ScienceDaily (Oct. 25, 2009) — The possibility that climate change might simply be a natural variation like others that have occurred throughout geologic time is dimming, according to evidence in a Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences paper published October 19.
"A major report issued by the United Nations Millenium Project has just been released. It finds that half the world appears vulnerable to social instability and violence due to increasing and potentially prolonged unemployment from the recession as well as several longer-term issues: decreasing water, food, and energy supplies per person; the cumulative effects of climate change, and increasing migrations due to political, environmental, and economic conditions. It also finds some good in the global financial crisis, which may be helping humanity to move from its often selfish, self-centered adolescence to a more globally responsible adulthood."Here is a link to the 2009 State of the Future report itself:
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"The magnitude of the economic turmoil that focused world’s attention on financial deficits, coupled with increased environmental disasters, helped improve the understanding of potential long-term impacts of the increasing ecological deficit. Comparably, however, the environmental deficit is in most cases irreparable.
Earth Overshoot Day was September 23 in 2008—the day when humanity has used what nature can regenerate annually—and it is moving earlier each year, according to Global Footprint Network. The Living Planet Report 2008, which documents the extent of human pressure on the planet, reveals that 75% of the human population lives in countries that are “ecological debtors,” demanding more biocapacity than they have within their borders."
The Prince, who has spoken passionately about the environment before, said that if the world failed to heed his warnings then we all faced the "nightmare that for so many of us now looms on the horizon".
Charles's speech was described as his first attempt to present a coherent philosophy in which he placed the threat to the environment in the context of a failing economic system.
The Prince, who is advised by the leading environmentalists Jonathon Porritt and Tony Juniper, said that even the economist Adam Smith, father of modern capitalism, had been aware of the short-comings of unfettered materialism.
Delivering the annual Richard Dimbleby lecture, Charles said that without "coherent financial incentives and disincentives" we have just 96 months to avert "irretrievable climate and ecosystem collapse, and all that goes with it."
The latest satellite images show that icebergs have begun to break away from the northern front of the Wilkins Ice Shelf – indicating that the huge shelf has become unstable. This follows the collapse three weeks ago of the ice bridge that had previously linked the Antarctic mainland to Charcot Island. On April 24, satellite data from ESA’s Envisat satellite and the German Aerospace Centre’s TerraSAR-X satellite showed that the first icebergs had started to break away from the fragile ice shelf. A very rough estimate suggests that, so far, about 700 sq km of ice has been lost from the Wilkins Ice Shelf.
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“The retreat of Wilkins Ice Shelf is the latest and the largest of its kind. Eight separate ice shelves along the Antarctic Peninsula have shown signs of retreat over the last few decades. There is little doubt that these changes are the result of atmospheric warming on the Antarctic Peninsula, which has been the most rapid in the Southern Hemisphere,” explained David Vaughan from the British Antarctic Survey.
“First, we see an eruptive or explosive phase,” physics professor Paul Krehbiel said. “Electrical activity is continuous and strong. We see a lot of small electrical discharges as hot gasses come out of the volcano.”
The second phase involves the ash cloud as it drifts away from the volcano with the wind. This phase is punctuated by discrete lightning – or lightning bolts.
“After the explosion is over, there is a subsequent phase of plume lightning,” Krehbiel said. “Full-fledged lightning occurs in the cloud of ash and water both above and downwind of the volcano.”
“The lightning activity was as strong as or stronger than we have seen in large Midwestern thunderstorms,” Krehbiel said. “The radio frequency noise was so strong and continuous that people living in the area would not have been able to watch broadcast VHF television stations.”
The basics are well-accepted. With 23 million square miles of surface area — 70 percent of the Earth — the ocean is the world’s biggest sunbather. The amount of heat it absorbs each day is equal to burning hundreds of billions of oil barrels. Tapping into even one-tenth of a percent of that energy, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory says, would yield...Further down in the article:
...20 times as much electricity as the United States uses in a day.
In either case, OTEC offers something that few renewable resources can — baseload power. While wind and solar are known to be fickle, ocean thermal backers say it can provide hundreds of megawatts every minute of the day.
Interesting article about making a "National Park" on ice.
These shots aren't edited. This cave system is located under Naica mountain in the Chihuahuan Desert of Mexico. It was discovered in 2000. Some of these are as large as 30 feet... STUNNING! Maybe Superman spent time here.
