Rises in sea levels during the coming decades could be much higher than previously believed, say experts. A new report by a consortium of scientists from the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, UK, and research centres in Germany and the US says that sea levels rose by an average of 1.6 m every hundred years when the Earth was last as warm as it is predicted to be by the end of the present century.
The report, published in the journal Nature Geoscience in December, suggests that current predictions of sea level rises may be too optimistic. In the last 20 years, the rising of sea levels has become one of the most ominous indications of climate change and one of the most frequent subjects for environmental debate.
In the last interglacial period (134 000 to 119 000 years ago), sea levels reached around 6 m above the present rate because of the melting of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. The consortium’s results provide the first hard evidence of the sea’s rise to these levels.
Such new studies are providing proof that sea levels are rising higher than scientists had previously believed, and it is becoming clear that governments have to act faster to mitigate the effects of climate change. In the last century, the Earth experienced a warming of 0.7°C, and between 1993 and 2006 sea levels rose by 3.3 mm a year on average, whereas the 2001 IPCC (the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report predicted an annual rise of less than 2 mm.
Professor Eelco Rohling of the University of Southampton’s School of Ocean and Earth Science, said: ‘There is currently much debate about how fast future sea-level rises might be. Several researchers have made strong theoretical cases that the rates of rise projected from models in the recent IPCC Fourth Assessment are too low. This is because the IPCC estimates mainly concern thermal expansion and surface ice melting, while not quantifying the impact of dynamic ice-sheet processes. Until now, there have been no data that sufficiently constrain the full rate of past sea-level rises above the present level.
'We have exploited a new method of sea level reconstruction which we have pioneered since 1998, to look at rates of rise during the last interglacial. At that time, Greenland was 3°C to 5°C warmer than today, similar to the warming expected 50 to 100 years from now. Our analysis suggests that accompanying rates of sea level rise due to ice volume loss on Greenland and Antarctica were very high indeed.'
The researchers found that the average rate of rise of 1.6 m per century is approximately twice as high as maximum estimates in the IPCC Fourth Assessment report. As larger areas of the polar ice sheets melt, a sea rise approaching 1 m would threaten vast tracts of low-lying land, including major world cities such as New York, London and Tokyo.
The new findings offer strong evidence that climate change is causing potentially catastrophic changes to the Earth. Worldwide governmental action on climate change is urgent, as is more research and a better understanding of ice sheet dynamics.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Calif. - Salmon Declines & Squid Increases
The squid have not been found to be eating the salmon - but the conditions that are reducing salmon and the conditions where squid are increasing seem linked. It could also be that the squid are eating the food sources of the salmon.
The number of chinook salmon returning to California's Central Valley has reached a near-record low, pointing to an "unprecedented collapse" that could lead to severe restrictions on West Coast salmon fishing this year, according to federal fishery regulators.
The sharp drop in chinook or "king" salmon returning from the Pacific Ocean to spawn in the Sacramento River and its tributaries this past fall is part of broader decline in wild salmon runs in rivers across the West.
The population dropped more than 88 percent from its all-time high five years ago, according to an internal memo sent to members of the Pacific Fishery Management Council and obtained by The Associated Press.
Regulators are still trying to understand the reasons for the shrinking number of spawners; some scientists believe it could be related to changes in the ocean linked to global warming.
Only about 90,000 returning adult salmon were counted in the Central Valley in 2007, the second lowest number on record, the memo said. The population was at 277,000 in 2006 and 804,000 five years ago.
Fishermen face new, increasing threat from jumbo squid
Marine biologists have known for years that 100-pound squid have quietly made their way from the tropical regions of the Pacific to the cooler reaches of California.
With 10 arms, a sharp beak and a mythic reputation for hunting in packs and attacking everything from scuba divers to each other, the Humboldt squid, also known as the jumbo squid, is now a common sight for fishermen and a current fascination of ocean-gazers.
But how much of a nuisance the little-understood cephalopod could become has only recently become clear.
Researchers in Santa Cruz have found that the squid's favorite foods are some of the most popular catches of fishermen in the region -- meaning competition, and perhaps another threat to an industry that has long struggled in the Monterey Bay.
"It looks like the squid have eaten a lot of the fish that are commercially important," said John Field, a fishery biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration...
Zeidberg, who spends time at Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove, has found that the squid population in California, now likely in the hundreds of thousands, has been on the rise since 2002. While the squid have come to California before, never have they been seen in these numbers and for this long.
Zeidberg, Field and others are still trying to explain why the squid's population is growing outside of its native tropics, a trend that has played out in the Southern Hemisphere as well. Some say it's a lack of predators. Others say it's how rising ocean temperatures have created new hunting opportunities for the squid. But there's little consensus.
The number of chinook salmon returning to California's Central Valley has reached a near-record low, pointing to an "unprecedented collapse" that could lead to severe restrictions on West Coast salmon fishing this year, according to federal fishery regulators.
The sharp drop in chinook or "king" salmon returning from the Pacific Ocean to spawn in the Sacramento River and its tributaries this past fall is part of broader decline in wild salmon runs in rivers across the West.
The population dropped more than 88 percent from its all-time high five years ago, according to an internal memo sent to members of the Pacific Fishery Management Council and obtained by The Associated Press.
Regulators are still trying to understand the reasons for the shrinking number of spawners; some scientists believe it could be related to changes in the ocean linked to global warming.
Only about 90,000 returning adult salmon were counted in the Central Valley in 2007, the second lowest number on record, the memo said. The population was at 277,000 in 2006 and 804,000 five years ago.
Fishermen face new, increasing threat from jumbo squid
Marine biologists have known for years that 100-pound squid have quietly made their way from the tropical regions of the Pacific to the cooler reaches of California.
With 10 arms, a sharp beak and a mythic reputation for hunting in packs and attacking everything from scuba divers to each other, the Humboldt squid, also known as the jumbo squid, is now a common sight for fishermen and a current fascination of ocean-gazers.
But how much of a nuisance the little-understood cephalopod could become has only recently become clear.
Researchers in Santa Cruz have found that the squid's favorite foods are some of the most popular catches of fishermen in the region -- meaning competition, and perhaps another threat to an industry that has long struggled in the Monterey Bay.
"It looks like the squid have eaten a lot of the fish that are commercially important," said John Field, a fishery biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration...
Zeidberg, who spends time at Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove, has found that the squid population in California, now likely in the hundreds of thousands, has been on the rise since 2002. While the squid have come to California before, never have they been seen in these numbers and for this long.
Zeidberg, Field and others are still trying to explain why the squid's population is growing outside of its native tropics, a trend that has played out in the Southern Hemisphere as well. Some say it's a lack of predators. Others say it's how rising ocean temperatures have created new hunting opportunities for the squid. But there's little consensus.
"Snowstorms in China Kill at Least 24"
SHANGHAI — Severe snowstorms over broad swaths of eastern and central China have wreaked havoc on traffic throughout the country, creating gigantic passenger backups, spawning accidents and leaving at least 24 people dead, according to state news reports.
Train passengers in Guangzhou, China. Officials say 78 million have been affected by the snow.
In many areas, where snow has continued falling for several days, the accumulation has been described as the heaviest in as many as five decades. The impact of the severe weather was complicated by the timing of the storms, which arrived just before the Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, when Chinese return to their family homes by the hundreds of millions.
On Monday, the government announced a severe weather warning for the days ahead, as forecasts suggested that the snowfall would continue in many areas, including Shanghai, which is unaccustomed to severe winter weather.
“Due to the rain, snow and frost, plus increased winter use of coal and electricity and the peak travel season, the job of ensuring coal, electricity and oil supplies and adequate transportation has become quite severe,” Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said in a statement issued late Sunday.
“More heavy snow is expected,” Mr. Wen warned. “All government departments must prepare for this increasingly grim situation and urgently take action.”
The Ministry of Civil Affairs estimates the direct economic cost of the weather so far to be $3.2 billion and the number of people affected to be 78 million, including 827,000 emergency evacuees...
Train passengers in Guangzhou, China. Officials say 78 million have been affected by the snow.
