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-Jay Leno on the Tonight Show
-- President Bush, in response to Al Gore's documentary on global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth"
-- President Bush on how he is solving global warming in an interview with People magazine
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-- From "Fifty Ways to Help Save the Planet" in Vanity Fair's first-ever Green Issue.
Higher temperatures threaten dangerous consequences: drought, disease, floods, and the loss of precious endangered species. And amid the threat from rising oceans and extreme weather, global warning's effects have already begun.
But solutions are in sight: We know where most heat-trapping gases come from: power plants and vehicles. And we know how to curb their emissions: modern technologies and stronger laws.
The Climate Stewardship Act is the first step forward in Countering the Climate Crisis. This is a bill that makes sensible and affordable reductions in greenhouse gas pollution, and provides flexible solutions as a way of curbing costly environmental, public health, and economic damages.
Whenever you save energy--or use it more efficiently--you reduce the demand for gasoline, oil, coal, and natural gas. Less burning of these fossil fuels means lower emissions of carbon dioxide, the major contributor to global warming. Right now the U.S. releases about 40,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per person each year. If we can reduce energy use enough to lower greenhouse gas emissions by about 2% a year, in ten years we will "lose" about 7000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per person.
Here are 20 simple steps that can help cut your annual emissions of carbon dioxide by thousands of pounds. The carbon dioxide reduction shown for each action is an average saving.
HOME APPLIANCES
1.Run your dishwasher only with a full load. Use the energy-saving setting
to dry the dishes. Don't use heat when drying.
Carbon dioxide reduction: 200 pounds a year.
2.Wash clothes in warm or cold water, not hot.
Carbon dioxide reduction (for two loads a week): up to 500 pounds a
year.
3.Turn down your water heater thermostat; 120 degrees is usually hot
enough.
Carbon dioxide reduction (for each 10- degree adjustment): 500 pounds
a year.
HOME HEATING AND COOLING
4.Don't overheat or overcool rooms. Adjust your thermostat (lower
in winter, higher in summer).
Carbon dioxide reduction (for each 2-degree adjustment): about 500
pounds a year.
5.Clean or replace air filters as recommended. Cleaning a dirty air
conditioner filter can save 5% of the energy used.
Carbon dioxide reduction: About 175 pounds a year.
SMALL INVESTMENTS THAT PAY OFF
6.Buy energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs for your most-used
lights.
Carbon dioxide reduction (by replacing one frequently used bulb): about
500 pounds a year.
7.Wrap your water heater in an insulating jacket (but only if the water
heater is over 5 years old and has no internal insulation).
Carbon dioxide reduction: Up to 1000 pounds a year.
8.Install low-flow shower heads to use less hot water.
Carbon dioxide reduction: Up to 300 pounds a year.
9.Caulk and weatherstrip around doors and windows to plug air leaks.
Carbon dioxide reduction: Up to 1000 pounds a year.
10.Ask your utility company for a home energy audit to find out where
your home is poorly insulated or energy-inefficient.
Carbon dioxide reduction: Potentially, thousands of pounds a year.
GETTING AROUND
11.Whenever possible, walk, bike, carpool or use mass transit.
Carbon dioxide reduction (for every gallon of gasoline you save): 20
pounds.
12.When you buy a car, choose one that gets good gas mileage.
Carbon dioxide reduction (if your new car gets 10 mpg more than
your old one): about 2500 pounds a year.
REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE
13.Reduce waste: Buy minimally packaged goods; choose reusable products
over disposable ones; recycle.
Carbon dioxide reduction (if you cut down your garbage by 25%): 1000
pounds a year.
14.If your car has an air conditioner, make sure its coolant is recycled
whenever you have it serviced.
Equivalent carbon dioxide reduction: Thousands of pounds.
HOME IMPROVEMENTS
15.Insulate your walls and ceilings; this can save about 25% of
home heating bills.
Carbon dioxide reduction: Up to 2000 pounds a year.
16.If you need to replace your windows, install the best energy-saving
models.
Carbon dioxide reduction: Up to 10,000 pounds a year.
17.Plant trees next to your home and paint your home a light color if
you live in a warm climate, or a dark color in a cold climate.
Carbon dioxide reduction: About 5000 pounds a year.
18.As you replace home appliances, select the most energy-efficient
models.
Carbon dioxide reduction (if you replace your old refrigerator
with an efficient model): 3000 pounds a year.
SCHOOLS, BUSINESS, AND COMMUNITIES
19.Reduce waste and promote energy-efficient measures at your school
or workplace. Work in your community to set up recycling programs.
Carbon dioxide reduction (for every pound of office paper recycled):
4 pounds.
20.Be informed about environmental issues. Keep track of candidates'
voting records and write or call to express concerns.
Carbon dioxide reduction (if we vote to raise U.S. auto fuel efficiency):
Billions of pounds.
WASHINGTON, DC, January 24, 2002 (ENS) - Human activity has raised Earth's surface temperature during the last 130 years, finds a study published this month by the "Journal of Geophysical Research."
Dr. Robert Kaufmann of Boston University's Center for Energy and Environmental Studies and Dr. David Stern of the Australian National University's Centre for Resource and Environmental Study analyzed historical data for greenhouse gas concentrations, human sulfur emissions, and variations in solar activity between 1865 and 1990. The greenhouse gases studied included carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and chloroflurocarbons 11 and 12.
Using the statistical technique of cointegration, the scientists compared these factors over time with global surface temperature in both the northern and southern hemispheres. Cointegration techniques are not confused by variables that tend to increase or decrease over time or contain some poor measurements.
This is the first study to make a statistically meaningful link between human activity and temperature, independent of climate models, Kaufmann said.
The researchers found that eliminating any one variable - greenhouse gases, human sulfur emissions, or solar activity - made the errors larger. All of those factors taken together are needed to explain changes in Earth's surface temperature.
They also learned that the impact of human activity has been different in the two hemispheres. In the north, the warming effect of greenhouse gases was offset by the cooling effect of sulfur emissions, making the temperature effects difficult to observe.
