Sandra Postel - Humanity’s Growing Impact on the World’s Freshwater

As the human population has climbed past seven billion, and the consumption per person of everything from burgers to blue jeans has risen inexorably, the finiteness of Earth’s freshwater is becoming ever more apparent.

It takes water to make everything, and the explosion of demand for all manner of products is draining rivers, shrinking lakes and depleting aquifers.

Consider this—on average it takes 2,700 liters (713 gallons) to make a cotton shirt and 9,800 liters (2600 gallons) to make a pair of blue jeans. The cotton crops growing in farmers’ fields consume most of that water. A smaller share is used in the factories that churn out the clothes.

On any given day we’re likely wearing more than 15,000 liters (~4,000 gallons) worth of water. And if we slip on a pair of leather loafers, well, add another 8,000 liters (~2,100 gallons). It takes a lot of water to grow the grain to feed the cow whose skin is turned into shoes.

Read More:

http://ecowatch.org/2012/humanitys-growing-impact-on-the-worlds-freshwater/

Tuna and Mackerel Populations Have Reduced by 60% in the Last Century

A study shows that the impact of fishing for tuna and similar species during the last 50 years has lessened the abundance of all these populations by an average of 60%. Experts add that the majority of tuna fish have been exploited to the limits of sustainability.

The debate about the impact of fishing on different species has already gone on for 50 years. A recent study concluded that populations of tuna and similar species have been cut by 60% on average throughout the world over the last century.

The project published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal adds that most of these populations have been exploited to the limits of sustainability, and there are many species that have been overexploited.

The populations that have had their abundance most affected are cold water tuna, such as the Atlantic bluefin and the southern bluefin, which have decreased by 80%. These species are big, long-lived and high in economic value.

Read More:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120208103226.htm

CU-Boulder study shows global glaciers, ice caps, shedding billions of tons of mass annually

Earth's glaciers and ice caps outside of the regions of Greenland and Antarctica are shedding roughly 150 billion tons of ice annually, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder.

The research effort is the first comprehensive satellite study of the contribution of the world's melting glaciers and ice caps to global sea level rise and indicates they are adding roughly 0.4 millimeters annually, said CU-Boulder physics Professor John Wahr, who helped lead the study. The measurements are important because the melting of the world's glaciers and ice caps, along with Greenland and Antarctica, pose the greatest threat to sea level increases in the future, Wahr said.

The researchers used satellite measurements taken with the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, or GRACE, a joint effort of NASA and Germany, to calculate that the world's glaciers and ice caps had lost about 148 billion tons, or about 39 cubic miles of ice annually from 2003 to 2010. The total does not count the mass from individual glacier and ice caps on the fringes of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets -- roughly an additional 80 billion tons.

Read More:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-02/uoca-css020612.php

Gary Null, PhD., and Jeremy Stillman - The 12 Tipping Points

The 12 Tipping Points
By Gary Null, PhD., and Jeremy Stillman 

Currently, more than half of the population of the United States does not believe that Global Warming is real or that it is man-made. Most discussions involving our environment rest upon Global Warming as a single issue, however, we are confronted today with multiple environmental crises. Any one of these issues can cause extreme suffering and in some cases, cataclysmic devastation if they were to go so far as to tip. Hence, we present an exploration of these tipping points to better understand the dangers that we face and how to limit their negative consequences.

The Disruption of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (Not yet tipped)

Linking together the southern Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans is the Antarctic circumpolar current (ACC). The current moves west to east around the continent, displacing 34 billion gallons of water per second. Importantly, the ACC circulates nutrients to sustain trillions of phytoplankton near the water’s surface which absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. After soaking up the CO2, the phytoplankton sink to the cold ocean depths, creating what is known as a “carbon sink”. This process helps compensate for excess CO2 levels caused by the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation.  Many suspect that Global Warming could disrupt this sensitive cycle, weakening the current’s intensity and leading to an increase in carbon dioxide levels.  Research from 2008 indicated that, while the circumpolar current has shifted farther south over the course of a decade, its strength remains the same.

