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Severe climate change costs frightening forecast for U.S. States, World
The economic impact of climate change will cost a number of U.S. states billions of dollars, and delaying action will raise the price tag, concludes the latest series of reports produced by the University of Maryland's Center for Integrative Environmental Research.
Summary of state findings:
North Carolina: Most significant impact likely felt along the coastline, but damage to agriculture, forestry and manufacturing could also occur with total costs running into billions of dollars.
North Dakota: "If drought and flooding increase as predicted, crop and livestock productivity is likely to decrease. Climate change also may cause losses in the tourism industry and increase the cost of maintaining infrastructure," says the report. It also projects a decline in hydroelectric production capacity. Total losses could cost the state millions of dollars.
Pennsylvania: "Overall, climate change may create significant economic costs for infrastructure, manufacturing, water resources, and agriculture; forestry may see some economic benefits," says the CIER report. Total costs could run into billions of dollars.
Tennessee: Increases in temperature greater than the global average, a seven percent increase in precipitation, along with increases in extreme weather, are predicted for the state. The forestry sector may see some benefits from these changes, but the state's strained water resources may suffer, as may infrastructure, the hunting industry and public health. Economic losses could run into billions of dollars.
---------------full report at link above------------
Here's an idea challenge for the Google 10 million dollar reward....think of a simple way to slow down the release of co2 into the atmosphere and to employ this all over the world. We cannot ignore this anymore. We all need to band together, nations, religions and people of all styles, to protect and repair mother earth. Protecting the planet we live on is a good reason to stop all wars and violence and to get people involved together. We are all on this planet together, so lets work together!
Reports with summaries and full-text are available state-by-state at http://www.ncsl.org/programs/environ/ClimatePubs.htm. The economic impact of climate change will cost a number of U.S. states billions of dollars, and delaying action will raise the price ... more -
Arctic ice melts to second-lowest level: scientists
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Arctic sea ice melted to its second-lowest level this summer, rising slightly from 2007's record but still showing a downward trend that is a key symptom of climate change, U.S. scientists said on Tuesday.
The ice slipped to its minimum extent for 2008 on September 12, when it covered 1.74 million square miles (4.52 million square km), and now appears to be growing as the Arctic starts its seasonal cooldown, the National Snow and Ice Data Center said.
This is 33 percent below the average summer ice cover in the Arctic since satellites began measuring it in 1979 and is less than 10 percent above last year's all-time record low, said Walt Meier, a research scientist at the ice center.
"We're not as low as we were last year, which was the real mind-blowing record, but we're well below anything else we've had in the past," Meier said in a telephone interview from Boulder, Colorado.
One channel of the Northwest Passage -- a long-sought water route between Europe and Asia -- was open in both 2007 and 2008. This year also saw the opening of the Northern Sea Route, which runs through the Arctic Ocean along the Siberian coast.
The ice center said last month that there was substantial ice melt in the Chukchi Sea off the Alaskan coast in the Eastern Siberian Seas off Russia's east coast, home to one of the world's largest polar bear populations.
Because polar bears use sea ice floes as platforms for hunting seals, they are forced to swim longer distances when the ice melts, making them more likely to tire and drown. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Arctic sea ice melted to its second-lowest level this summer, rising slightly from 2007's record but still... more -
Will Australia Drop Out Of The Global Warming "Race"???
Excerpts...
KEVIN Rudd's global warming guru has finally - and reluctantly - exposed the con. Ignore everything the Government has told you.
The truth, conceded Professor Ross Garnaut last week, is that it really is cheaper for Australians to do nothing about global warming.
And, no, it's not immoral to figure there's no point spending big money to "stop" this warming when it won't make a blind bit of difference.
No wonder the Rudd Government refuses to comment on Garnaut's latest report, released on Friday. Much of the argument for its grand plan to make us slash emissions from 2010 has just been destroyed.
I guess it's just hoping no journalists, most of whom are warming believers, will care to notice what Garnaut has just admitted through gritted teeth. As far as I can tell, only the Daily Telegraph's Piers Akerman has drawn the unmistakable conclusions.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,,24298533-5006...
or http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,243... ...