In many areas, where snow has continued falling for several days, the accumulation has been described as the heaviest in as many as five decades. The impact of the severe weather was complicated by the timing of the storms, which arrived just before the Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, when Chinese return to their family homes by the hundreds of millions.
On Monday, the government announced a severe weather warning for the days ahead, as forecasts suggested that the snowfall would continue in many areas, including Shanghai, which is unaccustomed to severe winter weather.
“Due to the rain, snow and frost, plus increased winter use of coal and electricity and the peak travel season, the job of ensuring coal, electricity and oil supplies and adequate transportation has become quite severe,” Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said in a statement issued late Sunday.
“More heavy snow is expected,” Mr. Wen warned. “All government departments must prepare for this increasingly grim situation and urgently take action.”
The Ministry of Civil Affairs estimates the direct economic cost of the weather so far to be $3.2 billion and the number of people affected to be 78 million, including 827,000 emergency evacuees...
Saturday, January 26, 2008
"2007 was the second warmest year"
(Except in Central Europe - where it was the warmest year on record).
A new report has indicated that 2007 has been the second warmest year on record since 1880, with a global average of 14.73 degrees Celsius (58.5 degrees Fahrenheit).
The report, issued by the Earth Policy Institute, has stated that the year 2007 fits into a pattern of steadily increasing global temperature, with the eight warmest years on record all occurring in the last decade.
In fact, by looking at the northern hemisphere alone, 2007 temperatures averaged 15.04 degrees Celsius (59.1 degrees Fahrenheit) - easily the hottest year in the northern half of the globe since the record began in 1880.
Although 2007 did not post a new record high, the year stands out as being extremely warm despite several factors that usually cool the planet.
For example, the bygone year saw the development of La Niña, which usually depresses global temperature. In addition, solar intensity in 2007 was slightly lower than average because the year was a minimum in the 11-year solar sunspot cycle.
But, despite the combination of these factors, 2007 was still one of the warmest years in human history.
This strongly suggests that the warming effect of increased greenhouse gas concentrations is now dwarfing other influences on the Earth's climate.
The impacts of the exceptional warmth of 2007 were seen around the world.
While summer sea-ice extent in the Arctic Ocean shrank dramatically to a new low, southeastern Europe suffered through temperatures as high as 45 degrees Celsius in a heat wave that killed up to 500 people. In Japan, the temperature reached 40.9 degrees Celsius, the highest temperature ever recorded in that country.
While some areas baked under intensive heat or drought conditions, others were flooded by record amounts of rain.
While England and Wales experienced widespread record flooding during May to July, in South Asia, some of the worst flooding in decades affected at least 25 million people and killed more than 2,500. Other countries that saw exceptional or record flooding in 2007 include China, Indonesia, Mexico, Uruguay, and fifteen countries across Africa.
According to the report, future warming on the scale projected by the IPCC will bring with it a multitude of outcomes that can only be described as disastrous, the report added.
"With the record for 2007 now complete, it is clear that temperatures around the world are continuing their upward climb", writes Frances Moore in the report.
A new report has indicated that 2007 has been the second warmest year on record since 1880, with a global average of 14.73 degrees Celsius (58.5 degrees Fahrenheit).
The report, issued by the Earth Policy Institute, has stated that the year 2007 fits into a pattern of steadily increasing global temperature, with the eight warmest years on record all occurring in the last decade.
In fact, by looking at the northern hemisphere alone, 2007 temperatures averaged 15.04 degrees Celsius (59.1 degrees Fahrenheit) - easily the hottest year in the northern half of the globe since the record began in 1880.
Although 2007 did not post a new record high, the year stands out as being extremely warm despite several factors that usually cool the planet.
For example, the bygone year saw the development of La Niña, which usually depresses global temperature. In addition, solar intensity in 2007 was slightly lower than average because the year was a minimum in the 11-year solar sunspot cycle.
But, despite the combination of these factors, 2007 was still one of the warmest years in human history.
This strongly suggests that the warming effect of increased greenhouse gas concentrations is now dwarfing other influences on the Earth's climate.
The impacts of the exceptional warmth of 2007 were seen around the world.
While summer sea-ice extent in the Arctic Ocean shrank dramatically to a new low, southeastern Europe suffered through temperatures as high as 45 degrees Celsius in a heat wave that killed up to 500 people. In Japan, the temperature reached 40.9 degrees Celsius, the highest temperature ever recorded in that country.
While some areas baked under intensive heat or drought conditions, others were flooded by record amounts of rain.
While England and Wales experienced widespread record flooding during May to July, in South Asia, some of the worst flooding in decades affected at least 25 million people and killed more than 2,500. Other countries that saw exceptional or record flooding in 2007 include China, Indonesia, Mexico, Uruguay, and fifteen countries across Africa.
According to the report, future warming on the scale projected by the IPCC will bring with it a multitude of outcomes that can only be described as disastrous, the report added.
"With the record for 2007 now complete, it is clear that temperatures around the world are continuing their upward climb", writes Frances Moore in the report.
Water in the Desert
Drying of the West
Every utility in the Southwest now preaches conservation and sustainability, sometimes very forcefully. Las Vegas has prohibited new front lawns, limited the size of back ones, and offers people two dollars a square foot to tear existing ones up and replace them with desert plants. Between 2002 and 2006, the Vegas metro area actually managed to reduce its total consumption of water by around 20 percent, even though its population had increased substantially. Albuquerque too has cut its water use. But every water manager also knows that, as one puts it, "at some point, growth is going to catch up to you."
Looking for new long-term sources of supply, many water managers turn their lonely eyes to the Pacific, or to deep, briny aquifers that had always seemed unusable. Last August, El Paso inaugurated a new desalination plant that will allow the city to tap one such aquifer. The same month, the Bureau of Reclamation opened a new research center devoted to desalination in Alamogordo, New Mexico. The cost of desalination has dropped dramatically—it's now around four dollars per thousand gallons, or as little as $1,200 per acre-foot—but that is still considerably more than the 50 cents per acre-foot that the Bureau of Reclamation charges municipal utilities for water from Lake Mead, or the zero dollars it charges irrigation districts. The environmental impacts of desalination are also uncertain—there is always a concentrated brine to be disposed of. Nevertheless, a large desalination plant is being planned in San Diego County. In Las Vegas, Mulroy envisions one day paying for such a plant on the coast of California or Mexico, in exchange for a portion of either's share of the water in Lake Mead. "The problem is, if there's nothing in Lake Mead, there's nothing to exchange," she says.
A more obvious solution for cities facing shortages is to buy irrigation water from farmers. In 2003 the Imperial Irrigation District was pressured into selling 200,000 of its three million acre-feet of Colorado water to San Diego, as part of an overall deal to get California to stop exceeding its allotment. San Diego paid nearly $300 per acre-foot for water that the farmers in the Imperial Valley get virtually for free. The government favors such market mechanisms, says the Bureau of Reclamation's Terry Fulp, "so people who really want the water get it." At that price, the irrigation water in the Imperial Valley is worth nearly as much as its entire agricultural revenue, which is around a billion dollars a year. But not everyone favors drying up farms so that more water will be available for subdivisions. The valley is one of the poorest regions in California, yet the richest farmers stand to benefit most from the sale. Many more people fear the loss of jobs and, ultimately, of a whole way of life.
Clock is Ticking on Las Vegas' Water Supply
"...Even if all of the water projects are finished and everything starts
working on time, the Southern Nevada Water Authority still predicts a
shortage.
That means by 2010, the valley will be short 64-million gallons of water a
day."
Las Vegas Water Supply Needs Alternative
"The news gets worse though. If nothing changes with the drought, Mulroy
says without a pipeline bringing drinking water from sources other than
Lake Mead, the equivalent of 256,000 people would not have water when
doing this in 2010.
By 2011, the gap in water use and water supply would affect 404,000
people. The problem rises to half a million people by 2012.
"Understand that we cannot conserve our way out of a drought -- totally,"
said Shari Buck, a Water Authority board member."
Graphics
Meanwhile:
Calif. Farmers Want to Sell Water
With water becoming increasingly precious in California, a rising number of farmers figure they can make more money by selling their water than by actually growing something.
