Comment: For more information on climate change, read this SOTT Focus piece
Earth Changes
Recently the International Panel on Climate Change issued a report predicting an alarming array of impacts of climate change around the globe, including drought, floods, lower crop yields, threatened food security, wildfire and ocean acidification. It seems that no living thing in this web of life we are a part of will be unaffected by climate change.
AUSTRALIA is praying for rain as it faces the stark truth that the drought crisis is just six weeks from becoming an unprecedented disaster.
What is happening to the bees?
More than a quarter of the country's 2.4 million bee colonies have been lost - tens of billions of bees, according to an estimate from the Apiary Inspectors of America, a national group that tracks beekeeping. So far, no one can say what is causing the bees to become disoriented and fail to return to their hives.
More than a quarter of the country's 2.4 million bee colonies have been lost - tens of billions of bees, according to an estimate from the Apiary Inspectors of America, a national group that tracks beekeeping. So far, no one can say what is causing the bees to become disoriented and fail to return to their hives.
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| ©New York Times |
The death toll of seals washed ashore on the oil-rich Caspian in Kazakhstan since March 31 has risen to 605, the Central Asian state's emergencies ministry said Tuesday.
"The overall number of dead seals as of Monday night reached 605, including 489 baby seals," the ministry said. "The coast is continuing to be monitored."
The dead seals have been found along the seashore between two major oil fields in western Kazakhstan. But officials in Kazakhstan cite weather conditions as a possible reason.
"Until February 20, most of the northeastern Caspian did not freeze..., and on February 21-22 the northern Caspian had a covering of thin ice, ...which melted by March 20, ... and it could have had a negative effect on the baby seals," the Ministry of Environmental Protection said earlier.
"The overall number of dead seals as of Monday night reached 605, including 489 baby seals," the ministry said. "The coast is continuing to be monitored."
The dead seals have been found along the seashore between two major oil fields in western Kazakhstan. But officials in Kazakhstan cite weather conditions as a possible reason.
"Until February 20, most of the northeastern Caspian did not freeze..., and on February 21-22 the northern Caspian had a covering of thin ice, ...which melted by March 20, ... and it could have had a negative effect on the baby seals," the Ministry of Environmental Protection said earlier.
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| ©Robyn Wheeler |
| Something unusual's rolling this way .... and it wasn't the bowls at Scarborough Bowling Clubs near Wollongong yesterday. |
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Over the past couple of months we here at SOTT have been following the Bee crisis with some interest. It caught my eye when I read the first media article about it that was brought to my attention; I knew this was important. As Albert Einstein observed:
"If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man."
WASHINGTON - Go to work, come home. Go to work, come home. Go to work -- and vanish without a trace.
Billions of bees have done just that, leaving the crop fields they are supposed to pollinate, and scientists are mystified about why.
Billions of bees have done just that, leaving the crop fields they are supposed to pollinate, and scientists are mystified about why.
CACTUS, Texas - Downed power lines, flattened houses and roads littered with debris kept many residents from returning to their homes Sunday in this rural Panhandle town hit hard by what appeared to be a group of tornadoes.
A prominent environmentalist is sounding the alarm about a closed-door trilateral meeting to discuss, among other things, large-scale water transfers to combat future shortages in the United States and Mexico despite Canada's standing objection to such a plan.
For most of us facing gridlocked roads and packed trains, the Monday morning commute is a more pressing concern than climate change.
But there may be a single solution to both, according to business leaders.
The Institute of Directors is calling for flexible hours and more home working to help tackle global warming.
Miles Templeman, the institute's director-general, said offering employees greater flexibility would ease pressure on transport networks and cut rush-hour power demand - thereby reducing emissions. Mr Templeman urged ministers not to rush into policies that risked harming the economy, such as caps on emissions and carbon taxes.
Speaking ahead of the institute's annual convention later this week, he criticised the Government over its "ideological" approach to climate change.
But there may be a single solution to both, according to business leaders.
The Institute of Directors is calling for flexible hours and more home working to help tackle global warming.
Miles Templeman, the institute's director-general, said offering employees greater flexibility would ease pressure on transport networks and cut rush-hour power demand - thereby reducing emissions. Mr Templeman urged ministers not to rush into policies that risked harming the economy, such as caps on emissions and carbon taxes.
Speaking ahead of the institute's annual convention later this week, he criticised the Government over its "ideological" approach to climate change.
Comment: See To Bee or Not to Be.