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This amused me... Mind you, Climate Change ISN'T amusing.
13 years ago
"MORELS taste good in omelettes..."
This is just awesome. I don't normally give much credence to Al Gore (the guy who famously claimed to have "invented the Internet"), but his tours around the world trying to get people to face the reality of Climate Change that he's talking about in this vid- that is worth listening to. So is the song that Melodysheep created with Autotune from selected bits from the lectures. Too cool.
http://front.moveon.org/al-gore-use.....-on-the-brink/
We DO have to face reality: we can't continue to be the largest carbon-emissions source (China is fast gaining and may even have outstripped us in that regard). Our laziness and our greed for the so-called "perfect way of life" is making the rest of the world pay in coin they cannot afford: their lives, their crops, their environments, and, in the case of nations like the Marshall Islands, possibly their entire countries.
Time to wake up, people, and wean ourselves off the Big Oil teat. Here some facts that I pretty much pulled off the top of my encyclopedic brain (though I provide links to relevant material to back 'em up):
-A 30% rise in ocean acidity is killing reefs worldwide- a 30% rise in ANYTHING is SIGNIFICANT, and that is just one example. http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/story/.....idification%3F
-Nearly half of the Arctic ice-cap melted this summer- This vid is short, and possibly a bit too alarmist, but it puts this data into fast perspective: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_gi0tOVNn4
Real data: http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/
-Glaciers all over the world, many used as principle sources of water, are melting-
This whole site is just good stuff, but here's some specific bits on glaciers: http://www.skepticalscience.com/him.....termediate.htm
-Greenland is melting- ALL of Greenland's surface ice had seen melting this year. Notice I italicized the word "surface". I know Greenland has glaciers nearly two miles thick in places, but as that surface melts, any collected dust and soil deposited by wind and weather-action over decades, hundreds, or even thousands of years is concentrated, making the ice effectively "darker" at that exposed surface, possibly accelerating melt. Look "Albedo Effect"- but here's a quick definition: albedo is reflection of light, less albedo, less light being reflected. Greenland's albedo is lower, reflecting less light (and heat) back. When the area is absorbing light (and heat), temperatures rise... Those massive glaciers aren't gone, but their top 97% IS, spread out all across the glacier dome. I'm not sure what depth of melting this actually is, but it's significant and it's disturbing some scientists...
From NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/fe.....land-melt.html Note that later in the article it mentions that this is a type of event that does occur naturally roughly every 150 years- at least, so the ice-cores taken at a place called Summit indicate. But the researcher also commented that if this occurs several times over the next short span of years, it will indicate something "worrisome".
-I live on a mountain with multiple micro-climates that seem to be rapidly becoming the near-desert Mediterranean-type main climate of Southern California. We almost didn't get winter up here last year- we'll see how this year goes. But I've spoken to many locals who have lived up here for decades, and they've almost universally said that the winters have been shorter, with less snow and higher temperatures on the average. They've all mentioned less rain over the year, too. I saw so many slopes with dead or dying foliage because we got rain maybe three times over the entire spring and summer and fall combined. When it finally did rain, it was steady downpour that last nearly 24 hours... I could go back and data-mine some weather reports and see if this really is a trend, but I'm inclined to believe the observations of that many people over that long a span of time.
-Plant and animal life are all moving/migrating away from the equator- creatures normally living at specific levels- such as the Pika- a mountain-dwelling rodent that normally lives around 7900 feet, now comfortable at over 9000 feet- have moved upward or Northward (in the Northern hemisphere) or Southward (in the Southern hemisphere) to meet their climactic needs. In all cases, these species are drifting away from the equator. Soon there will be no more mountain or northern/southern lands for them to move up onto. This is happening all over the world.
Article from 2011 commenting on flora and fauna movements to follow their changing climates: http://www.syracuse.com/news/index......ay_from_g.html
Another article from around the same period: http://science.time.com/2011/08/19/.....into-refugees/
-"Climate refugees"- It isn't just the plants and non-human animals: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_migrant
-Over three-thousand temperature-records were BROKEN in the U.S ALONE this year-
(not an authoritative source, but the photo of the dock sitting in a dry-lake-bed amused me): http://www.climatepatrol.com/forum/...../pg1/index.php
Something a little more serious (if you can ignore the stupid ads): http://www.livescience.com/21952-re.....ures-heat.html
-The methane-packed peat-bogs of Siberia are on the verge of melting, too, and when that happens, WE ARE FUCKED- If you think carbon is bad for the Greenhouse effect, methane tops it, even though it doesn't stay in the atmosphere as long (shorter half-life). I suggest looking up the term "Climactic Tipping Point".