The Release of Methane Clathrates   (Not yet tipped)

Methane Clathrates refers to the huge supply of frozen methane found below the ocean floor and Arctic permafrost. Holding anywhere from 1- to 2.5-trillion tons of methane, these underground gas chambers continuously release methane into the atmosphere. As Global Warming causes permafrost to melt, the clathrates become more vulnerable to destabilization. Consequently, there is an increased risk of a significant methane discharge being sent into the atmosphere. Models predict that just one good-sized gaseous ejection could accelerate Global Warming by up to 25%.  The signs are there: methane released into the atmosphere has doubled over the last 150 years and recent measurements in clathrate hotspots including Alaska and Siberia showed that levels of the gas were 5 times greater than expected. What makes the situation even more concerning is the fact that methane is 20 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas.  

The Disruption of the Monsoon Season (Not yet tipped)

Global warming-induced changes to the monsoon season could cause dramatic decreases to the food supply for billions of Earth’s inhabitants. As the planet’s temperature rises, many scientists are predicting a shift in the course of monsoons and their accompanying rains.  Scientists predict that such a shift could mean much less rainfall in the Indian subcontinent as well as parts of Africa and Southwest Asia.  Since the agriculture of these areas is largely dependent on monsoon patterns, a disruption to this cycle could have a devastating effect food production. Experts also foresee an increased risk of wildfires as a result of this phenomenon.

El Niño (Not yet tipped)

El Niño refers to the increase in sea-surface temperatures that occurs in the Pacific Ocean approximately every five years.  This rise in sea temperatures has contributed to greater rainfall and flooding in South American nations such Peru and Ecuador and a higher risk of drought in the western Pacific countries including Indonesia and Ausralia.  Since 1976, the magnitude of this phenomenon has been observed to increase in scale, leading many to attribute El Niño to greenhouse warming.  Models indicate that El Niño may eventually become a more severe and persistent event, triggering record floods and blistering droughts year-round.  

The Shrinking of the Sahara Desert (Not yet tipped)

While the notion of the Sahara Desert transforming into a fertile, green territory does have its appeal, scientists warn that such a development – which could be a consequence of Global Warming- could dramatically alter world weather patterns. Transported thousands of miles by wind currents, the mineral-rich sand from Africa’s Sahara Desert is an important fertilizer of phytoplankton in the Atlantic as well as trees located in the Amazon rainforest.  Deprived of the Saharan sand, the phytoplankton and trees would be less efficient at soaking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. In addition, a portion of the sand that is swept up from the desert serves to reflect the sun’s rays and in effect, shields the Earth from the effects of Global Warming.  This airborne sand also works to curb the formation of hurricanes over the Atlantic. Strangely, a Sahara with less sand and more vegetation may in fact catalyze Climate Change, setting off more intense hurricanes and fostering more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Recent investigations using satellite imagery show that the Sahara has become greener over the last few decades. In 2009, a National Geographic article explained that in parts of Egypt and Sudan, trees such as acacias are beginning to thrive.  The report also mentions that nomads in the region have reported unprecedented rainfall in recent years.    

The Collapse of the Atlantic Thermohaline Circulation (Not yet tipped)

The Atlantic Thermohaline Circulation (THC) is another significant oceanographic phenomenon threatened by Climate Change.  Also known as the “conveyor belt”, the THC involves the exchange of dense, cold water from the polar north and warmer water flowing up from the tropics.  It is this circuit that moderates air and water temperatures in Northwestern Europe.  Some scientific models tell us that a collapse of this current due to rising sea temps related to Global Warming is real possibility. A significant THC slowdown could bring more extreme winter weather to England and Scandinavia.   A study from 2005 noted an abrupt 30% decrease in the speed of a central component of the THC.

The Collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (Tipping)

Spanning nearly 14 million square kilometers, the Antarctic Ice Sheet holds more than 90% of the world's surface freshwater. Many experts consider the status of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS), a segment of the ice cap which accounts for 10% for about its mass, as one of the foremost harbingers of Climate Change. Over the last half-century, the WAIS has experienced  an increase in temperature of 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit per decade- the biggest temperature increase on earth during that period. One key ice stream of the WAIS is known as the Pine Island Glacier.  Studies show the glacier at has melted at an accelerated rate over the last four decades.   In late 2011, researchers discovered that a 300 square mile chunk of the Pine Island Glacier is close to breaking off, raising more concern over the stability of the thinning ice sheet. A study published in January 2012 in the journal Nature Geoscience stated that even if all CO2 emissions were to come to a halt by 2100 and the planet's temperatures were to stabilize, regions such as Antarctica would continue to be affected for thousands of years by the circulation of warmer water currents. Another analysis by researchers at the University of Maryland published in 2011 determined that a rise in sea levels by just one tenth of a meter would result in over $2 billion dollars in damage to property and directly affect 68,000 in Washington D.C alone.

The Melting of Greenland’s Ice Sheet (Tipping)

The Greenland ice sheet accounts for 6% of all freshwater on the planet's surface.  If it were to melt entirely- which many scientists see as a real possibility-sea levels worldwide would rise by 23 feet, wreaking havoc on coastal populations around the globe.  As the effects of Global Warming have accelerated, so too has the melting of the ice sheet; one study observed that between 1996-2005, the rate of its disintegration doubled. It is thought that it would take a minimum of 60,000 years for the ice sheet to redevelop if it dissolves completely. A recent study utilizing satellite imagery to chart the loss of global ice mass shed light on the scale how Global Warming affects the planet's ice.  Undertaken by researchers at the University of Colorado-Boulder, the study found that approximately 4.3 trillion tons, or 1000 cubic miles of ice mass was lost between 2003 and 2010. Roughly 75% of this loss could be attributed to the Greenland Ice Sheet and Antarctica. This tipping point is highly interconnected with the Atlantic Thermohaline Circulation, as the water from this dwindling mass of ice could likely weaken the THC.

The Death of the Amazon Rainforest (Tipping)

Covering more than a billion acres with its lush, tropical vegetation, the Amazon rainforest plays a key role in regulating carbon dioxide levels by absorbing about one fifth of all the CO2 produced from the burning of fossil fuels. The compound effects of deforestation and Global Warming pose a major threat to the viability of the rainforest. As temperatures rise, the Amazon could morph into a vastly different landscape defined by much drier, savanna-like climes. Not only would the Amazon no longer absorb CO2, but the dead, rotting trees would release prodigious quantities of carbon into the air and contribute to more environmental upheavals.  The past decade has witnessed some of the driest years on record for the rainforest and one major drought that gripped the Amazon in 2005 resulted in the forest releasing more CO2 into the Earth’s atmosphere than it absorbed.

Deforestation stands out as the other major factor in this tipping point scenario. Models tell us that 20% deforestation could send the Amazon on an irreversible path to destruction. In 2011, the Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology estimated that more than 18% of the rainforest has already succumbed to deforestation.  Even if humanity were to cease cutting down vast swaths of Amazon, the effects of Climate Change are likely to significantly transform the Amazon within this century.

The Disintegration of the Ozone Layer (Tipping)

In the 1980s, the widespread use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) was identified as a major culprit in the depletion of the ozone layer. But more than twenty years after the phase-out of CFC’s began in many countries, humanity faces the formidable task of minimizing ozone layer damage to prevent potential calamity.  A depleted ozone layer is leading to an uptick in patterns associated with Global Warming.  As the layer thins, more ultraviolet radiation from the sun’s rays hit Earth’s surface.  Aside from raising temperatures worldwide, the increase in UV radiation damages or kills off the vitally important phytoplankton which act as CO2 storehouses.   
In 1985, researchers identified the massive Antarctic ozone hole as the layer’s most significant vulnerability. Thinning of the hole has been measured to be as much as 65% in some places yet the recent discovery of an even more significant hole in the ozone layer late last year, this time above the Arctic Circle, has raised more concerns.  Scientists found an 80% reduction of the ozone in an area located above the North Pole. They attribute the loss to a colder-than-usual winter which promoted ozone damage by chlorine-based chemicals in the stratosphere.  
Today, it is estimated that the ozone layer is diminishing at about 3% per decade. Researchers with NASA and the NOAA have projected that it will take until 2018 for the protective layer to just begin to repair itself.  


