Threats of sea-level rise acknowledged, ignored - Haku Mo‘olelo by Edwin Tanji. Club de rome. Aral Sea 90% Dry. Active Fire Mapping Program. Tens Of People Arrested In East & West Azarbaijan Protesting The Drying Up Of Lake Uromieh « persianbanoo. May 22, 2012 Under increased heavy security atmosphere in East and West Azarbaijan, tens of people were arrested by police and Intelligence Ministry in the last two days. Yesterday in Tabriz, during scattered demonstrations protesting drying up of Lake Uromieh, Esrafil Omidi a post graduate student at Shahid Beheshti university in Uromieh and activists Mostafa Avazpour and Ghader Norouzi were arrested. Also yesterday morning, former secretary of the Azerbaijani Association of Tabriz University, Afsaneh Toughi was arrested inside the university by Intelligence Ministry forces. Akbar Mohajeri, Hassan Mirzakhani and Mohamad Eskandarzadeh were among those arrested in Tabriz yesterday.
Their detention location is still unknown. Security forces arrested the majority of these people by going to their homes without a warrant, performing a search of the home and confiscating personal belongings. Source: HRANA Like this: Like Loading... We must set planetary boundaries wisely. As pressure on resources increases, pollution accumulates and humanity's impact on Earth escalates, global-scale governance of the environment is increasingly necessary. In June, the United Nations' Rio+20 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, will grapple with these difficult political issues.
Up for discussion is a relatively new scientific concept: planetary boundaries. Formulated in 2009 by Johan Rockström, director of the Stockholm Environment Institute, and his colleagues, the concept is based on the idea that humanity flourished under the conditions on Earth in the 10,000 years leading up to the industrial revolution — the Holocene epoch. So, to maintain human progress, we should keep the planet under similar biophysical conditions. The researchers set out nine key environmental measures and thresholds that should not be breached for fear of pushing Earth out of the Holocene-like 'safe operating space for humanity'.
The second weakness relates to scale. Cancelled project spurs debate over geoengineering patents. Paul Burns/Getty Images The future's not bright: can geoengineers create a sunshade for Earth? Technologies to keep Earth cool could one day provide a radical fix for climate change — and, in a world struggling to control its greenhouse-gas emissions, could also prove highly lucrative for inventors.
But should individual researchers, or companies, be allowed to own the intellectual property (IP) behind these world-changing techniques? The issue was thrust into the spotlight last week after a controversial geoengineering field trial was cancelled amid concerns about a patent application by some of those involved in the project, as first reported by Nature1. The £1.6-million (US$2.5-million) Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering (SPICE) project was funded by the UK government to investigate whether spurting reflective aerosols into the stratosphere could help to bounce some of the Sun’s warming rays back into space.
Hunt blames a culture clash for the confusion. Bird-flu research: The biosecurity oversight. The packages that started arriving by FedEx on 12 October last year came with strict instructions: protect the information within and destroy it after review. Inside were two manuscripts showing how the deadly H5N1 avian influenza virus could be made to transmit between mammals. The recipients of these packages — eight members of the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) — faced the unenviable task of deciding whether the research was safe to publish. The group deliberated. Soon, the rest of the NSABB's 22 voting members and two dozen non-voting members and advisers were drawn in. For five-and-a-half weeks, they pored over the data in the papers, weighing the benefits of sharing the information against the risk that doing so might lead to the accidental or intentional release of a lethal new virus.
They exchanged views in hundreds of e-mails and in more than 24 hours of teleconference calls. By all appearances, the board struggled. Security scare Second thoughts. Can Geoengineering Solve Global Warming? Late in the afternoon on April 2, 1991, Mt. Pinatubo, a volcano on the Philippine island of Luzon, began to rumble with a series of the powerful steam explosions that typically precede an eruption.
Pinatubo had been dormant for more than four centuries, and in the volcanological world the mountain had become little more than a footnote. The tremors continued in a steady crescendo for the next two months, until June 15th, when the mountain exploded with enough force to expel molten lava at the speed of six hundred miles an hour. The lava flooded a two-hundred-and-fifty-square-mile area, requiring the evacuation of two hundred thousand people.
