Climate change to go on for at least “1,000 years”

[Left: At the South Pole lies the An­tar­tic Ice Sheet, shaded in red in the above di­a­gram. It is con­si­dered vu­lner­able to melt­ing due to glob­al warm­ing (Cred­it: NA­SA/GSFC Sci­en­tif­ic Vis­u­al­i­za­tion Stu­dio)]

Courtesy University of Calgary and World Science staff

Ris­ing car­bon di­ox­ide lev­els in the Earth’s at­mos­phere will cause un­stop­pa­ble changes to the cli­mate for at least the next 1,000 years, a new study sug­gests.

The find­ings have led re­search­ers to es­ti­mate a col­lapse of the West Ant­arc­tic ice sheet by the year 3000, and an even­tu­al rise in the glob­al sea lev­el of at least four me­tres (yards).

The stu­dy, to ap­pear in the Jan. 9 ad­vance on­line edi­tion of the re­search jour­nal Na­ture Ge­o­sci­ence, is billed as the first full cli­mate mod­el sim­ula­t­ion to make pre­dic­tions so far ahead. It’s based on best-case, “zero-emis­sions” sce­nar­i­os sim­ulated by sci­ent­ists from the Ca­na­di­an Cen­tre for Cli­mate Mod­el­ling and Anal­y­sis at the Uni­vers­ity of Vic­to­ria, and at the Uni­vers­ity of Cal­ga­ry, al­so in Can­a­da.

“We cre­at­ed ‘what if’ sce­nar­i­os,” said re­searcher Shawn Mar­shall of the Uni­vers­ity of Cal­ga­ry. “What if we com­pletely stopped us­ing fos­sil fu­els and put no more [car­bon di­ox­ide] in the at­mos­phere? How long would it then take to re­verse cur­rent cli­mate change trends and will things first be­come worse?” Read More

Global Clean Energy Holdings launches Center for Sustainable Energy Farming

In California, Global Clean Energy Holdings announced the establishment of a new non-profit research organization: The Center for Sustainable Energy Farming ( http://www.cfsef.org/ ). The Center’s mission is to perform cutting-edge plant science research in genetics, breeding and horticulture, and further develop technologies to allow for the economic commercialization and sustainability of energy farms globally.

The Center will initially focus on Jatropha curcas, that Global Cleans states is a potential 2nd and 3rd generation biodiesel and bio-jet fuel feedstock species. Research at the Center will be focused on increasing agricultural production; creating a sustainable feedstock supply; reducing inputs including the use of fossil fuel, pesticides, water and fertilizer, and developing new and sustainable biofuels.

Dead Birds Fall from Sky in Sweden; Millions of Dead Fish found in Maryland, Brazil, New Zealand

Millions of dead fish surfaced in Maryland's Chesapeake Bay in the U.S., Tuesday, while similar unexplained mass fish deaths occurred across the world in Brazil and New Zealand. On Wednesday, 50 birds were found dead on a street in Sweden. The news come after recents reports of mysterious massive bird and fish deaths days prior in Arkansas and Louisiana.

The Baltimore Sun reports that an estimated 2 million fish were found dead in the Chesapeake Bay, mostly adult spot with some juvenile croakers in the mix, as well. Maryland Department of the Environment spokesperson Dawn Stoltzfus says "cold-water stress" is believed to be the culprit. She told The Sun that similar large winter fish deaths were documented in 1976 and 1980. Read More

Scientists Now Know: We're Not From Here!

Summary & comments by Dan Eden for Viewzone
"It has been postulated that this is the real reason for both global warming since higher energy levels of the Milky Way are almost certain to cause our Sun to burn hotter and emit higher energies. Indeed, temperatures have been seen to rise on virtually all the planets in our system. This seems quite apart from any local phenomenon like greenhouse gases etc.
This grand turning is possibly the root cause for the discontinuation of the Mayan calendar (the most accurate on the planet) because the 'read-point' of the Pleiades star cluster, which many believe the calendar was based upon, can no longer be a constant as we begin to steer away from the earlier predictable movements..."

Imagine the shock of growing up in a loving family with people you call "Mum" and "Dad" and then, suddenly, learning that you are actually adopted!