The Decline of Glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau (Tipping)

Covering 1 million square miles across western China, the Tibetan Plateau is a considerable factor in the world’s climate patterns. Blanketed by glaciers and snow, the plateau’s icy surface reflects the sun’s rays back toward space.  This phenomenon has worked to mitigate the effects of Global Warming, but as planetary temperatures continue to rise, the Tibetan plateau may accelerate Climate Change. As more of the plateau’s ice recedes, the exposed dark soil readily soaks up the sunlight and warms the Earth’s surface.  Experts warn that this process is picking up momentum. One study from 2010 revealed that the Tibetan Plateau is warming three times the global average.  Another analysis noted that from 2003-2010, the plateau lost an average of 4 billion tons of ice annually. This process will also present huge challenges to populations that depend on glacial runoff to to cultivate crops.  

The Diminishing of Ocean Salinity (Tipping)

Research indicates that Global Warming may result in significant changes to the salinity content of Earth’s oceans.  Such a phenomenon is predicted to have extensive ramifications on ocean currents and marine life.  As higher global temperatures translate to greater rainfall across the world, more freshwater is being dumped into oceans in a process that dilutes salinity.  Also adding to this dilution is freshwater runoff from melting glaciers.  Reductions in water salinity can interfere with “salinity valves”, or chemically-unique pockets of sea water which serve to buffer two disparate marine ecosystems. One such valve is the Strait of Gibraltar which separates the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. A sudden change in the salinity could overwhelm the delicate balance between different bodies of water and potentially devastate marine life that have adapted to a particular salinity content. Furthermore, fluctuations in salinity have the potential to disrupt major water currents such the Atlantic Thermohaline Circulation.  A 2010 study undertaken by scientists at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation assessing the oceans’ salinity showed ample evidence that Climate Change has triggered obvious shifts in the salinity of not only surface water, but deep sea water as well. These findings suggest that Global Warming has triggered profound shifts in the planet’s oceans that will become more clearly manifest in the years to come.



______________________
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http://summitcountyvoice.com/2010/04/16/global-warming-driving-ocean-salinity-changes/

With New Plants Approved, Anti-Nuke Coalition Readies for Fight

As expected, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission voted this afternoon to extend licenses to build two nuclear reactors at the Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia, the first such licenses granted in over thirty years. A statement from the NRC said:

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has concluded its mandatory hearing on Southern Nuclear Operating Company’s (SNC) application for two Combined Licenses (COL) at the Vogtle site in Georgia. In a 4-1 vote, the Commission found the staff’s review adequate to make the necessary regulatory safety and environmental findings, clearing the way for the NRC’s Office of New Reactors to issue the COLs.

The Associated Press reports:

Allison Fisher, an energy expert for the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, called the NRC's action — less than a year after the Japan crisis — a step in the wrong direction.

Read More:

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/02/09-4

Peter Goodchild - The Psychology Of Systemic Collapse

The impracticality of "alternative energy" has been spelled out in the past. It's just basic mathematics, in fact just simple arithmetic. It's a matter of determining the capability of solar power, for example, and then comparing that to the needs of the population. But even if it was possible to stave off famine by fastening solar panels onto all our roofs, there would still be the question of what to do next. Solar-panel construction for a thousand years? Perhaps the impasse is more psychological than technological.

Solar power has many problems, none of which can be solved. The biggest problem is scale. Solar arrays for 7 to 12 billion people could be found only in a Hollywood movie. The raw materials would be largely inaccessible: not only would vast quantities of fossil fuels and metals, including rare ones, be needed to build and maintain these arrays, but one would need to explain how a solar-energy collector is going to enable people to dig mines half a mile into the ground and extract the ore. And one would then have to explain, once all of the world's 500+ exajoules of annual energy production have been switched to solely electric, how it would be possible to use electric-only as a means of providing airplanes, fertilizer, plastics, and so on.

