sea Level Rise May Happen Sooner Than Later

Saturday, January 24th, 2009

 

I was watching a report on CNN from New Zealand this morning. In just 50 years the climate in Antarctica has risen 5 degrees. The ice sheets as part of the landmass of Antarctica are melting and cracking off at an accelerated rate. These ice sheets are uncertain in predicting sea level rise in the near future but the ice sheet in question that is breaking apart now has been there for 10,000 years!

 

For all those that keep saying everything is naturally cyclical and man plays no part in the quick climate changes we’re witnessing now, explain this. It would be quite a big cycle that encompasses 10,000 years, and I doubt highly the climate of such a cycle would accelerate at a rate of 1 degree per decade because that would mean a 1,000-degree increase over 10,000 years. A 1,000-degree increase, or even a 100-degree increase has never been documented for planet earth. Frozen core samples from the Arctic ascertained that the first global warming episode some 40 million years ago was caused from methane gas build up and the climate back then changed only a degree or more over a greater period of time than we’re seeing now.  

 

The pieces that are floating off into the ocean from Antarctic ice sheets are moving rapidly and the size of mega malls. One of them is the size of Jamaica. What this means is that the conservative estimate of 15 to 20 cm rise in sea level for our century that was previously predicted by a consensus of scientists may very well be way too conservative in light of these recent floating ice masses breaking apart.

 

The translation for the U.S. is that a 15-20 cm rise of seawater, which is just less than 6 inches to almost 8 inches and enough to swamp most of the coastline of Louisiana is probably wrong. It will be a whole lot worse before it’s better.

 

Understand that the ice sheets in Antarctica are not to be confused with regular glaciers that have been floating in the sea all along. A mass of floating glacier ice has already displaced its weight in water. So if a glacier melts it will not cause a rise in sea level any differently than it did as a frozen mass. However, some of the ice from Antarctica is entering the sea for the first time. It topped the land mass there. This ice will indeed raise the sea level, as is the ice that is melting in Siberia gorging rivers and eventually entering the sea.

 

Knowing this, we certainly do not want to see the Himalayas thawing any time soon. Considering the proximity of China to Tibet, and the fact that the Gobe desert is just 100 miles outside of Beijing now, melting Himalayas is not a stretch.

  

 

Tags:
Posted in Environmentalism, Global Warming, Global Warming Reports, Tibet, Weather/Climate | 2 Comments »

Mid-Atlantic States Threatened the Most by Sea Level Rise

Monday, January 19th, 2009

 

 

A federal report came out Friday from the EPA, U.S. Geological Survey, and other agencies stating that the Middle Atlantic States are threatened by rising seawater due to global warming.

 

There are more and more storms up the mid-Atlantic coast. There are also dense populations near water’s edge always and so infrastructure is in low-lying areas. Think Hilton Head Island, and Tybee Island off of Savannah, gone. 

 

Oh, it’s not like water will just rise and engulf the islands until they disappear. And most people will just shrug when the time span for a two-foot rise to peak is still 90 years off. But so much more happens when a two-foot rise keeps ebbing in slowly. It’s called erosion. And when the furthermost islands give way to erosion, the storms come in much closer to those dense populations.

 

It’s these chain reactions that cause all the chaos, the unforeseen problems that arise from something as simple as two feet of water more than usual. 

 

Read the report at: climatescience.gov

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/17/science/earth/17sea.html?_r=2&ref=science

 

 

Posted in Extreme Weather in U.S., Global Warming, Global Warming Reports, Science, U.S. Weather Patterns, Weather/Climate | No Comments »

Turning Off the Furnace on a Day Like Today

Thursday, January 15th, 2009

Anyone else turn off his or her furnace on this fine 12-degree day in Monroe County Michigan? You should have if you have large windows with southern exposure. I had the main heat in the house off for 3 hours. It helps offset the evening and night usage.

 

I’ve also posted before that I have a gas wall unit in back of the house that doesn’t use anywhere near the gas as my main furnace. But if anyone has an Eden Pure heater or similar that runs on pennies of electricity, it should work equally as well for the portion of the house that faces north—that is if you need much warmth there during the day at all.

 

People keep posting that because it is cold, it can be global warming. I’ve blogged more than once that portions of the earth, especially the northern hemisphere will more than likely freeze over, not fry. But also on days like this, in bitter cold we have to admit the power of the sun.