In the southern hemisphere, where human sulfur emissions are lower, the effects are easier to see, the team wrote.
"The countervailing effects of greenhouse gases and sulfur emissions undercut comments by climate change skeptics, who argue that the rapid increase in atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases between the end of World War II and the early 1970s had little effect on temperature," said Kaufmann.
During this period, Kaufmann said, "the warming effect of greenhouse gases was hidden by a simultaneous increase in sulfur emissions. But, since then, sulfur emissions have slowed, due to laws aimed at reducing acid rain, and this has allowed the warming effects of greenhouse gases to become more apparent."
Doubling the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide from its preindustrial level - which is expected to happen over the next century - will increase will increase northern hemispheric temperature by 2.3 to 3.5 degrees Celsius (4.1 to 6.3 degrees Fahrenheit), the team said. In the southern hemisphere, the increase will be between 1.7 and 2.2 degrees Celsius (3.1 and four degrees Fahrenheit).
During the last ice age, more than 15,000 years ago, Earth's global temperature was only three to five degrees Celsius (five to nine degrees Fahrenheit) cooler than it is now.
SACRAMENTO, California, February 1, 2002 (ENS) - A decade long study of California children has produced the strongest evidence to date that ozone, found in smog, can cause asthma in children.
The study, funded by the California Environmental Protection Agency's Air Resources Board (ARB) and conducted by the University of Southern California (USC), concludes that children who compete in sports in communities with more heavily polluted air are more likely to be diagnosed with asthma than other children.
Children in communities with high average ozone levels who compete in three or more team sports have a three to four times higher risk of developing the respiratory illness than non-athletic kids, the researchers report in the February 2 issue of "The Lancet." The more sports children participate in, the greater the effect.
"This research suggests that contrary to conventional wisdom, ozone is involved in the causation of asthma," said Dr. Rob McConnell, associate professor of preventive medicine at USC's Keck School of Medicine and lead author of the study.
Previous studies have shown that ozone can aggravate existing cases of asthma. The new ARB-USC study, however, points to ozone as a cause of asthma in young people who did not have the disease before.
"We've known for some time that smog can trigger attacks in asthmatics," said ARB chair Dr. Alan Lloyd. "This study has shown that ozone can cause asthma as well."
Although asthma is the most common chronic disease of childhood, and the disease has been becoming more common for several decades, this is the first study to examine athletic activity, air pollution and the development of new onset asthma.
"Identifying potential causes of asthma is very important because eliminating the causative factors can prevent this life threatening disease," said Dr. John Peters, Hastings Professor of Preventive Medicine at the Keck School.
Athletes get a higher dose of pollutants to the lung, because they must breathe fast and deep. In addition, most sports are played outside, where ozone concentrations rise higher than they do indoors.
McConnell cautioned parents to be cognizant of air pollution levels when their children are exercising outdoors.
"The bottom line is this: exercise is really healthy for children, for many reasons, and children should be encouraged to play team sports," McConnell said. "But, on days when air pollution levels are expected to be high, children should limit prolonged outdoor exertion. Air quality forecasts can be found in newspapers, and on days when unhealthy air quality is predicted, state agencies send alerts to schools. If ozone is causing asthma then, ultimately, the solution is to reduce the levels of ozone."
The
research is part of the USC led Children's Health Study, an extensive investigation
into pollution and kids' respiratory health. More information on the Children's
Health Study is available at: http://arbis.arb.ca.gov/research/chs/chs.htm
HAMPTON, Virginia, February 1, 2002 (ENS) - Global warming reduced cloud cover over the tropics in the 1990s, researchers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said Thursday.
More sunlight entered the tropics and more heat escaped to space in the 1990s than in the 1980s, because less cloud cover blocked incoming radiation and trapped outgoing heat, the researchers said after examining 22 years of satellite measurements.
"Since clouds were thought to be the weakest link in predicting future climate change from greenhouse gases, these new results are unsettling," said Dr. Bruce Wielicki of NASA's Langley Research Center. Wielicki is the lead author of the first of two papers about this research appearing in today's issue of the journal "Science."
"It suggests that current climate models may, in fact, be more uncertain than we had thought," Wielicki added. "Climate change might be either larger or smaller than the current range of predictions."
The observations capture changes in the radiation budget - the balance between Earth's incoming and outgoing energy - that controls the planet's temperature and climate.
A research group at NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) developed a new method of comparing the satellite observed changes to other meteorological data.
"What it shows is remarkable," said Wielicki. "The rising and descending motions of air that cover the entire tropics, known as the Hadley and Walker circulation cells, appear to increase in strength from the 1980s to the 1990s. This suggests that the tropical heat engine increased its speed."
The faster circulation dried out the water vapor that is needed for cloud formation in the upper regions of the lower atmosphere over the most northern and southern tropical areas. Less cloudiness formed allowing more sunlight to enter and more heat to leave the tropics.
Several of the world's top climate modeling research groups tried to reproduce the tropical cloud changes in their computer models. The climate models failed the test, predicting smaller than observed variability by factors of two to four.
"It's as if the heat engine in the tropics has become less efficient using more fuel in the 1990s than in the 1980s," said Wielicki. "We tracked the changes to a decrease in tropical cloudiness that allowed more sunlight to reach the Earth's surface. But what we want to know is why the clouds would change."
The results also indicate the tropics are much more variable and dynamic than previously thought.
"The question is, if this fluctuation is due to global climate change or to natural variability," said Anthony Del Genio, a scientist at GISS and coauthor of the companion paper. "We think this is a natural fluctuation, but there is no way to tell yet."
While the current 22 year radiation budget record - the longest and most accurate ever compiled - is still too short to pinpoint a cause, the recorded change acts as a standard by which to measure future improvements in cloud modeling.
"A value of this research is it provides a documented change in climate and a target for climate models to simulate," said Del Genio.
More
information is available at: http://asd-www.larc.nasa.gov/ceres/ASDceres.html
Carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations have risen by more than 30 percent during the past two centuries. For many years, scientists believed these rising levels of carbon dioxide would benefit plants, because CO2 is one of the essential ingredients in photosynthesis, the process by which green plants use sunlight to manufacture the chemical energy they need. In laboratory experiments, plants first responded to a doubling of atmospheric CO2 levels by assimilating 30 percent more carbon. But within a few days or weeks, this accelerated rate of carbon processing dropped back to just 12 percent greater than normal.