Because farmers get their water at subsidized rates, some of them see financial opportunity this year in selling their allotments to Los Angeles and other desperately thirsty cities across Southern California, as well as to other farms.
"It just makes dollars and sense right now," said Bruce Rolen, a third-generation farmer who grows rice, wheat and other crops in Northern California's lush Sacramento Valley.
Instead of sowing in April, Rolen plans to let 100 of his 250 acres of white rice lie fallow and sell his irrigation water on the open market, where it could fetch up to three times the normal price...
The farmers looking to buy water are generally farther south in the San Joaquin Valley and the Los Angeles area and grow such crops as pistachios, almonds and grapes. Because of the heavy capital investment they made in their trees and vines, these farmers cannot afford to stop irrigating their crops and let them die. In contrast, rice, melons and tomatoes are planted anew each year.
Individual farmers don't actually sell their water themselves. Instead, their local water districts represent them in negotiations with other water agencies...
Water from Northern California rivers irrigates central California's farm fields and keeps faucets flowing in the Los Angeles area. But it must be shipped south through a network of pumps, pipes and aqueducts, and that system recently developed a kink when a federal judge ordered new restrictions on pumping to save threatened fish.
At the same time, Southern California's other main source of water, the Colorado River, is in its eighth year of drought...
Water on California's open market typically sells for $50 per acre-foot in wet years. But now it is expected to go for as much as $200. Farmers, however, pay $30 to $60, rates that are set under state and federal policy. (An acre-foot is enough water to cover an acre to a depth of one foot.)
Because of rising costs, the huge water agency for the Los Angeles metropolitan recently proposed a rate increase for next year of 10 to 20 percent on the water it sells to cities.
Some environmentalists are troubled by farmers' efforts to sell their water, and warn that such deals don't begin to address the long-term problem.
"Essentially these farmers are getting water for a subsidized price and selling it to taxpayers at an elevated rate," said Renee Sharp of the Environmental Working Group.
Every utility in the Southwest now preaches conservation and sustainability, sometimes very forcefully. Las Vegas has prohibited new front lawns, limited the size of back ones, and offers people two dollars a square foot to tear existing ones up and replace them with desert plants. Between 2002 and 2006, the Vegas metro area actually managed to reduce its total consumption of water by around 20 percent, even though its population had increased substantially. Albuquerque too has cut its water use. But every water manager also knows that, as one puts it, "at some point, growth is going to catch up to you."
Looking for new long-term sources of supply, many water managers turn their lonely eyes to the Pacific, or to deep, briny aquifers that had always seemed unusable. Last August, El Paso inaugurated a new desalination plant that will allow the city to tap one such aquifer. The same month, the Bureau of Reclamation opened a new research center devoted to desalination in Alamogordo, New Mexico. The cost of desalination has dropped dramatically—it's now around four dollars per thousand gallons, or as little as $1,200 per acre-foot—but that is still considerably more than the 50 cents per acre-foot that the Bureau of Reclamation charges municipal utilities for water from Lake Mead, or the zero dollars it charges irrigation districts. The environmental impacts of desalination are also uncertain—there is always a concentrated brine to be disposed of. Nevertheless, a large desalination plant is being planned in San Diego County. In Las Vegas, Mulroy envisions one day paying for such a plant on the coast of California or Mexico, in exchange for a portion of either's share of the water in Lake Mead. "The problem is, if there's nothing in Lake Mead, there's nothing to exchange," she says.
A more obvious solution for cities facing shortages is to buy irrigation water from farmers. In 2003 the Imperial Irrigation District was pressured into selling 200,000 of its three million acre-feet of Colorado water to San Diego, as part of an overall deal to get California to stop exceeding its allotment. San Diego paid nearly $300 per acre-foot for water that the farmers in the Imperial Valley get virtually for free. The government favors such market mechanisms, says the Bureau of Reclamation's Terry Fulp, "so people who really want the water get it." At that price, the irrigation water in the Imperial Valley is worth nearly as much as its entire agricultural revenue, which is around a billion dollars a year. But not everyone favors drying up farms so that more water will be available for subdivisions. The valley is one of the poorest regions in California, yet the richest farmers stand to benefit most from the sale. Many more people fear the loss of jobs and, ultimately, of a whole way of life.
Clock is Ticking on Las Vegas' Water Supply
"...Even if all of the water projects are finished and everything starts
working on time, the Southern Nevada Water Authority still predicts a
shortage.
That means by 2010, the valley will be short 64-million gallons of water a
day."
Las Vegas Water Supply Needs Alternative
"The news gets worse though. If nothing changes with the drought, Mulroy
says without a pipeline bringing drinking water from sources other than
Lake Mead, the equivalent of 256,000 people would not have water when
doing this in 2010.
By 2011, the gap in water use and water supply would affect 404,000
people. The problem rises to half a million people by 2012.
"Understand that we cannot conserve our way out of a drought -- totally,"
said Shari Buck, a Water Authority board member."
Graphics
Meanwhile:
Calif. Farmers Want to Sell Water
With water becoming increasingly precious in California, a rising number of farmers figure they can make more money by selling their water than by actually growing something.
Because farmers get their water at subsidized rates, some of them see financial opportunity this year in selling their allotments to Los Angeles and other desperately thirsty cities across Southern California, as well as to other farms.
"It just makes dollars and sense right now," said Bruce Rolen, a third-generation farmer who grows rice, wheat and other crops in Northern California's lush Sacramento Valley.
Instead of sowing in April, Rolen plans to let 100 of his 250 acres of white rice lie fallow and sell his irrigation water on the open market, where it could fetch up to three times the normal price...
The farmers looking to buy water are generally farther south in the San Joaquin Valley and the Los Angeles area and grow such crops as pistachios, almonds and grapes. Because of the heavy capital investment they made in their trees and vines, these farmers cannot afford to stop irrigating their crops and let them die. In contrast, rice, melons and tomatoes are planted anew each year.
Individual farmers don't actually sell their water themselves. Instead, their local water districts represent them in negotiations with other water agencies...
Water from Northern California rivers irrigates central California's farm fields and keeps faucets flowing in the Los Angeles area. But it must be shipped south through a network of pumps, pipes and aqueducts, and that system recently developed a kink when a federal judge ordered new restrictions on pumping to save threatened fish.
At the same time, Southern California's other main source of water, the Colorado River, is in its eighth year of drought...
Water on California's open market typically sells for $50 per acre-foot in wet years. But now it is expected to go for as much as $200. Farmers, however, pay $30 to $60, rates that are set under state and federal policy. (An acre-foot is enough water to cover an acre to a depth of one foot.)
Because of rising costs, the huge water agency for the Los Angeles metropolitan recently proposed a rate increase for next year of 10 to 20 percent on the water it sells to cities.
Some environmentalists are troubled by farmers' efforts to sell their water, and warn that such deals don't begin to address the long-term problem.
"Essentially these farmers are getting water for a subsidized price and selling it to taxpayers at an elevated rate," said Renee Sharp of the Environmental Working Group.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
"Brazil Amazon deforestation soars"
The Brazilian government has announced a huge rise in the rate of Amazon deforestation, months after celebrating its success in achieving a reduction.
In the last five months of 2007, 3,235 sq km (1,250 sq miles) were lost.
Gilberto Camara, of INPE, an institute that provides satellite imaging of the area, said the rate of loss was unprecedented for the time of year.
Officials say rising commodity prices are encouraging farmers to clear more land to plant crops such as soya...
The state of Mato Grosso was the worst affected, contributing more than half the total area of forest stripped, or 1,786 sq km (700 sq miles).
The states of Para and Rondonia were also badly affected, accounting for 17.8% and 16% of the total cleared respectively.
The situation may also be worse than reported, with the environment ministry saying the preliminary assessment of the amount of forest cleared could double as more detailed satellite images are analysed.
In the last five months of 2007, 3,235 sq km (1,250 sq miles) were lost.
Gilberto Camara, of INPE, an institute that provides satellite imaging of the area, said the rate of loss was unprecedented for the time of year.
Officials say rising commodity prices are encouraging farmers to clear more land to plant crops such as soya...
The state of Mato Grosso was the worst affected, contributing more than half the total area of forest stripped, or 1,786 sq km (700 sq miles).
