A Frightening Account of the Effects of Global Warming

The term global warming is used to describe an increase the average temperature of the earth’s atmosphere. Global warming has been an important issue for some time now, but only became truly serious as of a few years ago. Due to pollution, greenhouse gases and various other causes, global warming is now a major concern as scientists are saying that due to the dramatic climate change we could basically be expecting an end of days. It is important to be aware of the effects of global warming and how the effects of global warming are causing problems. The effects of global warming are no joke.

We all are hearing about global warming now more than ever before and this is no surprise. We see it in movies and hear about it on the news all the time. That just goes to show how major an issue this is and how seriously we should all be taking it. Often you even see celebrities on television who are talking about global warming and who are trying to use their celebrity to influence people and let them know how serious this is.

The effects of global warming are astounding, and it is important for all people to be aware of the effects of global warming and how they impact not only themselves but the rest of the world as well. The effects of this natural disaster are truly alarming and for people who are not sure what global warming is all about, it is important that they make themselves aware.

What are the Most Noticeable Effects?

Of all the most noticeable and major effects of global warming, one is the spread of disease. No one likes to think about getting a disease and getting sick, but the fact of the matter is that the way things are going now, as northern countries get warmer, disease carrying insects migrate north. As they do, they are bringing plague and disease with them and so especially if you are someone that lives in the north you are going to need to be aware of this and be prepared.

This is something that no one expected remember, and so scientists are not yet up to date in terms of vaccines and other medicines that are going to necessarily be able to protect people from this sort of disease.

Of course one of the most talked about effects of global warming has to do with the ice caps melting. If you see movies like The Day After Tomorrow which basically revolves around the topic of global warming, you will see that this is one of the major parts of the plot. The reason that this is such a substantial effect of global warming is because if the polar ice caps were to melt, the entire earth would basically be gone. First it would raise sea levels and then it would throw the entire global ecosystem out of balance.

As a result, the ocean will be made less salty and fish and other sea creatures are going to suffer because their living conditions are going to be changed dramatically. It will also endanger certain species of animals, and not only that but global warming could snowball even further if the ice caps were to melt. These are just a few of the most dramatic effects of global warming that you should be aware of.

Remember, there are so many different things that we can all do in order to stop pollution and hopefully global warming as well. When you go to the supermarket to get groceries instead of using plastic bags which are not recyclable you can take a backpack or some cloth bags and you can use these instead. There are also hybrid cars that you can drive and which help by not polluting. These are great ideas on what you can do to help fight against global warming.

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Stanford Study : Heat Waves Could Be Common By 2039 In U.S.

Devastating heat waves that result in fatalities and crop losses may increasingly become a common occurrence in the United States over the next three decades, according to a team of Stanford University researchers.

"Using a large suite of climate model experiments, we see a clear emergence of much more intense, hot conditions in the U.S. within the next three decades,: Noah Diffenbaugh, the lead author of the study, told the Stanford report.

"In the next 30 years, we could see an increase in heat waves like the one now occurring in the eastern United States or the kind that swept across Europe in 2003 that caused tens of thousands of fatalities," said Diffenbaugh, a center fellow at Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment. "Those kinds of severe heat events also put enormous stress on major crops like corn, soybean, cotton and wine grapes, causing a significant reduction in yields."

The group studied the hottest U.S. temperatures from 1950-1999, then fed them through multiple forecasting models that can simulate daily temperatures in the U.S. The forecasting models were based on the likely occurrence that carbon dioxide could raise temperatures 1.8 degrees Celsius.

Even if countries around the world meet the climate change goals put forward at the Copenhagen Climate Accord, and stop the world from warming by 2 degrees Celsius, smaller temperature increases could still contribute towards extreme weather.

To Diffenbaugh, the findings mean that to avoid severe heat waves, governments must look at the possibility that even a two degree increase is too much. "It's up to the policymakers to decide the most appropriate action," Diffenbaugh told The Stanford Report. "But our results suggest that limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius does not guarantee that there won't be damaging impacts from climate change."

In the past few days, a record heat wave in Russia has killed five people and prompted the government to call for siestas. During the month of June, high temperatures in the U.S. killed five seniors in Maryland, four people in Philadelphia, four people in Dallas, and three people in Tennessee.

On Sunday, train passengers in Germany had to vacate three trains after air conditioning broke down and temperatures reached 122 degrees Farenheit. Some were hospitalized.

Also this week, NASA data shows that global temperatures recorded from January through June 2010 were the highest ever.