"The results from our study indicate that carbon dioxide inhibition of nitrate assimilation contributes to this phenomenon and suggest two physiological mechanisms that may be responsible," said lead author Arnold Bloom, a professor in the UC Davis vegetable crops department.
Farmers and gardeners often apply nitrogen rich fertilizers to their crops, because nitrogen is key to producing proteins and nucleic acids such as DNA in plants. Bloom and his colleagues have been studying how crop plants respond to being fertilized with two different forms of nitrogen: nitrate and ammonium. In their new study, which appears in today's issue of the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences," the researchers found that nitrate fertilizer is not as efficient as ammonium fertilizer when atmospheric CO2 levels are higher than normal.
After growing wheat seedlings with either nitrate or ammonium under varying concentrations of CO2, the team discovered that elevated levels of CO2 inhibited the processing of nitrate in the wheat leaves in two ways. First, plants place a higher priority on storing and processing CO2 than they do nitrogen, so when carbon dioxide levels rose, some of the chemicals needed to assimilate the nitrate were already tied up in assimilating CO2. Second, to make use of nitrate, the plants have to convert nitrate into nitrite and then move the nitrite into structures within their cells called chloroplasts, which are the center for photosynthesis. Bloom's research indicated that elevated levels of CO2 interfered with the overall process of photosynthesis by blocking this transfer.
"We expect that the data from this study will have real world implications for crop production," Bloom said. "In well drained soils generally devoted to wheat production, nitrate is the common form of nitrogen available in the soil. This study suggests that a shift to increase ammonium availability might be needed."
As atmospheric CO2 levels continue to rise, nitrate sensitive plant and tree species in the wild could be at a competitive disadvantage to species that are either able to convert nitrate into amino acids in their roots or use ammonium as their predominant nitrogen source, Bloom added. This could change the distribution of plants in natural ecosystems.
The study was funded by the Department of Energy
and the National Science Foundation.
UPTON, New York, March 5, 2002 (ENS) - Aerosols - tiny particles of chemicals and other pollutants - make clouds reflect more sunlight, which could help cool Earth's climate, a new report suggests. This brightening effect must be considered by climate researchers working to assess the magnitude of global climate change, argue scientists studying the phenomenon.
Future volcanic eruptions, creating sulfuric acid clouds, may add to the ozone destroying power of polar stratospheric clouds, say researchers from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
An ozone hole could form over the North Pole after future major volcanic eruptions, argues the cover story in today's edition of the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences." Since the 1980s, a seasonal ozone hole, characterized by severe loss of ozone, has appeared over the continent of Antarctica. However, scientists have not yet observed, on an annual basis, as severe a thinning of the protective ozone layer in the atmosphere over the Arctic. The ozone layer shields life on Earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation. A northern ozone hole could be significant since more people live in Arctic regions than near the South Pole.
"A 'volcanic ozone hole' is likely to occur over the Arctic within the next 30 years," said Azadeh Tabazadeh, lead author of the paper and a scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center. "If a period of high volcanic activity coincides with a series of cold Arctic winters, then a springtime Arctic ozone hole may reappear for a number of consecutive years, resembling the pattern seen in the Antarctic every spring since the 1980s," Tabazadeh added. "Unlike the Antarctic where it is cold every winter, the winter in the Arctic stratosphere is highly variable."
NASA satellite and airborne observations show that significant Arctic ozone loss occurs only following very cold winters, according to Tabazadeh. Large volcanic eruptions pump sulfur compounds into the Earth's atmosphere. These compounds form sulfuric acid clouds similar to polar stratospheric clouds made of nitric acid and water. The clouds of nitric acid and water form in the upper atmosphere during very cold conditions and play a major part in the destruction of ozone over Earth's poles.
Following eruptions, volcanic sulfuric acid clouds would boost the ozone destroying power of polar stratospheric clouds, the researchers said. "Volcanic aerosols also can cause ozone destruction at warmer temperatures than polar stratospheric clouds, and this would expand the area of ozone destruction over more populated areas," Tabazadeh said.
"Nearly one-third of the total ozone depletion could
be a result of volcanic aerosol effects at altitudes below about 17 kilometers
(11.5 miles)," the researchers wrote. "Climate change combined with
aftereffects of large volcanic eruptions will contribute to more ozone
loss over both poles," Tabazadeh concluded. "This research proves
that ozone recovery is more complex than originally thought."
WASHINGTON, DC, March 11, 2002 (ENS) - Global warming could shift the ranges of many songbirds - leaving some U.S. states without their official state birds, warns a new study. Climate models project that the range of some state birds could shrink or shift entirely outside of the states they represent, including Baltimore orioles in Maryland, purple finches in New Hampshire, and California quail in California.
WASHINGTON, DC, May 16, 2002 (ENS) - Hungry polar bears are one of the early signs that global warming is impacting Arctic habitat, suggests a new study from World Wildlife Fund. The report reviews the threats faced by the world's 22,000 polar bears and highlights growing evidence that human induced climate change is the number one long term threat to the survival of the world's largest land based carnivores.
NEW YORK, New York, June 17, 2002 (ENS) - Over the next 20 years some 60 million people in northern Africa are expected to leave the Sahelian region if desertification there is not halted, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today. June 17 is the day set aside each year by the UN as World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, twin problems that must be solved if world hunger is to be relieved, Annan said.
WASHINGTON, DC, June 25, 2002 (ENS) - The changing, warming climate around the globe is triggering unprecedented numbers of disease outbreaks in both land and ocean based wildlife populations in habitats ranging from coral reefs to rainforests. Ecologists and epidemiologists express concern over this rising trend in a new report in the June 21 issue of the journal "Science."
WASHINGTON, DC, July 19, 2002 (ENS) - In one more piece of evidence
that the Earth's climate is warming rapidly, a new study published today
in "Science" magazine has found that Alaska's glaciers are melting more
quickly than previously believed.
