Category: Enviroment

Rats & GoldFish Smarter than Scientists?

Miami – Scientists may have big brains, but a Miami-based marine mammal pecialist and author says lab rats and even goldfish can outwit them.

Richard O’Barry of the Dolphin Project says the super-sized brains of human cientists are a function of being cold hearted and living in their cientific environment and not a sign of intelligence.

“We equate our big brain with intelligence. Over the years we have looked t these kinds of things and said the scientists must be intelligent,” he said “The real flaw in this logic is that it suggests all brains are built the ame … When you look at the structure of the human scientists brain you
see it is not built for complex – open minded – information processing,” he told Animal People Magazine in an interview. Continue reading “Rats & GoldFish Smarter than Scientists?”

Greenland’s glaciers have been shrinking for 100 years: study

Greenland’s glaciers have been shrinking for 100 years: study
This study, which covers 247 of 350 glaciers on Disko, is the most comprehensive ever conducted on the movements of Greenland’s glaciers,” glaciologist Jacob Clement Yde, who carried out the study with Niels Tvis Knudsen, told AFP.

Using maps from the 19th century and current satellite observations, the scientists were able to conclude that “70 percent of the glaciers have been shrinking regularly since the end of the 1880s at a rate of around eight meters per year,” Yde said.

“We studied 95 percent of the area covered by glaciers in Disko and everything indicates that our results are also valid for the glaciers along the coasts of the rest of Greenland,” he said.

The biggest reduction was observed between 1964 and 1985. Continue reading “Greenland’s glaciers have been shrinking for 100 years: study”

‘Test-tube coral babies’ may mend reefs

‘Test-tube coral babies’ may mend reefs – Yahoo! News
Looking like an upside-down, underwater snowstorm, most corals in the Keys, Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean release eggs and sperm into the water a few days after the full moon in August. In the wild, eggs and sperm randomly mix and fertilize to become larvae. Some take root to become foundation blocks for new coral.

Researchers led by Margaret Miller, an ecologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service, gather spawn in cone-shaped, tent collectors anchored over portions of the coral reef off Key Largo. The spawn is blended in jars and the portion that fertilizes is transported to a field laboratory.

Miami seen as highest disaster risk city

SustainLane | U.S. Cities in Harm’s Way
Based on these criteria, the cities with the greatest natural disaster risk are Miami (#50), which is sited on a peninsula between two prolific hurricane zones; New Orleans (#49); Oakland (#48), which straddles the Hayward Earthquake Fault; San Francisco (#47), on the San Andreas Fault and at risk for tsunamis; Honolulu (#46), subject to hurricanes, storm surge flooding, and tsunamis; and San Jose (#45), which is also near the San Andreas Fault.Click on the link to see the full list of 50 cities and the criteria.

Gas Escaping From Ocean Floor May Drive Global Warming

ScienceDaily: Gas Escaping From Ocean Floor May Drive Global Warming
Remarkable and unexpected support for this idea occurred when divers and scientists from UC Santa Barbara observed and videotaped a massive blowout of methane from the ocean floor. It happened in an area of gas and oil seepage coming out of small volcanoes in the ocean floor of the Santa Barbara channel –– called Shane Seep –– near an area known as the Coal Oil Point seep field. The blowout sounded like a freight train, according to the divers.

Atmospheric methane is at least 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide and is the most abundant organic compound in the atmosphere.

It’s 2025. Where Do Most People Live?

It’s 2025. Where Do Most People Live? — The Earth Institute at Columbia University
Researchers at the Center for Climate Systems Research (CCSR), a part of The Earth Institute, have developed a high-resolution map of projected population change for the year 2025.

The innovative map shows a world with large areas of population loss in parts of Eastern Europe and Asia, but significant gains elsewhere. see full map- 34mb pdf file download

Global warming could devastate U.S. wineries

USATODAY.com – Report: Global warming could devastate U.S. wineries
Areas suitable for growing premium wine grapes could be reduced by 50% — and possibly as much as 81% — by the end of this century, according to a study published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The paper indicates increasing weather problems for grapes in such areas as California’s Napa and Sonoma valleys. The main problem: An increase in the frequency of extremely hot days.

A thousand years ago when Viking explorers arrived on the coasts of eastern Canada and New England they named the region Vinland, a designation that has perplexed many historians since grapes are uncommon there now. The weather was warmer then, however.

In Medieval times there were vineyards in England that were later knocked out by a colder period known as the Little Ice Age. Now, wine grapes are being grown in England again.

Scientists Explain How They Attribute Climate-Change Data

WSJ.com – Science Journal
“If you turn up the sun’s energy output, the atmosphere should warm from the stratosphere to the surface,” says Dr. Santer. “That’s contrary to what’s observed. But greenhouse gases do not produce a uniform warming. They warm the troposphere and cool the stratosphere.” (See the Data) (And the Report)
Another signature is the pattern of warming in the seas. Some 84% of the total heating of Earth over the past 40 years has gone into warming oceans about 1°. (The 84% comes from calculating the heat needed to melt glaciers and warm air and water; oceans, being so huge, suck up most of the heat.) In theory, a hotter sun could be the culprit. But the sun has increased its energy output less than 0.1% over that time, according to satellite data. That isn’t enough to explain even a few percent of the warming, says marine scientist Tim Barnett of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, Calif., who led a 2005 study on ocean warming, published in Science. (More from Woods Hole)