"I'm alarmed" by what I'm seeing. Although we carry the ocean within ourselves, in our blood and in our eyes, so that we essentially see through seawater, we appear blind to its fate.
"The root cause of this crisis is a failure of both perspective and governance," concludes the seminal Pew Oceans Commission's 2003 report to the nation.
"We have failed to conceive of the oceans as our largest public domain, to be managed holistically for the greater public good."
Instead, we have roiled the waters, compromising the equilibrium that allowed our species to flourish in the first place, and providing ourselves with a host of challenges that will test our clever brains and our opposable thumbs as never before. Afloat on arks of dry land, we sail toward a stormy future.
Billions of people may not survive, according to the charts.
The report says global warming has already degraded conditions for many species, coastal areas and poor people.
With a more than 90 percent level of confidence, the scientists in the report, say man-made global warming "over the last three decades has had an influence on many biological systems."
But as the world's average temperature warms from 1990 levels, the projections get more dire.
Between 400 million and 1.7 billion people won't get enough water, some infectious diseases and allergenic pollens rise, and some amphibians will go extinct.
But the world's food supply, especially in northern areas, could increase. That's the likely outcome around 2020, according to the draft.
Add another 1.8 degrees and as many as 2 billion people could be without water and about 20 percent to 30 percent of the world's species near extinction. Also, more people start dying because of malnutrition, disease, heat waves, floods and droughts — all caused by global warming. That would happen around 2050, depending on the level of greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels.
At the extreme end of the projections, a 7- to 9-degree average temperature increase, the chart predicts: "Up to one-fifth of the world population affected by increased flood events ... "1.1 to 3.2 billion people with increased water scarcity" ..."major extinctions around the globe."
Al Gore Training 1,000 Volunteers to Spread Environmental Message
NASHVILLE, Tennessee: Former Vice President Al Gore, the star of a documentary derived from his slide show on global warming, is about to begin training 1,000 "Climate Project" volunteers to help spread his environmental message around the globe.
Gore has been promoting his documentary and book "An Inconvenient Truth" and encouraging volunteers to apply for his training sessions to learn how to give a shorter version of his PowerPoint-style presentations.
Several thousand have already applied to be among the 1,000 volunteers Gore expects to train within the next six months, said spokeswoman Kalee Kreider. The first session with about 50 volunteers begins this weekend in Nashville, Gore's hometown.
Gore, a Democrat who lost the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush, has criticized the lack of action on global warming by politicians across the ideological spectrum.
The wave of publicity about his initiative has raised questions about whether Gore will run for president again in 2008. Gore has said he has no plans to become a candidate, but he has not ruled it out either.
Gore plans to participate in the instruction at the sessions but will also have scientists and other experts help train the activists, Kreider said. There are no plans to hold any sessions outside Nashville.
Al Gore Chastises U.S. Leaders For Lack of Action on Global Warming Gore Doesn't Rule Out 2008 White House Run Al Gore: Democracy is Under Attack by Media Activists will have to pay their own airfare and accommodations, but the training sessions -- which are expected to run Sundays through Tuesdays -- are free. Scholarships will be available for some participants, Kreider said.
Annapolis, Maryland Mayor Ellen O. Moyer is among the initial group of activists heading to Nashville.
"I'm honored to be a part of this first training program," she told The (Baltimore) Sun. "There comes a point in time when we have to say, 'Enough is enough."'
Climate Change Report
By Seth Borenstein
AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON - The harmful effects of global warming on daily life are already showing up, and within a couple of decades hundreds of millions of people won’t have enough water, top scientists say at a meeting in Belgium.
At the same time, tens of millions of others will be flooded out of their homes each year as the Earth reels from rising temperatures and sea levels, according to portions of a draft of an international scientific report obtained by The Associated Press.
Tropical diseases like malaria will spread. By 2050, polar bears will mostly be found in zoos, their habitats gone. Pests like fire ants will thrive.
For a time, food will be plentiful because of the longer growing season in northern regions. But by 2080, hundreds of millions of people could face starvation, according to the report, which is still being revised.
The draft document by the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change focuses on global warming’s effects and is the second in a series of four being issued this year. Written and reviewed by more than 1,000 scientists from dozens of countries, it still must be edited by government officials.
But some scientists said the overall message is not likely to change when it’s issued in early April in Brussels, the same city where European Union leaders agreed this past week to drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. Their plan will be presented to President Bush and other world leaders at a summit in June.
The report offers some hope if nations slow and then reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, but it notes that what’s happening now isn’t encouraging.
“Changes in climate are now affecting physical and biological systems on every continent,” the report says, in marked contrast to a 2001 report by the same international group that said the effects of global warming were coming. But that report only mentioned scattered regional effects.
“Things are happening and happening faster than we expected,” said Patricia Romero Lankao of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., one of the many co-authors of the new report.
The draft document says scientists are highly confident that many current problems — change in species’ habits and habitats, more acidified oceans, loss of wetlands, bleaching of coral reefs, and increases in allergy-inducing pollen — can be blamed on global warming.
For example, the report says North America “has already experienced substantial ecosystem, social and cultural disruption from recent climate extremes,” such as hurricanes and wildfires.
