Ocean acidification: one less thing to worry about

Last year wettest on record, say US figures
NEW YORK: US government figures for the global climate show that last year was the wettest on record, matching 2005 as the Hottest year since record-keeping began in 1880. The new figures confirm that 2010 will go down as one of the more remarkable years in the annals of Climatology. It featured prodigious snowstorms that broke seasonal records in the United States and Europe; a record-shattering summer Heat Wave that scorched Russia; strong floods that drove people from their homes in places li...

Low Carbon-Emission Foods: Bugs, Worms, In-Vitro Meats
Environmentalists need to keep moving from one hysteria to the next, mostly to be sure to milk research dollars from all available teats. It’s what’s for dinner!   Because there are way too many of us to suit the “green” crowd, we are now told we are going to have to develop a fondness for bugs, worms, grubs and all many of creepy-crunchies  and “in-vitro” meat??!!   From Mongabay: Scientists in the Netherlands have discovered that ins...

Sanctuary Belize and Ted Danson Excited About Belize's Sea Protection
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Sanctuary Belize a leader in Belize Real Estate eco-friendly growth is pleased to announce a new ban on trawling in the crystal blue Caribbean waters of our country. This ban will be key to the growth of Belize as the premiere destination for environmentally concerned investors. This complete and permanent ban is a very important step toward safeguarding the world's oceans, and we feel it is significant that Belize, a country so focused on respecting an...

Report from 2050: Our Acid Seas
" About 25 percent of the world's emissions of Carbon Dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, are absorbed by the seas, where it converts to carbonic acid," according to the Reuters article. "The pH value of the oceans, a scale from alkaline to acidic, has fallen 30 percent since the Industrial Revolution in a shift to acidity. " But neither the world's leaders nor the general public listened to such warnings, and as a result, the world's Coral Reefs and commercial fish stocks have been devastated. ...

Climate: Unstoppable Global Warming
One of the biggest obstacles to reducing Carbon Emissions is the simple fact that political time and climatological time are very, very different. Politicians in elected democracies think on two- or four-year cycles—if that—while even the leaders of an autocratic state like China, without the pressures of an election, are still limited in just how far ahead they can plan. That's not just politics—that's Human Psychology. We tend not to be very good at planning for the future...

Brisbane a 'war zone' as huge flood smashes city
Australia's third-largest city Brisbane was turned into a "war zone" Thursday with whole suburbs under water and infrastructure smashed as the worst flood in decades hit 30,000 properties. Shocked evacuees surveyed the damage after floods that have swept eastern Australia peaked about a metre (three feet) below feared levels around dawn, sparing thousands more properties in the besieged river city. Queensland's tearful state premier Anna Bligh said relief was tinged with despair at the damage to...

Effective media reporting of sea level rise projections: 19892009
We have a new, peer-reviewed paper just out on media coverage of Climate Change, specifically Sea Level rise to 2100. We find that overall the major print media in the US and UK has done a nice job reporting on this topic. This post describes our paper and its findings. The image above comes from the paper and shows (a) media reports of predicted Sea Level rise to 2100, (b) IPCC projections of Sea Level rise to 2100, and (c) projections of Sea Level rise to 2100 found in the peer-reviewed lite...

Bioengineered Salmon: California State Bill Seeks Clear Label
© Rich Pedroncelli / AP Assemblyman Jared Huffman on his bill: "This is not a new issue." Assemblyman Jared Huffman isn't taking any chances. If the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves a bid to allow the human consumption of genetically engineered Atlantic salmon, the San Rafael Democrat wants every Californian to know what he or she is getting at the checkout aisle. Consumers have the right to know if their food comes from the wild or was bioengineered , said Huffman, who introd...