Excerpt:
"NO SINGLE issue better illustrates the Rudd Government's gross incompetence than its blindly ideological approach to the question of climate change.
Fortunately, and perhaps accidentally, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's own hand-picked climate change guru, Professor Ross Garnaut, has now driven a truck through its principal argument.
In the 10 months since Rudd, Treasurer Wayne Swan, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong and Environment Minister Peter Garrett have held office, the Government has constantly decried and denigrated as ``irresponsible climate-change deniers'' all who question their views .
The snide use of the word "denier'' to link sceptics with those who deny the actuality of the Holocaust is so obvious it hardly deserves mention.
But its repeated usage is indicative of the gutter nature of the massive propaganda campaign waged by Rudd and his colleagues as they attempt to capitalise on their symbolic signing of the politically correct Kyoto Protocol.
Fixated with the flawed reports prepared by the totally partisan Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and falsely claiming there is a "consensus'' among climate scientists that human activity is responsible for global warming, Rudd has pushed a warped agenda based on extraordinarily dubious modelling.
And such an agenda can, in all reality, have no effect on the planet, let alone the behaviour of other nations.
For the whole of their period in office, federal Labor's mantra has been simple: the cost of doing nothing about climate change will be greater than the cost of doing something.
Now, however, former foreign affairs mentor Professor Garnaut has revealed that mantra is false."
Darn.... Whom CAN you believe any more??????????? Excerpts... ... more -
Arctic Sea Ice Level Plummets
"Arctic Ocean sea ice has melted to the second lowest minimum since satellite observations began, according to scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
Sea ice melt recorded on Monday exceeded the low recorded in 2005, which had held second place.
With several weeks left in the melt season, ice in summer 2008 has a chance to diminish below the record low set last year, according to scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
Environmental groups said the ice melt was another alarm bell warning of global warming.
"It's an unfortunate sign that climate change is coming rapidly to the Arctic and that we really need to address the issue of global warming on a national level," said Christopher Krenz, Arctic project manager for Oceana.
"This is not surprising but it is alarming," said Deborah Williams, a former Interior Department special assistant for Alaska. "This was a relatively cool summer, and to have ice decrease to the second lowest minimum on record demonstrates that global warming's ongoing impact is profound."
The National Snow and Ice Data Center, based at the University of Colorado, reported the ice Monday melted below the 2005 minimum of 2.05 million square miles set on Sept. 21 that year. Exact figures will be released Wednesday.
Through the beginning of the melt season in May until early August, daily ice extent for 2008 closely tracked the values for 2005, the center said.
In early August 2005, the decline began to slow. In August 2008, however, the decline has remained steadily downward at a brisk pace.
The most recent ice retreat primarily reflects melt in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest coast and the East Siberian Seas off the coast of eastern Russia, according to the center.
The Chukchi Sea is home to one of two populations of Alaska polar bears.
Federal observers flying for a whale survey on Aug. 16 spotted nine polar bears swimming in open ocean in the Chukchi Sea. The bears were 15 to 65 miles off the Alaska shore. Some were swimming north, apparently trying to reach the polar ice edge, which on that day was 400 miles away.
Polar bears are powerful swimmers and have been recorded on swims of 100 miles but the ordeal can leave them exhausted and susceptible to drowning in high seas.
Sea ice is the primary habitat of polar bears. They depend on it to hunt their primary prey, ringed seals, which create lairs on ice for breeding maintain breathing holes with powerful claws.
Summer sea ice last year shrunk to about 1.65 million square miles, nearly 40 percent less than the long-term average between 1979 and 2000. Most climate modelers predict a continued downward spiral, possibly with an Arctic Ocean that's ice free during summer months by 2030 or sooner.
Krenz said the announcement Tuesday showed that last year's record low sea ice was not an anomaly. As ice covers fewer square miles of ocean, he said, warming will accelerate.
"It's going to accelerate climate change through changes in the reflectance of the Arctic," he said. "It's going from bright ice to a much darker ocean."
More square miles of dark ocean will absorb more heat. More warmth will accelerate melting of Arctic permafrost, allowing organic matter now frozen to melt and add to the greenhouse gas problem, he said.
