Earth ChangesS


Fish

Oceans love carbon dioxide, say sea scientists

John O'Sullivan
Climategate.com
Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:28 UTC
Now the doomsayers are telling you that the oceans are turning acid from all that nasty carbon dioxide being absorbed into the seas. How frightening! Or perhaps not? According to oceanographers there's as much chance of the planet's seas turning acid as there is of Al Gore admitting he lied. So it seems we can trust the ecofascists even less now they've started pontificating about other scientific disciplines. In response to the latest environmental hype oceanographers have come out to tell us what the facts actually are and its not good reading for Mr. Gore!

It seems that sea life thrives on warmer water and increased carbon dioxide. On June 2nd, 2009 a groundbreaking new research paper was announced by zoologists that indicated that elevated water temperatures and heightened concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) dramatically increases the growth rate of a keystone species of sea star and may well be beneficial to other sea crustaceans.

Yes, that's right - sea-dwelling creatures like a drop of acid in the drink. Crustaceans (e.g. shellfish and coral) survive by making carbonate structures and they do so by turning soluble bicarbonates in the water to carbonates. In basic terms, their way of life causes them to release CO2 into the water. It's normal, not nasty, say the sea scientists.
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Gear

"Ocean acidification" keeps evil man-made pollutant CO2 on the agenda

James Delingpole
Telegraph.co.uk
Wed, 30 Dec 2009 11:19 UTC
I first chanced upon this horror (in abbreviated form) while in the bath reading The Week (which used to be my favourite mag but has gone seriously off now that it has abandoned all pretence of neutrality on the AGW * issue). And though I admit it wasn't quite as bad as having Freddy Krueger's clawed hand come from beneath the bubbles to disembowel me then drag me down the plughole, it still gave me a seriously nasty turn - as I'm sure it will you too once I've parsed its insidious monstrousness.

It's an article Charles Clover wrote in The Sunday Times a few weeks ago titled "If climate change doesn't grab you, meet its evil twin." On first glance, it might look like just more of the same old glib drivel we've come to expect from the MSM's environment specialists...

There's the statutory de haut en bas dismissal of your typical sceptic: "always a man, almost invariably wearing a tweed jacket", apparently, claims the tweed-jacket-wearing, pheasant-shooting Clover.
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MIB

Climategate: Michael Mann's very unhappy New Year

James Delingpole
Telegraph.co.uk
Sun, 03 Jan 2010 10:01 UTC
As I said yesterday, one of our jobs this year is to wipe the complacent smiles off the smug faces of the lobbyists, "experts", "scientists", politicians and activists pushing AGW.

This is why I am so glad to report that Michael Mann - creator of the incredible Hockey Stick curve and one of the scientists most heavily implicated in the Climategate scandal - is about to get a very nasty shock. When he turns up to work on Monday, he'll find that all 27 of his colleagues at the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University have received a rather tempting email inviting them to blow the whistle on anyone they know who may have been fraudulently misusing federal grant funds for climate research.

Comment: Who is Kent Clizbe? CIA counter-terrorism 'expert':
Kent served as a staff CIA case officer in the 1990s, and as a contractor after 9/11. He has worked in various capacities in intelligence positions in Southeast Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. His specialty is Counter-terrorism and Islamic Extremism.

Kent has also worked Counter-intelligence, Counter-proliferation, Counter-narcotics, and other targets. In addition to extensive liaison work with foreign intel services, he has worked in the US Intel Community in inter-agency, inter-governmental intelligence operations since 9/11. He was awarded the Intelligence Community Seal Medallion, the highest civilian intelligence agency decoration for contractors, for his counter-terrorist operations in the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia. His work in the Philippines was described in an article by Mark Bowden in the Atlantic Monthly in March 2007, Jihadists in Paradise.


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Snowman

Cold weather kills scores in India


Independent Online
Fri, 01 Jan 2010 18:50 UTC
At least 17 people died as towns and cities in India's northern states were hit by cold weather, officials said on Friday.

"Sixteen people have died in Uttar Pradesh since early Wednesday due to cold [weather] conditions in the state. Most victims were homeless or pavement dwellers," state police spokesman G N Khanna said.
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Igloo

Best of the Web: Glacial Rebound Here We Go: Britain facing one of the coldest winters in 100 years, experts predict

Nick Britten
Telegraph.co.uk
Sat, 02 Jan 2010 16:55 UTC
Image
© Telegraph Parts of Scotland have had snowcover for nearly three weeks
Britain is bracing itself for one of the coldest winters for a century with temperatures hitting minus 16 degrees Celsius, forecasters have warned.

