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Bizarro Earth

Ozone hole the size of North America

Angela Gregory
New Zealand Herald
Wed, 05 Nov 2008 19:03 UTC
ozone
© NZ Herald

The Antarctic ozone hole grew to the size of North America in September, the fifth largest recorded in nearly 30 years.

The information released yesterday by the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said the ozone hole fluctuated in response to temperature and sunlight.

It had grown to the size of North America in a one-day maximum in September, making it the fifth largest since NOAA satellite records began in 1979.

The primary cause of the ozone hole was human-produced compounds called chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which released ozone-destroying chlorine and bromine into the atmosphere.
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Better Earth

Dried Mushrooms Slow Climate Warming In Northern Forests


Science Daily
Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:59 UTC
The fight against climate warming has an unexpected ally in mushrooms growing in dry spruce forests covering Alaska, Canada, Scandinavia and other northern regions, a new UC Irvine study finds.

When soil in these forests is warmed, fungi that feed on dead plant material dry out and produce significantly less climate-warming carbon dioxide than fungi in cooler, wetter soil. This came as a surprise to scientists, who expected warmer soil to emit larger amounts of carbon dioxide because extreme cold is believed to slow down the process by which fungi convert soil carbon into carbon dioxide.
Fungi.
© University of California - Irvine
Fungi. The fight against climate warming has an unexpected ally in mushrooms growing in dry spruce forests covering Alaska, Canada, Scandinavia and other northern regions, a new UC Irvine study finds

Knowing how forests cycle carbon is crucial to accurately predicting global climate warming, which in turn guides public policy to curb greenhouse gas emissions. This is especially important in northern forests, which contain an estimated 30 percent of the Earth's soil carbon, equivalent to the amount of atmospheric carbon.
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Better Earth

Climate Change Bill makes chilling reading


The Daily Telegraph
Sun, 02 Nov 2008 18:59 UTC
Who says the Almighty has not got a sense of humour? Last Tuesday MPs spent yet another six hours discussing what is potentially the most expensive single piece of legislation ever put through Parliament.

The Climate Change Bill, which had its third reading, commits Britain (uniquely in the world) to an 80 per cent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.

As MPs droned on about the need to fight global warming, Peter Lilley drew the Speaker's attention to the fact that, outside on the streets of Westminster, snow was falling. It was London's first October snowfall for 70 years, and similarly unseasonal snow was carpeting a wide swathe of Britain.

In all that six hours of debate, only two MPs questioned the need for such a Bill, which had swept through its second reading with only five opposed.

The sole MP who tried to raise the matter of the cost of the Bill - which could run to trillions of pounds if all its measures were implemented - was Mr Lilley. He was ruled out of order by the Speaker.
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Fish

Coral Reefs Found Growing In Cold, Deep Ocean


Science Daily
Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:44 UTC
Imagine descending in a submarine to the ice-cold, ink-black depths of the ocean, 800 metres under the surface of the Atlantic. Here the tops of the hills are covered in large coral reefs. NIOZ-researcher Furu Mienis studied the formation of these unknown cold-water relatives of the better-known tropical corals.
cold-water corals
© Marc Lavalije, NIOZ
Example of the cold-water corals being studied in the Atlantic Ocean at depths of six hundred to a thousand metres.

Furu Mienis studied the development of carbonate mounds dominated by cold-water corals in the Atlantic Ocean at depths of six hundred to a thousand metres. These reefs can be found along the eastern continental slope from Morocco to Norway, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and on the western continental slope along the east coast of Canada and the United States. Mienis studied the area to the west of Ireland along the edges of the Rockall Trough.
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Bizarro Earth

Hurricane Ike Caused Underwater Damage To Galveston


Science Daily
Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:28 UTC
Conducting a rapid response research mission after Hurricane Ike, scientists at The University of Texas at Austin surveyed the inlet between Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, discovering the hurricane significantly reshaped the seafloor and likely carried an enormous amount of sand and sediment out into the Gulf.
Image
© University of Texas at Austin
Before-and-after bathymetric images of the shell-gravel ridges in the Bolivar Roads inlet off Big Reef (at the northeast tip of Galveston Island), overlaid on satellite photograph.

