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Monthly Archives

February 2009

"World’s last chance to stop climate change before it passes the point of no return." European Environmental Commissioner Stavros Dimas

By Uncategorized

I keep telling all my friends, I don’t make this stuff up.  It has deadly serious implications for global society and the continuance of Earth’s environment, and lately, it seems to be coming at us from all sides – just as the popular media has seemingly lost nearly 100% of its attention span. The above…

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Wilkins Ice Sheet Collapses – The Size of Connecticut: Implications for the West Antarctic Ice Sheet

By Uncategorized

The disintegration of the largest ice shelf ever known to collapse started in February 2008 during the Antarctic summer. Signs of the breakup continued during the deep polar winter, something else that has never been seen before. The European Space Agency has now announced that the breakup amounts to 14,000 square kilometers, or over 5,000…

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International Geophysical Year (IPY): $1.2 billion in research says climate change is worse than previously understood and will likely get worse before it gets worse. (Preliminary Report)

By Impacts

IPY is the largest internationally coordinated planetary research effort in the past 50 years. More than 160 endorsed science projects are included in this report from researchers in more than 60 countries from the period March 2007 to March 2009 to allow for observations during the alternate seasons in both polar regions. The IPY is…

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The good news is that we know it is going to be much worse than previously predicted: MIT Updates their climate projections – The bad news is that the media has now begun to completely ignore the environment

By Impacts

MIT projections are almost double the IPCCs. Very scary stuff, and this makes four major publications in as many weeks that the media has not  acknowledged. And it is great climate change art too. The "no policy scenario" is business as usual. The policy scenario is the middle scenario of several likely alternatives used by…

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Monaco Declaration Press Release: Marine Ecosystem Protection

By Oceans

Monaco Declaration Press Release: Urgent action is needed to limit damages to marine ecosystems, including coral reefs and fisheries, due to increasing ocean acidity, according to 155 of the world’s scientific experts who will release the Monaco Declaration this Friday. The Declaration is based on results from the Second International Symposium on the Ocean in…

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Methane time bomb

By Methane, Permafrost

Dr. Katey Walter, from the University of Fairbanks, sees methane like many climate scientists these days. The warming across the planet is concentrated at the poles because of what is called polar amplification. This means that the Arctic is warming even more than the rest of the Earth. In many places the Arctic has already…

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Sterns makes dire statements

By Emissions

(AP Press)Eminent British economist Lord Nicholas Sterns made some dire statements while visiting Antarctica with an team of key international climate leaders:  "… if negotiators falter, if emissions reductions are not made soon and deep, the severe climate shifts and sea-level rises projected by scientists would be "disastrous."  If we don’t deal with climate change…

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More from Fields Below – Astonishing news about Permafrost

By Permafrost

February 15, 2009 More from Fields Below – Astonishing news about Permafrost Catastrophic permafrost melt is one of the likely abrupt climate change feedback scenarios.  Major permafrost melt has already happened and the melt rate is increasing rapidly.  Hundreds of thousands of years of frozen, partially decomposed tundra is at risk of thawing.  Scientists aren’t…

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US Geological Survey Report – U.S. Climate Change Science Program. Thresholds of Climate Change in Ecosystems

By Abrupt changes

(170 pages) Ecological thresholds occur when external factors, positive feedbacks, or nonlinear instabilities in a system cause changes to propagate in a domino-like fashion that is potentially irreversible.  Atmospheric carbon dioxide has reached levels unprecedented in possibly the last 24 million years. CO2 concentrations have risen by 34%, mostly in the last several decades. Global…

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Co Chair of Climate Impacts Panel at IPCC says 2007 Assessment Report was Significantly Conservative – Warns of Eminent Abrupt Changes

By Emissions Scenarios

Chris Field, Coordinating Chair of the Climate Impacts Working Group for the IPCC says: "We now have data showing that from 2000 to 2007, greenhouse gas emissions increased far more rapidly than we expected… In the fourth assessment, we looked at a very conservative range of climate outcomes, the fifth assessment should include futures with…

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Antarctica Warms 100 Years Ahead of Schedule (again)

By Uncategorized

Another article about Antarctica warming a century ahead of the climate models predictions has been published.  Red is significant warming, pink is slight warming. Even in East Antarctica, where the climate models said the heat would be slow to come even at the end of the century, there is now warming. In West Antarctica, its…

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