The states of Para and Rondonia were also badly affected, accounting for 17.8% and 16% of the total cleared respectively.
The situation may also be worse than reported, with the environment ministry saying the preliminary assessment of the amount of forest cleared could double as more detailed satellite images are analysed.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
"Until All the Fish Are Gone"
Editorial from the The New York Times
Scientists have been warning for years that overfishing is degrading the health of the oceans and destroying the fish species on which much of humanity depends for jobs and food...
The industry... is organized to evade serious regulation. Big factory ships from places like Europe, China, Korea and Japan stay at sea for years at a time — fueling, changing crews, unloading their catch on refrigerated vessels. The catch then enters European markets through the Canary Islands and other ports where inspection is minimal. After that, retailers and consumers neither ask nor care where the fish came from, or whether, years from now, there will be any fish at all.
From time to time, international bodies try to do something to slow overfishing. The United Nations banned huge drift nets in the 1990s, and recently asked its members to halt bottom trawling, a particularly ruthless form of industrial fishing, on the high seas. Last fall, the European Union banned fishing for bluefin tuna in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, where bluefin have been decimated.
The institution with the most potential leverage is the World Trade Organization. Most of the world’s fishing fleets receive heavy government subsidies for boat building, equipment and fuel, America’s fleet less so than others. Without these subsidies, which amount to about $35 billion annually, fleets would shrink in size and many destructive practices like bottom trawling would become uneconomic.
The W.T.O. has never had a reputation for environmental zeal. But knowing that healthy fisheries are important to world trade and development, the group has begun negotiating new trade rules aimed at reducing subsidies. It produced a promising draft in late November, but there is no fixed schedule for a final agreement.
The world needs such an agreement, and soon. Many fish species may soon be so depleted that they will no longer be able to reproduce themselves. As 125 of the world’s most respected scientists warned in a letter to the W.T.O. last year, the world is at a crossroads. One road leads to tremendously diminished marine life. The other leads to oceans again teeming with abundance. The W.T.O. can help choose the right one.
Scientists have been warning for years that overfishing is degrading the health of the oceans and destroying the fish species on which much of humanity depends for jobs and food...
The industry... is organized to evade serious regulation. Big factory ships from places like Europe, China, Korea and Japan stay at sea for years at a time — fueling, changing crews, unloading their catch on refrigerated vessels. The catch then enters European markets through the Canary Islands and other ports where inspection is minimal. After that, retailers and consumers neither ask nor care where the fish came from, or whether, years from now, there will be any fish at all.
From time to time, international bodies try to do something to slow overfishing. The United Nations banned huge drift nets in the 1990s, and recently asked its members to halt bottom trawling, a particularly ruthless form of industrial fishing, on the high seas. Last fall, the European Union banned fishing for bluefin tuna in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, where bluefin have been decimated.
The institution with the most potential leverage is the World Trade Organization. Most of the world’s fishing fleets receive heavy government subsidies for boat building, equipment and fuel, America’s fleet less so than others. Without these subsidies, which amount to about $35 billion annually, fleets would shrink in size and many destructive practices like bottom trawling would become uneconomic.
The W.T.O. has never had a reputation for environmental zeal. But knowing that healthy fisheries are important to world trade and development, the group has begun negotiating new trade rules aimed at reducing subsidies. It produced a promising draft in late November, but there is no fixed schedule for a final agreement.
The world needs such an agreement, and soon. Many fish species may soon be so depleted that they will no longer be able to reproduce themselves. As 125 of the world’s most respected scientists warned in a letter to the W.T.O. last year, the world is at a crossroads. One road leads to tremendously diminished marine life. The other leads to oceans again teeming with abundance. The W.T.O. can help choose the right one.
Disappearing Dirt
The planet is getting skinned.
While many worry about the potential consequences of atmospheric warming, a few experts are trying to call attention to another global crisis quietly taking place under our feet.
Call it the thin brown line. Dirt. On average, the planet is covered with little more than 3 feet of topsoil -- the shallow skin of nutrient-rich matter that sustains most of our food and appears to play a critical role in supporting life on Earth.
"We're losing more and more of it every day," said David Montgomery, a geologist at the University of Washington. "The estimate is that we are now losing about 1 percent of our topsoil every year to erosion, most of this caused by agriculture."
"It's just crazy," fumed John Aeschliman, a fifth-generation farmer who grows wheat and other grains on the Palouse near the tiny town of Almota, just west of Pullman.
"We're tearing up the soil and watching tons of it wash away every year," Aeschliman said. He's one of a growing number of farmers trying to persuade others to adopt "no-till" methods, which involve not tilling the land between plantings, leaving crop stubble to reduce erosion and planting new seeds between the stubble rows.
Montgomery has written a popular book, "Dirt," to call public attention to what he believes is a neglected environmental catastrophe. A geomorphologist who studies how landscapes form, Montgomery describes modern agricultural practices as "soil mining" to emphasize that we are rapidly outstripping the Earth's natural rate of restoring topsoil.
"Globally, it's clear we are eroding soils at a rate much faster than they can form," said John Reganold, a soils scientist at Washington State University. "It's hard to get people to pay much attention to this because, frankly, most of us take soil for granted."
The National Academy of Sciences has determined that cropland in the U.S. is being eroded at least 10 times faster than the time it takes for lost soil to be replaced.
The United Nations has warned of worldwide soil degradation -- especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where soil loss has contributed to the rapidly increasing number of malnourished people.
Healthy topsoil is a biological matrix, a housing complex for an incredibly diverse community of organisms -- billions of beneficial microbes per handful, nitrogen-fixing fungi, nutrients and earthworms whose digestive tracts transform the fine grains of sterile rock and plant detritus into the fertile excrement that gave rise to the word itself ("drit," in Old Norse).
As such, true living topsoil cannot be made overnight, Montgomery emphasized. Topsoil grows back at a rate of an inch or two over hundreds of years. Very slowly.
"Globally, it's pretty clear we're running out of dirt," Montgomery said....
Organic farming methods also can reduce soil loss, Reganold said. He cited his own research, which has shown a marked increase in soil health, water retention and regrowth when organic methods are used rather than the traditional methods.....
While many worry about the potential consequences of atmospheric warming, a few experts are trying to call attention to another global crisis quietly taking place under our feet.
Call it the thin brown line. Dirt. On average, the planet is covered with little more than 3 feet of topsoil -- the shallow skin of nutrient-rich matter that sustains most of our food and appears to play a critical role in supporting life on Earth.
"We're losing more and more of it every day," said David Montgomery, a geologist at the University of Washington. "The estimate is that we are now losing about 1 percent of our topsoil every year to erosion, most of this caused by agriculture."
"It's just crazy," fumed John Aeschliman, a fifth-generation farmer who grows wheat and other grains on the Palouse near the tiny town of Almota, just west of Pullman.
"We're tearing up the soil and watching tons of it wash away every year," Aeschliman said. He's one of a growing number of farmers trying to persuade others to adopt "no-till" methods, which involve not tilling the land between plantings, leaving crop stubble to reduce erosion and planting new seeds between the stubble rows.
Montgomery has written a popular book, "Dirt," to call public attention to what he believes is a neglected environmental catastrophe. A geomorphologist who studies how landscapes form, Montgomery describes modern agricultural practices as "soil mining" to emphasize that we are rapidly outstripping the Earth's natural rate of restoring topsoil.
"Globally, it's clear we are eroding soils at a rate much faster than they can form," said John Reganold, a soils scientist at Washington State University. "It's hard to get people to pay much attention to this because, frankly, most of us take soil for granted."
The National Academy of Sciences has determined that cropland in the U.S. is being eroded at least 10 times faster than the time it takes for lost soil to be replaced.
The United Nations has warned of worldwide soil degradation -- especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where soil loss has contributed to the rapidly increasing number of malnourished people.
Healthy topsoil is a biological matrix, a housing complex for an incredibly diverse community of organisms -- billions of beneficial microbes per handful, nitrogen-fixing fungi, nutrients and earthworms whose digestive tracts transform the fine grains of sterile rock and plant detritus into the fertile excrement that gave rise to the word itself ("drit," in Old Norse).