PANAMA CITY, Panama, August 7, 2002 (ENS) - Human activities are changing the global climate, and these changes are having far reaching effects on tropical forests, according to scientists from around the world gathered here last week for the Association for Tropical Biology annual meeting.
WASHINGTON, DC, August 14, 2002 (ENS) - Climate change will create increasing challenges to U.S. coastal and marine ecosystems over the next century, warns a new report from the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. Temperature changes, altered patterns of rain and snowfall, and rising sea level are expected to upset the delicate balance of fragile coastal ecosystems.
CAMBRIDGE, UK, September 10, 2002
(ENS) - Global warming is changing the life patterns of marine species
in Antarctica as fast, if not faster than anyplace on Earth, say scientists
from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). Thousands of Antarctic marine
species, adapted to constant temperatures for millions of years, now appear
to be uniquely vulnerable in the face of predicted temperature change,
new research reveals.http://ens-news.com/ens/sep2002/2002-09-10-04.asp
ZURICH, Switzerland, October 7, 2002 (ENS) - Climate
change is causing natural disasters that the financial services industry
must address, a group of the world's biggest banks, insurers and re-insurers
warned today. They estimated the cost of financial losses from events
such as this summer's devastating floods in central Europe at $150 billion
over the next 10 years. http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2002/2002-10-07-02.asp
" In all serious diseases we find a low oxygen state...Low oxygen in the body is a sure indicator for disease...Hypoxia, or lack of oxygen in the tissues, is the fundamental cause for all degenerative disease."
The fossil record shows us the earth's atmosphere was 40% oxygen. You'll
be shocked to know it's dwindled to
just 12%! Prior to 1905 virtually no one had cancer. Today, one
third of Americans have cancer and within the next five
years it's estimated that half of the American population will have
some form of cancer. That's one in two people living today!
"The growth of cancer cells is initiated by a relative lack of oxygen. Cancer cannot live in an oxygen rich environment."
Add these to the list of oxygen reducers...
o Stress: produces adrenalin causing the body to lower its oxygen reserve.
o Junk food: low in oxygen it causes the body to use oxygen to oxidize
preservatives and free radicals.
o Drinking coffee, alcohol, and colas: high caloric content makes the
body use oxygen to oxidize and metabolize these beverages.
No vitamin, mineral or herb can properly metabolize when the body is
in a state of oxygen deprivation.
DAVIS, California, November 7, 2002 (ENS) - Warmer winter temperatures may allow invasive species to become established and even dominate marine communities, according to new research by a marine biologist from the University of California at Davis. A second study by researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara, also suggests that global warming affects different coastal species in different ways.
"The spread of exotic species and climate change are serious threats to the environment, yet little research has addressed the interaction of these two factors," said assistant professor John Stachowicz. "Our findings suggest that global warming may help invasive species establish in new territory, accelerating the homogenization of the world's ecosystems."
Since 1991, Stachowicz and colleagues have monitored the offspring of sea squirts, or ascidians, on the Connecticut coast. Comparing this 12 year record with corresponding surface water temperatures, the authors found that:
A second study published last week in the journal "Science" indicates that global warming may change marine ecosystems at certain northern shoreline sites within the next three to five years. This is partly due to the timing of the tides, the researchers said.
"Because they are assumed to live very close to their thermal tolerance limits, organisms inhabiting the rocky intertidal zone have emerged in recent years as potential harbingers of the effects of climate change on species distribution," explain the authors, three of whom are from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Coauthor Carol Blanchette, a researcher with the Marine Science Institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara, said that neither air nor water temperatures alone are good proxies for body temperatures in intertidal organisms. Multiple climatic factors drive body temperature and the pattern of exposure to these conditions is influenced by shifts in the tidal cycle with latitude.
The researchers put temperature recorders, modified to match the temperatures of living mussels, in mussel beds at eight sites spanning 14 degrees of latitude ranging from northern Washington to Point Conception, California and measured temperatures over the course of a year. They found that Lompoc Landing, California, one of the more southern sites, was very similar in temperature to Tatoosh Island, Washington - the northernmost site where instruments were deployed. In several cases the animals in southern sites are submerged in the afternoon.
"As a result, even if terrestrial climatic conditions become progressively hotter as one moves south along the West Coast, as they likely do, animals at southern sites may be afforded considerable protection by being submerged during the hottest parts of the day," explain the authors.
The article states that "an examination of tidal height predicts that maximum
exposure at many northern Washington sites will occur in 2003. Indeed,
large mussel mortality events occurred in the summer of 2002 in both Washington
and Oregon. These results suggest that, all other factors being equal,
the relative level of thermal stress observed between these sites will
vary markedly over time."
WASHINGTON, DC, December 2, 2002 (ENS) - Perennial sea ice - the floating ice that remains year round near the Arctic Circle - could vanish entirely by the end of this century, warns a new study by researchers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The NASA study concludes that sea ice is now melting about nine percent faster than prior research had indicated, due to rising temperatures and interactions between ice, ocean and the atmosphere.
TORONTO, Ontario, Canada, December 2, 2002 (ENS) - Western Canada is warming up, and will continue to grow warmer at the same time as snow accumulates ever deeper on the ground, says a Canadian-Swiss research team. Analysis of an ice core drilled from Canada's highest mountain indicates that western Canada has experienced significant climate change over the past 150 years, according to their scientific study published in the journal "Nature."
PALO ALTO, California, December 6, 2002 (ENS)- Multiple environmental changes, not just increased carbon dioxide (CO2) levels, must be considered in assessing the impacts of climate change on ecosystems, conclude researchers at Stanford University. The research, conducted in a grassland at Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve in California by scientists of Stanford University, the Carnegie Institution and The Nature Conservancy, concluded that elevated atmospheric CO2 reduces plant growth when combined with other expected consequences of climate change, such as higher atmospheric temperatures, increased precipitation or increased nitrogen deposition. Findings from the three year study appear in today's issue of the journal "Science."