Older article from 2004, but still relevant: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/.....anpeatbog.html
A more recent article on the peat-bog heating problem: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/ea.....ing-point.html
-So many Climate Change myths, so little time to disprove 'em all- Here's a nice bit of myth-debunking (some of the comments are amusing, too- I'd check out the links even the Deniers post- good for counter-views and perspectives. If you have any critical-thinking ability at all, it shouldn't be hard to slap their cherry-picking into the dirt. Enjoy!): http://www.livescience.com/19466-cl.....hs-busted.html
-Remember this number: 350 parts per million of carbon to oxygen- This is the number that Climate Scientists have stated for years that is the allowable cap for maintaining life on Earth as we know it. We are currently between 392 and 395 parts per million, and if the changes researchers and even the "people on the ground" (most Indigenous Peoples, for example- like the Inuit- and who pays attention to THEM, huh? Well, I think we SHOULD be paying attention to them: they know their environment, and they've been saying it's CHANGING) are seeing are the result of that, can we afford to sit on our hands and say fatuous bullshit like "it's not a proven theory?"
This explains that very specific number quite well: http://www.350.org/en/node/48
Really, it's been said before; "the cost of doing nothing on the off-chance that it's 'just a theory' and having it proven true, outweigh the costs of changing our habits NOW even if it isn't." That makes too much sense. Personally, I'd rather pay now to do what we can to fix our pollution of this world- the only one we HAVE- than pay later with a planet we cannot live on at all. It doesn't matter if Climate Change is an "unproven theory"- how is asking people to stop being so wasteful a bad thing?
A few useful links to Climate Change science for the layman, the interested and those who want to do something about it (plus some science-type blogs I particularly enjoy):
Activism: 350.org
He's just fun to read: http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/
News: http://thinkprogress.org/climate/issue/?mobile=nc
From the scientists themselves: http://www.realclimate.org/
Some companies are on the ball, here. PPlus, there's news, too: http://ecogeek.org/
Activism and environmental issues: http://www.healthebay.org/
Not strictly related to Climate change, but we will be seeing changing ecologies. Invasive species are already messing with current ecologies, and Climate Change is only going to make it worse. So do your part to keep invasives from gaining a foothold: http://www.invasive.org/
There is just neat stuff, here: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/
Activism and news: http://www.worldwatch.org/
Think about it.
*climbs down from soapbox and gets back to work*
http://front.moveon.org/al-gore-use.....-on-the-brink/
We DO have to face reality: we can't continue to be the largest carbon-emissions source (China is fast gaining and may even have outstripped us in that regard). Our laziness and our greed for the so-called "perfect way of life" is making the rest of the world pay in coin they cannot afford: their lives, their crops, their environments, and, in the case of nations like the Marshall Islands, possibly their entire countries.
Time to wake up, people, and wean ourselves off the Big Oil teat. Here some facts that I pretty much pulled off the top of my encyclopedic brain (though I provide links to relevant material to back 'em up):
-A 30% rise in ocean acidity is killing reefs worldwide- a 30% rise in ANYTHING is SIGNIFICANT, and that is just one example. http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/story/.....idification%3F
-Nearly half of the Arctic ice-cap melted this summer- This vid is short, and possibly a bit too alarmist, but it puts this data into fast perspective: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_gi0tOVNn4
Real data: http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/
-Glaciers all over the world, many used as principle sources of water, are melting-
This whole site is just good stuff, but here's some specific bits on glaciers: http://www.skepticalscience.com/him.....termediate.htm
-Greenland is melting- ALL of Greenland's surface ice had seen melting this year. Notice I italicized the word "surface". I know Greenland has glaciers nearly two miles thick in places, but as that surface melts, any collected dust and soil deposited by wind and weather-action over decades, hundreds, or even thousands of years is concentrated, making the ice effectively "darker" at that exposed surface, possibly accelerating melt. Look "Albedo Effect"- but here's a quick definition: albedo is reflection of light, less albedo, less light being reflected. Greenland's albedo is lower, reflecting less light (and heat) back. When the area is absorbing light (and heat), temperatures rise... Those massive glaciers aren't gone, but their top 97% IS, spread out all across the glacier dome. I'm not sure what depth of melting this actually is, but it's significant and it's disturbing some scientists...
From NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/fe.....land-melt.html Note that later in the article it mentions that this is a type of event that does occur naturally roughly every 150 years- at least, so the ice-cores taken at a place called Summit indicate. But the researcher also commented that if this occurs several times over the next short span of years, it will indicate something "worrisome".