Read More:

http://countercurrents.org/goodchild060212.htm

Karl Grossman - Eminent Domain and the Fight Against Nuclear Power

The nuclear power program in the United States was set up rigged—to allow the federal government to push atomic energy with state and local governments “pre-empted” on most issues.

That’s what the State of Vermont was confronted with last week as a federal judge blocked the state’s attempts to shut down the accident-plagued Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.

But there’s a way around this federal nuclear fix—the use by states of their power of “eminent domain.” That’s a legal principle going back centuries and is how, commonly, states condemn property for a highway right-of-way if the owners refuse to sell.

The application of the state’s power of “eminent domain” to nuclear power was pioneered in New York State in the 1980s—and was how the completed Shoreham nuclear plant was stopped from opening. That ended the scheme of nuclear promoters to turn Long Island into a “nuclear park” with seven to 11 nuclear plants.

Read More:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/01/23-0

Dirty Biofuels: Leaked Data Shows Some Worse Than Fossil Fuels

According to leaked data from the European Commission obtained by EuroActiv, greenhouse gas emissions from some biofuels are higher than those from fossil fuels, when Indirect Land Usage Change (ILUC) is factored in.

EuroActiv reports:

ILUC happens when forests and wetlands are cleared to compensate for lands taken to grow biofuels elsewhere.

One recent report predicted that all of Malaysia’s tropical peatswamp forests would be destroyed by the end of the decade because of ILUC - with alarming consequences for greenhouse gas emissions - unless the expansion of palm oil production was halted.

To measure the climate impact of fuels, Brussels favours assigning default values based on a calculation of their full lifecycle emissions, hence the debate over ILUC factors and biofuels.

In its recent review of the Fuel Quality Directive, the EU proposed a default value of 107g CO2 equivalent per megajoule of fuel (CO2/mj) for oil from tar sands, as compared to 87.5g CO2/mj for crude oil, reflecting the greater environmental harm that its production causes.

Read More:

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/01/27-5 

Iraq water crisis could stir ethnic clash

Iraq is facing worsening water shortages caused by the failure of successive postwar governments to ensure supplies and extensive dam-building in neighboring states that could trigger sectarian conflict.

"One prediction, which has yet to come true, has been made repeatedly by former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali since 1988: That the Middle East will at some point in the future see war break out over access to water," the Middle East Economic Digest observed.

"Boutros-Ghali thought an interstate war would occur because of disputes over the ownership of the Nile. This has yet to happen.

"But if policymakers in Baghdad do not act soon, water could well be the source of renewed strife, not between Baghdad and its neighbors, but between Iraq's already deeply divided population," the weekly warned.

Read More:

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Iraq_water_crisis_could_stir_ethnic_clash_999.html

James Hansen - Cowards In Our Democracies

Leading climate scientists have given their support to a Freedom of Information request seeking to disclose who is funding the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a London-based climate sceptic thinktank chaired by the former Conservative chancellor Lord Lawson. As the UK Guardian reported earlier this week, James Hansen, the director of the Nasa Goddard Institute for Space Studies who first warned the world about the dangers of climate change in the 1980s, has joined other scientists in submitting statements to be considered by a judge at the Information Rights Tribunal on Friday. Hansen has posted “Cowards in Our Democracies: Part 1"— his submitted statement and an explanatory intro

Read More:

http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2012/01/28/413955/james-hansen-on-cowards/?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed&mobile=nc

Will Allen and Ronnie Cummins - What About the State of Our Planet, Mr. President?

In his state of the union address this week, President Obama talked about the American promise - the promise that if you worked hard, you could do well enough to raise a family, own a home, send your kids to college, and put a little away for retirement.

“The defining issue of our time is how to keep that promise alive,” he said. “No challenge is more urgent. No debate is more important.”

Climate scientists might beg to differ.

Most of the President’s speech focused on economic reforms. He proposed energy reforms almost exclusively in the context of adding jobs and growing the economy.

But what good is a healthy economy on a planet too sick to sustain human life?