 

I take care of a semi feral cat. He’s a “wegie” or Norwegian Forest Cat, we’ve named “Wolfie.” He has every attribute of that breed He’s a definite, beautiful “wegie.” He likes winter because his fur is about 4-6 inches long. I can’t keep him because he is male, and I already have two male cats. They get in fights with him and vice versa. All my neighbors care for “Wolfie” too but have cats of their own also. Between my neighbor and me there are 4 males cats in residence already. Wolfie is a floater so far.  But even he has limits to the cold whether he knows it or not. We stash him in our garage with a covered fleece lined bed and another fleece lined open bed, bowls, and litter box in weather like this.

 

When the sun came out today, I let him out and put one of his beds back out on the front porch in the sun. He didn’t bother getting in it and wandered off. I put my hand on his fleece pillow in the middle of the bed and the backside of the bin where it’s nestled and sure enough it was warm—on my front porch in 12-degree weather. It probably would have been too hot for him.

 

The sun is hot enough to heat up surfaces even in air temps this low. Same thing is happening in the Arctic, cold temps or not.

 

As for Wolfie, anyone that might want to adopt him, or a breeder that may want more genuine “wegies,” here are pics of Wolfie. He will come into a house that doesn’t have any other cats, but will always want to go outside. He wouldn’t be happy if he was permanently housebound. He uses his litter box when he can’t go out, but is otherwise housebroken. He’s a perfect cat for someone who lives in the country, and will keep him up to date on shots, because he is darn hardy and seldom wanders very far or gets in trouble. He was a kitten the fall of 2007, when a neighbor who has since moved, took him in. He is extremely healthy and hardy living under our deck most of last winter. All along, I haven’t seen him as much as sneeze. He is too nice of a cat to be living the semi-feral life.

sweet-face-is-part-of-the-wegie-profilelong-tail-picfull-length-closeupsideview-of-wolfie

Posted in Global Warming, Global Warming Reports, Nature, Solar Energy | No Comments »

In Oil We Trusted; Environment Used Against American Auto Companies

Tuesday, November 25th, 2008

I wrote this as a diary on other blogsites and found people weren’t as down on our car companies as thought. Since this blog does involve the environment I thought I would post it here also. Replies I’ve received from the west coast that buy foreign were a little surprised. One wanted to know about the new Ford Fusion hybrid. And many people including a congressman that I read about also find it curious that all three automakers ignored foreign competition. Here’s the blog:

We all had a hand in the recent demise of the American auto industry. Consumers ate up big gas guzzling SUV’s, trucks, and 300 hp engines in cars like my 9 year old Cadillac. Like most consumers, I figured if the Big 3 produces them, they are all right to buy; after all, the car companies have the inside track, and an eye up on the competition. We trusted their judgment and we were willing to buy.

American automakers sold us big gas guzzling cars, yet at the end of the Clinton administration, the Big 3 produced prototypes of energy efficient and hybrid vehicles for the future. When Bush/Cheney was elected all was abandoned. The Big Three were obviously assured by an overtly oil connected administration that the crude would keep flowing. The Big 3 trusted Bush/Cheney.

It is the trickle down of trust. Even though the source of this trust lies in an administration that is Wall St. friendly, (obviously), and anti-union, (prefers dictatorial management), even though the rest of the industrialized free nations are highly unionized and benefit from national health care systems. Hmm? Meanwhile, the Big 3 blindly and stupidly followed the lead of this anti-environmental administration, and totally ignored the competition that continued making hybrids. Odd. The assurances must have been great enough to go against basic business sense.

And what about the environment? The Bush administration appointed Michael Leavitt as EPA administrator in 2000. As new reports about global warming began to surface, they were either squelched or altered by the EPA. ENS reported: “The White House reversed course and rejected actions to control global warming pollution.” It is one of the worst deceptions the Bush/Cheney regime perpetrated on the American public, to cause doubt about global warming for the sake of the billionaire oil industry relishing the use of gas eating American cars by a trusting America and its auto industry.

As for Michael Leavitt, he left the EPA to head up Health and Human Services. Health and Human Services under his rule turned around and issued an e-mail to some 67,000 govt. employees urging them to buy hybrid cars, when U.S. automakers had none to offer. Of course the e-mail was a mistake, so sorry. What? As in a trial, the jury heard the stricken comment. Buy hybrid, buy foreign.
Within a span of a few years Michael Leavitt at the Bush/Cheney bidding was both anti-environmental, then suddenly green conscious. Bush/Cheney was purchasing more and more foreign oil. The beginning of 2007, before the economy took a dive, the Big 3 raced to Washington when oil prices rose to record highs. The Big 3 recognized the trouble ahead. They were snubbed by the same administration that obviously assured them early on. The oil was flowing but at outrageous prices, and now Bush/Cheney washed their hands of the auto industry. Not their problem. The Big 3 knew they had been duped. The environment was skillfully used as a means to an end.