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The Cute, Furry Foes of Global Warming : Sea Otters

The fact that these creatures are so darn cute is the only excuse some might require to help the conservation efforts on behalf of the endangered sea otter. But according to recent calculations by one University of California researcher, this beloved, iconic Pacific coast critter — the largest of the weasels, while among the smallest of marine mammals — offers another terrific reason for us to do what we can to support and boost their populations. It seems as though the sea otter packs a mighty ecological punch in the battle against climate change.

Peter Aldhous, writing in New Scientist, reports that where sea otters live in appreciable numbers and can keep the sea urchins in check, kelp forests will thrive as a result. Conversely, once-thriving kelp forests that lose their otter populations will soon wither as the urchins take over. University of California Santa Cruz professor of environmental studies Chris Wilmers has determined that the carbon dioxide sequestered in the biomass of a thriving kelp forest as a direct result of the otter's keeping the kelp's predators in check is potentially substantial. Wilmers estimates that if the otters were to return to their level of population before a century of fur trading nearly wiped them out, they could contribute to the sequestration of 10¹⁰ kilograms of carbon dioxide.

Stated otherwise, as New Scientist points out, this represents an ecological service currently valued at $700 million per the current European Union carbon trading market conditions.

Sea otters, who are native to the Pacific Ocean, are thought to have once numbered between 200,000 and 300,000 before the onset of a mid-18th century fur trade that would dwindle their numbers to no more than 2,000. Conservation has brought them back from the brink, although their numbers recently have leveled off or even declined in some locations.

Wilmers' calculations, which formed a recent presentation at the Society for Conservation Biology's annual meeting last week in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, clearly illustrate the value and importance of balanced predator-prey relationships that characterize a dynamic and healthy ecosystem.

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A trial by Anesthesiologists to lower their carbon footprint

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - People facing surgery probably aren't thinking about the procedure's global warming impact - but some of their doctors are.

The choices that anesthesiologists make at a midsize hospital can have the carbon footprint of a small fleet of automobiles, according to a physician who calculated the effects of different options.

"Changes people could make in their practice right away" could improve the health of the community and the planet, said Susan M. Ryan, a clinical professor of anesthesiology at the University of California, San Francisco.

Ryan co-authored an article on environmentally friendlier anesthesia in this month's edition of Anesthesia & Analgesia, a scholarly journal.

She and other doctors cautioned that patient safety always should come first. Once that's said, though, "most physicians are ... very concerned about the environment," said Dr. Joseph Antognini, a professor of anesthesiology at the University of California, Davis School of Medicine.

At UC Davis Medical Center, most doctors already use sevoflurane, the inhaled anesthesia that Ryan calculated has the smallest carbon footprint, Antognini said.

That wasn't an environmental choice, though. He and his colleagues often prefer it because it tends to irritate the airways less than desflurane, another commonly used anesthesia that Ryan found has the biggest footprint.

Each case is different, Antognini stressed. Heavier people may do better with one anesthetic, and children with another.

"Hardly anyone I can imagine is going to make a choice of one anesthetic over another based on global warming," he said, although it's a good conversation for doctors to have.

Ryan analyzed three inhaled gases that are the most common choices in operating rooms in Europe and North America. After patients inhale them, those anesthetics as well as other gases used to dilute them are usually vented outside the hospital. Some are potent greenhouse gases that can contribute to global warming for decades.

If every doctor at a midsize hospital picked the gas with the least impact, the anesthesia emissions would equal the greenhouse gas impact of about 100 passenger cars each year, she calculated.

If every doctor picked the most environmentally damaging anesthetic, greenhouse emissions would be roughly 12 times higher, equivalent to a 1,200-car fleet, she wrote.

While those are small numbers compared with other sources of greenhouse gases, even small changes count, Ryan said.

(Contact Sacramento Bee reporter Carrie Peyton Dahlberg at cpeytondahlberg(at)sacbee.com.)

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Glacier Loses Ice Chunk Equal to One-Eighth of Manhattan

A glacier in Greenland lost 2.7 square mile piece of ice - roughly one-eighth the size of Manhattan Island - in a single day last week.

Greenland's Jakobshavn Isbrae glacier broke up on July 6 and 7, pushing the point where the ice sheet meets the ocean further inland than at any time previously observed, NASA-funded researchers said. As much as 10 percent of all ice lost from Greenland comes through Jakobshavn, which scientists also believe to be the single biggest contributor to sea level rise in the northern hemisphere.