Within hours, the plume of gas and ash had penetrated the stratosphere, eventually reaching an altitude of twenty-one miles. Three weeks later, an aerosol cloud had encircled the earth, and it remained for nearly two years. For geophysical scientists, though, Mt. The consortium consists of three groups. Methane Emissions from the Arctic Ocean. Record Number of Fish Stocks ‘Rebuilt’ in 2011, NOAA Study Says. EU threatens China, India over airline emissions. A Research Strategy for Environmental, Health, and Safety Aspects of Engineered Nanomaterials. Overview Authors Committee to Develop a Research Strategy for Environmental, Health, and Safety Aspects of Engineered Nanomaterials; National Research Council Description The nanotechnology sector, which generated about $225 billion in product sales in 2009, is predicted to expand rapidly over the next decade with the development of new technologies that have new capabilities.
The increasing production and use of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) may lead to greater exposures of workers, consumers, and the environment, and the unique scale-specific and novel properties of the materials raise questions about their potential effects on human health and the environment. The nanotechnology sector, which generated about $225 billion in product sales in 2009, is predicted to expand rapidly over the next decade with the development of new technologies that have new capabilities.
[read less] Suggested Citation National Research Council. Import this citation to: Wildlife in the tropics plummets by over 60 percent. Devastated rainforest in Indonesian Borneo. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. In 48 years wildlife populations in the tropics, the region that holds the bulk of the world's biodiversity, have fallen by an alarming 61 percent, according to the most recent update to the Living Planet Index. Produced by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), the index currently tracks almost 10,000 populations of 2,688 vertebrate species (including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish) in both the tropics and temperate regions.
"Much as a stock market index measures the state of the market by tracking changes in [...] a selection of companies, changes in abundance (i.e., the total number of individuals in a given population) across a selection of species can be used as one important indicator of the planet's ecological condition," the report reads. The report also examines impacts in particular regions. Related articles Biodiversity loss cripples plant growth. As the Clock Ticks, Trees Fall in Brazil’s Amazon. As Brazil braces for president Dilma Rousseff’s forthcoming decision on whether to sign or veto recent legislation that would alter the country’s Forest Code, rights groups are decrying a surge in illegal land grabs that is wrecking environmental havoc and threatening vulnerable tribal populations.
According to the rights organization Survival International, a gold rush mentality seems to have taken hold among loggers, ranchers and settlers in the eastern Amazonian state of Maranhão, as intruders bore their way deeper into reserve areas set up to protect the forests of the Awá tribe. In addition to 355 contacted members of the tribe, about 100 Awá remain uncontacted, making them one of the very last groups of nomads still roaming the forests of the eastern Amazon. The majority of the 60 or more uncontacted tribes that still survive in the Amazon inhabit the more secluded and remote western regions on the vast Amazon Basin. Measuring CO<sub>2</sub> to fight global warming, enforce future treaty. If the world's nations ever sign a treaty to limit emissions of climate-warming carbon dioxide gas, there may be a way to help verify compliance: a new method developed by scientists from the University of Utah and Harvard.
Using measurements from only three carbon-dioxide (CO2) monitoring stations in the Salt Lake Valley, the method could reliably detect changes in CO2 emissions of 15 percent or more, the researchers report in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences for the week of May 14, 2012. The method is a proof-of-concept first step even though it is less precise than the 5 percent accuracy recommended by a National Academy of Sciences panel in 2010.
The study's authors say satellite monitoring of carbon dioxide levels ultimately may be more accurate than the ground-based method developed in the new study. "The ultimate use is to verify CO2 emissions in the event that the world's nations agree to a treaty to limit such emissions," he says. Nearly one-tenth of hemisphere's mammals unlikely to outrun climate change.
A safe haven could be out of reach for 9 percent of the Western Hemisphere's mammals, and as much as 40 percent in certain regions, because the animals just won't move swiftly enough to outpace climate change. For the past decade scientists have outlined new areas suitable for mammals likely to be displaced as climate change first makes their current habitat inhospitable, then unlivable.
For the first time a new study considers whether mammals will actually be able to move to those new areas before they are overrun by climate change. Carrie Schloss, University of Washington research analyst in environmental and forest sciences, is lead author of the paper out online the week of May 14 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "We underestimate the vulnerability of mammals to climate change when we look at projections of areas with suitable climate but we don't also include the ability of mammals to move, or disperse, to the new areas," Schloss said.
Canada News: Tim Harper: Alberta Premier Alison Redford holds the key to environmental peace. Zoom There is mounting evidence that Stephen Harper’s determination to make Canada a resource-based economic power may have awakened a sleeping giant. The environment is back on the Canadian political radar, at least for the moment. At the very least, the prime minister’s decision to turn back the clock on environmental assessment in this country has crystallized the huge gulf between his vision for this nation and that of NDP Leader Tom Mulcair, a former provincial environment minister.