The ongoing research could help coastal communities gauge the effectiveness of their sometimes controversial efforts to replenish eroding sand along shorelines while revealing the role storms play in building and eroding barrier islands such as Galveston.
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Info

Roads Bring Death And Fear To Forest Elephants


Science Daily
Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:15 UTC
Why did the elephant cross the road? It didn't according to a new study by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Save the Elephants that says endangered forest elephants are avoiding roadways at all costs. The authors of the study believe that these highly intelligent animals now associate roads with danger - in this case poaching, which is rampant in Central Africa's Congo Basin.
Image
© Stephen Blake, Courtesy Wildlife Conservation Society
Why did the elephant cross the road? It didn't according to a new study by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Save the Elephants that says endangered forest elephants are avoiding roadways at all costs.

According to the study, which appears in the October 27th issue of the journal Public Library of Science (PLoSONE), forest elephants have adopted a "siege mentality," forcing populations to become increasingly confined and isolated. This in turn reduces these normally far-ranging animals' ability to find suitable habitat; thereby threatening long-term conservation efforts.
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Snowman

Storm drops more than foot of snow on Sierra peaks

Martin Griffith
Associated Press
Wed, 05 Nov 2008 04:29 UTC
Reno, Nevada - A storm dropped as much as 15 inches of snow in the Sierra Nevada, hastening the state of the ski season but bogging down traffic on mountain highways.

The Boreal resort atop Donner Summit reported 12 to 15 inches of new snow from late Monday into Tuesday, and said it plans to open Thursday. Alpine Meadows resort just north of Lake Tahoe reported as much as 14 inches of snow during the night, and hopes to open Nov. 26.

"Winter has made an entrance," said David Thatcher, snowmaking manager at Alpine Meadows.
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Attention

Governor declares agricultural disaster in 5 counties


KSL News
Mon, 03 Nov 2008 00:30 UTC
Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman today declared six Utah counties agricultural disaster areas.

The declaration affects farmers and ranchers in Garfield, Millard, Sanpete, Kane, Piute and Box Elder counties who have been hit hard by extreme weather conditions.
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Info

Saving The Endangered Tasmanian Devil In Australia


Science Daily
Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:42 UTC
University of Adelaide zoologist Dr Jeremy Austin will lead a national project to help save the endangered Tasmanian devil from extinction.

Dr Austin and colleagues from SA Zoos and the Tasmanian Government will spend the next three years establishing a conservation program and working to suppress the infectious cancer, devil facial tumour disease, which is ravaging Australia's largest living marsupial carnivore.
male Tasmanian devil
© University of Adelaide
A male Tasmanian devil.

The Tasmanian devil is not only a key tourism icon for Australia's most southern State, but also ecologically critical to Tasmania's native ecosystem.

"Extinction of the species is a possibility within the next two decades unless disease spread can be stopped," says Dr Austin.
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Umbrella

Flood toll rises, rains resume in Hanoi


Associated Press
Tue, 04 Nov 2008 08:57 UTC
vietnam floods
© AP Photo/Chitose Suzuki
People struggle to go through a flooded street in Hanoi, Vietnam, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2008.
Hanoi, Vietnam - The death toll from several days of flooding in Vietnam rose to 83 on Tuesday as authorities announced they had recovered 17 more bodies.

Disaster officials said they recovered two more bodies in the capital, Hanoi, 12 more in nearby northern provinces, and three more in central Vietnam, areas still suffering from flooding caused by heavy rains last week.

Showers resumed in northern and central Vietnam on Tuesday, and forecasters predicted several more days of rain but said it would be lighter than the downpours that soaked the region over the weekend. The weekend rains in Hanoi were the worst in at least two decades. On Monday, the rains stopped for most of the day and water levels began to recede.
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