"That allows for the breakdown of that by bacteria and other organisms that release CO2 or methane, depending on how the breakdown occurs," he said.
The effects faced by people in the Arctic eventually will reach the rest of the nation and the world, he warned." "Arctic Ocean sea ice has melted to the second lowest minimum since satellite observations began, according to scientists at the ... more -
Polar bears sighted in open water
"Federal officials confirm 10 polar bears, an unusually large number, have recently been seen swimming in open Alaskan waters.
Arctic ice melts in the Chukchi Sea are the suspected cause of the bears swimming toward either land or more remote icebergs, The New York Times (NYSE:NYT) reported Saturday. Such sightings were rare until 2004 but have grown more common as polar bears hunt for seals.
"It's not unusual for bears to be swimming," said Susanne Miller, a biologist with the Fish and Wildlife Service, "but depending on their condition and how much time they're spending in the water, this could be problematic. It's going to cost them more energy to swim through water than travel on land."
Eight of the 10 bears seen in an aerial survey were within 15 miles of shore. Others were 35 and 50 miles from shore.
"There were some years when some bears may have had to swim as far as 100 miles," Steven C. Amstrup, the senior polar bear scientist with the US Geological Survey in Anchorage, wrote in an e-mail message. "Now the ice is much farther offshore, more consistently and for longer." "Federal officials confirm 10 polar bears, an unusually large number, have recently been seen swimming in open Alaskan waters. ... more -
Mr. Penguin Needs Some Ice
I wanted to create a PSA with humor and a message about saving the polar ice caps. Humor just seems to be more effective than guilt, not as easy, but also not as obvious to produce.
I wrote a tight script and then our great actor, Harvey Robinson added so much more to the project. I wanted to create a PSA with humor and a message about saving the polar ice caps. Humor just seems to be more effective than guilt, ... more -
Forget global warming: Welcome to the new Ice Age --- really? We actually had MOR...
This looks like the opposite of the pods I've seen on current. Wonder what to make of it.
Anyhow, I thought I would post it since Global Warming is so "hot". Here they say we actually had thicker and more ice this year than in the past... Very interesting.
Personally I hope that neither ice nor floods come. But there is only so much one nation can do. Until the world is on board, we have to just trust in .... dare I say God? (don't hate me).
Enjoy!
Forget global warming: Welcome to the new Ice Age
Lorne Gunter, National Post Published: Monday, February 25, 2008
Snow cover over North America and much of Siberia, Mongolia and China is greater than at any time since 1966.
The U.S. National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) reported that many American cities and towns suffered record cold temperatures in January and early February. According to the NCDC, the average temperature in January "was -0.3 F cooler than the 1901-2000 (20th century) average."
Last month, Oleg Sorokhtin, a fellow of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, shrugged off manmade climate change as "a drop in the bucket." Showing that solar activity has entered an inactive phase, Prof. Sorokhtin advised people to "stock up on fur coats."
He is not alone. Kenneth Tapping of our own National Research Council, who oversees a giant radio telescope focused on the sun, is convinced we are in for a long period of severely cold weather if sunspot activity does not pick up soon.
It's way too early to claim the same is about to happen again, but then it's way too early for the hysteria of the global warmers, too.
***Please reference the above article, as most would not fit in this space. Explains cycles that the earth goes thru including mini cycles. I found it very interesting.***
Thanks for reading. This looks like the opposite of the pods I've seen on current. Wonder what to make of it. ... more -
Scientists warn that there may be no ice at North Pole this summer
It seems unthinkable, but for the first time in human history, ice is on course to disappear entirely from the North Pole this year.
The disappearance of the Arctic sea ice, making it possible to reach the Pole sailing in a boat through open water, would be one of the most dramatic – and worrying – examples of the impact of global warming on the planet. Scientists say the ice at 90 degrees north may well have melted away by the summer.
"From the viewpoint of science, the North Pole is just another point on the globe, but symbolically it is hugely important. There is supposed to be ice at the North Pole, not open water," said Mark Serreze of the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado.
