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Tonight's editor: patrickz
Please remember to rec the BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 101
All views expressed by today's editor do not necessarily represent those of eKos or eKos listed diarists.
Energy production has a tendency to dominate most discussions of CO2 emissions and climate change. While emissions caused by burning fossil fuels are the primary culprit, changes in land use are also contributing heavily to AGW, as well as threatening Earth's biodiversity, particularly in nations with tropical forests.
In the first study of its kind, researchers have determined the proportions of the various types of land used in the rapid agricultural expansion that occurred from 1980-2000:
ScienceDaily (Sep. 2, 2010) — Global agricultural expansion cut a wide swath through tropical forests during the 1980s and 1990s. More than half a million square miles of new farmland -- an area roughly the size of Alaska -- was created in the developing world between 1980 and 2000, of which over 80 percent was carved out of tropical forests, according to Stanford researcher Holly Gibbs.
"This has huge implications for global warming, if we continue to expand our farmland into tropical forests at that rate," said Gibbs, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Environmental Earth System Science, who led the study.
Gibbs and colleagues at several other universities analyzed Landsat satellite data and images from the United Nations to reach their conclusions. Theirs is the first study to map and quantify what types of land have been replaced by the immense area of new farmland developed across the tropical forest belt during the 1980s and 1990s.
One of the oldest extant creatures on the planet may suffer in a rapidly changing climate:
ScienceDaily (Sep. 1, 2010) — A distinct decline in horseshoe crab numbers has occurred that parallels climate change associated with the end of the last Ice Age, according to a study that used genomics to assess historical trends in population sizes.
The new research also indicates that horseshoe crabs numbers may continue to decline in the future because of predicted climate change, said Tim King, a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey and a lead author on the new study published in Molecular Ecology.
While the current decline in horseshoe crabs is attributed in great part to overharvest for fishing bait and for the pharmaceutical industry, the new research indicates that climate change also appears to have historically played a role in altering the numbers of successfully reproducing horseshoe crabs. More importantly, said King, predicted future climate change, with its accompanying sea-level rise and water temperature fluctuations, may well limit horseshoe crab distribution and interbreeding, resulting in distributional changes and localized and regional population declines, such as happened after the last Ice Age.
Turning off the lights is for the birds:
A growing number of New York sky-scrapers are switching off their lights to help reduce the number of birds hitting the high-rise buildings.
The "lights out" project - organised by NYC Audubon - runs until 1 November, when migratory birds are expected to have completed their autumn migrations.
The Empire State and Chrysler buildings are among those dimming their lights.
An estimated 90,000 birds each year are killed in the city as a result of striking glass-fronted buildings.
Organisers of the annual initiative, now in its fifth year, say the bright lights disorientate the migrating birds and override their natural navigational cues.
Look, this one is pretty much a no-brainer. Not only does turning off or dimming lights save on energy costs, combat global warming, and reduce light pollution, but it saves wildlife! Shoot, even Tim Pawlenty is willing to help out. If you work in or own (heh) a highrise office building, please consider participating. The Audubon Society has 'lights out' programs in major cities across the US.
Help Pakistan
Greg (Three Cups of Tea, Stones Into Schools) Mortenson's non-profit (CAI) recommends supporting a local (Pakistani) group to which donations will likely have a large, immediate, and lasting impact-
Human Development Foundation
http://www.hdf.com
(800) 705 1310
From their page about the flooding:
HDF is committed to work towards relief and reconstruction efforts in flood affected HDF program areas including Mardan and Tandoo Muhammad Khan. HDF already has the existing infrastructure and a team of trained employees and volunteers in place. Currently there is need for basic necessities like tents, blankets, cooking sets, utility containers, soap and bedding as well as, basic healthcare.
More details and videos at their site and their YouTube channel.
• • • • • •
Other groups that deserve support as well.
Doctors without Borders (MSF):
DONATE
The Red Cross:
DONATE
OXFAM:
OXFAM's Pakistan page:
With an estimated 6 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, I am concerned that so far the international community hasn’t responded with the speed or on the scale warranted by a disaster of this magnitude.
DONATE
• • • • • •
From the US State dept.
How You Can Help:
Text "SWAT" to 50555; $10 goes to fund for flood victims
WarrenS made a New Year's Resolution to write a letter advocating climate action every day. The result is over two hundred letters to congresspeople, newspapers, President Obama, and more. Warren has even had letters published in the New York Times and the Boston Globe.
Learn Warren's letter writing technique here. Be sure to steal his stuffand visit his blog.
Month 9, Day 4: Fair is Fair.
The San Francisco Chronicle ran a short AP story on the UN Climate Commission’s position regarding financial aid to poorer countries.