As such, true living topsoil cannot be made overnight, Montgomery emphasized. Topsoil grows back at a rate of an inch or two over hundreds of years. Very slowly.
"Globally, it's pretty clear we're running out of dirt," Montgomery said....
Organic farming methods also can reduce soil loss, Reganold said. He cited his own research, which has shown a marked increase in soil health, water retention and regrowth when organic methods are used rather than the traditional methods.....
Energy Shortages
Energy shortage forces Central Asians to burn dung
With no heating and just three hours of electricity a day, Malokhat Atayeva is struggling to survive the coldest winter in three decades in her small town in western Tajikistan.
"It's so cold that water turns into ice in the kettle overnight," Atayeva, a mother of two, said by telephone from Tursunzade, as temperatures outside, normally above subzero, plunged to -20 degrees Celsius.
"We sleep fully clothed, wrapped in blankets. Children stopped going to school because it's too cold in the classroom."
Like Atayeva, millions of people across energy-rich Central Asia are scrambling to find refuge from one of the harshest winters in living memory.
Extreme cold is no surprise to the 60 million people scattered across a region wedged between Russia, China and Iran, but this year's winter has exposed the poor state of crumbling Soviet-era utilities and pipelines and sparked energy shortages.
Lying on some of the world's biggest energy reserves, Central Asia has attracted billions of dollars of foreign investment as the European Union and other powers seek energy deals in the region. But the cold snap caught impoverished Tajikistan off guard, forcing the government to resort to daily rations of electricity and gas. Central heating has all but stopped working across Tajikistan, its utilities ruined by a 1990s civil war.
Governments across Central Asia have pledged to carry out urgent repairs and build new electricity generators. But there were no signs of relief as the severe weather has entered a second month.
In a snow-covered China, entire regions are without electricity and gas
China is facing its worst energy shortage in many years, with heightened demand caused by the intense cold and the snow, and insufficient coal supplies unable to keep up. After an energy shortage that has struck at least 13 provinces and reached about 70 gigawatts, approximately equal to the entire capacity of Great Britain, the government has ordered that coal be supplied first of all to the power plants.
The imposition of price controls on coal and the closing of thousands of mines not in compliance with safety regulations have affected coal supplies. The heavy snowfall of recent days has blocked the roads, cut off supply routes, and downed power lines. In seven counties, the power circuits have been completely shut down, leaving 129,000 families without power, while bad weather is hampering repair efforts. In Hubei and Anhui alone, the provinces hardest hit by the snow, the energy shortage has affected 10 million people, and more than a million hectares of crops have been destroyed, at an estimated loss of 1.83 billion yuan. In Wuhan, the capital of Hubei located on the frozen Yangtze river, there have been intermittent blackouts all week, the worst since 1997. Coal fuels 78% of the country's power plants, and produced about 83% of the energy used in 2007.
According to experts, the current coal shortage is due above all to the imposition of price controls, as the sellers watch the price of coal rise rapidly in the world and wait for the government to permit higher prices in the next few months.
In many of the provinces, like Yunnan, Guizhou, and Hubei, drought has aggravated the situation by reducing the production of hydroelectric power.
China in power shortage warning
Thirteen regions have already started to ration power supplies, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
It said coal reserves were down to emergency levels and stockpiles were only high enough to generate power for the whole country for eight days.
China's economic boom has led to surging demand for electricity...
Dark days for African mining
Namibia has become the latest southern African country to freeze all major investment projects due to an energy crisis that threatens to overshadow the region’s growing FDI prospects.
The mining industry will be among the sectors worst hit, with Namibia’s state electricity utility NamPower placing a moratorium on all new mines, saying they would have to wait until at least 2009 to get power.
NamPower has also been forced to resort to load shedding and time-of-use tariffs for electricity usage at peak times as it grapples with the energy shortage across the southern African region.
Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe this week reported power outages caused by aging infrastructure and growing demand.
The situation has been exacerbated by South African energy utility Eskom’s announcement that it would be forced to stop exporting electricity to neighbouring countries as South Africa’s own energy crisis deepened.
Eskom has also asked the government to shelve any new big industrial projects at least until 2013, when the current electricity shortage should have eased.
The utility wants both foreign and local projects requiring 1,000MW or more to be held back, but said projects already under way would go ahead.
This decision has put potential mining expansions at risk, with South Africa’s ferrochrome and platinum industry already worst hit by the blackouts.
Now NamPower’s decision threatens to further hurt mining investments in the region.
The desert country has earmarked its burgeoning uranium mining industry as a key economic growth area with the recent discovery of a major uranium resource, which could end up being one of the world’s biggest uranium deposits.
In the meantime, power outages in Zimbabwe and Zambia have also hit the mining industry.
Outages caused by a major electrical fault on the power line linking the two countries, which engineers from both sides were trying to repair, resulted in 369 miners being trapped at Zambia’s Mopani Copper Mines (MCM) and Konkola Copper Mines (KCM).
The power outages also caused partial flooding at Chililabombwe copper mine, a unit of KCM, as water could not be pumped out.
KCM has since suspended mining operations in Zambia.
With no heating and just three hours of electricity a day, Malokhat Atayeva is struggling to survive the coldest winter in three decades in her small town in western Tajikistan.
"It's so cold that water turns into ice in the kettle overnight," Atayeva, a mother of two, said by telephone from Tursunzade, as temperatures outside, normally above subzero, plunged to -20 degrees Celsius.
"We sleep fully clothed, wrapped in blankets. Children stopped going to school because it's too cold in the classroom."
Like Atayeva, millions of people across energy-rich Central Asia are scrambling to find refuge from one of the harshest winters in living memory.
Extreme cold is no surprise to the 60 million people scattered across a region wedged between Russia, China and Iran, but this year's winter has exposed the poor state of crumbling Soviet-era utilities and pipelines and sparked energy shortages.
Lying on some of the world's biggest energy reserves, Central Asia has attracted billions of dollars of foreign investment as the European Union and other powers seek energy deals in the region. But the cold snap caught impoverished Tajikistan off guard, forcing the government to resort to daily rations of electricity and gas. Central heating has all but stopped working across Tajikistan, its utilities ruined by a 1990s civil war.
Governments across Central Asia have pledged to carry out urgent repairs and build new electricity generators. But there were no signs of relief as the severe weather has entered a second month.
In a snow-covered China, entire regions are without electricity and gas
China is facing its worst energy shortage in many years, with heightened demand caused by the intense cold and the snow, and insufficient coal supplies unable to keep up. After an energy shortage that has struck at least 13 provinces and reached about 70 gigawatts, approximately equal to the entire capacity of Great Britain, the government has ordered that coal be supplied first of all to the power plants.
The imposition of price controls on coal and the closing of thousands of mines not in compliance with safety regulations have affected coal supplies. The heavy snowfall of recent days has blocked the roads, cut off supply routes, and downed power lines. In seven counties, the power circuits have been completely shut down, leaving 129,000 families without power, while bad weather is hampering repair efforts. In Hubei and Anhui alone, the provinces hardest hit by the snow, the energy shortage has affected 10 million people, and more than a million hectares of crops have been destroyed, at an estimated loss of 1.83 billion yuan. In Wuhan, the capital of Hubei located on the frozen Yangtze river, there have been intermittent blackouts all week, the worst since 1997. Coal fuels 78% of the country's power plants, and produced about 83% of the energy used in 2007.
According to experts, the current coal shortage is due above all to the imposition of price controls, as the sellers watch the price of coal rise rapidly in the world and wait for the government to permit higher prices in the next few months.
In many of the provinces, like Yunnan, Guizhou, and Hubei, drought has aggravated the situation by reducing the production of hydroelectric power.
China in power shortage warning
Thirteen regions have already started to ration power supplies, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
It said coal reserves were down to emergency levels and stockpiles were only high enough to generate power for the whole country for eight days.
China's economic boom has led to surging demand for electricity...
Dark days for African mining
Namibia has become the latest southern African country to freeze all major investment projects due to an energy crisis that threatens to overshadow the region’s growing FDI prospects.
The mining industry will be among the sectors worst hit, with Namibia’s state electricity utility NamPower placing a moratorium on all new mines, saying they would have to wait until at least 2009 to get power.