Read More:

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/01/27/what-about-the-state-of-our-planet-mr-president/

Harvey Wasserman - We May Yet Lose Tokyo… Not to Mention Alaska… and Now Georgia, Too

As the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approves a construction/operating license for two new reactors in Georgia, alarming reports from Japan indicate the Fukushima catastrophe is far from over. 
Thousands of tons of intensely radioactive spent fuel are still in serious jeopardy. Radioactive trash and water are spewing into the environment. And nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen reports that during the string of disasters following March 11, 2011's earthquake and tsunami, Fukushima 1's containment cap may actually have lifted off its base, releasing dangerously radioactive gasses and opening a gap for an ensuing hydrogen explosion. 

There are some two dozen of these Mark I-style containments currently in place in the US.

Newly released secret email from the NRC also shows its Commissioners were in the dark about much of what was happening during the early hours of the Fukushima disaster. They worried that Tokyo might have to be evacuated, and that airborne radiation spewing across the Pacific could seriously contaminate Alaska.

Read More:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/02/10-2

[Video] 11 YRS OLD EXPOSES MONSANTO AND TELLS MONSANTO WHERE THEY CAN SHOVE IT .. BRAVE CHILD.

More than hundred dolphins beached in Cape Cod baffle scientists

Animal rescuers are working to save more than a hundred common dolphins beached off Cape Cod, Mass., since January 12. Marine scientists have been unable to explain the recent pattern of dolphins being washed ashore.

The recent beachings have been described as the largest single-species stranding ever in that part of the U.S. According to Daily Mail, of 116 common dolphins that beached on Cape Cod since January 12, three died on Friday, bringing the total number of deaths to 84. CNN reports the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had reported that 81 dolphins died at Cape Cod in the series of strandings that began last month. According to ABC News, hundreds of volunteers are working to save the dolphins by releasing them into deep water. CNN says the animals are transported by trailer, after they have been tagged, to an outer Cape Cod coast where they are released. The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) has rescued 31 dolphins and attached satellite tags to them to track their movements. According to Brian Sharp, an IFAW official: “Right now we’re at around 66 percent. We release them off beaches where it gets deep quite quickly. From all these signs that we’ve seen from this event, the satellite tags look very good. We had a pregnant female dolphin that we were able to release. We began doing our health exam and sure enough we discovered that the dolphin was pregnant with probably a third trimester calf.” This season is usually the period in which strandings peak near Cape Cod but the number of strandings this year is far beyond the usual pattern over 12 years. There has been a spike in the number of strandings this year and marine experts have been left guessing the cause of the upsurge.

Read More:

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/319045#ixzz1lkjgXAfY

Global Extinction: Gradual Doom Is Just As Bad As Abrupt

A painstakingly detailed investigation shows that mass extinctions need not be sudden events. The deadliest mass extinction of all took a long time to kill 90 percent of Earth's marine life, and it killed in stages, according to a newly published report.

Thomas J. Algeo, professor of geology at the University of Cincinnati, worked with 13 co-authors to produce a high-resolution look at the geology of a Permian-Triassic boundary section on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic. Their analysis, published Feb. 3 in the Geological Society of America Bulletin, provides strong evidence that Earth's biggest mass extinction phased in over hundreds of thousands of years.

About 252 million years ago, at the end of the Permian period, Earth almost became a lifeless planet. Around 90 percent of all living species disappeared then, in what scientists have called "The Great Dying." Algeo and colleagues have spent much of the past decade investigating the chemical evidence buried in rocks formed during this major extinction.

Read More:

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Global_Extinction_Gradual_Doom_Is_Just_As_Bad_As_Abrupt_999.html

Bill McKibben - The Great Carbon Bubble

If we could see the world with a particularly illuminating set of spectacles, one of its most prominent features at the moment would be a giant carbon bubble, whose bursting someday will make the housing bubble of 2007 look like a lark. As yet -- as we shall see -- it’s unfortunately largely invisible to us.

In compensation, though, we have some truly beautiful images made possible by new technology.  Last month, for instance, NASA updated the most iconic photograph in our civilization’s gallery: “Blue Marble,” originally taken from Apollo 17 in 1972. The spectacular new high-def image shows a picture of the Americas on January 4th, a good day for snapping photos because there weren’t many clouds.

