Tag Archives: global warming

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Dams produce more greenhouse gas emissions than we thought — Quartz

http://qz.com/797380/reservoirs-methane-emissions-climate-change/

Katherine Ellen Foley on the problem with “clean” hydropower. “Globally, the reservoirs created by dams may actually contribute almost a gigaton of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions—about 25% more than they had previously thought. This means that we’ve almost certainly been underestimating how much greenhouse gas we’ve been shooting into the atmosphere.”

Another reason to let rivers run their natural course….too late to stop China’s 3 River Dam on Yangtze.

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The Southern Ocean is getting less salty. Here’s what that could mean for the rest of the world – The Washington Post

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/08/31/how-sea-ice-is-making-the-southern-ocean-less-salty-and-what-that-might-mean-for-the-rest-of-the-world/?utm_term=.508241e0b68d

Saltinity important to ocean processes: 

“These processes are important drivers of ocean currents all over the world. The salty water created by sea ice formation is denser than fresh water, so it has a tendency to sink to the bottom of the ocean. In doing so, it helps push the water below it forward along the sea floor, creating a current that runs north toward the equator. As the water warms up, it rises to the surface and eventually runs back toward the poles. This process helps carry heat and nutrients around the world.”

Read on

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Wildlife Officials Warn Pilots to Avoid Massive Walrus Herd – NBC News.com

An excerpt from NBC reporting:

An estimated 35,000 walruses were spotted about 5 miles north of Point Lay, Alaska, on Sept. 27 by scientists on a survey flight. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) requested that pilots fly at least 2,000 feet above the walrus herd and a half mile away from it. Helicopters were asked to fly 3,000 feet above and a mile away from the walruses, who were forced to swim to shore due to the lack of the sea ice that normally provides resting areas this time of year. No flights had been rerouted away from the beach, as some outlets previously reported, the Federal Aviation Authority told NBC News. The request from the FWS warned that walruses are sensitive to engine noise — a problem when planes fly low to get a better look at the animals — and aircraft could cause them to stampede. “This big group at Point Lay is mostly cows with calves, and when they stampede, they tend to run over the calves,” James MacCracken, supervisory wildlife biologist at the FWS regional office in Alaska, told NBC News. 

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For more go to:

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/wildlife-officials-warn-pilots-avoid-massive-walrus-herd-n216641

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Wildlife Officials Warn Pilots to Avoid Massive Walrus Herd – NBC News.com

An excerpt from NBC reporting:

An estimated 35,000 walruses were spotted about 5 miles north of Point Lay, Alaska, on Sept. 27 by scientists on a survey flight. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) requested that pilots fly at least 2,000 feet above the walrus herd and a half mile away from it. Helicopters were asked to fly 3,000 feet above and a mile away from the walruses, who were forced to swim to shore due to the lack of the sea ice that normally provides resting areas this time of year. No flights had been rerouted away from the beach, as some outlets previously reported, the Federal Aviation Authority told NBC News. The request from the FWS warned that walruses are sensitive to engine noise — a problem when planes fly low to get a better look at the animals — and aircraft could cause them to stampede. “This big group at Point Lay is mostly cows with calves, and when they stampede, they tend to run over the calves,” James MacCracken, supervisory wildlife biologist at the FWS regional office in Alaska, told NBC News. 

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For more go to:

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/wildlife-officials-warn-pilots-avoid-massive-walrus-herd-n216641

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Climate change could make Greenland green by 2100 – Climate Change – Environment – The Independent

Reporting by John Van Radowitz on the greening of Greenland:

Today only four indigenous tree species grow on the large island, confined to small areas in the south. Three-quarters of Greenland, the world’s most sparsely populated country, is covered by a barren ice sheet.
But by the year 2100 swathes of verdant forest could be covering much of its land surface. “Greenland has…the potential to become a lot greener,” Professor Jens-Christian Svenning, from Aarhus University in Denmark, said. “Forest like the coastal coniferous forests in Alaska and western Canada will be able to thrive in fairly large parts of Greenland… with trees like sitka spruce and lodgepole pine. It will provide new opportunities for the Greenlanders.”
Research showed that with expected levels of warming, a majority of 44 species of North American and European trees and bushes will be able to thrive in Greenland.
The transformation is likely to alter Greenland’s ecosystem, leading to the loss of Arctic animals and plants. On the other hand there could be significant commercial possibilities linked to forestry, agriculture and tourism.