This same sense of shock came as scientists announced that the Sun, the Moon, our planet and its siblings, were not born into the familiar band of stars known as the Milky Way galaxy, but we actually belong to a strange formation with the unfamiliar name of the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy!

How can this be?

Using volumes of data from the Two-Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS), a major project to survey the sky in infrared light led by the University of Massachusetts, the astronomers are answering questions that have baffled scientists for decades and proving that our own Milky Way is consuming one of its neighbors in a dramatic display of ongoing galactic cannibalism. The study published in the Astrophysical Journal, is the first to map the full extent of the Sagittarius galaxy and show in visually vivid detail how its debris wraps around and passes through our Milky Way. Sagittarius is 10,000 times smaller in mass than the Milky Way, so it is getting stretched out, torn apart and gobbled up by the bigger Milky Way. Read More

The Earth owns us

"Our galaxy is called the Milky Way, because of the dusting of the white that accompanies its spiral formation. And Lord Vishnu, the all-pervading, lies in the ocean of milk (Ksheer Sagar) on the endless coils of the serpent Anantha/Shesha Naag. The allegory is so right: the Ocean of Milk for the Milky Way, the coils of the serpent to indicate the spiralling nature of the galaxy. And Vishnu (the name means that which pervades all) right in the middle of it all, or forming the basis of it."

The Earthquake in Christchurch on September 4 brought the message of the fragile nature of our lives too close for comfort. Fortunately, we did not lose any lives, although the cost of damage is expected to run in the billions. The majority of people only want one thing in the aftermath of the Earthquake – get back to their normal lives as quickly as possible.

One message that the Earthquake again failed to impress on our minds is the reality of how we as a species are inter-related, that we live in the interconnected world of nature and are as open to the vagaries of nature as anyone in any part of the world.

However, much and which ever way we protect our borders and our way of life, natural disasters don’t recognise these demarcations. Nor does something like global warming or climate change or any other global event like El Nino or La Nina.

While the Earth has been divided up in countries and regions, oceans and stratosphere and other spheres, it remains for all intents and purpose a ‘single operating system’ – connected in so many ways that we only starting to understand. It is rightly said that the fluttering of a butterfly’s wings in Wales will eventually lead to a storm in the Amazon, that is how interconnected we are. Read More

7.1-magnitude earthquake hits Chile

By mjones, GTD News

Santiago – A 7.1-magnitude earthquake shook the souther part of Chile and costs thousands of people to evacuate as fear of tsunamis increased.

According to the National Emergency Office, there were no reports of casualties and damages to properties. There was also no tsunami alert released by local officials.

Vicente Nunez, head of the National Emergency Office of Chile said in a statement that there were no people harmed because of the earthquake.

The United States Geological Survey said that the epicenter of the earthquake was located near the coast of Tirua. Tirua is about 385 miles from Santiago, the capital city of Chile. The U.S. Geological Survey also said that it occurred at 2020 GMT at a depth of 10 miles. An aftershock that followed was later measured to be 5.0 in magnitude.

Earthquake Shakes Parts of Southwestern Utah

Circleville, Utah (ABC 4 News) - A 4.5 magnitude earthquake shook parts of southwestern Utah early Monday morning.

It struck just after 5:00am MDT, and was centered 8 miles northwest of Circleville.

So far, there are no reports of any damage.

ABC 4 talked to one resident who said the earthquake shook him out of bed, and the Beaver County Sheriff's Department says they felt the earthquake there as well.

Natural disasters 'killed 295,000 in 2010'

FRANKFURT — The Haiti earthquake and floods in Pakistan and China helped make 2010 an exceptional year for natural disasters, killing 295,000 and costing $130 billion, the world's top reinsurer said Monday.

"The high number of weather-related natural catastrophes and record temperatures both globally and in different regions of the world provide further indications of advancing climate change," said Munich Re in a report.

The last time so many people died in natural disasters was in 1983, when 300,000 people died, mainly due to famine in Ethiopia, spokesman Gerd Henghuber told AFP.

A total of 950 natural disasters were recorded last year, making 2010 the second worst year since 1980. The average number of events over the past 10 years was 785. Read More