NamPower has also been forced to resort to load shedding and time-of-use tariffs for electricity usage at peak times as it grapples with the energy shortage across the southern African region.
Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe this week reported power outages caused by aging infrastructure and growing demand.
The situation has been exacerbated by South African energy utility Eskom’s announcement that it would be forced to stop exporting electricity to neighbouring countries as South Africa’s own energy crisis deepened.
Eskom has also asked the government to shelve any new big industrial projects at least until 2013, when the current electricity shortage should have eased.
The utility wants both foreign and local projects requiring 1,000MW or more to be held back, but said projects already under way would go ahead.
This decision has put potential mining expansions at risk, with South Africa’s ferrochrome and platinum industry already worst hit by the blackouts.
Now NamPower’s decision threatens to further hurt mining investments in the region.
The desert country has earmarked its burgeoning uranium mining industry as a key economic growth area with the recent discovery of a major uranium resource, which could end up being one of the world’s biggest uranium deposits.
In the meantime, power outages in Zimbabwe and Zambia have also hit the mining industry.
Outages caused by a major electrical fault on the power line linking the two countries, which engineers from both sides were trying to repair, resulted in 369 miners being trapped at Zambia’s Mopani Copper Mines (MCM) and Konkola Copper Mines (KCM).
The power outages also caused partial flooding at Chililabombwe copper mine, a unit of KCM, as water could not be pumped out.
KCM has since suspended mining operations in Zambia.
"High Mercury Levels Are Found in Tuna Sushi"
Recent laboratory tests found so much mercury in tuna sushi from 20 Manhattan stores and restaurants that at most of them, a regular diet of six pieces a week would exceed the levels considered acceptable by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Sushi from 5 of the 20 places had mercury levels so high that the Food and Drug Administration could take legal action to remove the fish from the market. The sushi was bought by The New York Times in October.
“No one should eat a meal of tuna with mercury levels like those found in the restaurant samples more than about once every three weeks," said Dr. Michael Gochfeld, professor of environmental and occupational medicine at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Piscataway, N.J.
Dr. Gochfeld analyzed the sushi for The Times with Dr. Joanna Burger, professor of life sciences at Rutgers University. He is a former chairman of the New Jersey Mercury Task Force and also treats patients with mercury poisoning.
The owner of a restaurant whose tuna sushi had particularly high mercury concentrations said he was shocked by the findings. “I’m startled by this,” said the owner, Drew Nieporent, a managing partner of Nobu Next Door. “Anything that might endanger any customer of ours, we’d be inclined to take off the menu immediately and get to the bottom of it.”
Although the samples were gathered in New York City, experts believe similar results would be observed elsewhere...
No government agency regularly tests seafood for mercury.
Tuna samples from the Manhattan restaurants Nobu Next Door, Sushi Seki, Sushi of Gari and Blue Ribbon Sushi and the food store Gourmet Garage all had mercury above one part per million, the “action level” at which the F.D.A. can take food off the market. (The F.D.A. has rarely, if ever, taken any tuna off the market.) The highest mercury concentration, 1.4 parts per million, was found in tuna from Blue Ribbon Sushi. The lowest, 0.10, was bought at Fairway....
In general, tuna sushi from food stores was much lower in mercury. These findings reinforce results in other studies showing that more expensive tuna usually contains more mercury because it is more likely to come from a larger species, which accumulates mercury from the fish it eats. Mercury enters the environment as an industrial pollutant...
Some environmental groups have sounded the alarm. Environmental Defense, the advocacy group, says no one, no matter his or her age, should eat bluefin tuna...
Sushi from 5 of the 20 places had mercury levels so high that the Food and Drug Administration could take legal action to remove the fish from the market. The sushi was bought by The New York Times in October.
“No one should eat a meal of tuna with mercury levels like those found in the restaurant samples more than about once every three weeks," said Dr. Michael Gochfeld, professor of environmental and occupational medicine at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Piscataway, N.J.
Dr. Gochfeld analyzed the sushi for The Times with Dr. Joanna Burger, professor of life sciences at Rutgers University. He is a former chairman of the New Jersey Mercury Task Force and also treats patients with mercury poisoning.
The owner of a restaurant whose tuna sushi had particularly high mercury concentrations said he was shocked by the findings. “I’m startled by this,” said the owner, Drew Nieporent, a managing partner of Nobu Next Door. “Anything that might endanger any customer of ours, we’d be inclined to take off the menu immediately and get to the bottom of it.”
Although the samples were gathered in New York City, experts believe similar results would be observed elsewhere...
No government agency regularly tests seafood for mercury.
Tuna samples from the Manhattan restaurants Nobu Next Door, Sushi Seki, Sushi of Gari and Blue Ribbon Sushi and the food store Gourmet Garage all had mercury above one part per million, the “action level” at which the F.D.A. can take food off the market. (The F.D.A. has rarely, if ever, taken any tuna off the market.) The highest mercury concentration, 1.4 parts per million, was found in tuna from Blue Ribbon Sushi. The lowest, 0.10, was bought at Fairway....
In general, tuna sushi from food stores was much lower in mercury. These findings reinforce results in other studies showing that more expensive tuna usually contains more mercury because it is more likely to come from a larger species, which accumulates mercury from the fish it eats. Mercury enters the environment as an industrial pollutant...
Some environmental groups have sounded the alarm. Environmental Defense, the advocacy group, says no one, no matter his or her age, should eat bluefin tuna...
"U.S. Given Poor Marks on the Environment"
A new international ranking of environmental performance puts the United States at the bottom of the Group of 8 industrialized nations and 39th among the 149 countries on the list.
European nations dominate the top places in the ranking, which evaluates sanitation, greenhouse gas emissions, agricultural policies, air pollution and 20 other measures to formulate an overall score, with 100 the best possible.
The top 10 countries, with scores of 87 or better, were led by Switzerland, Sweden, Norway and Finland. The others at the top were Austria, France, Latvia, Costa Rica, Colombia and New Zealand, the leader in the 2006 version of the analysis, which is conducted by researchers at Yale and Columbia Universities.
“We are putting more weight on climate change,” said Daniel Esty, the report’s lead author, who is the director of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy. “Switzerland is the most greenhouse gas efficient economy in the developed world,” he said, in part because of its use of hydroelectric power and its transportation system, which relies more on trains than individual cars or trucks.
The United States, with a score of 81.0, he noted, “is slipping down,” both because of low scores on three different analyses of greenhouse gas emissions and a pervasive problem with smog. The country’s performance on a new indicator that measures regional smog, he said, “is at the bottom of the world right now.”
He added, “The U.S. continues to have a bottom-tier performance in greenhouse gas emissions.”
The list, which is to be released Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, is the fourth, and most refined, of a series of rankings first issued in 2002...
European nations dominate the top places in the ranking, which evaluates sanitation, greenhouse gas emissions, agricultural policies, air pollution and 20 other measures to formulate an overall score, with 100 the best possible.
The top 10 countries, with scores of 87 or better, were led by Switzerland, Sweden, Norway and Finland. The others at the top were Austria, France, Latvia, Costa Rica, Colombia and New Zealand, the leader in the 2006 version of the analysis, which is conducted by researchers at Yale and Columbia Universities.
“We are putting more weight on climate change,” said Daniel Esty, the report’s lead author, who is the director of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy. “Switzerland is the most greenhouse gas efficient economy in the developed world,” he said, in part because of its use of hydroelectric power and its transportation system, which relies more on trains than individual cars or trucks.
The United States, with a score of 81.0, he noted, “is slipping down,” both because of low scores on three different analyses of greenhouse gas emissions and a pervasive problem with smog. The country’s performance on a new indicator that measures regional smog, he said, “is at the bottom of the world right now.”
He added, “The U.S. continues to have a bottom-tier performance in greenhouse gas emissions.”
The list, which is to be released Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, is the fourth, and most refined, of a series of rankings first issued in 2002...
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Stars Eating/Giving Birth to New Planets
"Stars stay young by eating planets"
A new research has indicated that stars can slow down their aging process by consuming Jupiter-sized planets.