If it happens, it raises the prospect of the Arctic nations being able to exploit the valuable oil and mineral deposits below these a bed which have until now been impossible to extract because of the thick sea ice above.
Seasoned polar scientists believe the chances of a totally ice-free North Pole this summer are greater than 50:50 because the normally thick ice formed over many years at the Pole has been blown away and replaced by huge swathes of thinner ice formed over a single year.
[Credit: Steve Connor, The Independent; Photo: National Snow and Ice Data Center] It seems unthinkable, but for the first time in human history, ice is on course to disappear entirely from the North Pole this year. ... more -
North Pole Ice Gone By Summers End
We need to save the world folks. Not just peace in the world, but by actively doing something. Get involved....here's the article tidbit...more on the link and don't forget the video!
The North Pole may be briefly ice-free by September as global warming melts away Arctic sea ice, according to scientists from the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado.
Scientists say it's a 50-50 bet that the thin Arctic sea ice will completely melt away at the geographic North Pole.
Scientists say it's a 50-50 bet that the thin Arctic sea ice will completely melt away at the geographic North Pole.
"We kind of have an informal betting pool going around in our center and that betting pool is 'does the North Pole melt out this summer?' and it may well," said the center's senior research scientist Mark Serreze.
It's a 50-50 bet that the thin Arctic sea ice, which was frozen last autumn, will completely melt away at the geographic North Pole, Serreze said.
The ice retreated to a record level in September when the Northwest Passage -- the sea route through the Arctic Ocean -- opened up briefly for the first time in recorded history. We need to save the world folks. Not just peace in the world, but by actively doing something. Get involved....here's the artic... more -
What global warming?
Polar scientists reveal dramatic new evidence of climate change
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Friday, 27 June 2008
It seems unthinkable, but for the first time in human history, ice is on course to disappear entirely from the North Pole this year.
The disappearance of the Arctic sea ice, making it possible to reach the Pole sailing in a boat through open water, would be one of the most dramatic – and worrying – examples of the impact of global warming on the planet. Scientists say the ice at 90 degrees north may well have melted away by the summer.
"From the viewpoint of science, the North Pole is just another point on the globe, but symbolically it is hugely important. There is supposed to be ice at the North Pole, not open water," said Mark Serreze of the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado.
If it happens, it raises the prospect of the Arctic nations being able to exploit the valuable oil and mineral deposits below these a bed which have until now been impossible to extract because of the thick sea ice above.
Seasoned polar scientists believe the chances of a totally icefreeNorth Pole this summer are greater than 50:50 because the normally thick ice formed over many years at the Pole has been blown away and replaced by hugeswathes of thinner ice formed over a single year.
This one-year ice is highly vulnerable to melting during thesummer months and satellite data coming in over recent weeksshows that the rate of melting is faster than last year, when therewas an all-time record loss of summer sea ice at the Arctic.
"The issue is that, for the first time that I am aware of, the NorthPole is covered with extensive first-year ice – ice that formed last autumn and winter. I'd say it's even-odds whether the North Pole melts out," said Dr Serreze.
Each summer the sea ice melts before reforming again during the long Arctic winter but the loss of sea ice last year was so extensive that much of the Arctic Ocean became open water, with the water-ice boundary coming just 700 miles away from the North Pole.
This meant that about 70 per cent of the sea ice present this spring was single-year ice formed over last winter. Scientists predict that at least 70 per cent of this single-year ice – and perhaps all of it – will melt completely this summer, Dr Serreze said.
"Indeed, for the Arctic as a whole, the melt season startedwith even more thin ice than in 2007, hence concerns that we may even beat last year's sea-ice minimum. We'll see what happens, a great deal depends on the weather patterns in July and August," he said.
Ron Lindsay, a polar scientist at the University of Washington in Seattle, agreed that much now depends onwhat happens to the Arctic weather in terms of wind patterns and hours of sunshine. "There's a good chance that it will all melt awayat the North Pole, it's certainly feasible, but it's not guaranteed," Dr Lindsay said. Polar scientists reveal dramatic new evidence of climate change By Steve Connor, Science Editor Friday, 27 June 2008 ... more -
A hollow victory for the polar bear
After a three year battle the polar bear has won its place on the government's Endangered Species list. But it's a somewhat hollow victory.