Stanford researcher Nona Chiarello and Nature Conservancy scientist Rebecca Shaw analyze plant growth at one of 36 plots in the Jasper Ridge Global Climate Experiment. The plots are given high levels of water, heat, carbon dioxide and nitrogen in different combinations to simulate predicted global climate change in the next hundred years. Previous experiments in global environmental change have studied the impact of just one or two environmental factors at a time, such as elevated atmospheric CO2, atmospheric warming or both. The Jasper Ridge study examined an unprecedented four realistic environmental changes at once, including warming, precipitation, nitrogen deposition and carbon dioxide.
Results from the multiple factor study show marked differences from simple combinations of single factor responses.
"This research indicates that you won't be able to predict ecosystem
responses to multiple environmental changes based on the responses
to single environmental changes," said Rebecca Shaw of The Nature
Conservancy and the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global
Ecology, and the paper's first author.
Christopher Field, a professor in Stanford's Department of Biological
Sciences, director of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global
Ecology Field, and a co-author of the "Science" study, noted that
most previous studies looked at the effects on CO2 "on plants in pots
or on very simple ecosystems and concluded that plants are going to
grow faster in the future."
"We got exactly the same results when we applied CO2 alone," Field
noted, "but when we included other realistic environmental changes -
warming, changes in nitrogen deposition, changes in precipitation -
the addition of CO2 actually suppressed plant growth."
The study suggests that carbon sequestration by plants and soils, one
major strategy for slowing global warming, may be less effective than
has been estimated. Some scientists and policy makers have been
hopeful that more CO2 in the atmosphere would lead to enhanced
plant productivity, enhanced plant productivity would take more
CO2 out of the air, and the CO2 would be stored or sequestered in
the plants.
But the results of Shaw and colleagues suggest that this fertilizing
effect of CO2 may be less than expected, and even absent under
some circumstances. Under some environmental conditions in the
Jasper Ridge experiments, increased CO2 suppressed, rather than
enhanced, plant production.
"The results of this study demonstrate that we can't rely on natural,
unmanaged ecosystems to save us by pulling CO2 out of the
atmosphere." said Shaw. "These results do not imply that carbon
sequestration as a mitigation tool to slow rising concentrations of
greenhouse gases lacks value, but that we may need to be more
aggressive and selective about where we rely on carbon
sequestration if we are to slow global warming."
Co-author Harold Mooney, the Paul S. Achilles Professor of
Environmental Biology at Stanford, cautioned that "there is still a lot
to learn about the factors that regulate global climate change."
"But we also know a lot already, more than enough to engage in a
serious discussion about action to reduce CO2 emissions from
burning fossil fuels and clearing forests," Mooney added.
WASHINGTON, DC, December 9, 2002 (ENS) - More ice melted from the surface of the Greenland Ice Sheet this year than ever before recorded, report scientists from the University of Colorado. The same team found that the extent of Arctic sea ice reached the lowest level in the satellite record in 2002, offering further evidence that climate change is already altering the Arctic.
http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2002/2002-12-09-06.asp
SAN FRANCISCO, California, December 9, 2002 (ENS) - The
effects of global climate change could be more abrupt and more
catastrophic than many scientists have predicted, warns a Penn State
climatologist.
Debate in the U.S. over climate change often focuses on whether
things will be as bad as some scientists say they will be. Dr. Richard
Alley of Penn State says the more important question may be
whether researchers are confident that things will be as good as they
are predicting.
"I am not an alarmist," said Dr. Alley, the Evan Pugh professor of
geosciences at Penn State. "Essentially, the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change is very good and is doing a very good job."
The IPCC is under the auspices of the World Meteorological
Organization and operates through the United Nations Environmental
Programme.
"What some policy makers are seeing as information on climate
change looks nicer than what is likely to happen," Alley said Saturday
at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San
Francisco. He was the Cesare Emiliani Lecturer at the conference.
Alley's concern is that what most policy makers hear is an executive
summary of an executive summary. This diluted, abstracted
information almost always shows a smooth curve of predicted climate
changes.
Alley, who chaired the National Research Council's Panel on Abrupt
Climate Change, is concerned that changes will be quicker and larger
than now predicted. The curve will be rough on a daily, monthly or
yearly basis, rather than the smooth curve that appears for predicted
aggregate data.
"If there is one thing we are almost positive of, it is that nature never
does anything smoothly," Alley said. "Scientists like to work from
models and our current models are really pretty good, but we find
that models do not make changes as big as nature did in the past.
Models are not as sensitive to change as nature is."
Given that the future could be quite challenging, it would be wise for
policy makers to start looking for ways that people can adapt when
climate changes, Alley said. He noted that there is ample historic
evidence of human groups who refused or were unable to adapt to
climatic changes, and their societies collapsed or failed, while other
groups adapted to the new environment and coped and sometimes
thrived.
Congress, federal agencies and even local governments who must
deal with these changes when they happen should look at ways to
plan for changes in water supply, crop production, heating oil
demand, flood control and other things likely to be affected by
climate change, Alley said. These groups should establish
contingencies to meet problems with scarcity of resources before
there is competition for these resources, he advised.
"Likely we will be surprised no matter how good our models are,"
Alley concluded, "and the IPCC and other governmental groups
need to plan for this surprise and deal with resource conflicts in a
progressive way."
WASHINGTON, DC,
December 11, 2002 (ENS) - Temperature data for the first 11 months of the
year show that the average global temperature is on the rise. The new data
indicates that 2002 will go down in the recordbooks as the second warmest
year to date, exceeded only by 1998, since recordkeeping of global temperatures
began in 1867.
http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2002/2002-12-11-10.asp
STANFORD, California, January 2, 2003 (ENS) - Hundreds of plant and animal species around the world are feeling the impacts of global warming, although the most dramatic effects may not be felt for decades, according to new research from a Stanford University team. They predict that a rapid temperature rise, together with other environmental pressures, "could easily disrupt the connectedness among species" and lead to numerous extinctions.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jan2003/2003-01-02-01.asp
CAMP SPRINGS,
Maryland, February 4, 2003 (ENS) - Droughts that spread across the United
States, southern Europe and southwest Asia over the past four years may
have been linked by a common thread: ocean conditions created by a warming
climate. A new study suggests that cold sea surface temperatures in the
eastern tropical Pacific and warm sea surface temperatures in the western
tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans worked together to cause widespread
drying.
http://ens-news.com/ens/feb2003/2003-02-04-06.asp
WASHINGTON, DC,
February 25, 2003 (ENS) - The pika - a small mammal that makes its home
on the talus slopes of western mountains in North America - may be one
of the first animals to fall victim to global warming, new research suggests.