This is part of a recent trend which scientists say started around the beginning of this decade. Between 1850 and 1964, the glacier's ice front had retreated at about 0.3 kilometers a year. It then stayed that way until 2001 when the decrease began to accelerate at about 3 km/yr.

Thomas Wagner, cryospheric program scientist at NASA noted that while there have been ice breakouts of this magnitude from Jakonbshavn and other glaciers before, he described this event as "unusual because it occurs on the heels of a warm winter that saw no sea ice form in the surrounding bay." "While the exact relationship between these events is being determined, it lends credence to the theory that warming of the oceans is responsible for the ice loss observed throughout Greenland and Antarctica," he said.

In February, NASA scientists reported that west Greenland's glaciers were melting 100 times faster at their end points beneath the ocean than at their surfaces. The likely explanation behind the undersea melting: warmer ocean waters.

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GW : Can global warming force a new Ice age to come ??

In the movie The Day After Tomorrow, there are many special effects including an ice event caused by global warming. Much of the science of the movie has been called into question. However, there may be some truth to the idea that global warming could cause an ice age.

The theory starts with an understanding of why Europe and Scandinavia are not colder already. After all, other places at the same latitude are covered with ice and permafrost. Alaska and Greenland are both as close to the North Pole as Europe. Yet, it is not global warming that keeps Europe warm.

The ocean currents called the Gulf Stream bring warm waters up to the UK and Europe from the Caribbean. These waters warm the countries around their path. This is what causes the UK, Europe, and Scandinavia to have such a nicer climate than, say, Alaska. Global warming has nothing to do with that.

An important factor about the Gulf Stream is that to keep the Great Conveyor Belt going, cool water must feed back into the loop and be brought back to the point in the Caribbean where the process began. This keeps the water moving.

Global warming is significant in that it could slow the Gulf Stream, or even stop it. If this were to happen, the cold waters would stay in the area of Europe, the UK, Scandinavia, and the Northeastern US. It could mean an ice age for those regions.

In every major cooling event, such as the last great Ice Age, the Gulf Stream has been significantly weakened. This can happen for different reasons. In current times, it can happen due to global warming brought on by human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels.

If the new Ice Age happens, it will likely be due to the melting of the polar ice. This will dump large quantities of cold, fresh water into the ocean. It would disrupt the Gulf Stream and cause the cooling of many areas that now have milder climates. Global warming will be the cause.

An ice age will probably not happen gradually, either. This is a phenomenon that takes place rather quickly. Perhaps it does not happen as fast as the ice event in The Day After Tomorrow. However, it could happen within a few short years with global warming being to blame.

The return flow of cold water from Greenland, which goes back to the Caribbean, has already showed a weakening in the last 50 years. There has been a 20% decline in the amount of current flowing in this direction. It only makes sense that the warm waters coming from the Caribbean have lessened too.

These currents are a part of the world-wide network of currents called the Global Thermohaline Circulation. This global warming could then cause a slowing or stoppage of the Gulf Stream affecting the entire earth.

The statistics are used to answer the question of whether an ice age could be caused by global warming. Observations have been made of current data and historical information gleaned by studying the ocean and the lands around it. With all the information at hand, it appears that it is indeed possible that global warming could lead to an Ice Age.

GW : Country’s first carbon dioxide exchange tower launched in Uttarakhand

Source URL : Hamara News

The Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS) on Sunday (1st Feb.), launched the country’s first carbon dioxide measurement exchange tower here.

The installation of the exchange would provide essential data regarding the eco-system exchange, thus providing information to draft policies on environment.

IIRS has installed the exchange tower in collaboration with an Italian University.

You can see a sample carbon dioxide exchange tower below in this pic:

M. L. Srivastav, an IIRS scientist, said that the tower would be helpful to measure the exchange of carbon dioxide between the vegetation pool and atmosphere.

"This is India’s first carbon dioxide measurement tower and there are around 600 such towers in the entire world, out of which around 400 are functioning properly," M.L. Srivastav said.

The tower is equipped with four types of sensors, which monitor the degree of carbon dioxide, solely responsible for global warming.

India took the first step towards developing a national plan to tackle the effects of global warming and assess its own greenhouse gas emissions, in July last year. (ANI)

GW : Faster Climate change expected - World news

A new report led by the U.S. Geological Survey revealed that there is a clear probability of a more rapid climate change by the end of the century, than what is suggested by previous studies.

