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Pope Francis: ‘if we destroy creation, creation will destroy us’
Posted by Blue and Green: Tom Revell on May 22nd, 2014
Blue and Green: Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic church, made a religious case for acting against climate change in front of a large crowd that had gathered in Rome on Wednesday. In a short address, the pope talked about the biblical story of creation, as it is told in the book of Genesis, and of “the beauty of nature and the grandeur of the cosmos”. Then, he spoke of “the risk of considering ourselves masters of creation”. “Creation is not a property, which we can rule over at will, or, even less, is the...
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We need three more planets sustain human life, says NASA scientist
Posted by Blue and Green: Tom Revell on March 23rd, 2014
Blue and Green: If the human race continues expanding, fuelling climate change, and using resources at its current rate, it will eventually need to colonise three more planets to sustain itself, a NASA scientist has claimed.
“The entire ecosystem is crashing”, Dennis Bushnell, chief scientist of NASA’s Langley Research Centre, said on Thursday.
“We have freshwater problems, deforestation, pollution, fish stocks, on and on and on […] Essentially, there’s too many of us. We’ve been far too successful as the...
Climate change affecting deepest depths of Antarctic ocean, study finds
Posted by Blue and Green: Tom Revell on March 4th, 2014
Blue and Green: The impacts of climate change are being felt at even the deepest depths of the Antarctic ocean, a new study has found, in a discovery that may explain a 40 year old mystery.
In the mid-1970s, the first satellite images to be studied of Antarctica during the polar winter discovered a strange phenomenon. In the Weddell Sea, researchers noticed a huge ice-free region – known as a polynia – that remained open for three winters.
Scientists found that the polynia was kept open by warm waters that...
Reliance on fewer crops increase climate change food security threat
Posted by Blue and Green: Tom Revell on March 4th, 2014
Blue and Green: As people from all corners of the world are living off an increasingly similar diet, decreasing crop diversity is making the global food system more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, a new study has warned.
The study, which is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, claims to be the first to quantify the effects of a trend towards a unified international diet over the last 50 years.
"Over the past 50 years, we are...
Los Angeles moves towards fracking ban after environmental concerns
Posted by Blue and Green: Tom Revell on March 2nd, 2014
Blue and Green: The city council of Los Angeles has voted to start drafting rules that would ban the controversial process of fracking within its jurisdiction.
Following concerns raised by residents and campaigners, the council has taken the first steps on the way to a ban that would stand until city politicians are certain of the environmental impacts of the process.
Fracking works by blasting rocks with water and chemicals, which then fracture the rocks and release the natural gas contained within them....
Melting of Antarctica’s Pine Island glacier may continue for ‘centuries’
Posted by Blue and Green: Tom Revell on February 21st, 2014
Blue and Green: The rapidly melting Pine Island glacier in West Antarctica may be the biggest contributor to rising sea levels over the next few decades, a new study has suggested.
The research, published in the journal Science, found that the largest glacier in Antarctica may be recreating 8,000-year-old history. Scientists from the US, UK and Germany found that the glacier also thinned in the Early Holocene, in a melt that may have lasted for centuries.
The Pine Island glacier has currently been thinning...
UK weather: changing jet stream linked to flooding crisis
Posted by Blue and Green: Tom Revell on February 17th, 2014
Blue and Green: The system of winds that is responsible for bringing weather to Northern Europe and North America may be changing, new research has found.
A study suggests that the jet stream, a high-speed air current that carries weather around the globe, is taking a longer, more meandering route than usual. This means that weather patterns will remain the same in some areas for longer periods.
If accurate, these findings could explain the recent stormy spell that has brought devastating flooding to many...
Lord Stern’s climate change warning: warmer and wetter UK ‘not a coincidence’
Posted by Blue and Green: Tom Revell on February 14th, 2014
Blue and Green: The record-breaking weather and severe flooding currently affecting many areas of the UK are part of an escalating trend, a leading economist and expert on climate change has warned.
Writing for the Guardian Lord Stern, the chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics, describes the possible consequences of ignoring this pattern.
“Four of the five wettest years recorded in the UK have occurred from the year 2000 onwards. Over...
UK weather: heavy rainfall and severe gales means southern disruption continues
Posted by Blue and Green: Tom Revell on February 8th, 2014
Blue and Green: Forecasters have warned of the likelihood of further flooding in parts of the south-west, with severe gales and heavy rainfall set to cause further disruption.
The warnings come after prime minister David Cameron pledged to take all the necessary steps to help residents in the flood-stricken Somerset Levels. The situation in the region has become so severe that Royal Marines have been deployed to maintain overwhelmed flood defences, while many residents have been urged to leave their homes.
Cameron...