Three non-profits, the Center for Biological Diversity, Greenpeace and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), first sued the Bush administration in 2005 to secure protection for the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act. After many hearings, and even more hold ups, the government was compelled by law to make a final decision by January 9, 2008. The government flouted this deadline however, and was subsequently forced to make a decision by May 15 after animal rights activists, again, took the matter to the court.
This delay allowed The Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) to complete the first Chukchi Sea oil lease sale since 1991. A press release posted on the MMS' own website boasted that the sale resulted in "667 bids on 488 blocks -- both record-setting numbers -- on the Outer Continental Shelf," with submitted bids "totaling almost $3.4 billion."
The Chuck Sea lies between Alaska and Siberea and is home to one fifth of the world's polar bear population. "Had the polar bear been listed prior to January 9 as the law required, that lease sale could not have moved forward without some substantial additional review of the impacts to polar bears," said Kassie Siegel, who serves as the climate program director at the Center for Biological Diversity.
"After years of delay, the Bush administration was forced to face the reality that global warming has endangered the polar bear and that the polar bear needs to be placed on the Endangered Species Act," said the Republican Chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, Edward J. Markey in a statement to CNN. "But the administration has also simultaneously announced a rule aimed at allowing oil and gas drilling in the Arctic to continue unchecked even in the face of the polar bears' threatened extinction. Essentially, the administration is giving a gift to Big Oil, and short shrift to the polar bear."
It's estimated that there are between 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears in total on the planet, but the population is expected to decline to less than 10,000 over the next 50 years. Polar bears are only found in the wild in the Arctic. They spend much of the year on sea ice hunting for seals, which serve as their staple high fat diet. But global warming is taking its toll on the Arctic. The region is warming at a rate that is five times faster than that of the earth as a whole. In September 2007, the Arctic ice cap shrunk to a record low, with an additional 1 million square miles disappearing compared to previous years, meaning the polar bear lost an area of habitat equivalent in size to six times that of California.
Despite the fact that polar bears (and the planet) are on such thin ice, the government has its eye firmly on the gas pump, and is far more concerned about the interests of big business. While adding the majestic creatures to the endangered species list, the Secretary of the Interior, Dirk Kempthorne, cautioned that the Environmental Protection Act should not be "misused" to regulate global warming.
"Listing the polar bear as threatened can reduce avoidable losses of polar bears. But it should not open the door to use of the Endangered Species Act to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles, power plants, and other sources," said Kempthorne. "That would be a wholly inappropriate use of the ESA law. The ESA is not the right tool to set U.S. climate policy."
Fortunately for the polar bear, the Bush government will soon be extinct. With even John McCain making environmentally constructive comments in recent days, lets hope they can hold out for a wind of change. After a three year battle the polar bear has won its place on the government's Endangered Species list. But it's a somewhat ... more -
Is Global Warming Killing the Polar Bears?
Real evidence of global warming. The polar bears are drowning. "For anyone who has wondered how global warming and reduced sea ice will effect polar bears, the answer is simple, they die." Quoted from Richard Steiner, a marine biology professor at the University of Alaska. Environmentalists say US policies emphasizing oil and gas development are exacerbating global warming. It is a real and imminent threat. Real evidence of global warming. The polar bears are drowning. "For anyone who has wondered how global warming and reduced sea ic... more
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The polar bears are dying
Because of global warming, the polar ice caps are melting and the polar bears are dying.
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An Inconvenient Truth - Sunday Oct 21, 12:30 PM PT on SHOWTIME
If you have not seen this yet.... PENCIL IT IN
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AL GORE: Global Warming Testimony @ Congress 3.21.07
"This problem is burning a hole in the top of the world -in the ice cover- which is one of the principal ways our planet cools itself. If it goes, it wont come back on any time scale relevant to the human species." - Al Gore "This problem is burning a hole in the top of the world -in the ice cover- which is one of the principal ways our planet cools it... more
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Polar Ice Caps
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Polar Ice Caps