But the present is nothing compared to the future.
Global warming soon will “affect everyone’s life … it’s the poor sectors that will be most affected,” Romero Lankao said.
And co-author Terry Root of Stanford University said: “We truly are standing at the edge of mass extinction” of species.
The report included these likely results of global warming:
–Hundreds of millions of Africans and tens of millions of Latin Americans who now have water will be short of it in less than 20 years. By 2050, more than 1 billion people in Asia could face water shortages. By 2080, water shortages could threaten 1.1 billion to 3.2 billion people, depending on the level of greenhouse gases that cars and industry spew into the air.
–Death rates for the world’s poor from global warming-related illnesses, such as malnutrition and diarrhea, will rise by 2030. Malaria and dengue fever, as well as illnesses from eating contaminated shellfish, are likely to grow.
–Europe’s small glaciers will disappear with many of the continent’s large glaciers shrinking dramatically by 2050. And half of Europe’s plant species could be vulnerable, endangered or extinct by 2100.
–By 2080, between 200 million and 600 million people could be hungry because of global warming’s effects.
–About 100 million people each year could be flooded by 2080 by rising seas.
–Smog in U.S. cities will worsen and “ozone-related deaths from climate (will) increase by approximately 4.5 percent for the mid-2050s, compared with 1990s levels,” turning a small health risk into a substantial one.
–Polar bears in the wild and other animals will be pushed to extinction.
–At first, more food will be grown. For example, soybean and rice yields in Latin America will increase starting in a couple of years. Areas outside the tropics, especially the northern latitudes, will see longer growing seasons and healthier forests.
Looking at different impacts on ecosystems, industry and regions, the report sees the most positive benefits in forestry and some improved agriculture and transportation in polar regions. The biggest damage is likely to come in ocean and coastal ecosystems, water resources and coastal settlements.
The hardest-hit continents are likely to be Africa and Asia, with major harm also coming to small islands and some aspects of ecosystems near the poles. North America, Europe and Australia are predicted to suffer the fewest of the harmful effects.
“In most parts of the world and most segments of populations, lifestyles are likely to change as a result of climate change,” the draft report said. “Net valuations of benefits vs. costs will vary, but they are more likely to be negative if climate change is substantial and rapid, rather than if it is moderate and gradual.”
This report — considered by some scientists the “emotional heart” of climate change research — focuses on how global warming alters the planet and life here, as opposed to the more science-focused report by the same group last month.
“This is the story. This is the whole play. This is how it’s going to affect people. The science is one thing. This is how it affects me, you and the person next door,” said University of Victoria climate scientist Andrew Weaver.
Many — not all — of those effects can be prevented, the report says, if within a generation the world slows down its emissions of carbon dioxide and if the level of greenhouse gases sticking around in the atmosphere stabilizes. If that’s the case, the report says “most major impacts on human welfare would be avoided; but some major impacts on ecosystems are likely to occur.”
The United Nations-organized network of 2,000 scientists was established in 1988 to give regular assessments of the Earth’s environment. The document issued last month in Paris concluded that scientists are 90 percent certain that people are the cause of global warming and that warming will continue for centuries.
1. Reduce your driving (walk, bike, ride mass transit, carpool).
2. Choose a more fuel efficient car.
3. Choose more energy-efficient appliances, especially major ones like refrigerators and water heaters.
4. Buy "green power" like wind energy from your electric utility - many offer this option now.
5. Reduce discretionary air travel and purchase carbon dioxide offsets for any air travel you can't avoid.
6. Recycle everything you can: newspapers, cans, glass bottles and jars, aluminum foil, motor oil, scrap metal, etc.
7. Don't use electrical appliances for things you can easily do by hand, such as opening cans.
8. Use cold water in the washer whenever possible.
9. Re-use brown paper bags to line your trash can instead of plastic bags. Re-use bread bags and the bags you bring your produce home in.
10. Store food in re-usable containers, instead of plastic wrap or aluminum foil.
11. Save wire coat hangers and return them to the dry cleaners.
12. Take unwanted, re-usable items to a charitable organization or thrift shop.
13. Don't leave water running needlessly.
14. Turn your heat down, and wear a sweater.
15. Turn off the lights, TV, or other electrical appliances when you are out of a room.
16. Flush the toilet less often. (If you cut flushing in half, you'll save up to 16.5 gallons a day.)
17. Turn down the heat and turn off the water heater before you leave for vacation.
18. Recycle your Christmas Tree. (Read all the things you can do.)
19. Recycle office and computer paper, cardboard, etc. whenever possible.
20. Use scrap paper for informal notes to yourself and others.
21. Print or copy on both sides of the paper.
22. Use smaller paper for smaller memos.
23. Re-use manila envelopes and file folders.
24. Hide the throw-away cups, and train people to use their washable coffee mugs. Use washable mugs for meetings too.
25. Avoid buying food or products in plastic or styrofoam containers whenever possible. (They cannot be recycled and do not break down in the environment.)
By the end of the century, the Earth could be more than 6C hotter than it is today, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. We know that would be bad news - but just how bad? How big a rise will it take for the Alps to melt, the oceans to die and desert to conquer Europe and the Americas? Mark Lynas sifted through thousands of scientific papers for his new book on global warming. This is what the research told him ...
