May 20th, 2012
Inter Press Service: Fifty-five percent of global atmospheric carbon captured by living organisms happens in the ocean.Between 50-71 percent of this is captured by the ocean's vegetated "blue carbon" habitats, which cover less than 0.5 percent of the seabed, according to a 2009 United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report entitled 'Blue Carbon - The role of healthy oceans in binding carbon,' one of the first documents to demystify the term.
These recent discoveries - of the efficiency of ocean vegetation in...
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May 20th, 2012
Agence France-Presse: Massive extraction of groundwater can resolve a puzzle over a rise in sea levels in past decades, scientists in Japan said on Sunday.
Global sea levels rose by an average of 1.8 millimetres (0.07 inches) per year from 1961-2003, according to data from tide gauges.
But the big question is how much of this can be pinned to global warming.
In its landmark 2007 report, the UN's Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) ascribed 1.1mm (0.04 inches) per year to thermal expansion...
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May 20th, 2012
Times of India: With the small island countries and the least developed states veering towards the European line on climate change, the larger developing economies came together with African countries, binding around the BASIC four - India, China, South Africa and Brazil - to demand that principles of equity and 'common but differentiated responsibility' be operationalised in the post-2020 climate regime.
The minor economies of small islands and the least developed countries do not foresee any emission reduction...
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May 20th, 2012
Seagrass holds as much carbon per hectare as the world's forests, but is declining dangerously
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May 20th, 2012
Guardian: The first Heartland Institute conference on climate change in 2008 had all the trappings of a major scientific conclave – minus large numbers of real scientists. Hundreds of climate change contrarians, with a few academics among them, descended into the banquet rooms of a lavish Times Square hotel for what was purported to be a reasoned debate about climate change.
But as the latest Heartland climate conference opens in a Chicago hotel on Monday, the thinktank's claims to reasoned debate lie in...
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May 20th, 2012
EarthTechling: The movie Melancholia is far from the usual disaster movie with its urgent teams of people hunched over computers and racing against time to stop impending doom, that can be stopped by one man alone! Everyone busy and shouting, competent and efficacious. In this movie, we see no teams of scientists and engineers working closely with governments to sensibly and rapidly stop an impending calamity, as an unprecedented event draws close: a rogue planet that might collide with Earth.
In our reality...
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May 20th, 2012
Reuters: The Seaway pipeline began pumping crude from Cushing, Oklahoma, oil tanks to the heart of the U.S. refining industry in Houston on Saturday, marking a historic shift in the way oil flows across the United States.
The first barrels went into the line about noon CDT Saturday and volumes were expected to increase within days to 150,000 barrels per day (bpd), spokesman Rick Rainey of operating partner Enterprise Products said by email. Enbridge Inc. is a 50 percent partner in the project.
The startup...
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May 20th, 2012
Maine Sunday Telegram: In recent years, carbon dioxide gas has received a lot of attention.
The biggest source of CO2 comes from fossil fuel combustion, which contributes more than 13 trillion pounds to the atmosphere annually. CO2 traps heat, and so this increase in atmospheric CO2 is the reason that Earth's average temperature is warming.
If this warming trend continues, average temperatures will continue to rise at least an additional 2 to 8 degrees in the next 90 years, and Maine's climate will be similar to...
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May 20th, 2012
Wall Street Journal: Anyone who writes about environmental problems faces a great vexation: The author needs to jump up and down about the urgency of things to attract our attention, but if the tone is too shrill or if the argument is formed with any assertions that seem suspect, many readers will stop reading. This is particularly true of the audience that authors should want to reach most-people who fall in what might be called the uncertain middle, those who do not immediately dismiss global warming and other environmental...
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May 20th, 2012
Burlington County Times: New Jersey has long been known as the Garden State, but during the last five years, it could have easily been known as the Solar State from all the sunlight-absorbing panels that have cropped up nearly everywhere.
They’re on the roofs of schools, churches, municipal buildings and sewage treatment plants. They’re in farm fields and attached to utility poles. Even one of New Jersey’s trademark diners recently went green and installed panels.
But all is not well with New Jersey’s once-thriving...
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