It was also a good day because of the striking way it could demonstrate to us just how much the planet has changed in 40 years. As Jeff Masters, the web’s most widely readmeteorologist, explains, “The U.S. and Canada are virtually snow-free and cloud-free, which is extremely rare for a January day. The lack of snow in the mountains of the Western U.S. is particularly unusual. I doubt one could find a January day this cloud-free with so little snow on the ground throughout the entire satellite record, going back to the early 1960s.”

Read More:

http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175499/

Janet Larsen and Sara Rasmussen - 2011 Was A Year of Weather Extremes, With More to Come

The global average temperature in 2011 was 14.52 degrees Celsius (58.14 degrees Fahrenheit). According to NASA scientists, this was the ninth warmest year in 132 years of recordkeeping, despite the cooling influence of the La Niña atmospheric and oceanic circulation pattern and relatively low solar irradiance. Since the 1970s, each subsequent decade has gotten hotter -- and 9 of the 10 hottest years on record have occurred in the twenty-first century.

Read More:

http://www.treehugger.com/climate-change/2011-year-weather-extremes-more-come.html

Matthew Stein - Why a Likely Natural Event Could Cause Nuclear Reactors to Melt Down and Our Grid to Crash

There are nearly 450 nuclear reactors in the world, with hundreds more either under construction or in the planning stages. There are 104 of these reactors in the USA and 195 in Europe. Imagine the havoc it would wreak on our civilization and the planet's ecosystems if we were to suddenly experience not just one or two nuclear meltdowns, but many more of them. How likely is it that our world might experience an event that could ultimately cause multiple reactors to fail and melt down at approximately the same time? Unless we take significant protective measures, this apocalyptic scenario is possible.

Consider the ongoing problems caused by three reactor core meltdowns, explosions and breached containment vessels at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi facility, and the subsequent health and environmental issues. Consider the millions of innocent victims who have already died or continue to suffer from horrific radiation-related health problems ("Chernobyl AIDS," epidemic cancers, chronic fatigue, etc.) resulting from the Chernobyl reactor explosions, fires and fallout. If just two serious nuclear disasters, spaced 25 years apart, could cause such horrendous environmental catastrophes, it is hard to imagine how we could ever hope to recover from hundreds of similar nuclear incidents occurring simultaneously across the planet.

Read More:

http://www.alternet.org/story/153833/why_a_likely_natural_event_could_cause_nuclear_reactors_to_melt_down_and_our_grid_to_crash

Wall Street Journal Slammed for Giving Platform to Climate Change Deniers

In response to an op-ed printed late last week in the Wall Street Journal, signed by sixteen 'scientists' and entitled, 'No Need to Panic About Global Warming,' thirty-nine climate scientists have penned a letter, printed in today's WSJ, arguing that taking advice on climate change from scientists who have either "no expertise in climate science" or "extreme views that are out of step with nearly every other climate expert" is akin to allowing dentists perform heart surgery.

Suzanne Goldenberg reports for The Guardian:

The Wall Street Journal has received a dressing down from a large group of leading scientists for promoting retrograde and out-of-date views on climate change.

In an opinion piece run by the Journal on Wednesday, nearly 40 scientists, including acknowledged climate change experts, take on the paper for publishing an article disputing the evidence on global warming.

Read More:

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/02/01-6

New Study: Climate Change Threatens World's Wheat Crop

A study released Sunday afternoon finds that wheat crop yields could plunge due, in part, to climate change. The study, published in Nature Climate Change, researchers warn that current projections underestimate the extent to which hotter weather in the future will accelerate this process. Extreme heat causes wheat crops to age faster and reduce yields, the Stanford University-led study shows, underscoring the challenge of feeding a rapidly growing population as the world continues to warm.

New Scientist magazine reported Sunday:

It could be much more difficult than we thought to feed everyone in a warmer world. Satellite images of northern India have revealed that extreme temperatures are cutting wheat yields. What's more, models used to predict the effects of global warming on food supply may have underestimated the problem by a third.

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http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/01/29-2