Pacific Spirit Marine Institute
Friday, June 27, 2008
The oceans are currently uptaking 22 million tons of CO 2 daily which is making a significant and exponential change in the ocean’s chemistry.
In 2004, it was projected that the pH balance of the oceans would be lower in the middle of this century than they had been for more than 20 MILLION years.
There was a spike in methane release last year from the thawing Arctic permafrost too. Scientists are concerned that as the Arctic continues to warm and the permafrost thaws a cycle of carbon release and temperature rise will add to the reverberating feedback cycle…In April Ed Dlugokencky from NOAA’s Earth System Research Lab said, “It’s too soon to tell whether last year’s spike in emissions includes the start of such a trend.”
__________________________________________________
That was just 2 short months ago. Now the grim news is that for the first time in human history the ice at the North Pole will disappear entirely if it continues its current rate it will be gone by summer’s end. Science is placing the odds at 50:50. About 70% of the sea ice this spring was new ice formed over last winter. New ice melts faster than the old ice.
Inuit natives, near Baffin Bay, are reporting the sea ice is breaking up much earlier than normal this year. They have also seen wide cracks appearing where the ice normally remains stable.
The rate of Arctic land warming is 3.5 times greater than the average 21st century
warming rates predicted in climate models; more feedback cycles. So much so that
Science News is reporting over the past century the leading edges of conifer forests
have crawled from 20-60 meters of the mountains and have begun to overrun the tundra.
There are now conifers growing where no living tree has grown in the last 1,000 years. The greening of the Arctic is something we don’t want. The albedo, or the extent of which light from the sun can be reflected will be decreased more and more as the ‘green’ of the plant material continues to advance toward the Arctic.
The cycle continues to compound as the tundra thaws and releases methane. Scientists think between 1/3 and 1/2 the CO 2 that has been produced by humans since
the industrial revolution is now in the ocean. Water that is upwelling today is water that was exposed to 1958 CO 2 concentrations. 50 years from now the water being upwelled will be that exposed to the methane and carbon dioxide levels of today…
So, the last thing the Bush Administration wants getting out is a 250 page report by the EPA giving detailed alternative approaches of how to regulate greenhouse gases!
________________________________________________
Did you ever hit that nasty ’send’ button on an email, and wish you could bring it back?
You aren’t alone. It generally happens to me after I’ve had a little too much wine. I’m not suggesting that’s the problem at the White House, but if the cork fits…
The White House demanded that an email the EPA had ’sent’ be ‘recalled’. If, however, the pesky ’send’ button has already been hit, then the White House has its own simple and fairly elegant solution to news it just doesn’t want to see. Just don’t open the email.
That won’t work either.
The EPA apparently had 250 pages of ‘detailed alternative approaches’ to regulate greenhouse gases from fuels, cars and some industry. But, no; the White House doesn’t want anything to do with solving problems. It appears, as is widely speculated, this administration is all about creating problems. Speculated is a generous term in this case. The time for speculation, in regard to the intentions of this administration, has long past.
The Supreme Court had already tried to set the White House straight when it ruled carbon dioxide is an air pollutant, and the Clean Air Act gave the EPA the power to start mandating that new vehicles to reduce their pollutants.
If we do have the technology and the money to regulate greenhouse gases it seems apparent those in power don’t want us to know about them.
Photo Thanks: NOAA
Labels: Acid Ocean, Arctic, Arctic Ice, Baffin, CO2, EPA, Methane, NOAA, North Pole, Ocean, Speak no Evil, Tundra, carbon dioxide, cover-up
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Learn To Take Your Drinks ‘neat’; We’re running out of ice, among other things.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
In Toronto on January 3, global portfolio strategist Donald Coxe, dished out some grim “signs” of a coming global food catastrophe. To what does Coxe attribute this looming disaster? Corn of course.
The kernel at the heart of Coxe’s theory is, more to the point, biofuels. Coxe warned the Empire Club; biofuels are expected to eat up about a third of America’s 2007 grain harvest.
Coxe’s is quoted as saying, “Those who have food are going to have a big edge.” This is hardly an intuitive grasp of reality. Anyone who has ever been hungry at mealtime knows food is good and no food is bad.