The Big 3 scrambled back to Detroit to produce environmentally friendly cars. Ford is unveiling a hybrid Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan that goes up to 47 mph on electric power before switching to gas. The Prius tops out at 30-35 mph. Quite an achievement for Ford in a short time. GM is in the middle of producing a plug-in car. And Chrysler helped produce hydrogen-powered buses for Iceland in 2003. So they have the know how.

But there are new problems out of the auto industry’s control. The beloved Wall St. darlings of the Bush/Cheney era fumbled badly. Instead of just breaking unions, at least two of the Big 3 are on the precipice of extinction now. The final sword is bailing out Wall St. with $700 billion, and corps. like AIG twice, but stalling on the car companies for $25 billion citing that it will just be a cup of water on the fire.

If GM sold all 8 of its jets @ $35 million each, the total $280 million would by the same rationale be a thimble on the fire. If 20 execs conceded $5 million each in any perks or salary increases the resulting $100 million would be half a thimble on the fire. But there is no real fire. The auto industries have advanced greatly toward producing hybrid cars of the future in a very short time after realizing it was sheer stupidity trusting an administration that lead us into a war with Iraq. We’ve been mislead by the Bush/Cheney administration many times over and the one source that has profited greatly is Big Oil.

I believe Big Oil should return the favor to the Big 3 and float them the money to stay on the final stretch of track toward cars that won’t need oil in the future. If Obama can appoint his adversaries, then the oil industry can boost the car companies to a greener future without them. The auto companies deserve a bailout. The oil industry can easily afford it. They were bedfellows before. It’s time for some alimony.

Over four hundred blogs and all of the research, I’ve learned that all things lead back to politics through policy, legislation, and regulation. The past 8 years saw the demise of many things we’ve only just begun to notice. To blame unions and U.S. autoworkers for any of the problems the auto industry is currently experiencing continues to play into the hands of the Bush/Cheney mindset that would like to render our entire country an “at will” entity where no U.S. citizen will have the job security most of our major competitors in the free world enjoy. Understand that unions are the last powerful voice any average citizen has against the likes of a Wall St., that will most certainly make sure nothing, absolutely nothing trickles down. In light of what has happened, we’d be fools to think otherwise.

Japanese unions: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE5D8163EF933A15754C0A964958260.
Germany’s unions: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3755519,00.html
Britain’s unions: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/apr2000/rov-a
06.shtml

Posted in CO2 Emissions, Chrysler, EPA, Environmental Spin, Environmentalism, Ford, GM, Global Warming, Global Warming Policy, Global Warming Reports, Industry, Oil Industry, Politics, Science, U.S. Automakers | No Comments »

Brown Clouds Across Asia

Tuesday, November 18th, 2008

 

As we continue to argue whether or not man causes global warming, brown clouds are shadowing land from the Arabian Peninsula across Asia all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Hey when we can see it, it’s idiotic to deny it.

The clouds are not only darkening cities but also causing the Himalayan glaciers to melt. How is that happening? One would assume that darkened skies shield the glaciers from the sun’s glare. An article from Beijing, China on Environmental News Service states: “Atmospheric brown clouds, formed by the burning of fossil fuels, biofuels, wood and plants, absorb sunlight and heat the air.” Not only that but, “The clouds also mask the actual warming impact of climate change by anywhere between 20 and 80 percent because they include sulfates and other chemicals which reflect sunlight and cool the surface.”

There is no logic relative to global warming. You know the same simple logic that figures we are getting cooler so it can’t possibly be global warming. That’s a little too easy. As anyone can see from this latest study, what should be isn’t, plus the affects are hidden.

The scientists that conducted this study are from universities and research centers throughout Asia, Europe, and the U.S. The article went on to show yet another chain reaction: “The possible impact of atmospheric brown clouds could include elevated levels of ground-level ozone, which could result in crop losses of up to 40 percent in Asia.” And the Himalayan glaciers are the source for the rivers throughout China. Food and water shortages may happen in the near future. With over a billion people, could this mean a widening world famine?

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/nov2008/2008-11-13-02.asp

 

 

 

 

 

Tags:
Posted in Asia, Conservation, Environmental News Service, Environmentalism, Global Warming, Global Warming Reports, Industry, Pollution, Tibet | No Comments »

Two More Global Warming Gases on the Rise

Tuesday, October 28th, 2008

 

CO2 gas has competition in our atmosphere. Methane gas and nitrogen trifluoride is increasing at an alarming rate. The ice melt in the Artic is releasing an enormous amount of methane from rotting plants. The nitrogen fluoride is used in the manufacture of flat panel monitors.