A study published this month shows that global warming may have contributed
to local extinctions of American pika populations in the Great Basin area,
between the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains.
http://ens-news.com/ens/feb2003/2003-02-25-06.asp
New research suggests that warming oceans could cause "intense eruptions" of methane from the sea floor, leading to "catastrophic" global warming. Scientists have found new evidence indicating that during periods of rapid climate warming, methane gas has been released from the seafloor in intense eruptions. In a study published in the current issue of the journal "Science," Kai-Uwe Hinrichs and colleagues Laura Hmelo and Sean Sylva of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) provide a direct link between methane reservoirs in coastal marine sediments and the global carbon cycle, an indicator of global warming and cooling.
Molecular fossils from methane consuming bacteria found in sediments in the Santa Barbara Basin off California deposited during the last glacial period - 70,000 to 12,000 years ago - indicate that large quantities of methane were emitted from the seafloor during warmer phases of the last ice age. Methane, one of the major greenhouse gases, is stored on the seafloor as an ice like solid known as methane hydrate.
Previous evidence for such massive eruptions was based on isotopic properties of calcite shells of foraminifera, microscopic marine animals called forams. Because a variety of factors could lead to very similar signals in their shells, that evidence has remained controversial. The preserved molecular remnants found by the WHOI team result from bacteria that fed exclusively on methane and indicate that large quantities of this powerful greenhouse gas were present in coastal waters off California. The team studied samples that were deposited between 44,000 and 37,000 years ago.
"For the first time, we are able to clearly establish a connection between distinct isotopic depletions in forams and high concentrations of methane in the fossil record," said Hinrichs, an assistant scientist in the Institution's Geology and Geophysics Department. "The large amounts of methane presumably released during one event about 44,000 years ago suggest a mechanism different from those underlying the emissions at warmer periods, i.e. slow decomposition of methane hydrate triggered by warming of bottom waters," Hinrichs continued. "The sudden release of these enormous quantities of methane was probably caused by landslides and melting of the methane hydrate."
Since there was already indirect evidence of methane eruptions in the Santa Barbara Basin area, Hinrichs and colleagues looked for fossil remnants of bacteria that would have flourished only under high concentrations of methane. In a 44,000 year old sediment sample, a distinct type of biomarker representing bacterial communities that oxidize methane in the absence of oxygen provided evidence for an abrupt, catastrophic release of methane, presumably trapped as hydrate below the sea floor.
The WHOI team's data, from sediment cores taken by the Ocean Drilling Program off southern California, show that substantial quantities of methane were released at least several times during the past 60,000 years, leading to periodic fluctuations in the levels of methane in deep waters in the Santa Barbara Basin. The researchers say increased bottom water temperatures could mobilize or release large amounts of methane hydrate in shallow waters. According to some current estimates, there are about 10,000 billion tons of methane stored beneath the ocean and on continents.
In comparison, the contribution of humans to the atmosphere's inventory of greenhouse gases by fossil fuel burning amounts to about 200 billion tons of carbon in the form of carbon dioxide. If even a small portion of the stored methane were to escape into the atmosphere, the resulting greenhouse warming would be catastrophic.
"It was a surprise to find this sort of evidence," said Hinrichs, who was looking for evidence indicating mechanisms other than methane. "Although this research tells us something about the amount of methane consumed by bacteria in the ocean, it doesn't tell us anything about methane emissions into the atmosphere because neither forams nor methane biomarkers record the portion of methane that escaped out of the ocean." "But one thing is for sure," he said, "our results clearly show that relatively minor environmental changes can have a major impact on sensitive coastal regions with yet unknown consequences for climate and biota."
Hinrichs plans to look for similar evidence elsewhere to determine whether this process, as a driver of climate variation, happened simultaneously at other locations around the world. This work, he said, is just the beginning of better understanding of the role of methane in the carbon cycle and ultimately on climate on geologic time scales.
"We have a very poor understanding of the biogeochemical mechanisms that
control production, destruction and accumulation of methane in sediments
underlying the ocean," Hinrichs said. "We need to understand the big picture
of what drives methane and the carbon cycle and the actual impact of methane
emissions from hydrates on climate."
SILVER SPRING, Maryland, February 26, 2003 (ENS) -
Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) are using satellite data to monitor the long term effects of
heat stresses on several coral reefs throughout the world.
While the scientists have been monitoring the stresses for some time,
NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information
Service is now providing an operational product called "Degree
Heating Week".
A Degree Heating Week is designed to indicate the accumulated
stress experienced by coral reefs. For example, if the current
temperature of a reef site exceeds the maximum expected
summertime temperature by one degree Celsius, then the site
receives a rating of one DHW.
If the current temperature at the site is two degrees Celsius above the
maximum expected summertime temperature or one degree above
for a period of two weeks, the site would receive a rating of two
DHWs, and so on.
"Degree Heating Weeks (DHW) have been available experimentally
for some time," said Dr. Alan Strong, coordinator of Coral Reef
Watch at NOAA Satellites and Information. "Turning operational
means that coral reef managers and stake holders will now have up
to date, accurate, and reliable information on the status of their reefs
and may be able to take active measures to prevent further damage if
their site has a high DHW rating."
Using satellite derived information, DHWs monitor the cumulative
thermal stress of several coral reefs throughout the globe, including
Australia's Great Barrier Reef, Galapagos, the Bahamas, and others.
The extent and acuteness of thermal stress - key predictors of coral
bleaching - contribute to coral reef degradation worldwide.