The survey just worked towards the expansion of the 2007 findings of the United Nations Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change, and it was commissioned by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program and was issued this month. The new assessment, made from the factors such as rapid sea ice loss in the Arctic and prolonged drought in the Southwest, suggests that earlier projections may have underestimated the climatic shifts that could take place by 2100.

Some projections, already made previously in context of global warming, are on the other hand, also discarded by this new survey, viz. an abrupt release of methane from the seabed and permafrost or a shutdown of the Atlantic Ocean circulation system that brings warm water north and colder water south. These are not expected to occur till the end of this century. However, the projected amount of potential sea level rise during that period that may be greater than what other researchers have anticipated, as well as a shift to a more arid climate pattern in the Southwest by mid-century. 32 scientists contributed in this two year long duration survey.

According to the statement of Tom Armstrong, senior adviser for global change programs at USGS, the report "shows how quickly the information is advancing" on potential climate shifts. The prospect of abrupt climate change, he said, "is one of those things that keeps people up at night, because it's a low-probability but high-risk scenario. It's unlikely to happen in our lifetimes, but if it were to occur, it would be life-changing."

Report of the survey says that the pace of the melting of the ice sheet presently. will result in the increase of 4 ft. in the sea level by 2100, which was predicted to be 1.5 ft. only by that time by IPCC earlier. This is because since the last two years, the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets are now losing an average of 48 cubic miles of ice a year, equivalent to twice the amount of ice that exists in the Alps.


The models the IPCC used did not factor in some of the dynamics that scientists now understand about ice sheet melting, said the lead author on the report's chapter on ice sheets, Konrad Steffen, who also directs the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Apart from this, Steffen and his collaborators have identified a process of "lubrication," from which the warmer water of oceans gets in underneath coastal ice sheets and accelerates melting.

Looking at the issue of prolonged drought over the next 100 years, scientists said it is impossible to determine yet whether human activity is responsible for the drought the Southwestern United States has experienced over the past decade, but every indication suggests the region will become consistently drier in the next several decades. Some statements made by Richard Seager, a senior research scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, includes :

1) nearly all of the 24 computer models the group surveyed project the same climatic conditions for the North American Southwest, which includes Mexico.

2) If the models are correct, it will transition in the coming years and decades to a more arid climate, and that transition is already underway. Such conditions would probably include prolonged droughts lasting more than a decade.

3) scientists need to work on developing versions that can make projections on a much smaller scale. That's what the water managers out there really need. Current models don't give them the hard numbers they need.

GW : Air Pollution at alarming rates in NCR ( Noida and Ghaziabad ) - The Times of India

The air polluton touched dangerous levels in the National Capital Region (NCR) towns of Noida and Ghaziabad due to increase in vehicular traffic and industrial growth, officials said.

The levels of Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM), comprising of gases such as sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide, in the residential areas of Noida have shot up to 400 mg per cubic metre as against the permitted level of 200 mg per cubic metre.

The Residual Suspended Particulate Matter (RSPM) in the residential areas has shot up to 135 mg per cubic metre as against the normal level of 100 mg per cubic metre.

In the industrial areas, the RSPM levels have gone up by as much as 55 units to touch 555 mg per cubic metre.

"The air has got much filthier than it used to be till two years back. A major reason for this is that the number of vehicles has simply increased two-fold on the city's roads and the pollution enforcement has not become that effective," a senior official of Gautam Buddha Nagar Pollution Control Board (PCB) said.

The PCB recently issued notices to about 18 industrial units asking them to control their air discharge or face closure.

As per the latest data prepared by the PCB, the district has about 90 brick kilns running without compliance to pollution control norms, to which the department recently issued notices.

In Ghaziabad district, the SPM levels measured in industrial areas like Sahibabad and Meerut Road have been found to be as high as 580 mg per cubic metre, against the accepted levels of 500 units.

In residential areas of Ghaziabad, the RSPM levels were discovered to be 150 mg per cubic metre, 50 units above the normal level.

The Sahibabad industrial area has about 400 highly polluting units, comprising of 100 dyeing units, paper plants, meat processing plants and other hazardous chemical units.

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ND : About 1 billion of people around the world face chronic hunger

source : Nasir Khan Blog

The number of undernourished people in the world has increased from 923 million in 2007 to 963 million in 2008. This disturbing figure comes from a report on world hunger released on December 9 by the Rome-based UN Agency, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), entitled The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2008.