Brisbane a 'war zone' as huge flood smashes city
Australia's third-largest city Brisbane resembled a "war zone" Thursday with whole suburbs under water and infrastructure smashed as the worst flood in decades hit 30,000 properties. Shocked evacuees surveyed the damage after floods that have swept eastern Australia peaked about a metre (three feet) below feared levels around dawn, sparing thousands more properties in the besieged river city. Queensland's tearful state premier Anna Bligh said relief was tinged with despair at the damage to homes...

U.S. court denies Texas attempt to delay CO2 rules
Texas, which has refused to adopt rules on emissions blamed for warming the planet, sued the Environmental Protection Agency to prevent it from issuing greenhouse gas permits. The EPA has required states since January 2 to begin issuing greenhouse gas permits for the biggest Polluters, such as oil refineries, coal-burning Power Plants and cement and glass makers. Texas, home to hundreds of plants that would be subject to the regulations, said the rules would hurt its economy. The EPA said it wo...

It's Getting Hot in Here: 2010 Temperatures Hit Record High
Global temperatures in 2010 tied 2005 for the warmest on record, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said Wednesday. Last year's average temperature was about 1.34 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the average global Surface Temperature from 1951 to 1980, NASA said. The next warmest years on record were 1998, 2002, 2003, 2006 and 2007. NASA's findings will likely further stir debate over whether human activity is increasing temperatures and jeopardizing global habitats. Some ...

Illinois Taxes Rising; Wisconsin Hopes To Benefit
Illinois lawmakers have voted to increase the state's Income Tax almost 67-percent to help reduce the state estimated 15-billion dollar Budget Deficit.  Illinois Governor Pat Quinn supports the move, and promises to sign the measure.. Illinois is a fiscal mess. The state is months behind in paying it's bills and it's not just vendors and social service agencies waiting to be paid, but schools and local governments, too. The state's been borrowing so much and racking up such a huge Debt that Ill...

Russia to reopen space tourism in 2013: company
Russia will reopen its Soyuz space ships to paying tourists in 2013 after a hiatus since 2009, the US-based company that organises the trips with Russia's space agency said Wednesday. From 2013, three space tourists per year will be able to book seats on Soyuz flights to the International Space Station (ISS), the Virginia-based company, Space Adventures, said in a statement. The company has signed an agreement with the Russian space agency and Energia, the state-owned company that designs the ...

Bank bonuses in Britain: Do the maths
IT HAS become a seasonal blood sport. Around this time for three years now, Britons have got spitting mad about financiers’ bonuses. This season promises to be as gory as ever. An expected £7 billion ($11 billion) Bonus round in the City of London will be paid just as a wave of public-spending cuts are about to bite. The spectacle of binmen being sacked just as traders toast their own brilliance over £10,000 bottles of wine won’t be pretty. But before politicians unleash rh...

They Cab't Help It - Anti-Palin Posters
Like drug addicts and psycho killers, they just can't help themselves. It's a Mental Illness.   Palin artwork: Eddie; photo credit: Brian Reynard Anti-Palin Posters Appear Overnight  SFist hat tip Van We feel for Sarah Palin. We do. The Arizona shooting rampage was neither her fault nor the fault of Tea Party members. It just wasn't. (Championing a party that, at its core, centers around a collective dislike of President's Barack Obama's melanin levels? Sure, th...

Floodwater threatens overwhelming damage to Great Barrier Reef
Australia's great Barrier Reef, one of the ecological wonders of the world, may also be severely affected by the Queensland floods. The pristine waters of the vast 1,400-mile reef system, home to thousands of exotic and often endangered marine species, from whales and dolphins, Seabirds and tropical fish to tiny coral polyps, are threatened by huge volumes of polluted floodwater flowing out from the coast. Already the brown flood "plume" has been detected offshore over a huge expanse of sea, ...

'Everything dead by tomorrow!' warns Zoological Society of London
Eeeek! I think I'm dying.... The Zoological Society of London has drawn up a Hit List of the 10 attractive coral species most likely to die quite soon. Well, of course it has. Nothing suits the ZSL’s spirit of misanthropy and catastrophism better than another mournful litany of all the species loss which is bound to occur as a result of mankind’s ongoing crime of having the temerity to exist. Look: those of us on the other side of the argument like corals too. The difference is...

