Earth ChangesS


Igloo

Mega new climate science: 'Runaway' effect exaggerated

Lewis Page
The Register
Tue, 06 Jul 2010 03:53 UTC
Global warming models set for shake-up by new data

Top international boffins, having crunched vast amounts of climate data, say that the effect of "carbon feedback" - thought likely in some quarters to cause imminent runaway global warming followed by the end of human civilisation - has been exaggerated.

"Our key finding is that the short-term temperature sensitivity of ecosystem respiration to air temperature is converging to a single, global value," says Miguel Mahecha of the Max-Planck Institut für Biogeochemie, lead boffin on the new science.

"Contrary to previous studies, we show that the sensitivity of ecosystem respiration to temperature variations seems to be independent from external factors and constant across ecosystems."
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Cloud Lightning

Mexico, Texas evacuate homes as Rio Grande floods

Jorge Vargas
Associated Press
Wed, 07 Jul 2010 22:18 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/Miguel TovarTrucks sit in a flooded street in the town of Ciudad Anahuac, in the Mexican northeastern state of Nuevo Leon, Wednesday, July 7, 2010. About 18,000 people were evacuated Tuesday from Ciudad Anahuac, where authorities opened a dam's floodgates for fear it would overflow from rains that accompanied Hurricane Alex.
Nuevo Laredo - Reservoirs along the U.S.-Mexico border rose to their highest levels in decades after days of drenching rain, forcing officials to close two border bridges Wednesday, dump water into flooded rivers and evacuate tens of thousands from homes, with yet another storm on the way.

The dramatic rise of the Rio Grande caused by Hurricane Alex and continuing rains forced the closure of one major border crossing between downtown Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, and another crossing known as the Colombia Bridge, about 20 miles upriver.

Officials evacuated the flood-threatened Vega Verde subdivision in Del Rio, Texas, some 110 miles (180 kilometers) upstream from Laredo, while high waters in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila have already damaged some 10,000 homes - many swamped in waist-deep water.

"That means there are 40,000 people who don't have any place to sleep," Gov. Humberto Moreira told the Televisa network Wednesday.
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Bizarro Earth

US: Earthquake Magnitude 5.4 shakes Southern California

Dan Whitcomb
Reuters
Wed, 07 Jul 2010 20:50 UTC
Image
© USGS
Los Angeles - A magnitude 5.4 earthquake shook the Southern California desert east of Los Angeles on Tuesday, rattling nerves across the region but causing no serious damage or injuries.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the moderate quake, which struck at 4:53 p.m. PDT, was centered 15 miles north-northwest of the desert resort community of Borrego Springs, about 133 miles east of Los Angeles.

Tall buildings swayed in downtown Los Angeles and the rolling quake was felt as far away as San Diego to the south and Santa Barbara to the north.
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Bizarro Earth

Mount Longonot National Park Volcano in Kenya May Go Active

Wolfgang H. Thome
eTurboNews
Wed, 07 Jul 2010 18:25 UTC
Mount Longono
© flickr.comMount Longonot National Park volcano
It is a sight to behold when coming from Nairobi or Limuru and approaching the high cliffs of the Great African Rift Valley - Mount Longonot rising from the floor of the surrounding valley and the neighboring satellite transmission station named after the mountain.

Years ago, a national park was created around the mountain to encourage more tourists to visit while in the area, and it was probably this fact which had more "eyes from the skies" look down at the mountain - long known to be a dormant volcano.

News taken from volcanologists' blogs, however, now seem to tell a different, and altogether more sinister, story than the official one on the park's tourism attractions.
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Health

Oil/Water samples from Gulf...Very Toxic

JamesCFox
YouTube
Wed, 07 Jul 2010 18:00 UTC
Oil and water samples were taken from both the Shores of Grand Isle and from 20 miles out. The preliminary analysis was done at an academic analytical chemistry laboratory. Looking for the likely pollutants from the Deepwater Horizon Oil spill. It was focused on the detection of benzene and propylene glycol. Benzene and other highly toxic contaminants were very low however the concentration of propylene glycol was between 360 and 440 parts per million. Just 25 parts per million is know to kill most fish and propylene glycol is just one of many ingredients found in Corexit. In short, the Gulf is being poisoned by BP's usage of the dispersants even after the EPA asked them to stop back in May. We are willing to provide ANY respected/known laboratory these samples or provide them with more. This is very serious to all people and marine life in and around the Gulf.