Nebraska isn't at the top of most tourists' to-do lists. However, this dreary expanse of impossibly flat plains sits in the middle of one of the most productive agricultural systems on Earth. Beef and corn dominate the economy, and the Sand Hills region - where low, grassy hillocks rise up from the flatlands - has some of the best cattle ranching in the whole US. But scratch beneath the grass and you will find, as the name suggests, not soil but sand. These innocuous-looking hills were once desert, part of an immense system of sand dunes that spread across the Great Plains from Texas in the south to the Canadian prairies in the north. Six thousand years ago, when temperatures were about 1C warmer than today in the US, these deserts may have looked much as the Sahara does today. As global warming bites, the western US could once again be plagued by perennial drought - devastating agriculture and driving out human inhabitants on a scale far larger than the 1930s "Dustbowl" exodus.
On the other side of the Atlantic, today's hottest desert could be seeing a wetter future in the one-degree world. At the same time as sand dunes were blowing across the western US, the central Sahara was a veritable Garden of Eden as rock paintings of elephants, giraffes and buffalo, also dating from 6,000 years ago, attest. On the borders of what is today Chad, Nigeria and Cameroon, the prehistoric Lake Mega-Chad spread over an area only slightly smaller than the Caspian Sea does now. Could a resurgent north African monsoon drive rainfall back into the Sahara in a one-degree world? Models suggest it could.
Also in Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro will be losing the last of its snow and ice as temperatures rise, leaving the entire continent ice-free for the first time in at least 11,000 years. The Alps, too, will be melting, releasing deadly giant landslides as thawing permafrost removes the "glue" that holds the peaks together. In the Arctic, temperatures will rise far higher than the one-degree global average, continuing the rapid decline in sea ice that scientists have already observed. This spells bad news for polar bears, walruses and ringed seals - species that are effectively pushed off the top of the planet as warming shrinks cold areas closer and closer to the pole.
Indeed, it is the ecological effects of warming that may be most apparent at one degree. Critically, this temperature rise may wipe out the majority of the world's tropical coral reefs, devastating marine biodiversity. Most of the Great Barrier Reef will be dead.
In the highly unlikely event that global warming deniers prove to be right, we will still have to worry about carbon dioxide, because it dissolves in the oceans and makes them more acidic. Even with relatively low emissions, large areas of the southern oceans and parts of the Pacific will within a few decades become toxic to organisms with calcium carbonate shells, for the simple reason that the acidic seawater will dissolve them.
Many species of plankton - the basis of the marine food chain and essential for the sustenance of higher creatures, from mackerel to baleen whales - will be wiped out, and the more acidic seawater may be the knockout blow for what remains of the world's coral reefs. The oceans may become the new deserts as the world's temperatures reach 2C above today's.
UPDATE: National Marine Fisheries Services whale expert Stephen Swartz, who is investigating the problem of the starving gray whales, said earlier this month, that the issue may be connected with global warming.
Two degrees may not sound like much, but it is enough to make every European summer as hot as 2003, when 30,000 people died from heatstroke. That means extreme summers will be much hotter still. As Middle East-style temperatures sweep across Europe, the death toll may reach into the hundreds of thousands. The Mediterranean area can expect six more weeks of heatwave conditions, with wildfire risk also growing. Water worries will be aggravated as the southern Med loses a fifth of its rainfall, and the tourism industry could collapse as people move north outside the zones of extreme heat.
Two degrees is also enough to cause the eventual complete melting of the Greenland ice sheet, which would raise global sea levels by seven metres. Much of the ice-cap disappeared 125,000 years ago, when global temperatures were 1-2C higher than now. Because of the sheer size of the ice sheet, no one expects this full seven metres to come before the end of the century, but a top Nasa climate scientist, James Hansen, is warning that the mainstream projections of sea level rise (of 50cm or so by 2100) could be dangerously conservative. As if to underline Hansen's warning, the rate of ice loss from Greenland has tripled since 2004.
This melting will also continue to affect the world's mountain ranges, and in Peru all the glaciers will disappear from the Andean peaks that currently supply Lima with water. In California, the loss of snowpack from the Sierra Nevada - three-quarters of which could disappear in the two-degree world - will leave cities such as Los Angeles increasingly thirsty during the summer. Global food supplies, especially in the tropics, will also be affected but while two degrees of warming will be survivable for most humans, a third of all species alive today may be driven to extinction as climate change wipes out their habitat.
Scientists estimate that we have at best 10 years to bring down global carbon emissions if we are to stabilise world temperatures within two degrees of their present levels. The impacts of two degrees warming are bad enough, but far worse is in store if emissions continue to rise. Most importantly, 3C may be the "tipping point" where global warming could run out of control, leaving us powerless to intervene as planetary temperatures soar. The centre of this predicted disaster is the Amazon, where the tropical rainforest, which today extends over millions of square kilometres, would burn down in a firestorm of epic proportions. Computer model projections show worsening droughts making Amazonian trees, which have no evolved resistance to fire, much more susceptible to burning. Once this drying trend passes a critical threshold, any spark could light the firestorm which destroys almost the entire rainforest ecosystem. Once the trees have gone, desert will appear and the carbon released by the forests' burning will be joined by still more from the world's soils. This could boost global temperatures by a further 1.5ºC - tippping us straight into the four-degree world.