But, for the moment, Harper and Mulcair can step aside. The most important voice on this issue in Canada today belongs to Alison Redford. If this issue threatens to split east and west or spark social unrest, the Alberta premier will need to lead the way in bringing down the rhetoric. “I always think it’s better for people to comment once they have information than before they do,’’ Redford told her Progressive Conservatives.
A simple scan of U.S. and world media in a typical week shows what she is up against. April was 5th warmest month globally on record - Weather. WASHINGTON — Unseasonable weather pushed last month to the fifth warmest April on record worldwide, federal weather statistics show. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Climatic Data Center calculated that April's average temperature of 57.9 degrees (14.4 degrees Celsius) was nearly 1.2 degrees (0.7 degrees Celsius) above the 20th Century normal. Two years ago was the hottest April since recordkeeping started in 1880. Last month was the third hottest April in the United States and unusually warm in Russia, but cooler than normal in parts of western Europe.
This is despite a now ended La Nina which generally lowers global temperatures. Temperatures that would have once been considered unusually hot and record breaking now aren't even in the top two or three, said Michael Oppenheimer, a Princeton University climate scientist. The last time the globe had a month that averaged below the 20th Century normal was February 1985.
Corporations Are Tackling the Risks Associated with Climate Change | Green & Clean. Credit: Chuck Simmins, CC BY 2.0 Companies are accustomed to managing risks such as legal liabilities, accidents, natural disasters, credit and finance risks and security threats. But what about risk arising from climate change, such as its potential effect on production and business operations, regulatory and litigation risks or reputational risks? Processes and policies around climate risk — the risk profile of a company’s exposure to climate change — are still evolving, but companies are addressing climate change in ways that cross over between traditional risk management and corporate sustainability efforts. The specter of climate change worries corporate decision makers, investors and insurers: How might the enterprise be disrupted and impacted financially by a changing climate? Corporate sustainability and social responsibility tend to be the functions that address greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions — their monitoring, reporting and reduction.
Investors and Insurers Are Paying Attention. Wildfires in Colorado and Arizona growing; firefighters struggle. The Hewlett fire in Colorado has grown to 7,673 acres, prompting officials Friday to declare an emergency. In an executive order, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper declared the emergency because of the fire in Larimer County. The move makes $3 million in state emergency funds available for firefighting. “The Hewlett Fire’s proximity to numerous homes and property poses an imminent danger to life and property and, therefore, constitutes a disaster for the purposes of the act,” according to the executive order.
The move is the latest in the fight against the Hewlett fire, which was reported Monday afternoon. The fire is about 20 miles from Ft. The fire was 5% contained. Authorities ordered evacuations of about 80 homes near Poudre Canyon on Thursday. Meanwhile, officials in Arizona continue fighting four blazes. Four structures have been destroyed and an evacuation was ordered at Crown King, a historic mining town in Prescott National Forest. Michael.muskal@latimes.com. Australia's greenhouse gas emissions rise 0.6 pct in 2011 | Energy & Oil. SINGAPORE, April 17 (Reuters) - Australia's greenhouse gas emissions rose 0.6 percent in 2011 from a year earlier, the government said on Tuesday, boosted by growth in pollution from transport, waste and an increase in black coal mining. Total 2011 emissions, excluding land use, land use change and forestry, were 546.3 million tonnes, or about 24.3 tonnes per capita, among the highest in the developed world and higher than the United States.
The 2011 rise comes after emissions increased 0.5 percent in 2010. On Monday, the U.S. government said emissions rose 3.2 percent for 2010 from the previous year amid economic growth and higher electricity demand from high summer temperatures. Carbon pollution from electricity generation comprises more than a third of Australia's total emissions because of the heavy use of black and brown coal in power stations. Coal generates about 80 percent of Australia's power versus about 45 percent in the United States. 7.0 - eastern New Guinea region, Papua New Guinea. "2052: A Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years" Launch in Rotterdam (NL) PART I. Brazil set to cut forest protection. Japanese Tsunami Debris Is Increasingly Washing Ashore in Alaska. Heartland – the beginning of the end for climate denial? UN Launches Biodiversity Platform for Science and Policy. Demographics, Pandemics, Epidemics and Health.
Oceans. Ecosystem Services: Charting a Path to Sustainability. Arctic generals agree on closer ties. Earthquakes - Earthquake today - Latest Earthquakes in the World - EMSC.