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Alarm Clock

27,000 Abandoned Gulf Oil Wells May Be Leaking


Associated Press
Wed, 07 Jul 2010 09:00 UTC
oil well being
© APIn this undated photo released by the California State Lands Commission, a diver works in preparation for "re-abandonment" of a subsea wellhead off the coast of California
More than 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells lurk in the hard rock beneath the Gulf of Mexico, an environmental minefield that has been ignored for decades. No one - not industry, not government - is checking to see if they are leaking, an Associated Press investigation shows.

The oldest of these wells were abandoned in the late 1940s, raising the prospect that many deteriorating sealing jobs are already failing.

The AP investigation uncovered particular concern with 3,500 of the neglected wells - those characterized in federal government records as "temporarily abandoned."

Regulations for temporarily abandoned wells require oil companies to present plans to reuse or permanently plug such wells within a year, but the AP found that the rule is routinely circumvented, and that more than 1,000 wells have lingered in that unfinished condition for more than a decade. About three-quarters of temporarily abandoned wells have been left in that status for more than a year, and many since the 1950s and 1960s - even though sealing procedures for temporary abandonment are not as stringent as those for permanent closures.

As a forceful reminder of the potential harm, the well beneath BP's Deepwater Horizon rig was being sealed with cement for temporary abandonment when it blew April 20, leading to one of the worst environmental disasters in the nation's history. BP alone has abandoned about 600 wells in the Gulf, according to government data.
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Magnify

Dead Zone in Gulf Linked to Ethanol Production

Carolyn Lochhead
San Francisco Chronicle
Tue, 06 Jul 2010 19:53 UTC
Image
Washington - While the BP oil spill has been labeled the worst environmental catastrophe in recent U.S. history, a biofuel is contributing to a Gulf of Mexico "dead zone" the size of New Jersey that scientists say could be every bit as harmful to the gulf.

Each year, nitrogen used to fertilize corn, about a third of which is made into ethanol, leaches from Midwest croplands into the Mississippi River and out into the gulf, where the fertilizer feeds giant algae blooms. As the algae dies, it settles to the ocean floor and decays, consuming oxygen and suffocating marine life.

Known as hypoxia, the oxygen depletion kills shrimp, crabs, worms and anything else that cannot escape. The dead zone has doubled since the 1980s and is expected this year to grow as large as 8,500 square miles and hug the Gulf Coast from Alabama to Texas.
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Sheeple

Curry Spices Shown to Reduce Methane Emissions in Sheep by 40 Percent


Newcastle University
Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:51 UTC
sheep
© USU
Forget low-energy lightbulbs and solar-powered homes - curry spices could hold the key to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Research carried out at Newcastle University has found that coriander and turmeric - spices traditionally used to flavour curries - can reduce the amount of methane produced by bacteria in a sheep's stomach by up to 40pc.

Working a bit like an antibiotic, the spices were found to kill the methane-producing 'bad' bacteria in the animal's gut while allowing the 'good' bacteria to flourish.

The findings are part of an on-going study by Newcastle University research student Mohammad Mehedi Hasan and Dr Abdul Shakoor Chaudhry - the most recent part of which is published this week in the Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences 2010.
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Bug

New Bacterial Dengue "Vaccine" to be Sprayed on Mosquito Populations

Daniel Bateman
Cairns Post
Wed, 07 Jul 2010 00:00 UTC
Mosquitos on petri dish
© Jake NowakowskiDr Scott Ritchie has been conducting trials with a new bacteria to kill dengue-carrying mosquitos.
A bacteria that limits the lifespan of mosquitoes could be released in the Far North as early as this wet season. Could Wolbachia be a killer result for dengue fever?

James Cook University and University of Queensland researchers have been working on the bacterium Wolbachia, which has shown to be an effective control against the spread of dengue fever.

Wolbachia, described as a ''dengue vaccine for dengue mosquitoes'' dramatically shortens Aedes aegypti mosquitoes' 30-day lifespan and destroys their ability to transmit the disease.

The bacteria has proven to be so successful, it may also help control other mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria and chikungunya.

Comment: It seems the line between "vaccine" and "pesticide" is no longer black and white.

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Magnify

Gulf Oil Spill Situational Map


Vuetoo.com
Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:24 UTC
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