Three degrees alone would see increasing areas of the planet being rendered essentially uninhabitable by drought and heat. In southern Africa, a huge expanse centred on Botswana could see a remobilisation of old sand dunes, much as is projected to happen earlier in the US west. This would wipe out agriculture and drive tens of millions of climate refugees out of the area. The same situation could also occur in Australia, where most of the continent will now fall outside the belts of regular rainfall.
With extreme weather continuing to bite - hurricanes may increase in power by half a category above today's top-level Category Five - world food supplies will be critically endangered. This could mean hundreds of millions - or even billions - of refugees moving out from areas of famine and drought in the sub-tropics towards the mid-latitudes. In Pakistan, for example, food supplies will crash as the waters of the Indus decline to a trickle because of the melting of the Karakoram glaciers that form the river's source. Conflicts may erupt with neighbouring India over water use from dams on Indus tributaries that cross the border.
In northern Europe and the UK, summer drought will alternate with extreme winter flooding as torrential rainstorms sweep in from the Atlantic - perhaps bringing storm surge flooding to vulnerable low-lying coastlines as sea levels continue to rise. Those areas still able to grow crops and feed themselves, however, may become some of the most valuable real estate on the planet, besieged by millions of climate refugees from the south.
At four degrees another tipping point is almost certain to be crossed; indeed, it could happen much earlier. (This reinforces the determination of many environmental groups, and indeed the entire EU, to bring us in within the two degrees target.) This moment comes as the hundreds of billions of tonnes of carbon locked up in Arctic permafrost - particularly in Siberia - enter the melt zone, releasing globally warming methane and carbon dioxide in immense quantities. No one knows how rapidly this might happen, or what its effect might be on global temperatures, but this scientific uncertainty is surely cause for concern and not complacency. The whole Arctic Ocean ice cap will also disappear, leaving the North Pole as open water for the first time in at least three million years. Extinction for polar bears and other ice-dependent species will now be a certainty.
The south polar ice cap may also be badly affected - the West Antarctic ice sheet could lift loose from its bedrock and collapse as warming ocean waters nibble away at its base, much of which is anchored below current sea levels. This would eventually add another 5m to global sea levels - again, the timescale is uncertain, but as sea level rise accelerates coastlines will be in a constant state of flux. Whole areas, and indeed whole island nations, will be submerged.
In Europe, new deserts will be spreading in Italy, Spain, Greece and Turkey: the Sahara will have effectively leapt the Straits of Gibraltar. In Switzerland, summer temperatures may hit 48C, more reminiscent of Baghdad than Basel. The Alps will be so denuded of snow and ice that they resemble the rocky moonscapes of today's High Atlas - glaciers will only persist on the highest peaks such as Mont Blanc. The sort of climate experienced today in Marrakech will be experienced in southern England, with summer temperatures in the home counties reaching a searing 45C. Europe's population may be forced into a "great trek" north.
To find out what the planet would look like with five degrees of warming, one must largely abandon the models and venture far back into geological time, to the beginning of a period known as the Eocene. Fossils of sub-tropical species such as crocodiles and turtles have all been found in the Canadian high Arctic dating from the early Eocene, 55 million years ago, when the Earth experienced a sudden and dramatic global warming. These fossils even show that breadfruit trees were growing on the coast of Greenland, while the Arctic Ocean saw water temperatures of 20C within 200km of the North Pole itself. There was no ice at either pole; forests were probably growing in central Antarctica.
The Eocene greenhouse event fascinates scientists not just because of its effects, which also saw a major mass extinction in the seas, but also because of its likely cause: methane hydrates. This unlikely substance, a sort of ice-like combination of methane and water that is only stable at low temperatures and high pressure, may have burst into the atmosphere from the seabed in an immense "ocean burp", sparking a surge in global temperatures (methane is even more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide). Today vast amounts of these same methane hydrates still sit on subsea continental shelves. As the oceans warm, they could be released once more in a terrifying echo of that methane belch of 55 million years ago. In the process, moreover, the seafloor could slump as the gas is released, sparking massive tsunamis that would further devastate the coasts.
Again, no one knows how likely this apocalyptic scenario is to unfold in today's world. The good news is that it could take centuries for warmer water to penetrate down to the bottom of the oceans and release the stored methane. The bad news is that it could happen much sooner in shallower seas that see a stronger heating effect (and contain lots of methane hydrate) such as in the Arctic. It is also important to realise that the early Eocene greenhouse took at least 10,000 years to come about. Today we could accomplish the same feat in less than a century.
If there is one episode in the Earth's history that we should try above all not to repeat, it is surely the catastrophe that befell the planet at the end of the Permian period, 251 million years ago. By the end of this calamity, up to 95% of species were extinct. The end-Permian wipeout is the nearest this planet has ever come to becoming just another lifeless rock drifting through space. The precise cause remains unclear, but what is undeniable is that the end-Permian mass extinction was associated with a super-greenhouse event. Oxygen isotopes in rocks dating from the time suggest that temperatures rose by six degrees, perhaps because of an even bigger methane belch than happened 200 million years later in the Eocene.