Coral reefs compose a large and integral part of the coastal ocean,
supporting a variety of sea life and providing resources of significant
economic importance. Coral bleaching, caused by high water
temperatures, occurs as coral tissue expels zooxanthellae, a
symbiotic algae essential to coral survival that lives within the
structure of the coral.
NOAA Satellites and Information will provide continuous technical
support on a 24 hour, seven day basis, and will maintain a website
which will be updated twice a week. The agency is the nation's
primary source of space based meteorological and climate data.
NOAA Satellites and Information operates the nation's environmental
satellites, which are used for weather and ocean observation and
forecasting, climate monitoring and other environmental applications.
Applications include monitoring sea surface temperature, fire
detection, and measuring atmospheric ozone levels.
NEW YORK, New York, May 15, 2003 (ENS) - Black carbon particles of
soot are more plentiful in the world's atmosphere and contribute more to
climate change than was previously assumed by the Intergovernmental Panel
of
Climate Change (IPCC), a team of university and government researchers
has
found. They conclude that soot contributes about twice as much to warming
the climate than had been estimated by the IPCC.
The researchers, led by scientists from Columbia University and the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), concluded if these
microscopic soot particles are not reduced at least as quickly as light
colored
pollutants, the world could warm more quickly. Both soot and the light
colored
particles, most of which are sulfates, pose problems for air quality around
the
world.
The findings appear in the latest issue of the "Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences." The study is authored by James Hansen, Makiko
Sato, and others from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS)
and Columbia University, New York; Oleg Dubovik, Brent Holben and Mian
Chin of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland; and
Tica Novakov, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California.
"There is a pitfall, however, in reducing sulfate emissions without
simultaneously reducing black carbon emissions," Hansen said. Since soot
is
black, it absorbs heat and causes warming, he explains. Sulfate aerosols
are
white, reflect sunlight, and cause cooling. At present, the warming and
cooling
effects of the dark and light particles partially balance.
Sato, Hansen and colleagues used global atmospheric measurements taken
by
the Aerosol Robotic Network, a global network of more than 100 sun
photometers that measure the amount of sunlight absorbed by aerosols, fine
particles in the air, at wavelengths from ultraviolet to infrared.
The scientists compared the network data with Chin's global aerosol computer
model and a GISS climate model, both of which included sources of soot
aerosols consistent with the estimates of the Intergovernmental Panel of
Climate Change, a group of some 2,500 scientists from around the world.
The researchers found the amount of sunlight absorbed by soot was up to
four
times larger than previously assumed. This larger absorption is due in
part to
the way the tiny carbon particles are incorporated inside other larger
particles -
absorption is increased by light rays bouncing around inside the larger
particle,
the scientists said.
The larger absorption is attributable also to previous underestimates of
the
amount of soot in the atmosphere.
Black carbon or soot is generated from traffic, industrial pollution, outdoor
fires and household burning of coal and biomass fuels. Soot is a product
of
incomplete combustion, especially of diesel fuels, biofuels, coal and outdoor
biomass burning.
Emissions are large in areas where cooking and heating are done with wood,
field residue, cow dung and coal, at a low temperature that does not allow
for
complete combustion. The resulting soot particles absorb sunlight, just
as dark
pavement becomes hotter than light pavement, the research team explains.
The research was funded by NASA's Earth Science Enterprise which is
working to understand the Earth as an integrated system and to apply science
to improve the prediction of climate, weather, and natural hazards using
the
unique vantage point of space.
COLLEGE PARK,
Maryland, May 28, 2003 (ENS) - The growth of cities and industrial agriculture
is responsible
for more of the rise in temperature across the United States than scientists
previously believed,
according to a new study by scientists at the University of Maryland. They
found that land
use changes may account for up to half of the observed surface global warming.
http://ens-news.com/ens/may2003/2003-05-28-01.asp
WASHINGTON, DC, June 30, 2003 (ENS) – A new study of data
released by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) indicates that
President Bush's global warming plan will allow more greenhouse gas
pollution to occur at a faster rate than if the nation maintained the pollution
trends of the past five years.
The National Wildlife Federation analysis, “Beneath the Hot Air 2003,”
says that the administration’s goals are stated in terms of emissions
intensity – measured as the amount of U.S. greenhouse gases emitted per
dollar of economic output – and not in terms of actual emissions levels.
“This ‘intensity’ goal actually hides an emissions increase that is likely
to
be larger and faster than what we experienced in the past five years,”
the
report says. “Based on the White House’s predictions of economic
growth, the President’s target translates into an emissions increase of
13
percent over the next decade.”
If current trends were to continue for the next 10 years, the report says,
carbon dioxide emissions from energy would grow about 10.1 percent.
"The pollution increases we have seen for the past five years were bad
enough for the environment, but the White House's global warming plan
would allow more pollution to occur at an even faster rate," said Jeremy
Symons, climate change and wildlife manager for the National Wildlife
Federation.
"Suppressing the science on global warming doesn't hide the fact that the
President's misguided energy agenda and his efforts to relax enforcement
of the Clean Air Act will increase global warming pollution," Symons said.
The National Wildlife Federation released its first edition of “Beneath
the
Hot Air” last July to document that emissions growth had already slowed
below forecasted levels well before President George W. Bush pursued
voluntary agreements with industry.
"The administration has set the bar so low that it's impossible not to
meet
their goals," said Symons. "That may not stop them from trying to claim
credit in the future, even though they are not taking responsible action
to
reduce the nation's emissions."
The United States Senate is expected to vote in July on a alternate
bipartisan plan introduced by Senators Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut
Democrat, and John McCain, a Republican from Arizona, to reduce U.S.
emissions.
Read the document “Beneath the Hot Air” at:
http://www.nwf.org/nwfwebadmin/binaryVault/Beneathhotair200311.pdf.
Extreme weather prompts unprecedented global warming alert
03 July 2003
In an astonishing announcement on global warming and extreme weather,
the
World Meteorological Organisation signalled last night that the world's
weather is going haywire.
In a startling report, the WMO, which normally produces detailed scientific
reports and staid statistics at the year's end, highlighted record
extremes
in weather and climate occurring all over the world in recent weeks,
from
Switzerland's hottest-ever June to a record month for tornadoes in
the
United States - and linked them to climate change.