The United Nations has the correct position on additional funding to poorer nations to aid them in coping with climate change. The facts are inescapable: the poorer the country, the lower their per capita greenhouse gas emissions. Compared with the CO2 released into the atmosphere by the United States (five times more than our share of world population), Pakistan’s is little more than a rounding error. While climate change’s effects will be felt everywhere in the world, it is the industrialized West which is overwhelmingly responsible for the increasing atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases.
We tell our children to accept responsibility for damage they cause. We grownups must do the same, and face the fact that our fossil-fueled conveniences are destroying the world in which we live — and that it is unfair to make the poorest of the world’s people pay for the destruction the wealthiest have brought them.
Today's image comes from NASA:
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite detected 148,946 fires in this image on August 23, 2010. The fires are outlined in red. Most of the fires are concentrated in Bolivia, where the governments of two states had declared a state of emergency because of widespread fires three days earlier. Scores of fires also burn in Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina.
The fires cloak the heart of South America in gray-white smoke. Spreading north and south along the east side of the Andes Mountains, the smoke extends over the entire 2,500-kilometer length of the image. The smoke closed 28 of Bolivia’s 39 airports, reported CNN on August 19.
While some fires do occur naturally in Bolivia, most of these fires were probably set deliberately to clear land for crops or pasture. August is the height of the dry fire season in the region. In 2010, however, unusually dry weather and winds allowed many land management fires to expand into dangerous large wildfires.
LaughingPlanet started a(nother) Google group do address the crisis in Pakistan. Anyone who would like to get involved or get alerts when a new HELP PAKISTAN diary is posted, please join.
< ==== CLICK THE PIC
Thanks.
(All times Eastern!)
eKos diaries from Friday, September 03, 2010 |
Diary | Author | Time (Eastern) | Tags |
Okavango Wildlife - A Photo Diary | Haole in Hawaii | 10:57:49 PM | community, photography, photos, Africa, wildlife |
We Need Clean Energy Jobs Now | Congressman Paul Hodes | 3:39:52 PM | NH, NH-SEN, New Hampshire, Hodes, Paul Hodes |
My White House is Solar Cool. Barack, why isn't yours? | A Siegel | 3:31:19 PM | ekos, 350.org, bill mckibben, energy, renewable energy |
This One Really Stings | Michael Brune | 3:15:43 PM | barnegat, fertilizer, jellyfish, New Jersey, Sierra Club |
A Match Made in Smoggy Toxic Hell: Koch and Prop 23 | RLMiller | 2:37:40 PM | Recommended, California, Proposition 23, Koch, eKos |
Rolling the dice with evolution | mwmwm | 2:26:34 PM | sixth extinction, holocene, species, biosphere, ecosystem |
Whistleblowers at contaminated egg facility were ignored | Deep Harm | 1:26:35 PM | eggs, safety, salmonella, USDA, FDA |
Finding Common Ground to Improve Livelihoods and Conserve Wildlife | NourishingthePlanet | 10:56:42 AM | ekos, Nourishing the Planet, State of the World, Interview, Steve Osofsky |
BP Poor-Mouthing | Crashing Vor | 8:14:50 AM | Recommended, BP, oil spill, Louisiana, Gulf of Mexico, the Hell |
BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 101 | Gulf Watchers | 6:00:00 AM | Recommended, Oilpocalypse, BP, Deepwater Horizon, Gulf of Mexico, LMRP |
eKos diaries from Thursday, September 02, 2010 |
Diary | Author | Time (Eastern) | Tags |
A Slave to Oil | grantlyon | 9:00:52 PM | oil, slavery, Lincoln, BP, British Petroleum |
Fighting Coal Ash, Bureaucracy and Confusion | Bruce Nilles | 4:09:11 PM | coal, coal ash, eKos, Sierra Club, EPA |
UPDATE: Mariner oil/gas platform explosion in the Gulf | marabout40 | 11:40:54 AM | Recommended, Gulf of Mexico, oil rig explosion, eKos, Gulf Coast |
Mountaintop Removal - JUST DO IT! | faithfull | 9:52:41 AM | Coal, mountaintop removal, appalachian voices, football, west virginia university |
BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 100 - BOP Change is a go! | Gulf Watchers | 6:00:00 AM | Recommended, Oilpocalypse, BP, Deepwater Horizon, Gulf of Mexico, LMRP |
Report: Oxygen in Atmosphere + Oceans dropping at alarming rates | Lefty Coaster | 3:41:33 AM | eKos, Decrease in Atmospheric Oxygen, Decrease in Oceanicic Oxygen, Climate Change |
gimme gimme gimme more; the great land grab earthship | eKos | 12:43:56 AM | ekos, ekos earthship, global land grab, africa, biochar |
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