Sedimentary layers show that most of the world's plant cover was removed in a catastrophic bout of soil erosion. Rocks also show a "fungal spike" as plants and animals rotted in situ. Still more corpses were washed into the oceans, helping to turn them stagnant and anoxic. Deserts invaded central Europe, and may even have reached close to the Arctic Circle.
One scientific paper investigating "kill mechanisms" during the end-Permian suggests that methane hydrate explosions "could destroy terrestrial life almost entirely". Acting much like today's fuel-air explosives (or "vacuum bombs"), major oceanic methane eruptions could release energy equivalent to 10,000 times the world's stockpile of nuclear weapons.
Whatever happened back then to wipe out 95% of life on Earth must have been pretty serious. And while it would be wrong to imagine that history will ever straightforwardly repeat itself, we should certainly try and learn the lessons of the distant past. If they tell us one thing above all, it is this: that we mess with the climatic thermostat of this planet at our extreme - and growing - peril.
· Mark Lynas's Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet is published by
Fourth Estate, priced £12.99. To order a copy for £11.99 with
free UK p&p go to Guardian.co.uk/bookshop or call 0870 836 0875
Political officials throughout the Bush administration have edited and manipulated climate science communications, according to a recent report by a nonprofit watchdog group. Evidence shows the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to be involved in the manipulation.
On March 27, the Government Accountability Project (GAP), a public interest advocacy and watchdog organization, released a report detailing political interference in federal offices performing scientific research related to global climate change. The report, Redacting the Science of Climate Change, focuses on the manipulation of agency scientific communications to Congress and the media. The report is the product of a year-long investigation which included interviews and examinations of internal executive branch documents.
Examples in the report indicate OMB has been involved in political interference. OMB exerted political influence in responses to questions from Congress. OMB also plays an oversight role in a federal climate science clearinghouse.
For example, after an April 26, 2006, Senate committee hearing on the effects of climate change, two senators submitted questions for the record to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. A number of federal offices, including OMB, took the opportunity to comment on and edit the responses.
In one of its edits, OMB inserted text which "attributed global warming to increasing water vapor, in reliance on a quote taken out of context from a scientific paper," according to the GAP report. Before finalizing the response, one of the paper's authors intervened to correct OMB's assertion.
In another edit, OMB recommended removing the phrase "healthy coral reef ecosystems are important to both the fisheries and tourism industries and negative impacts on these ecosystems could affect these industries." OMB felt the phrase unnecessary, according to documents obtained by GAP.
The report indicates OMB has also been involved in interference as an overseer of the Climate Change Science Program (CCSP). CCSP was formed to coordinate climate change science across a number of federal agencies and serve as a clearinghouse for information. CCSP is governed by members of those agencies as well as other executive offices, including OMB. Two OMB officials also sit on a CCSP working group in charge of publicly disseminating climate science information.
However, CCSP has underwhelmed observers in its releases of public information, according to the report. Since 2004, CCSP has released only 12 substantive written products, none of which exceed four pages in length. Since January 2006, the only new materials to emerge from CCSP have been three press releases. CCSP currently employs a staff of 14. Though OMB's exact involvement cannot be quantified, Tarek Maassarani, the author of the GAP report, says, "OMB has a presence in a lot of the decision making processes" in CCSP.
GAP released the report in conjunction with a hearing held by an oversight subcommittee of the House Science and Technology Committee. Like the report, the hearing focused on political interference in climate science communications.
The testimony of James McCarthy, a Harvard professor of biological oceanography, underscored the importance of sound science in the global climate change dialogue and the danger of scientific manipulation. Speaking of recent consensus on rising global temperatures and the anthropogenic causes thereof, McCarthy said, "Despite this strong scientific understanding, media coverage and political debate on global warming science often give undue credence to the views of little known organizations and statements by individuals purporting to be experts on climate science."
Both the report and the hearing point to other offices within the Executive Office of the President as involved in climate science manipulation. Most notably, internal documents have identified the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) as perpetrators.
CEQ and OSTP have been more involved in political interference than OMB, according to the report. However, OMB's role in the political manipulation of climate science communication is not to be understated. According to Maassarani, "OMB is very hostile to the policy implications of this science."
Please credit OMB Watch when redistributing this material.
Global warming -- Permafrost melting
Permafrost soil, which covers nearly 400,000 square miles of northeast Siberia and averages 82 feet in depth, contains about 500 billion metric tons of carbon, the scientists concluded.
Cars, power plants and other fossil fuel consumers release at least 6 billion metric tons annually.
If all the Siberian permafrost thawed, decomposed and released its carbon in the form of heat-trapping carbon dioxide, it could nearly double the 730 billion metric tons of carbon in the atmosphere presently — an outcome that would have huge global warming impact.
Despite the horrors caused by global warming, we can still make a difference, according to Climate Crisis Project presenter, Emerald Starr.
During a presentation at the Canggu Club in Bali last week, Starr presented the real facts and cause of global warming: greenhouse gas emissions.