How to save the world's corals
The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) has launched a new campaign to draw attention to the plight of the world's Coral Reefs. The society's EDGE Coral Reefs project lists the top 10 Endangered Species in the face of myriad threats including Pollution and Global Warming. Ranging from brain-like mounds to tentacled forests, coral represents some of the most breathtakingly beautiful species in the world's seas. Rachel Jones, senior aquarium keeper at London Zoo, told BBC News why it...

Parts of Brisbane to evacuate as floods threaten
Thousands of people fled central Brisbane after terrifying Flash Floods nearby. Photograph: Eddie Safarik/AFP/Getty Images Police are warning people to evacuate parts of Brisbane, Australia's third largest city, as floodwaters which have claimed nine lives since Monday surged towards the Queensland state capital. "We are now in a very frightening experience," Bligh said. "Can I appeal to everybody that at times like this we need to all make an effort to stay calm, to be patient and to stick ...

Sports Illustrated - Wrong on Auburn, Wrong on Global Warming
            Undefeated Auburn beat Oregon to win the BCS championship last night, yet Sports Illustrated magazine failed to include Auburn in its Preseason top 25.  Believe it or not, this was far from SI’s silliest error in recent years.  The magazine was even further off the mark with its March 12, 2007 cover story on Global Warming. Yes, SI devoted an entire story to global warming, and in particular its impact on sports.  The

Australia Floods: From Bad to Worse
Today is another miserable day for the flood-stricken areas of Queensland, with parts of Brisbane's outskirts and city center being evacuated after the Brisbane river burst its banks. Local reports say the roads that haven't been closed due to Flooding are choked with fleeing residents. Yesterday, Flash Floods roaring through a valley nearby,  crashing through the nearby city of Toowoomba and bringing the death tool from the ongoing floods to 18, with scores more still missing. Early Tuesda...

Something topical
The Northern Hemisphere is having an old fashioned winter. I thought it might be of interest to look back at history for any lessons that might be there. I think that we already have enough data to work out what drives the climate system. The Arctic Oscillation Index compares mid latitude Sea Level pressure with Sea Level pressure in the Arctic. There are other useful ways to compute the index based upon atmospheric phenomena that vary with the index but this is the simplest way to think of it. ...

Climate Disasters: New Baylor Study Explores How People Respond
New results from a Baylor University study show that different behaviors and strategies lead some families to cope better and emerge stronger after a weather-related event. Dr. Sara Alexander, an applied social anthropologist at Baylor who conducts much of her research in Central America, studied different households in several coastal communities in Belize. While Climate Change has been an emerging topic of interest to the world community, little scientific data exists on exactly how people res...

Ice Volcano on Saturn's Moon Titan
© NASA/JPL-Caltech/USGS/University of Arizona Based on data from NASA's Cassini Spacecraft, this image shows an area of Saturn's moon Titan, known as Sotra Facula. Scientists believe Sotra is the best case for a cryovolcano, or ice Volcano. The flyover shows two peaks more than 3,000 feet (about 1,000 meters) tall and multiple craters as deep as 5,000 feet (1,500 meters). The image also shows finger-like flows, which also indicate the presence of cryovolcanism. The 3-D topography comes f...

The NYT's Tale of Two Speeches: Angry, 'Accusatory' Palin Vs. Obama's 'Plea for Civility, Love and Compassion'
The NYT's Tale of Two Speeches: Angry, 'Accusatory' Palin Vs. Obama's 'Plea for Civility, Love and Compassion' The New York Times’s lead political blogger Michael Shear was predictably effusive toward Obama’s "soft and restrained" Wednesday night address to the nation, while showing resentment toward Palin’s "accusatory" Wednesday morning video defense of herself: “Obama and Palin, a Tale of Two Speeches.” The very p...