The report notes that the number of chronically hungry people rose by 75 million in 2007, while the 2008 figure shows an increase of 40 million. The recent increase in the number of hungry people has been exacerbated by high food prices, especially in developing countries.

In a news release on the FAO web site, FAO Assistant Director-General Hafez Ghanem underscored the difficulties being faced by people in the developing world:

“For millions of people in developing countries, eating the minimum amount of food every day to live an active and healthy life is a distant dream. The structural problems of hunger, like the lack of access to land, credit and employment, combined with high food prices remain a dire reality.”

The report is the ninth in a series that began in 1996 at the World Food Summit (WFS), which set up the goal of halving world hunger by 2015. While the WFS called for the number of hungry people to decline by 50 percent, the UN’s Millennium Development Goal (MGD) has set a target to cut in half the proportion of those suffering malnutrition.

Given the upsurge in food prices and other problems, it will continue to be difficult to achieve either goal by 2015. With the increase to 963 million hungry people, it would be necessary to reduce the number of hungry people by about 480 million. And, while the proportion of undernourished people (the MDG measurement) had been decreasing, from 20 percent in 1990-92 to 16 percent in 2003-05, it appears that this progress is being reversed, moving back up to about 17 percent.

The distribution of undernourished people in the world is largely concentrated in the developing world, although there were 16 million undernourished persons in developed countries in 2003-2005. Among the 832 million chronically hungry persons in 2003-2005, 65 percent were concentrated in India, China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Ethiopia.

In sub-Saharan Africa, while the proportion of people who are chronically hungry was reduced between the early 1990s and 2003-2005, one in three persons still remains undernourished. However, most of the numerical increase in the undernourished has come from the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has suffered from a persistent conflict resulting in an increase from 11 million to 43 million chronically hungry people.

While South America has been one of the most successful sub-regions in reducing hunger, this success has not been uniform throughout the Latin American and Caribbean region. In Haiti, for example, 58 percent of the population suffers from chronic hunger.

The US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq have had a direct, negative impact on levels of undernourishment in the Near East and North Africa regions, which have generally experienced some of the lowest levels of undernourishment. The number of chronically hungry undernourished persons in the region nearly doubled, from 15 million in 1990-92 to 28 million in 2003-2005. This number has increased by 4.9 million in Afghanistan, and by 4.1 million in Iraq.

While there has been some modest progress in Asia and the Pacific regions, “nearly two-thirds of the world’s hungry people still live in Asia,” according to the FAO report.

Since 1992, barely a third of the developing countries have been able to reduce the number of those suffering from chronic hunger. The findings show that those hardest hit by increases in food prices were the poor, the landless, and female-headed households.

Low-income families are more likely to be “net food buyers,” or households that consume a higher value of food staples than the value they produce, who stand to lose from an increase in the price of food staples.

While landowners are in a good position to gain from food price increases, the report notes, “Across the board, high food prices hit landless households hardest.”

Female-headed households will also suffer proportionally more than male-headed households. This is due to female-headed households’ tendency to spend a higher proportion of income on food, heightening the impact of food price increases, and the gender-specific obstacles that women face, which may restrict their access to certain resources such as land and credit.

Facing higher food prices, households may try to cope by changing the quality, quantity, and diversity of foods eaten, or make cuts in other areas such as health care and education. The first strategy results in malnutrition and higher risks of deficiencies in essential micronutrients, especially among women and children.

The story of Drissa Kone, living in Côte d’Ivoire, illustrates some of the problems that arise as individuals attempt to save money on medicine. Suffering from a severe respiratory infection, he has turned to counterfeit medicines, which sell for a fraction of the price of legitimate medicines but are of questionable quality and may even further harm his health.

The FAO has analyzed the key determinants of countries’ vulnerability to high food prices: whether they are net importers of energy products and cereals, relative levels of poverty, and prevalence of undernourishment. The report discusses the diverse number of ways in which a food crisis can arise, resulting from both natural and man-made disasters.

Natural disasters can be classified by whether they are “slow onset” or “sudden onset.” While slow onset disasters, such as droughts, have constituted the majority of natural disasters, sudden onset disasters, such as hurricanes or earthquakes, increased from 14 percent of all natural disasters in the 1980s to 27 percent in 2000.

According to the FAO, man-made disasters include both war or conflict and socio-economic shocks that may be internal or external. War has been the primary cause of man-made disasters, although disasters arising from socio-economic shocks have risen from 2 percent in the 1980s to 27 percent in 2000.