It is a terrifying fact that we humans are wiping themselves out at an ever-increasing pace, much the same as they managed to wipe out almost 60,000 different animal species over the past 100 years.
Starr is one of 1,000 people chosen by former U.S. vice president and environmental activist Al Gore to spread the message of the dangers of global warming. Gore's Climate Project aims to dispel the myths and controversies surrounding global warming, and to promote the measures to be taken in order to slow down -- and even reverse -- the rise in deadly greenhouse gas emissions.
"Since the industrial revolution in the 1860s, global temperatures have been rising. Temperatures are now higher than ever before. In 2006 India recorded temperatures of 50 degrees Celsius, and extremes of temperature have been noted around the globe. This is a worldwide phenomenon," Starr said.
In the short term, an increase in global temperatures will result in the occurrence of more storms and hurricanes, floods, droughts and typhoons. In the long term, global warming will wipe out entire countries, as land will become inundated by ever-increasing sea levels, Star explained.
"The earth is experiencing a record number of hurricanes, heavy storms, droughts and floods," Starr said. "Japan had a record ten typhoons in one season and the U.S. suffered from 1700 tornadoes strong enough to lift houses. Tornadoes were registered in areas that had never been affected by this kind of weather pattern in the past."
Starr cites the prestigious Michigan Institute of Technology research into storm strength, which points to an increase in the occurrence and intensity of storms since 1970. He says that scientists have no doubt that global warming is the reason behind these radical shifts in weather patterns, because as the sea warms-up, air currents, such as monsoons, are affected and change pattern.
It is in the near future that the most destructive aspects of global warming will be seen, says Starr, with countries such as the Netherlands losing much of their land base.
"As the ice caps and glaciers around the world melt, sea water is rising. Within a couple of decades we can expect waters to rise by more than five meters. At that level much of California would be under water; almost half of Florida will disappear; cities such as Beijing will become nightmare zones," said Starr.
Diseases are also on the rise as a direct result of global warming, says Starr, with viruses such as malaria and dengue now prevalent in areas that once were cool climates.
"As colder areas warm there will be more diseases. Malaria and dengue will move from the tropics into newly warm areas. The case in America is one example. The West Nile virus is now prevalent in North America, since the country has warmed to a temperature in which the virus can survive. In the past it could not survive the cold winters."
The impact of global warming on coral reefs can be seen, says Starr, and that is a major disaster as 25 percent of the earth's oxygen is created by coral reefs. The destruction of reefs and wholesale slaughter of oxygen-producing forests, such as those in Kalimantan and Sumatra, is evidence of how humans are slowly suffocating themselves.
It does not have to be this way though, says Starr and other environmentalists, such as Naneng Setiasih of Reef Check Indonesia Foundation, working to protect viable reefs across Indonesia.
"We have a major crisis occurring from global warming with reefs bleaching and dying. What we are trying to do at Reef Check is map the most resilient reefs, those that are able to withstand the stress of global warming, and protect them," said Naneng, citing reefs off Padang in Sumatra, Thousand Islands off Jakarta and reefs along the North Coast of Bali, as those that may be able to survive the effects of global warming.
According to Starr, one of the best ways to help reduce the volume of atmospheric carbon dioxide, the gas that causes most greenhouse gas emissions, is to plant trees, because trees absorb carbon dioxide.
This is what the East Bali Poverty Action program is doing in the poorest and driest zones of east Bali. Tree-planting is offering an income to local people and protecting the environment. Bali Teak Farms, under Sayu Made Putri, is also mass-planting teak and using the leaves to make recycled paper.
However, unless governments get tough on industry, automobile manufacturers and other heavy toxic polluters, and financially back non-fossil fuel energy alternatives such as wind power, solar, even the use of coconut oil, humans will be running a losing race against the clock.
Things you can do to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions
1. Change a light -- replacing a light bulb with a compact fluorescent bulb will save 80 kilograms of carbon dioxide a year (there are even pretty yellow ones now, so no excuses).
2. Drive less -- walk, bike, car pool or take public transport more often. You'll save a kilogram of carbon dioxide for every 3.2 kilometers if you don't drive. That's 6600 kilograms a year.
3. Recycle more -- You can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 1,300 kilograms per year by recycling just half of your household waste.
4. Check your tires -- Keeping your tires inflated properly can improve petrol mileage by more than 3 percent. You'll save money and for every 4 liters of fuel saved, the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere is reduced by 10 kilograms.
5. Use less hot water. Install a low flow shower head. This will save 175 kilograms of carbon monoxide per year. Wash clothes in cold water and you will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 260 kilograms.
6. Avoid over-packaged products -- You can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 650 kilograms if you reduce your garbage by ten percent.
7. Plant a tree or bamboo -- A single tree will absorb more than a ton of carbon dioxide over its lifespan. One bamboo clump will absorb 100 kilograms of carbon dioxide per year and one hectare of bamboo absorbs 33 tons of carbon dioxide per year.
8. Turn off electrical devices -- Simply by turning off your television, DVD player, stereo and computer when you are not using them will save thousands of kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions per year.