They predicted no let up in the freezing snap until at least mid-January, with snow, ice and severe frosts dominating.

And the likelihood is that the second half of the month will be even colder.

Weather patterns were more like those in the late 1970s, experts said, while Met Office figures released on Monday are expected to show that the country is experiencing the coldest winter for up to 25 years.

On New Year's Day 10 extreme weather warnings were in place, with heavy snow expected in northern England and Scotland.
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Bizarro Earth

Nyamulagira Volcano erupts in eastern Congo


Associated Press
Sat, 02 Jan 2010 12:04 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/Congolese Wildlife Authority, Virunga National Park, HOIn this photo released by the Congolese Wildlife Authority, Virunga National Park, showing the scene as the Nyamulagira volcano erupts early Saturday, Jan. 2, 2010.
Kinshasa - A government official says a volcano has erupted in eastern Congo, sending lava toward a national park.

Feller Lutahichirwa said Saturday that the Nyamulagira volcano had erupted at dawn. While the area where the lava was headed is sparsely populated, wildlife officials say it is home to about 40 endangered chimpanzees.

Lutahichirwa says government observers are monitoring the situation with help from U.N. helicopters.

The director of Virunga National Park says the eruption is "of great concern" and that rangers have been deployed to monitor the lava flow.
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Bizarro Earth

Brazil Mudslides, Floods Kill 44 After Heavy Rain

Alberto Alerigi Jr.
Reuters
Fri, 01 Jan 2010 14:44 UTC
Image
© Bruno Domingos/ReutersAn aerial view of Pousada Sankay hotel buried by a mudslide in Angra dos Reis, Rio de Janeiro state January 1, 2010.
Mudslides and flooding killed at least 44 people in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro state and authorities said on Friday that the death toll could climb with more heavy rains in the forecast.

Twenty-two people were found dead on Friday after a small hotel and surrounding homes collapsed in the beach resort of Angra dos Reis, one of Brazil's most exclusive tourism destinations, the Rio de Janeiro state's civil defense said.

Television footage showed the Sankay hotel and a number of homes in Angra buried under a mountain of mud. Rescue teams, aided by helicopters and navy boats, were struggling to reach the area where the hotel collapsed, Pedro Machado, head of the firefighters' corps, told GloboNews television.

Civil defense authorities said about 40 people were registered at the hotel. They told Reuters heavy rains forecast for the coming days could make rescue work harder and trigger more mudslides.
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Bizarro Earth

Heavy Fog Causes Flight Delays at Los Angeles Airport


Xinhua
Fri, 01 Jan 2010 20:09 UTC
Heavy fog caused flight delays at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said.

A check with several airlines serving LAX showed northbound flights were delayed by about 35 minutes at mid-morning, but southbound flights appeared to be on schedule, said the FAA.

Aircraft flying into San Francisco International Airport at mid-morning were delayed an average of 51 minutes, with many planes kept idling on the ground before departing for the Bay Area, the FAA said.

Air travel to and from the rest of the nation appeared to be moving smoothly, the FAA's Web site said.
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Frog

Flashback Flow: How privatization is accelerating the world's water crisis

mckenzietx
youtube
Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:45 UTC
Irena Salina's award-winning documentary investigation into what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century - The World Water Crisis.

Salina builds a case against the growing privatization of the world's dwindling fresh water supply with an unflinching focus on politics, pollution, human rights, and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel.

Interviews with scientists and activists intelligently reveal the rapidly building crisis, at both the global and human scale, and the film introduces many of the governmental and corporate culprits behind the water grab, while begging the question "CAN ANYONE REALLY OWN WATER?"

Beyond identifying the problem, FLOW also gives viewers a look at the people and institutions providing practical solutions to the water crisis and those developing new technologies, which are fast becoming blueprints for a successful global and economic turnaround.
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Frog

Frog embryos listen for bad vibrations to avoid snakes

Shanta Barley
New Scientist
Wed, 09 Dec 2009 12:10 UTC
To escape being a snake's lunch, tree frog embryos listen out for bad vibrations.

The jelly-coated eggs of the Central American red-eyed tree frog are laid on vegetation overhanging ponds and can hatch up to three days early if they sense that a snake is approaching. Michael Caldwell at Boston University and colleagues wanted to know how they distinguished between predators and false alarms like torrential rain.

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