As the WSWS wrote in a three-part series, “The world food crisis and the capitalist market,” the sources of the current food crisis “lie in economic and political processes of privatization and price speculation that have unfolded over the past three decades and are bound up with the globalization of capitalist agriculture.”

The world is presently reeling from a gigantic “socio-economic shock,” in the form of a developing global financial crisis, which will inevitably exacerbate the world hunger crisis, as millions of people find themselves jobless, homeless, and are thrust deeper into poverty.

That nearly 1 billion people are suffering from hunger is yet another testament to the irrational allocation of resources under capitalism. As the foreword to the report notes: “Hunger has increased as the world has grown richer and produced more food than ever in the last decade.”

While the capitalist mode of production has revolutionized the productive forces, developing the capacity to feed every person on earth and eliminate hunger, the social relations of production have become a fetter upon the realization of this goal. The FAO’s The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2008 documents the devastating impact of the growth of social inequality—in the form of chronic hunger—on large numbers of the world’s population.

GW : First Major Energy Study Shows That Wind Is The Cleanest Source

[N]obody conducted an elaborated study to find out the best ways to fight against global warming, reduce pollution, and which are best renewable energies, therefore Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford, decided to do something about this and he conducted the first major and scientific energy-related study.

He says that the best ways to accomplish our green goals are “blowing in the wind and rippling in the water, not growing on prairies or glowing inside nuclear power plants.” Also, he added that the so-called clean coal is “not clean at all.”

Here is Jacobson’s list of clean energies from best to worst:

1. Wind Power

2. Concentrated Solar Power (CSP)

3. Geothermal Power

4. Tidal Power

5. Solar Photovoltaics

6. Wave Power

7. Hydroelectric Power

The professor says that we should forget and go against nuclear, clean coal, corn ethanol, and cellulosic ethanol. According to Jacobson’s findings, cellulosic ethanol is worse than corn ethanol as it releases more air pollutants, it requires more land for crops, and it damages the wildlife.

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GW-ND : brown clouds over Asia promoting global warming and a threat to the world

The top story on 14th of Nov about global warming :

The United Nations said Thursday, that a brown haze of soot, particles and chemicals is hanging over parts of Asia and is darkening the cities there. It is melting himalayan glaciers and is also making weather conditions more extreme.

These Hazes, officially known as atmospheric brown clouds, according to the scientists in this field, stretches from the Arabian Peninsula to China and the Western Pacific Ocean. Usually, these brown clouds, are three kilometres thick according to theresearchers.

These brown clouds are aggravating impact of climate change caused by greenhouse gases in some regions. This is according to the scientists from China, India, Europe and the U.S., this report was commissioned by the UN Environment Program.

Considering the brown hazes as a "serious and significant" environmental challenge being faced by the planet, which is also posing a threat to the human health and food production, the scientists said they are issuing a warning for it.

Achim Steiner, who is UN undersecretary general and executive director of the program, while addressing a news conference on the findings, said

1) "Imagine for a moment a three-kilometer-thick band of soot, particles, a cocktail of chemicals that stretches from the Arabic Peninsula to Asia."
2) "All of this points to an even greater and urgent need to look at emissions across the planet, because this is where the stories are linked in terms of greenhouse emissions and particle emissions and the impact that they're having on our global climate."

The brown clouds will be "dimming" the sunlight by as much as 25% in some places, with its impact on 13 major cities in Asia like Beijing, Shanghai, Bangkok, Cairo, Mumbai, New Delhi and Tehran.

These Black clouds, are mainly produced by the burning of fossil fuels, wood and plants, particles like black carbon, soot particles. These clouds gradually absorb the sunlight, and warm the air, consequently enhancing the greenhouse effect and the global warming.


The mask on warming due to brown clouds and melting of glaciers :

Most surprisingly, scientists have also predicted that these brown clouds will be able to "mask" the impact of global warming and its effect on climate change by an average of 40% because they contain particles that reflect sunlight and cool the earth's surface.

The studies reflects that the phenomenan has been closely observed only in Asia, but brown clouds have also been seen over parts of North America, Europe, southern Africa and the Amazon Basin.

Scientists have also predicted the negative impact of these clouds, which will mostly click the areas like, the degradation of air quality and agricultural production in Asia, with risks to human health increasing. Health problems associated with the brown clouds include cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.