9. Open a window and use fans -- Turning off your air conditioner will save at least a ton of carbon dioxide per year.
10.Educate Yourself! Google for companies, who would now have us believe they are "green"... however they are known to have dumped tons of toxins, including: ( biphenyl, pyrene, flouranthene, chrysene, benzo flouranthenes, PCB, hexachlorobenzene, chlordanes, DDT, DDD, DDE, toxaphene, mirex, BDE and methoxy tetra BDE), into the only living oceans in the entire universe. Launch international campaigns to force them to attempt to remove the toxins, and never buy another product from them.
and chemical compounds can be found in sewage sludge, and scientists are developing 700 to 1,000 new chemicals per year.
Stephen Lester of the Citizens Clearinghouse for Hazardous Wastes has compiled information from researchers at Cornell University and the American Society of Civil Engineers showing that sludge typically contains the following toxins:
In addition, a 1994 investigation by the US General Accounting Office found that "the full extent of the radioactive contamination of sewage sludge, ash and related by-products nationwide is unknown." Most of the radioactive material is flushed down the drain by hospitals, businesses and decontamination laundries, a practice which has contaminated at least nine sewage plants in the past decade. [12]
In 1977, EPA Administrator Douglas Costle estimated that by 1990 treatment plants would be generating 10 million tons of sludge per year, a thought that "gives us all a massive environmental headache." [13]
Today there are about 15,000 publicly-owned wastewater treatment works in the United States, discharging approximately 26 billion gallons per day of treated wastewater into lakes, streams and waterways.
Before treatment, this wastewater contains over a million pounds of hazardous components. Sewage plants use heat, chemicals and bacterial treatments to detoxify 42 percent of these components through biodegradation.
Another 25 percent escapes into the atmosphere, and 19 percent is discharged into lakes and streams. The remaining 14 percent -- approximately 28 million pounds per year -- becomes what is termed: "sewage sludge". [14]
Once created, this "sludge" must be disposed of in some fashion.
The available methods include:
1) incineration (which releases pollution into the air),
2) dumping into landfills (which is expensive, and often lets contaminants leach into groundwater)
3) OCEAN dumping (where it has created vast underwater dead seas)
4) A fourth approach -- gasification, using sludge to generate methanol or energy -- is favored by EPA's Hugh Kaufman as the "most environmentally sound approach, but also the most expensive." [15]
5) A fifth approach -- using sludge as plant fertilizer -- was considered hazardous to health and the environment until the 1970s, but it has the advantage of being inexpensive.
As budget concerns mounted in the late 1970s, the EPA began to pressure sewage plants to adopt the cheapest method available -- spreading "sludge" on farm fields. [16]
Given that less than 0.001% of Earth is living Ocean... I am surprised that the millions of tons of dumped and deadly manufacturing byproducts are not mentioned as often as the rising CO2 levels and rising temps in the only living Oceans in the entire universe.
Support grows for globalising EU's carbon trading scheme With most world leaders now in consensus that something must be done to tackle climate change, the EU's ambitious carbon trading scheme is beginning to look more attractive as the prototype of a global system... Read
How companies are turning climate to their advantage Climate change, so long ignored or even denied, can no longer be disregarded, and is forcing companies throughout all sectors to re-evaluate their practices. And as with all 'obstacles', companies have started... Read
Climate and changes in the food supply The world is changing - that much few now deny. While businesses of all sorts are striving to clean up their act, the food supply is one area where the impact of climate change could be felt most keenly... Read
US manufacturers might have to play emissions catch-up The recent G8 meeting in Heiligendamm, Germany, saw a veering in US rhetoric on climate change that could bring about significant changes for the business practices of food manufacturers if they are forced...Read
Do food miles go the distance on emissions? The debate on carbon emissions in the manifestation of food miles is forcing processors to add the distance ingredients travel to the growing list of environmental concerns they must taken into consideration... Read
Dairy groups forced to face climate change responsibility Major players within the dairy industry are beginning to witness unwanted reminders of the high cost climate change could have on their operations, as prices for raw materials like milk continue to soar... Read
Coral Reefs are one of the first victims of climate change (canaries)
Dr Michael L Smith, director of the Caribbean Biodiversity Initiative at Conservation International, said: "One of the Atlantic Ocean's most beautiful marine habitats no longer exists in many places because of dramatic increases in coral diseases, mostly caused by climate change and warmer waters."
The study by 23 scientists in Dominica in March analysed data on Western Tropical Atlantic corals, seagrasses, mangroves and algae.
They are fundamental components of marine ecosystems providing food and shelter for numerous other organisms and local communities.
It found ten percent of the area's 62 reef-building corals were under threat, including Staghorn and Elkhorn corals.
Once among the most prominent of species they are now candidates for Critically Endangered status on the World Conservation Union (IUCN) 2008 Red List of Threatened Species.
The study is part of the Global Marine Species Assessment (GMSA) - a partnership between Conservation International and the World Conservation Union - to review the status of marine species and provide up-to-date information for conservation efforts.
Dr Suzanne Livingstone, GMSA programme officer, said: "Coral reefs support some of the richest areas of biodiversity in the world.
"When the coral reefs disappear, so will many other species which rely on reefs for shelter, reproduction and foraging."