According to a report in New Scientist , most stars eventually become white dwarfs, but along the way expand into red giants, while their cores shrink and undergo a short but intense phase of helium fusion.
"Yet gobbling up a Jupiter-sized planet as they expand can affect that process," said Brad Hansen at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Calculations by Hansen suggest that if the planet is swallowed at the right moment, its gravity can peel off the star's outer layers.
Then, the star's exposed core never gets hot enough to fuse helium, so the resulting white dwarf is less massive and looks younger than it should for its age.
A group of white dwarfs with precisely those characteristics was observed three years ago in the star cluster NGC 6791.
The work was presented at the annual American Astronomical Society meeting in Austin, Texas last week.
____________
"Amazing old stars give birth again"
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2008-01-21-old-stars-birth_N.htm
Two old stars appear to be gearing up for a second generation of planet formation, a phenomenon astronomers say they have never seen before.
"This is a new class of stars, ones that display conditions now ripe for formation of a second generation of planets, long, long after the stars themselves formed," said UCLA astronomy graduate student Carl Melis, who reported the findings at a recent meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Austin, Texas.
The stars are BP Piscium in the constellation Pisces and TYCHO 4144 329 2, which resides in the constellation Ursa Major. The exact ages of the stars are unknown, but it is estimated they are at least hundreds of millions or possibly billions of years old, and might have already given birth to planets long ago.
"Most astronomers now believe that most stars are accompanied by first-generation planets of some sort, even if the planets are not massive enough to be picked up by the radial velocity [detection] technique," Melis said.
Second generation of planets
The unusual thing about these stars is that they appear to be giving birth to planets again.
"We currently understand planet formation to occur around stars when they are very young and enshrouded in dusty and gaseous disks, the material necessary to form planetary bodies," Melis told SPACE.com. "This material is completely used up after a couple to ten million years after the star is born and is not replenished during the star's life. As such, we would never expect a star to undergo planet formation late in its life as the necessary conditions are not present."
A new research has indicated that stars can slow down their aging process by consuming Jupiter-sized planets.
According to a report in New Scientist , most stars eventually become white dwarfs, but along the way expand into red giants, while their cores shrink and undergo a short but intense phase of helium fusion.
"Yet gobbling up a Jupiter-sized planet as they expand can affect that process," said Brad Hansen at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Calculations by Hansen suggest that if the planet is swallowed at the right moment, its gravity can peel off the star's outer layers.
Then, the star's exposed core never gets hot enough to fuse helium, so the resulting white dwarf is less massive and looks younger than it should for its age.
A group of white dwarfs with precisely those characteristics was observed three years ago in the star cluster NGC 6791.
The work was presented at the annual American Astronomical Society meeting in Austin, Texas last week.
____________
"Amazing old stars give birth again"
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2008-01-21-old-stars-birth_N.htm
Two old stars appear to be gearing up for a second generation of planet formation, a phenomenon astronomers say they have never seen before.
"This is a new class of stars, ones that display conditions now ripe for formation of a second generation of planets, long, long after the stars themselves formed," said UCLA astronomy graduate student Carl Melis, who reported the findings at a recent meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Austin, Texas.
The stars are BP Piscium in the constellation Pisces and TYCHO 4144 329 2, which resides in the constellation Ursa Major. The exact ages of the stars are unknown, but it is estimated they are at least hundreds of millions or possibly billions of years old, and might have already given birth to planets long ago.
"Most astronomers now believe that most stars are accompanied by first-generation planets of some sort, even if the planets are not massive enough to be picked up by the radial velocity [detection] technique," Melis said.
Second generation of planets
The unusual thing about these stars is that they appear to be giving birth to planets again.
"We currently understand planet formation to occur around stars when they are very young and enshrouded in dusty and gaseous disks, the material necessary to form planetary bodies," Melis told SPACE.com. "This material is completely used up after a couple to ten million years after the star is born and is not replenished during the star's life. As such, we would never expect a star to undergo planet formation late in its life as the necessary conditions are not present."
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Arctic Warming Update
From the RSOE Emergency and Disaster Information Service...
Giant fractures have been cracking open the ice in the Beaufort Sea in recent weeks creating extraordinary stretches of open water and giving researchers from around the world a first-hand look at the Arctic meltdown. "It's shocking to see," says David Barber, a climate specialist at the University of Manitoba. He is heading an international project, involving more than 200 researchers from 15 countries, on the Amundsen, a Canadian Coast Guard ship over-wintering in the Beaufort. "The fractures are huge," says Barber, who recently returned from the Amundsen and says some cracks are more than 100 kilometres across. "We drove our ship down of one of them and you couldn't see the sides of it." The Canadian Ice Service has posted a satellite image of one "massive fracture" on its website, along with an animation showing huge fissures opening and giant slabs of ice peeling away west and north of Banks Island over the last five weeks. Stretches of open water, known as leads, normally form in the Beaufort in winter as thick, old ice grinds past much thinner first-year ice. Barber says he has never such large fractures and so much open water in December and January. He says the phenomenon is tied to the loss of Arctic ice last summer, that "stunned" scientists as the ice retreated 40 per cent below normal, to the lowest level since satellite measurements began in 1979.
There is now so little thick, multi-year ice left, that it is being blown around the Beaufort "like Styrofoam in a bathtub," says Barber. As the thick older ice moves it pulls away from the thin new ice creating fractures and large areas of open water. The $40-million research initiative on the Amundsen is part of the International Polar Year. Barber says the researchers could not have picked a more interesting winter to spend in the Beaufort, but says the changes they are documenting are "disturbing." Not only is the ice fracturing, but he says storm tracks are changing as weather systems are drawn in over the open water and fed by heat being released by the seawater. And thick multi-year ice, which the researchers are tracking with beacons, is moving at up to 30 nautical miles a day, much faster than normal. If the trend continues, he and other scientists predict the Arctic could be ice free in the summer months by 2020, plus or minus 10 years. That means Arctic summer ice, which has capped the planet for more than a million years, might be gone by 2010, says Barber.
The implications extend far beyond the Arctic, and the possibility of shipping routes opening in the North. Weather across the Northern Hemisphere is impacted by what happens in the Arctic and the northern ice plays a critical role in controlling Earth's thermostat. Arctic ice reflects close to the 95 per cent of solar radiation that hits it. Once the ice melts away, seawater absorbs the heat instead, later releasing it back to the atmosphere, a process that will speed global warming. The phenomenon is already at play in the Beaufort. Barber saysthe extra heat absorbed by the sea water last summer delayed the formation of new ice last fall by many weeks. And the heat is still being released as storms churn up open water, creating unusually balmy winter weather, he says, noting the temperatures off Banks Island hit -9 C when he was on the Amundsen in December. )
Giant fractures have been cracking open the ice in the Beaufort Sea in recent weeks creating extraordinary stretches of open water and giving researchers from around the world a first-hand look at the Arctic meltdown. "It's shocking to see," says David Barber, a climate specialist at the University of Manitoba. He is heading an international project, involving more than 200 researchers from 15 countries, on the Amundsen, a Canadian Coast Guard ship over-wintering in the Beaufort. "The fractures are huge," says Barber, who recently returned from the Amundsen and says some cracks are more than 100 kilometres across. "We drove our ship down of one of them and you couldn't see the sides of it." The Canadian Ice Service has posted a satellite image of one "massive fracture" on its website, along with an animation showing huge fissures opening and giant slabs of ice peeling away west and north of Banks Island over the last five weeks. Stretches of open water, known as leads, normally form in the Beaufort in winter as thick, old ice grinds past much thinner first-year ice. Barber says he has never such large fractures and so much open water in December and January. He says the phenomenon is tied to the loss of Arctic ice last summer, that "stunned" scientists as the ice retreated 40 per cent below normal, to the lowest level since satellite measurements began in 1979.
