RSS Feed
Archive for December 6th, 2010
Climate Change Igniting Deep Peatland Fires, Study Says
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 6th, 2010
New York Times: Natural Resources Canada-Canadian Forest Service A boreal forest fire burns deep into the soil, releasing carbon dioxide. Climate change is causing Alaskan wildfires to burn more fiercely, liberating vast stores of soil-based carbon dioxide that will further accelerate warming, a new study has found. Prior studies have shown that the extent of wildfires in Alaska increased by 50 percent over the last decade. The latest study, published in Nature Geoscience, finds that the intensity of these fires...
Posted in 
“Alarming” Amazon Drought—River Hits New Low
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 6th, 2010
National Geographic: The drought also fits within predictions of climatic extremes this century due to global warming, Reuters reported.
A fisher works on his boat stranded on the Negro River in northern Brazil on October 22.
Droughts can actually contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. That's because the vast Amazon rain forest acts as a carbon sink, soaking up about two billion tons of atmospheric carbon a year, according to Reuters. But when trees die or wither--as occurred during the 2005 Amazon drought--the...
Alaskan Wildfires Could Trigger ‘Runaway Climate Change’
Posted by MSNBC: None Given on December 6th, 2010
MSNBC: Severe Alaskan wildfires have released much more carbon than was stored by the region's forests over the past 10 years, researchers report today. They warned that the pattern could lead to a "runaway climate change scenario" where larger, more intense fires release more greenhouse gases that, in turn, lead to more warming.
The northern wildfires burn peatlands that consist of decaying plant litter, moss and organic matter in the soil, said Merritt Turetsky, an ecologist at the University of Guelph...
Mitigating Impacts of Progress in Amazon Jungle
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 6th, 2010
Inter Press Service: "We want real compensation," said Luis Nascimento de Freitas, a fisherman from Vila Teotonio, a ramshackle town on the banks of the Madeira River that will be flooded when the Santo Antonio hydroelectric plant is completed.
The consortium that built the dam is offering better housing to the relocated families, or a lump sum in cash, he acknowledged. But he complained that they will not receive sufficient indemnification for "the loss of our sources of income," which are fishing and tourism.
"We...
Changing climate factor in Oregon wildfire plans
Posted by Associtated Press: None Given on December 6th, 2010
Associtated Press: Climate change is becoming part of the planning for dealing with wildfires in southern Oregon.
The Mail Tribune reports the Oregon Department of Forestry is working with foresters, landowners and land managers to help them make some different choices when it comes to planting certain tree species.
The goal is to plant or encourage the growth of native trees that tolerate drought and are fire resistant.
State foresters provide expertise to private forest landowners and wildfire protection...
Eutrophication makes toxic cyanobacteria more toxic
Posted by Science Centric: None Given on December 6th, 2010
Science Centric: Continued eutrophication of the Baltic Sea, combined with an ever thinner ozone layer, is favouring the toxic cyanobacterium Nodularia spumigena, reveals research from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
'There are several species of cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, that can form surface blooms in the Baltic Sea,' explains Malin Mohlin from the University of Gothenburg's Department of Marine Ecology. 'Which species ends up dominating a bloom depends partly on how they deal with an increased...
U.S. no threat to oilsands, feds told
Posted by Vancouver Sun: Mike Desouza on December 6th, 2010
Vancouver Sun: Senior bureaucrats have told Environment Minister John Baird and the Harper government that stringent international climatechange policies are no threat to Alberta's oilsands industry, Postmedia News has learned.
In internal briefing notes, officials from Environment Canada said that aggressive policies from the state of California are, in fact, consistent with Canada's existing global-warming pollution goals.
The documents, released through access to information legislation, were based on...
Aggressive climate action no threat to oilsands, government told
Posted by Times Colonist: Chris Schwarz on December 6th, 2010
Times Colonist: Senior bureaucrats have told Environment Minister John Baird and the Harper government that stringent international climate-change policies are no threat to Alberta’s oilsands industry, Postmedia News has learned.
In internal briefing notes, officials from Environment Canada said that aggressive policies from the state of California are in fact consistent with Canada’s existing global-warming pollution goals.
The documents, released through access-to-information legislation, were based on an...
Alarmist Doomsday warning of rising seas ‘was wrong,’ says Met Office study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 6th, 2010
Daily Mail: Alarming predictions that global warming could cause sea levels to rise 6ft in the next century are wrong, it has emerged.
The forecast made by the influential 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which would have seen cities around the world submerged by water, now looks 'unlikely`.
A Met Office study also rules out the shutdown of the Atlantic Ocean`s conveyor belt, which would trigger Arctic winters in Britain like those seen in the film The Day After Tomorrow.
Only in the...
Turner urges global one-child policy to save planet
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 6th, 2010
Globe and Mail: Climate change and population control can make for a politically explosive mix, as media mogul Ted Turner demonstrated Sunday when he urged world leaders to institute a global one-child policy to save the Earth's environment.
Mr. Turner spoke at a luncheon where economist Brian O'Neill from the U.S.'s National Center for Atmospheric Research unveiled his study on the impact of demographic trends on future greenhouse gas emission, a little-discussed subject given its political sensitivity.
Mr....