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/climate-change-could-make-greenland-green-by-2100-8786840.html

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Reliably unpredictable

Extreme weather patterns merit action on a micro & macro scale. 2013 had tge coldest Easter on record in England/UK. Droughts, floods in USA are more frequent and severe. Treaties address these problems by focusing on ways country states can reduce their carbon emissions (CE). As with Kyoto signatories, we have seen drops in carbon production, e.g., in UK and elsewhere. However, a pattern is emerging, i.e., decreased emissions are often followed by decreases in domestic manufacturing. As with the case of Britain, this decrease has happened along side the building up of financial, banking sectors in their economy. This strategy is emerging as a pattern along with austerity, high unemployment and debt. When looking at spending trends we see carbon emission increases shift to developing countries, a decrease in CE from UK is accompanied by increased in carbon footprint by consumers importing products once made locally. So what appears to be positive results in reducing CE are actually increases in CE elsewhere. Here is an excerpt from The Guardian on climate change (or if you dislike that term rather call it – “increases in weather patterns producing droughts and floods as well as extreme temperatures and rising seas and lower lake levels. “:
Our weather, always unpredictable, is now  becoming increasingly harder to forecast short term. The challenge for meteorologists is to explain these unexpected outbreaks of climatic unpleasantness. “There is no doubt that the recent weather has been highly changeable – on both sides of the Atlantic,” said meteorologist Nicholas Klingaman of Reading University. “We have blizzards and flooding. America has had droughts and scorching temperatures.” Nor is it difficult to pinpoint the immediate cause, Klingaman said. The problem lies with the jet stream, a narrow band of strong winds that sweeps round the planet between the tropics and the Arctic. “Its behaviour has changed dramatically in the past few years and has produced these lengthy bouts of extreme weather. The real question, of course, is an obvious one: why has the jet stream changed its behaviour?” The answer is very worrying, for it transpires that meteorologists may find it increasingly hard to make long-term assessments of future weather with their former confidence. The planet’s weather systems are being stirred and shaken and the cause is closely linked to climate change, the result of the trillions of tonnes of carbon that we have been pumping into our atmosphere…” Read on @: http://m.guardiannews.com/uk/2013/apr/07/science-behind-britain-coldest-easter

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Bombay duck is dying. Blame fishing, warming

An article from The Times of India explores the effects of climate change & ocean waters warming on fish stocks and the fishing and culinary industries. Here is an excerpt from the article followed by a link for those who want to read more. “…Of most concern perhaps is the fate of the state’s famous Bombay duck. As with other fish, catch rose through the 1960s and ’70s due to increased mechanized fishing. But the five-year average of annual landings of the fish has reduced by more than a third from 30,000 tonnes in the 1980s to around 20,000 tonnes now, according to CMFRI. Fishing pressures may also be causing this fish to mature earlier, producing fewer eggs. Only a few, low-value species saw an increase.: sardine (taarla) catch went up by 142%, mackerel (bangda) by 133% and tuna by 70%. Until the late 1990s, sardines and mackerel were rarely found north of Ratnagiri. If the decline continues, the new home for Bombay duck, albeit a different species, may be West Bengal; catch of the fish has increased in that state as well as in Orissa as fisheries in the east have developed in recent years. Silver pomfret has also been severely affected, with its five-year average of annual landings dropping almost 80% from 24,000 tonnes in the 1980s to just over 5,000 tonnes in recent years, said Deshmukh. In fact, of 25 important fish stocks in the state, only two species are still abundant, found a CMFRI assessment from 2007 to 2011. More than half are in decline. The drop in stocks is due to overfishing and the increased demand for certain seafood. Fish stocks here can sustain around 8,000 boats with reasonable profit, according to CMFRI estimates, but the actual number of boats plying the region is over 17,000. Of these, around 5,600 are trawlers ”almost twice” the optimal number. Boats are also catching younger, smaller fish, giving populations less of a chance to reproduce. Climate change may add to the pressures on local stocks. Larger fish tend to be more sensitive to environmental changes…” http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-03-09/flora-fauna/37580464_1_bombay-duck-fish-stocks-species