-I live on a mountain with multiple micro-climates that seem to be rapidly becoming the near-desert Mediterranean-type main climate of Southern California. We almost didn't get winter up here last year- we'll see how this year goes. But I've spoken to many locals who have lived up here for decades, and they've almost universally said that the winters have been shorter, with less snow and higher temperatures on the average. They've all mentioned less rain over the year, too. I saw so many slopes with dead or dying foliage because we got rain maybe three times over the entire spring and summer and fall combined. When it finally did rain, it was steady downpour that last nearly 24 hours... I could go back and data-mine some weather reports and see if this really is a trend, but I'm inclined to believe the observations of that many people over that long a span of time.
-Plant and animal life are all moving/migrating away from the equator- creatures normally living at specific levels- such as the Pika- a mountain-dwelling rodent that normally lives around 7900 feet, now comfortable at over 9000 feet- have moved upward or Northward (in the Northern hemisphere) or Southward (in the Southern hemisphere) to meet their climactic needs. In all cases, these species are drifting away from the equator. Soon there will be no more mountain or northern/southern lands for them to move up onto. This is happening all over the world.
Article from 2011 commenting on flora and fauna movements to follow their changing climates: http://www.syracuse.com/news/index......ay_from_g.html
Another article from around the same period: http://science.time.com/2011/08/19/.....into-refugees/
-"Climate refugees"- It isn't just the plants and non-human animals: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_migrant
-Over three-thousand temperature-records were BROKEN in the U.S ALONE this year-
(not an authoritative source, but the photo of the dock sitting in a dry-lake-bed amused me): http://www.climatepatrol.com/forum/...../pg1/index.php
Something a little more serious (if you can ignore the stupid ads): http://www.livescience.com/21952-re.....ures-heat.html
-The methane-packed peat-bogs of Siberia are on the verge of melting, too, and when that happens, WE ARE FUCKED- If you think carbon is bad for the Greenhouse effect, methane tops it, even though it doesn't stay in the atmosphere as long (shorter half-life). I suggest looking up the term "Climactic Tipping Point".
Older article from 2004, but still relevant: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/.....anpeatbog.html
A more recent article on the peat-bog heating problem: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/ea.....ing-point.html
-So many Climate Change myths, so little time to disprove 'em all- Here's a nice bit of myth-debunking (some of the comments are amusing, too- I'd check out the links even the Deniers post- good for counter-views and perspectives. If you have any critical-thinking ability at all, it shouldn't be hard to slap their cherry-picking into the dirt. Enjoy!): http://www.livescience.com/19466-cl.....hs-busted.html
-Remember this number: 350 parts per million of carbon to oxygen- This is the number that Climate Scientists have stated for years that is the allowable cap for maintaining life on Earth as we know it. We are currently between 392 and 395 parts per million, and if the changes researchers and even the "people on the ground" (most Indigenous Peoples, for example- like the Inuit- and who pays attention to THEM, huh? Well, I think we SHOULD be paying attention to them: they know their environment, and they've been saying it's CHANGING) are seeing are the result of that, can we afford to sit on our hands and say fatuous bullshit like "it's not a proven theory?"
This explains that very specific number quite well: http://www.350.org/en/node/48
Really, it's been said before; "the cost of doing nothing on the off-chance that it's 'just a theory' and having it proven true, outweigh the costs of changing our habits NOW even if it isn't." That makes too much sense. Personally, I'd rather pay now to do what we can to fix our pollution of this world- the only one we HAVE- than pay later with a planet we cannot live on at all. It doesn't matter if Climate Change is an "unproven theory"- how is asking people to stop being so wasteful a bad thing?
A few useful links to Climate Change science for the layman, the interested and those who want to do something about it (plus some science-type blogs I particularly enjoy):
Activism: 350.org
He's just fun to read: http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/
News: http://thinkprogress.org/climate/issue/?mobile=nc
From the scientists themselves: http://www.realclimate.org/
Some companies are on the ball, here. PPlus, there's news, too: http://ecogeek.org/
Activism and environmental issues: http://www.healthebay.org/
Not strictly related to Climate change, but we will be seeing changing ecologies. Invasive species are already messing with current ecologies, and Climate Change is only going to make it worse. So do your part to keep invasives from gaining a foothold: http://www.invasive.org/
There is just neat stuff, here: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/
Activism and news: http://www.worldwatch.org/
Think about it.
*climbs down from soapbox and gets back to work*
I strongly recommend a visit to their website
I think a lot of people are actually worried about this deep down, to the point where they'll refuse to believe it and grab on to the faked science paid for by the industrialists as a kind of safety mechanism for their sanity, convincing themselves they're not sitting back and letting the world break down beneath their feet...