The scientific panel that is carrying out the research, has its head namely Veerabhadran Ramanathan, who is also a professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California in San Diego. He said that huge cloud masses is likely to cross continents in the span of three to four days. Also he added considering this issue, not a regional, but global one.
Ramanathan also said "The main message is that it's a global problem. This is not a problem where we point fingers at our neighbours. Everyone is in someone else's backyard."

Most seriously, the problem faced will be the melting of the Hindu Kush-Himalaya-Tibetan glaciers, which provide the head-waters for the major river systems viz. Ganges, Brahmaputra, Mekong and Yangtze rivers.

For example, the ganges basin has given shelter to more than 400 million people in India and also holds nearly 40% of indian irrigated croplands.

Ramanathan also said that the melting has "serious implications for the water and food security of Asia."

According to the studies performed in Chinese Academy of Sciences, since the 1950s, the glaciers have shrunk to nearly five per cent. Also, over the past quarter century, the volume of China's nearly 47,000 glaciers has fallen by 3,000 square kilometres.

The extreme conditions, that have developed due to these clouds, have helped reduce production of crops such as rice, wheat and soybean. They have also helped to decrease the monsoon season in India.

Ramanathan, while addressing, also couldn't deny his hope about the international response to the problems of greenhouse gases and brown clouds. He also hopes that the report "triggers" "unsustainable development" that underlies them both. He also added "The new research, by identifying some of the causal factors, offers hope for taking actions to slow down this disturbing phenomenon."

ND : Will the World End in 2012 !! -- Some related facts

According to the several predictions from the experts, it is highly predicted about the end of the world in 2012, whatever may be the reason, either it be change in climate due to global warming, or any war, or any human activity, or any mythological reason. Here we would try to elaborate some arguments "for" why this will be happening.

Some Reasons behind this prediction :

1st reason - Mayan Calender : Mayans Were the first to predict 2012 as the end of the world were. Mayans were a bloodthirsty race that were good at two things — building highly accurate astrological equipment out of stone and sacrificing virgins.
Thousands of years ago they managed to calculate the length of the lunar moon as 329.53020 days, only 34 seconds out. The Mayan calendar predicts that the earth will end on December 21, 2012. Given that they were pretty close to the mark with the lunar cycle, it’s likely they’ve got the end of the world right as well.

2nd reason - Sun storms : Solar experts from around the world who monitor the sun continuously, have made a startling discovery. Our sun is in a bit of strife. The energy output of the sun is, like most things in nature, cyclic and it’s supposed to be in the middle of a period of relative stability. However, recent solar storms have been bombarding the earth with lot of radiation energy. It’s been knocking out power grids and destroying satellites. This activity is predicted to get worse and calculations suggest it’ll reach its deadly peak sometime in 2012.

3rd reason - The atom smasher : the world’s largest particle accelerator is being developed by the European scientists. Basically, its a 27 km tunnel designed to smash atoms together to find out what makes the universe tick. However, the mega-gadget has caused serious concern, with some scientists suggesting that it’s properly even a bad idea to turn it on in the first place. They’re predicting all manner of deadly results, including mini black holes. So when this machine is fired up for its first serious experiment in 2012, the world could be crushed into a super-dense blob the size of a basketball.

4th reason - The bible predicts : If having scientists warning us about the end of the world isn’t bad enough, religious folks are getting in on the act as well. Interpretations of the Christian Bible reveal that the date for Armageddon, the final battle between good an evil, has been set for 2012. The I Ching, also known as the Chinese Book of Changes, says the same thing, as do various sections of the Hindu teachings.

5th reason - The Super Volcano : Yellowstone National Park in United States is famous for its thermal springs and old faithful geyser. The reason for this is simple — it’s sitting on top of the world’s biggest volcano and geological experts are beginning to get nervous sweats. The Yellowstone volcano has a pattern of erupting every 650,000 years or so, and we’re many years overdue for an explosion that will fill the atmosphere with ash, blocking the sun and plunging the earth into a frozen winter that could last up to 15,000 years. The pressure under the Yellowstone is building steadily, and geologists have set 2012 as a likely date for the big bang.
6th reason - The physicists : This one’s case of bog — simple maths mathematics. Physicists at Berkely University have been crunching the numbers. They’ve determined that the earth is well overdue for a major catastrophic event.Even worse, they’re claiming that their calculations prove that we’re all going to die, very soon. They are also saying that their prediction comes with a certainty of 99 per cent; and 2012 just happens to be the best guess as to when it occurs.