 

According to an article in USA, two Scripps Institute geoscientists have collected cylinders of air samples from around the world and both methane and nitrogen fluoride is building quicker than expected.

 

I’ve blogged about the little known methane gas explosions along the coast of Africa: http://www.blogsmonroe.com/world/2008/04/mankind-contributes-to-global-warming-through-fish/. They are caused by the same thing—rotting plants on the ocean floor, plants that used to be food for sardines and a rapidly declining fish supply due to overfishing, especially in that area.

 

Understand the chain reaction of imbalance now? One thing like overfishing causes excess plankton, which eventually dies and begins to rot on the ocean floor. The rot releases methane gas, which builds under pressure and eventually blows. The caveat to all of this is that the first global warming event 40 million years ago that literally scorched the earth was caused from excess methane gas. http://www.blogsmonroe.com/world/2007/06/world-environment-day/.

 

And what about nitrogen trifluoride as evidence man truly is affecting global warming by excessive output of harmful gases that throws the (closed system) atmosphere out of balance? If geoscientists can actually register the growth of toxic nitrogen fluoride, which is not a naturally occurring element but rather a combination of elements used in the silicon industry, than that is proof man is contributing to the toxicity of our atmosphere and an imbalance of what we witness as global warming.

 

The more scientists are able to gather air samples worldwide the more our eyes will open to the fact we’re polluting at an awful rate and by doing so promoting the demise of our world and everything in it. I hope we can unite on this conclusion soon enough.

 

For those that say this is a normal cyclical happening, did we have excessive nitrogen trifluoride in the air back then too? We certainly didn’t have almost 7 billion people on earth to think about relative to global warming.

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27400533/

 

http://www.blogsmonroe.com/world/2008/06/worse-things-increasing-in-the-air-than-co2/

 

http://www.blogsmonroe.com/world/2008/05/humans-have-been-affecting-the-earths-atmosphere-for-at-least-2000-years/

 

http://www.blogsmonroe.com/world/category/environmentalism/global-warming/page/4/

 

 

Tags: ,
Posted in Africa, CO2 Emissions, Fishing, Global Warming, Global Warming Reports, Marine Life, Plants, Pollution, Science | 4 Comments »

Six Dollar per Gallon Gas

Friday, September 12th, 2008

 

 

Gas will more than likely shoot to $6 per gallon because Ike is now the size of Texas itself and will more than likely destroy rigs and pipeline. So we are to drill elsewhere for more? Isn’t that perpetuating a problem?

 

We’ve been told by science, not politicians that man may have a hand in the rapid global warming we’re seeing. The administration in play for the past 8 years is an oil administration. They would do and say whatever to keep oil flowing and have. As a result, Americans are doubtful about global warming; more so than citizens of other developed countries that don’t simply shrug global warming off on Al Gore. Other countries are trying to affect change.

 

Meanwhile, this administration has flat out lied to us about a war, what would make us think especially after the latest news that government regulators party with oil lobbyists that maybe we’ve been lied to by this government about the environment?

 

And what about all the offshore drilling that everyone wants? Those rigs aren’t hurricane proof either. Hurricane Hannah ran up the side of the east coast, the gulf is getting lambasted now, and the west coast took a beating late winter and early spring this past year. There really is not safe place for a rig, except maybe in your backyard.

 

But why should we open up our backyards to more oil exploration in the first place when we have almost 70 million acres leased for oil that is producing NADA—absolutely nothing. That type of production would boost our oil by 5 million barrels per day, and enough time to progress with alternatives. Alternatives will insure we no longer have to worry about pipelines and oil rigs getting damaged from what will assuredly be intensified storms due to global warming we’re helping to grow. 

 

The real fear is that hurricanes running too closely together might join into one mammoth and frightening proposition. Ditto for tornadoes.  Oil is only an interim fix, we need to harness the power of some of that nature we’re seeing attack us.

 

I wonder how much energy Ike is putting out?

 

http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/23/news/economy/oil_drilling/index.htm?cnn=yes.

 

Posted in Al Gore, Alternative Energy, Conservation, Environmentalism, Extreme Weather in U.S., Global Warming, Global Warming Policy, Global Warming Reports, Oil Industry, Oil Lobby, Science, U.S. Weather Patterns, Weather/Climate, Wind Power | No Comments »

« Older Entries