Threats to corals include coastal pollution, human development and climate change stresses such as warmer water and more intense weather.
While scientists note some healthy Caribbean coral reefs still exist in protected marine areas they warn global warming will affect all corals and must be reversed if they are to survive.
(LL: However, if we stopped burning all fossil fuels today, worldwide, even this would not reverse the melting snowball effect that is already in motion and gathering steam every day that we do burn fossil fuels. )
Dr Kent Carpenter, GMSA director, said: "The Caribbean tourism industry relies heavily on the beauty and health of its sea life.
(LL: When the reefs are dead, and the rich ocean life they supported is gone, and the world wakes up to the collapse of the oceans, tourism will decline in global priorities. )
"Concentrated marine conservation and a global effort to halt man-induced climate change are necessary to preserve this vital economic engine in the region."
John Doerr: "I dont think that we are going to make it".
John Doerr of "Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers" starts an emotional speech about climate change by saying 'I dont think that we are going to make it'.
He then goes on to give an emotional but inspiring talk about the search that him and his associates have gone on in the search for solutions to the climate crisis.
"I don't think we're going to make it," John Doerr proclaims, in an emotional talk about climate change and investment. Spurred on by his daughter, who demanded he fix the mess the world is heading for, he and his partners at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers embarked on a greentech world tour -- surveying the state of the art, from the ethanol revolution in Brazil to Wal-mart's (!) eco-concept store in Bentonville, Arkansas. KPCB is investing $200 million in green technologies to save the planet and make a profit to boot. But, Doerr fears, it may not be enough.
And then there is global warming. So far, scientists say, it has had two main effects on coral, both potentially lethal. First, as oceans absorb more carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas, they become more acidic. The acidity makes it more difficult for corals to grow and may even cause them to start to dissolve. And as oceans warm, algae that live in corals, and on which they depend, may be killed.
Scientists are concerned that pollution and global warming are killing the world's coral reefs. Since Earth has the only known living reefs in the entire universe, correspondent Betty Ann Bowser explores what is being done to save the reefs in part one of a two-part series.
A small Green Sea Turtle was found along a
rock wall near the Dive In dive center in Key
Largo, completely covered with thick, black
oil. The baby turtle was rescued, using
mayonnaise (which dissolves the oil without
harming the turtle)
www.TurtleHospital.org
CO2 is now absorbed into the Oceans, causing acidification and potentially toppling food chain domino #1, the plankton.
Ocean "acidification" occurs when chemical compounds such as carbon dioxide, sulfur, or nitrogen mix with seawater, a process which lowers the pH and reduces the storage of carbon.
Ocean acidification hampers the ability of marine organisms—such as sea urchins, corals, and certain types of plankton—to harness calcium carbonate for making hard outer shells or "exoskeletons." These organisms provide essential food and habitat to other species, so their demise could affect entire ocean ecosystems.
Earth's rivers polluted with cancinogenic chemicals
Wed Oct 10, 2007 3:11pm EDT
www.reuters.com
PARIS (Reuters) - Rivers in eastern and northern France found to be contaminated with chemicals that have been outlawed since 1987 and are proving very hard to eliminate, the government reported on Wednesday.
The River "Rhone" which runs through the southeastern corner of France (scientists said) contained dangerous levels of polychlorinated biphenyls ( PCB / PCBs ).
The latest report said additional rivers were in an even worse condition because of industrial dumping dating back decades, including the River Seine which runs through Paris.
"It's a huge clean-up job," Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, the secretary of state for ecology, told a news conference. Other big rivers in Europe are affected by the same problem, she said.
PCB's were used primarily as a cooling and insulating fluid for electricity transformers and capacitors. It has been banned in France since 1987 after research showed it could cause fertility, growth and cancer in humans.
Kosciusko-Morizet said PCB had been very heavily used in industry since the 1930s and France was suffering the consequences of long-standing pollution.
"Cleaning it up is far from easy. It's very complicated because there are huge amounts of sediment." She said it would be technically and economically impossible to clean up the whole Rhone River... (... what about the Ocean?)
Here is the PCB problem
.... connecting the dots .....
with plastic pollution....
=============-------..-------===============
( text_insert )
"Alguita, the oceanic research vessel from Algalita, just came back from one of its research expeditions in the Pacific Gyre, an area of the Pacific Ocean otherwise known as the Garbage Patch. They collected samples on the surface of the ocean and found evidence of record high concentrations of small plastic particles.
Birds and fish eat the plastic because it mimics the food they eat, zooplankton. Research data from the Algalita Foundation shows plastic particles outnumber zooplankton 6 to 1. Especially concerning is the fact that the plastic pieces can attract and hold hydrophobic elements like PCB and DDT at up to one million times background levels. As a result, this floating plastic is a "poison pill".
... so... the "easy" solution would simply be to get industry to stop
dumping millions of tons of toxins into the rivers/oceans....
( ... going back 50 years or so... )
... then just get the entire world to stop using plastic 'once',
and tossing it into the garbage/oceans....
... that will probably be about as easy as
oh... maybe stopping the use of fossil fuels...
then we can get back to work on that little global warming "issue".... :-)
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