The unprecedented warning takes its force and significance from the
fact
that it is not coming from Greenpeace or Friends of the Earth, but
from an
impeccably respected UN organisation that is not given to hyperbole
(though
environmentalists will seize on it to claim that the direst warnings
of
climate change are being borne out).
The Geneva-based body, to which the weather services of 185 countries
contribute, takes the view that events this year in Europe, America
and Asia
are so remarkable that the world needs to be made aware of it immediately.
The extreme weather it documents, such as record high and low temperatures,
record rainfall and record storms in different parts of the world,
is
consistent with predictions of global warming. Supercomputer models
show
that, as the atmosphere warms, the climate not only becomes hotter
but much
more unstable. "Recent scientific assessments indicate that, as the
global
temperatures continue to warm due to climate change, the number and
intensity of extreme events might increase," the WMO said, giving a
striking
series of examples.
In southern France, record temperatures were recorded in June, rising
above
40C in places - temperatures of 5C to 7C above the average.
In Switzerland, it was the hottest June in at least 250 years, environmental
historians said. In Geneva, since 29 May, daytime temperatures have
not
fallen below 25C, making it the hottest June recorded.
In the United States, there were 562 May tornadoes, which caused 41
deaths.
This set a record for any month. The previous record was 399 in June
1992.
In India, this year's pre-monsoon heatwave brought peak temperatures
of
45C - 2C to 5C above the norm. At least 1,400 people died in India
due to
the hot weather. In Sri Lanka, heavy rainfall from Tropical Cyclone
01B
exacerbated wet conditions, resulting in flooding and landslides and
killing
at least 300 people. The infrastructure and economy of south-west Sri
Lanka
was heavily damaged. A reduction of 20-30 per cent is expected in the
output
of low-grown tea in the next three months.
Last month was also the hottest in England and Wales since 1976, with
average temperatures of 16C. The WMO said: "These record extreme events
(high temperatures, low temperatures and high rainfall amounts and
droughts)
all go into calculating the monthly and annual averages, which, for
temperatures, have been gradually increasing over the past 100 years.
"New record extreme events occur every year somewhere in the globe,
but in
recent years the number of such extremes have been increasing.
"According to recent climate-change scientific assessment reports of
the
joint WMO/United Nations Environmental Programme Intergovernmental
Panel on
Climate Change, the global average surface temperature has increased
since
1861. Over the 20th century the increase has been around 0.6C.
"New analyses of proxy data for the northern hemisphere indicate that
the
increase in temperature in the 20th century is likely to have been
the
largest in any century during the past 1,000 years."
While the trend towards warmer temperatures has been uneven over the
past
century, the trend since 1976 is roughly three times that for the whole
period.
Global average land and sea surface temperatures in May 2003 were the
second
highest since records began in 1880. Considering land temperatures
only,
last May was the warmest on record.
It is possible that 2003 will be the hottest year ever recorded. The
10
hottest years in the 143-year-old global temperature record have now
all
been since 1990, with the three hottest being 1998, 2002 and 2001.
The unstable world of climate change has long been a prediction. Now,
the
WMO says, it is a reality.
BOULDER, Colorado, July 25, 2003 (ENS) - Human related emissions are largely
responsible for an increase in the height of the tropopause - the boundary
between the two lowest of the atmosphere, according to research published
today in the journal Science. The researchers note that their study provides
additional evidence that emissions from power plants, automobiles, and
other human-related sources are having profound impacts on the atmosphere
and global climate.
"Although not conclusive in itself, this research is an important piece
in the jigsaw puzzle," explained Tom Wigley, a senior scientist with National
Center for Atmospheric Research and co-author of the article. "Determining
why the height of the tropopause is increasing gives us insights into the
causes of the overall warming of the lower atmosphere."
Although numerous past studies have pointed to human activities as a leading
cause of global warming, this is the first to evaluate impacts on the tropopause.
It also provides evidence that temperatures are rising in the troposphere,
the lowest layer in the atmosphere. The tropopause is situated at
the upper boundary of the troposphere, where temperatures cool with increased
altitude, and at the lower boundary of the stratosphere, where temperatures
warm with increased altitude.
Observations and climate models both show that the tropopause, which is
about five to 10 miles (eight to 16 kilometers) above Earth's surface depending
on latitude and season, has risen by several hundred feet since 1979.
This height increase does not directly affect Earth, the scientists say,
but is important as an indication that the troposphere is becoming warmer
and the stratosphere is becoming cooler. The results showed that
the depletion of stratospheric ozone combined with human emissions of greenhouse
gases accounted for more than 80 percent of the rise in the tropopause.
The study also gives support to scientists, including Wigley and lead author
Benjamin Santer of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, who believe
temperatures in the upper troposphere are increasing. Researchers have
been at odds over whether satellite data indicate that atmospheric temperatures
are rising or stable. "The increase in the height of the tropopause appears
to support the data set that shows the troposphere is warming," Wigley
said.
The threat has also caught the attention of ski resorts in the U.S.
Working with the National Ski Areas Association, many U.S.
ski resorts came together recently to officially endorse the McCain-Lieberman
Climate Stewardship Act:
http://actionnetwork.org/ct/d71G_Cp1gQLn/ski
** Global Warming: Undo It! **
Visit our campaign on the web at:
http://actionnetwork.org/ct/dp1G_Cp1gQL8/undoit
This link provides a better explanation:
http://www.whoi.edu/institutes/occi/currenttopics/abruptclimate_15misconceptions.html
Another study highlights the discrepancies between the measure of water
vapor concentration.
http://mitosyfraudes.8k.com/Calen/Landscheidt-1.html
The Denver Post, January 12, 2005
Where there was once cold, hard ice, there is now dirty slush and crumbling
rock. From the peaks and slopes of many of the world's most challenging
mountains, ice and snow are dripping away, reshaping the century-old sport
of alpinism and disquieting longtime mountain climbers.
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Hot
Water Ahead: Global Warming and Oceans