There is now so little thick, multi-year ice left, that it is being blown around the Beaufort "like Styrofoam in a bathtub," says Barber. As the thick older ice moves it pulls away from the thin new ice creating fractures and large areas of open water. The $40-million research initiative on the Amundsen is part of the International Polar Year. Barber says the researchers could not have picked a more interesting winter to spend in the Beaufort, but says the changes they are documenting are "disturbing." Not only is the ice fracturing, but he says storm tracks are changing as weather systems are drawn in over the open water and fed by heat being released by the seawater. And thick multi-year ice, which the researchers are tracking with beacons, is moving at up to 30 nautical miles a day, much faster than normal. If the trend continues, he and other scientists predict the Arctic could be ice free in the summer months by 2020, plus or minus 10 years. That means Arctic summer ice, which has capped the planet for more than a million years, might be gone by 2010, says Barber.
The implications extend far beyond the Arctic, and the possibility of shipping routes opening in the North. Weather across the Northern Hemisphere is impacted by what happens in the Arctic and the northern ice plays a critical role in controlling Earth's thermostat. Arctic ice reflects close to the 95 per cent of solar radiation that hits it. Once the ice melts away, seawater absorbs the heat instead, later releasing it back to the atmosphere, a process that will speed global warming. The phenomenon is already at play in the Beaufort. Barber saysthe extra heat absorbed by the sea water last summer delayed the formation of new ice last fall by many weeks. And the heat is still being released as storms churn up open water, creating unusually balmy winter weather, he says, noting the temperatures off Banks Island hit -9 C when he was on the Amundsen in December. )
"Naples Waste Linked to Death and Disease"
Piles of trash building up in Naples have filled the air with a putrid stench and spoiled the view for tourists, but the city's waste crisis may also be killing its people...
Besides fouling the port city's image and adding to risks to the Mediterranean from from sewage and pollution, the waste is in some areas associated with higher death rates and certain types of cancer, studies have shown.
A government-appointed former police chief has been given army backup for a four-month quest to end a crisis which the Italian government declared a 'state of emergency' in 1994, but local people say years of illegal dumping is poisoning them...
Medical journal Lancet Oncology in 2004 dubbed part of the Campania region, of which Naples is the capital, "the triangle of death" because the air, soil and water are polluted by high levels of cancer-causing toxins believed to have come from waste.
Research released last year by Italy's National Research Council found that among people living closest to the least-regulated waste-disposal sites -- where trash is dumped in fields or burnt without any controls -- the mortality rate was 12 percent greater than the norm for women and 9 percent greater for men.
Fatal liver cancers were much more common -- up 29 percent for women and 19 percent for men in the most at-risk areas -- and there were huge increases in congenital malformations of the nervous and urinary systems...
Naples' failure to deal with its own household waste hit crisis point at the end of December when all refuse collection stopped as waste dumps had reached capacity, leaving people with no choice but to throw it onto the streets.
Political ineptitude, corruption and crime have conspired to stop the creation of a modern, safe disposal system. People despair of their politicians and are suspicious of government schemes -- like a new incinerator -- aimed at ending the crisis.
Like many in and around the 'triangle of death', those in Pianura say their council-run landfill was not properly managed and became a tipping site for hazardous waste.
But an even bigger source of pollution is the Camorra, the Naples mafia which runs a lucrative line in dumping and burning rubbish illegally.
More than domestic trash, the Camorra focuses on disposal of industrial waste which it brings to Campania from Italy's rich north -- one of a string of crimes against the environment earning the mafia an estimated 6 billion euros a year.
"The Camorra continues to control the cycle of industrial waste that comes from the north of Italy," said Michele Buonomo of Legambiente, a campaign group which closely monitors organised crime's assault on the environment.
"That's why practically every night in vast areas of Campania, waste arrives to be burned."
Besides fouling the port city's image and adding to risks to the Mediterranean from from sewage and pollution, the waste is in some areas associated with higher death rates and certain types of cancer, studies have shown.
A government-appointed former police chief has been given army backup for a four-month quest to end a crisis which the Italian government declared a 'state of emergency' in 1994, but local people say years of illegal dumping is poisoning them...
Medical journal Lancet Oncology in 2004 dubbed part of the Campania region, of which Naples is the capital, "the triangle of death" because the air, soil and water are polluted by high levels of cancer-causing toxins believed to have come from waste.
Research released last year by Italy's National Research Council found that among people living closest to the least-regulated waste-disposal sites -- where trash is dumped in fields or burnt without any controls -- the mortality rate was 12 percent greater than the norm for women and 9 percent greater for men.
Fatal liver cancers were much more common -- up 29 percent for women and 19 percent for men in the most at-risk areas -- and there were huge increases in congenital malformations of the nervous and urinary systems...
Naples' failure to deal with its own household waste hit crisis point at the end of December when all refuse collection stopped as waste dumps had reached capacity, leaving people with no choice but to throw it onto the streets.
Political ineptitude, corruption and crime have conspired to stop the creation of a modern, safe disposal system. People despair of their politicians and are suspicious of government schemes -- like a new incinerator -- aimed at ending the crisis.
Like many in and around the 'triangle of death', those in Pianura say their council-run landfill was not properly managed and became a tipping site for hazardous waste.
But an even bigger source of pollution is the Camorra, the Naples mafia which runs a lucrative line in dumping and burning rubbish illegally.
More than domestic trash, the Camorra focuses on disposal of industrial waste which it brings to Campania from Italy's rich north -- one of a string of crimes against the environment earning the mafia an estimated 6 billion euros a year.
"The Camorra continues to control the cycle of industrial waste that comes from the north of Italy," said Michele Buonomo of Legambiente, a campaign group which closely monitors organised crime's assault on the environment.
"That's why practically every night in vast areas of Campania, waste arrives to be burned."
"China's Longest River at Lowest in 142 Years"
China is suffering its worst drought in a decade, which has left millions of people short of drinking water and has shrunk reservoirs and rivers.
Hardest hit are large swathes of the usually humid south, where water levels on several major rivers have plunged to historic lows in recent months.
On Jan. 8, the Yangtze water level at Hankou plunged to 13.98 metres (46 ft), the lowest since records began in 1866, the China Daily said on Thursday, quoting the Wuhan-based Changjiang Times.
"This year's drought is rare," Li Changmin, a farmer from central Hubei province, was quoted as saying. "Just days ago, I saw ship after ship running aground. I have never seen that before."
Since October, more than 40 ships have run aground in the main course of the Yangtze, the world's third longest river which stretches 6,300 km (3,900 miles) from west to east, the traditional dividing line between north and south China.
This year's dry season came a month earlier than usual and water levels fell sooner than expected, an official was quoted as saying.
"Also, large amounts of water were stored at the Three Gorges Dam last month, which caused the flow volume in the river to fall 50 percent. But the Yangtze River Water Resource Commission said the drought has nothing to do with the dam," the China Daily said.
The Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydroelectric project, is an engineering feat that seeks to tame the Yangtze.
Backers say the dam will end devastating floods downstream and generate clean electricity. Critics call it a reckless folly that has brought wrenching dislocation for many people.
Drought and floods are perennial problems in China but meteorologists have complained about the increased extreme weather, pointing to global climate change as a culprit.
Hardest hit are large swathes of the usually humid south, where water levels on several major rivers have plunged to historic lows in recent months.
On Jan. 8, the Yangtze water level at Hankou plunged to 13.98 metres (46 ft), the lowest since records began in 1866, the China Daily said on Thursday, quoting the Wuhan-based Changjiang Times.
"This year's drought is rare," Li Changmin, a farmer from central Hubei province, was quoted as saying. "Just days ago, I saw ship after ship running aground. I have never seen that before."
Since October, more than 40 ships have run aground in the main course of the Yangtze, the world's third longest river which stretches 6,300 km (3,900 miles) from west to east, the traditional dividing line between north and south China.
This year's dry season came a month earlier than usual and water levels fell sooner than expected, an official was quoted as saying.
"Also, large amounts of water were stored at the Three Gorges Dam last month, which caused the flow volume in the river to fall 50 percent. But the Yangtze River Water Resource Commission said the drought has nothing to do with the dam," the China Daily said.
The Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydroelectric project, is an engineering feat that seeks to tame the Yangtze.
Backers say the dam will end devastating floods downstream and generate clean electricity. Critics call it a reckless folly that has brought wrenching dislocation for many people.
Drought and floods are perennial problems in China but meteorologists have complained about the increased extreme weather, pointing to global climate change as a culprit.
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