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Wind and waves growing across globe: study
Photo by Todd Binger
(PhysOrg.com) — Oceanic wind speeds and wave heights have increased significantly over the last quarter of a century according to a major new study undertaken by ANU Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Young.
A global energy war looms
Here’s an alarming chart to ponder. HSBC has calculated what would happen to energy consumption by 2050 given plausible forecasts for economic growth and assuming no constraint on resources, or that humans carry on using energy in the “taken for granted” way they do at the moment.
As you can see, demand in China, India and other emerging markets soars, but there is also quite considerable growth from advanced economies too. The big picture is that with an additional one billion cars on the road, demand for oil would grow 110pc to more than 190 million barrels per day. Total demand for energy would rise by a similar order of magnitude, doubling the Read more…
Earth’s Core Provides Climate Insights
Summary: By studying the molten core of the planet Earth, scientists have uncovered new evidence that humans play a dominant role in changing Earth's climate. The study could have important implicaitons in understanding the future of life on our planet.
The latest evidence of the dominant role humans play in changing Earth’s climate comes not from observations of Earth’s ocean, atmosphere or land surface, but from deep within its molten core.
Scientists have long known that the length of an Earth day – the time it takes for Earth to make one full rotation – fluctuates around a 24-hour average. Over the course of a year, the length of a day varies by about 1 millisecond, getting longer in the winter and shorter in the summer. These seasonal changes in Earth’s length of day are driven by
exchanges of energy between the solid Earth and fluid motions of Earth’s atmosphere (blowing winds and changes in atmospheric pressure) and its ocean. Scientists can measure these small changes in Earth’s rotation using astronomical observations and very precise geodetic techniques.
But the length of an Earth day also fluctuates over much longer timescales, such as interannual (two to 10 years), decadal (approximately 10 years), or those lasting multiple decades or even longer. A dominant longer timescale mode that ranges from 65 to 80 years was observed to change the length of day by approximately 4 milliseconds at the beginning of the Read more…
Recent droughts and floods have contributed to increases in food prices
These are pushing millions more people into poverty and hunger, and are contributing to political instability and civil unrest. Climate change is predicted to increase these threats to food security and stability. Responding to this, the world’s largest agriculture research consortium today announced the creation of a new Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change.
Chaired by the United Kingdom’s Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor Sir John Beddington, the Commission will in the next ten months seek to build international consensus on a clear set of policy actions to help global agriculture adapt to climate change, achieve food security and reduce poverty and greenhouse gas emissions.
There is a rich body of scientific evidence for sustainable agriculture approaches that can increase production of food, fiber and fuel, help decrease poverty and benefit the environment, but agreement is needed on how best to put these approaches into action at scale. Evidence also shows Read more…
Pace of polar ice melt ‘accelerating rapidly’: study
(AFP)
WASHINGTON — The pace at which the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are melting is “accelerating rapidly” and raising the global sea level, according to findings of a study financed by NASA and published Tuesday.The findings suggest that the ice sheets — more so than ice loss from Earth’s mountain glaciers and ice caps — have become “the dominant contributor to global sea level rise, much sooner than model forecasts have predicted.”
This study, the longest to date examining changes to polar ice sheet mass, combined two decades of monthly satellite measurements with regional atmospheric climate model data to study changes in mass.
“That ice sheets will dominate future sea level rise is not surprising — they hold a lot more ice mass than mountain glaciers,” said lead author Eric Rignot, jointly of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of California, Irvine.
“What is surprising is this increased contribution by the ice sheets is already happening,” he said.
Under the current trends, he said, sea level is likely to be “significantly higher” than levels projected by Read more…
Global warming means more snowstorms: scientists
Climate change is not only making the planet warmer, it is also making snowstorms stronger and more frequent, US scientists said on Tuesday.
Workers remove snow from a runway at O’Hare International Airport on February 3, in Chicago, Illinois. Climate change is not only making the planet warmer, it is also making snowstorms stronger and more frequent, US scientists said on Tuesday.
“Heavy snowstorms are not inconsistent with a warming planet,” said scientist Jeff Masters, as part of a conference call with reporters and colleagues convened by the Union of Concern Scientists.
“In fact, as the Earth gets warmer and more moisture gets absorbed into the atmosphere, we are steadily loading the dice in favor of more extreme storms in all seasons, capable of causing greater impacts on society.”
Masters said that the northeastern United States has been coated in heavy snowfall from Read more…
Nibiru, What NASA Knows & You Don’t
Ancient Folklore most of the time can be traced back to some actual event. The folklore around Nibiru and planet X goes back thousands of years, and can even be seen in the symbolism of every day architecture provided to us via secret societies, mysticism and most religions around the world.
Commonly referred to as the Crossing Planet, Planet X, Nibiru, Winged Orb, Nemesis, Wormwood, The Death Star and the Destroyer. This mystical heavenly body very well may exist. Given the misinterpretation of planet X actually being a planet, is the first mistake, which has likely led to the lack of supporting scientific evidence of its existence. Only the misnomer of Planet X would allude to this planet actually being a planet. According to mystical and esoteric history, Planet X is not a planet at all but a Brown Dwarf star, that may have its own orbiting planets.
Infrared anomalies were found in the Sagittarius constellation, and Lloyd believes the ‘dark star’ lies in this direction. Irregularities in the Kuiper Belt (a region beyond Neptune), such as objects with odd inclined orbits, indicate that science is catching up with the idea of a Planet X, he pointed out. It’s possible, he added, that NASA already discovered such a celestial body years ago, and has deliberately kept its presence a secret.
When NASA tells you that there are no large planets in our solar system that have gone undetected, they are Read more…
Earth May be Uninhabitable for Future Generations
Humans are in danger of making large parts of the Earth uninhabitable for thousands of years because of man made climate change, according to new evidence based on geological records.
The US study predicted that if society continues burning fossil fuels at the current rate, atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide could rise from the current level of 390 parts per million (ppm) to 1,000 by the end of this century.
The last time the world had such high levels of carbon dioxide temperatures were on average 29F(16C) above pre-industrial levels. Evidence has been found of crocodiles and palm trees at the Poles and only small mammals were able to survive.
Jeffrey Kiehl, of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), who carried out the study, said the Earth could return to such temperatures over hundreds or even thousands of years.
But unlike last time, when it happened over millions of years, temperatures will rise too fast for species to adapt and change.
In the short term he said temperatures could rise by more than 10.8F (6C) by the end of the century, which will also wipe out species.
“This is happening at such a rate how will species, including humans, respond? The implications for the biosphere is of great concern.”
Dr Kiehl not only looked at geological records but also computer models to predict what will happen if carbon dioxide levels rise at such a rate.
He included ‘feed back factors’, such as melting sea ice, methane released from thawing permafrost and Amazon die-back.
This showed that temperatures will increase much faster than previously thought as a result of rising carbon dioxide.
“If we don’t start seriously working toward a reduction of carbon emissions, we are putting our planet on a trajectory that the human species has never experienced,” he said. “We will have committed human civilization to living in a different world for multiple generations.”
Dr Kiehl hit back at critics who claim that acting on climate change by reducing the use of fossil fuels will upset the world order.
“A truly conservative position is to conserve what we have, to not radically change things and if we do not want to radically change the environment then the conservative approach is to conserve the Earth as the human species has known it ever since we have been around on this planet.”
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