The atmosphere is to the earth as a layer of varnish is to a desktop globe. It is thin, fragile and essential for preserving the items on the surface.150 years of burning fossil fuel have overloaded the atmosphere to the point where the earth is ill. It now has a fever. Read the detailed article, Soothing Gaia’s Fever for an evocative account of that analogy. The items listed here detail progress on coordinating 6.5 billion people in the most critical project undertaken by humanity.Â
Greens secure Rudd government backflip to save renewable energy target Canberra, Friday 26 February 2010 After months of claiming there was no problem with the Renewable EnergyTarget, Ministers Wong and Combet have today announced a major backflipthat appears to adopt significant elements of the Greens’ PrivateMember’s Bill introduced yesterday. However, with details still to be Continue Reading →
Climate scientists withdraw journal claims of rising sea levels
Study claimed in 2009 that sea levels would rise by up to 82cm by the end of century – but the report’s author now says true estimate is still unknown
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The Maldives is likely to become submerged if the current pace of climate change continues to raise sea levels. Photograph: Reinhard Krause/Reuters
Scientists have been forced to withdraw a study on projected sea level rise due to global warming after finding mistakes that undermined the findings.
The study, published in 2009 in Nature Geoscience, one of the top journals in its field, confirmed the conclusions of the 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It used data over the last 22,000 years to predict that sea level would rise by between 7cm and 82cm by the end of the century.
At the time, Mark Siddall, from the Earth Sciences Department at the University of Bristol, said the study “strengthens the confidence with which one may interpret the IPCC results“. The IPCC said that sea level would probably rise by 18cm-59cm by 2100, though stressed this was based on incomplete information about ice sheet melting and that the true rise could be higher.
Many scientists criticised the IPCC approach as too conservative, and several papers since have suggested that sea level could rise more. Martin Vermeer of the Helsinki University of Technology, Finland and Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany published a study in December that projected a rise of 0.75m to 1.9m by 2100.
Underwater vents allow scientists to assess the acidic effect of carbon dioxide on ocean life
Ocean acidification will endanger the algae that hold together this reef in the Maldives. Photograph: Michele Westmorland/Getty Images
Huge vents covering the sea-floor – among the strangest and most spectacular sights in nature – pour carbon dioxide and other gases into the deep waters of the oceans.
Last week, as researchers reported that they had now discovered more than 50,000 underwater volcanic springs, they also revealed a new use for them – as laboratories for measuring the impact of ocean acidification on marine life.
Gas pipeline through contaminated Baltic given go-ahead Ecologist 19th February, 2010 Environmental groups in Germany, Finland and Denmark claim gas pipeline will devastate the Baltic Sea’s already fragile marine ecosystem Three legal challenges are being brought against the construction of a major undersea gas pipeline between Russia and Germany. The €7.4 billion Nord Stream project, Continue Reading →
Gloom obscures M5 tunnel filters
Cough … inside the M5 tunnel. Source: The Daily Telegraph
THE $70 million filtration of the M5 tunnel – one of the world’s most polluted – has failed.
The $50 million westbound filtration system is not pushing clean air into the tunnel while the $20 million eastbound project has been completely scrapped.
Despite a decade of promises, a dangerous peak-hour haze still clouds more than 100,000 commuters every day.
UN top climate change boss quits post
YVO de Boer, the top UN climate change official, announced last night that he was resigning after a tumultuous four years in the job, marked by the failure to convince governments to agree on a post-Kyoto deal and revelations of a series of blunders in the UN’s 2007 report on climate change.
His departure as head of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change takes effect on July 1, five months before 193 nations are due to reconvene in Mexico for another attempt to reach a binding worldwide accord on controlling greenhouse gases.