Coxe suggests reasons for the coming cataclysmic food shortage will be a growing demand for more meat and dairy products by India and China as well as a growing demand from the biofuels industry. Dharmic Law and Karmic Consequences aside in India the very name of cow is Aghnya (‘not to be killed”). Mahabharat Shantiparv 262.47 …Surely, one who kills a cow or a bull commits a heinous crime…
In my mind there would have to be a complete paradigm shift in India if their demand for meat is going to take a sharp rise anytime in the near future. A paradigm shift might take generations, that is unless a good marketing firm can sell the benefits of red meat, arterial disease and many types of cancers to millions of consumers.
The same marketing firms may have an easier time selling the benefits of red meat and dairy products to the Chinese, as long as they keep certain facts out of their advertising. Men in China and Japan have up to 90 percent less prostate cancer than their meat eating, dairy downing American counterparts. Asian women also have up to 90 percent less breast cancer than American women.
Clearly improving the health of the planet isn’t what Mr. Coxe is promoting. There are more holes in his theory than a slice of Swiss cheese.
More cattle equals more methane gas which is responsible for nearly as much as all other CO2 greenhouse gases put together. Methane is a greenhouse gas nearly 21 times more powerful than CO2. The number one source of methane worldwide is animal agriculture.
Coxe contends the way to combat the crisis he sees coming is by using more fertilizer, genetically modified seeds and producing less biofuels.
So where is the smart money?
Petroleum stocks to insure more greenhouse gas emissions. Pharmaceutical stocks to treat even more diseases caused by increased meat and dairy consumption. Biotech stocks, not for cleaner fuels, but livestock feed. Chemical industry stocks to further pollute our waters with fertilizers…
The signs in the cornfields are easier to understand.
Image Thanks: Google Earth
Labels: CO2, Global Warming, Methane, biofuels
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Could M. Knight Shyamalan read the "Signs" BMO’s Donald Coxe is Laying Down in the Corn Field?
Friday, November 2, 2007
The British are no strangers to food rationing. In fact they are well known for their ability to hunker down and do what it takes to contribute to the war effort. The British refused to be starved into submission during WWII, and it looks like they aren’t going to let a little thing like climate change loosen their stiff upper lips.
Brittan’s Environment minister has called on the public to stop their wasteful ways and cut back on the amount of food they are tossing in the dust bins.
The minister is warning that food scraps are an even larger problem than food packaging when it comes to stressing the environment. She says, “We cannot fail to do what is necessary”.
Waste & Resources Action Programme has come up with a slogan for the British: “Love Food, Hate Waste”.
Enlisting the help of the famous Hell’s Kitchen chef Marco Pierre White, the full court press is on to remind the Brits “There’s a use for everything.” People are over shopping and throwing away as much as 1 bag full out of 3 that come home from the market. Over shopping and proper food refrigeration seems to be 2 major issues.
Several popular TV chefs, cricket stars, and actors are busy creating the new London Blitz: Plan your shopping, use your food before it goes bad and learn to make more meals from leftovers.
Waste & Resources Action Programme says half the people under 24 years old have very poor cooking skills and is providing recipes for “Luxury from leftovers”.
The Minister for Climate change also said, “At this rate we will not have a place to live which is habitable if we don’t address climate change globally and the UK has to make its contribution.”
Leave it to the thrifty Britons to roll up their sleeves and pitch right in helping to fight the war on global climate change. The Minister, Joan Ruddock says research has shown that 1/3 of the food purchased is thrown away to rot in land fills and emit methane gas which is fueling global warming.
Ruddock is calling for a ‘cultural’ movement against these wasteful and expensive practices.
In the U.S. there are a spattering of ads reminding people to stop buying every thing they lay eyes upon. Feed the pig is the motto making reference to the piggy banks we used to have when we were little tykes. These ads are sponsored by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and have less to do with protecting the climate than protecting America’s economy.
Americans are being reminded to do everything necessary to prop up the economy, while the British are being reminded to help save the planet….
Your homework: Compare and contrast and eat that left over chicken from last night!
Labels: British, Climate Change, Global Warming, Hell's Kitchen UK, Methane, Nuclear waste, Waste Resources, landfill
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
British Rationing Food: The War On Global Warming Underway?