7th reason - The Magnetic field of earth : We all know the Earth is surrounded by a magnetic field that shields us from most of the sun’s radiation. What you might not know is that the magnetic poles we call North and South have a nasty habit of swapping places every 750,000 years or so — and right now we’re about 30,000 years overdue. Scientists have noted that the poles are drifting apart roughly 20-30 kms each year, much faster than ever before, which points to a pole-shift being right around the corner. While the pole shift is under way, the magnetic field is disrupted and will eventually disappear, sometimes for up to 100 years. The result is enough UV outdoors to crisp your skin in seconds, killing everything it touches.

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GW : global warming will free billion of tons of carbon from the peat bogs

Global warming could free billions of tonnes of carbon concentrated in the world’s peat bogs within the coming decades, according to a new analysis of the interplay between peat bogs, water tables and climate change.

Such a release of even a tiny percentage would vastly aggravate manmade emissions of carbon, scientists at Harvard University, Worcester State College and Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology have warned in a new study.

‘Our modelling suggests that higher temperatures could cause water tables to drop substantially, causing more peat to dry and decompose,’ said Paul R. Moorcroft, professor of organismic and evolutionary biology in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

‘Over several centuries, some 40 percent of carbon could be lost from shallow peat bogs, while the losses could total as much as 86 percent in deep bogs.’

Found at northerly latitudes, peat bogs are swampy areas whose cold, wet environment preserves organic matter from decaying. This new work shows how warming could upset peat bogs’ stability, which has disproportionately affected the higher latitudes where they are found, said a Harvard statement.

Each square metre of a peat bog contains anywhere from a few to many hundreds of kilos of organic matter, comprising 200 to 450 billion metric tonnes of carbon in peat bogs. This figure is equivalent to up to 65 years’ worth of the world’s current carbon emissions from fossil fuel burning.

‘Peat bogs contain vast stores of carbon,’ Moorcroft said. ‘They will likely respond to the expected warming in this century by losing large amounts of carbon during dry periods.’

These findings were published in the current issue of Nature Geoscience.

Source : IANS

GW : Global warming approaching a point of no return !!

The recent report of an international climate change task force warned that global warming is proceeding towards a point of "no return". After this, the widespread drought, crop failure and rising sea levels will be irreversible. It called on the group of 8 leading industrial nations to cut carbon emissions, double their research spending on technology and work with India and China to build on the Kyoto Protocol for cuttings emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. The report stressed that it is becoming a necessity to stop the continuous rise in temperature as soon as possible. This temperature has already risen by 2 degree celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) as it was in the year 1750. That time was the approximate start of the industrial revolution. Mankind, at that time, started significantly, adding the carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere.

GW : Pollution in Himalayas could impact the monsoon cycle

According to the study of the researchers, the pollution arising from the countries like India, China, Nepal, & Pakistan, into the atmosphere can reach altitudes of nearly over 5000 m to the atmosphere. This can contribute to the climate there and the warming of atmosphere and most interestingly, this will be showing its potential effect on the south-east Asian monsoon cycle.

Researchers have also traced new kind of aerosol particles suspended in the atmosphere namely "ultrafine particles" at these heights.

The French-Italian team, whose studies were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week (13 October), conducted a study of theirs in the Nepal's Khumbu Valley, at nearly about 5079 m height, for nearly 16 months, and gave their conclusions.

Hervé Venzac, from the Blaise Pascal University in France, who was the lead author, along with his entire team made an observation that, when pollutants from the plains of the himalayan countries like Nepal, meets the cleaner air of troposphere, they form the aerosol particles.

The Co-author, Paolo Laj, at the Joseph Fourier University, France, told SciDev.nt, "Aerosol particles emitted by burning processes absorb sunlight, causing warming of the lower atmosphere and thus contributing to global temperature rise to the same extent as major greenhouse gases."

The functioning of Monsoon relies on the temperature regulation along with the calculated production of warmth, and this is the only reason that there is a clear probability of the warmth on the himalayas affecting the South-East monsoon of Asia. If there is a continuous rise or fall in the atmospheric temperature, the monsoon cycles can be abruptly affected.

The findings and research of this team are expected to provide an understanding on the production of warmth and also enlighten the melting of the glaciers in these regions at a rapid pace.

Ngamindra Dahal, a hydrometeorologist at the National Trust for Nature Conservation, Nepal, said - "This study is remarkable as it can explain the phenomenon of the melting of glaciers that we have started to observe in the Himalayas."

This study was all about the aerosol formation at higher altitudes and that too in the form of long- term data analysis. Additionally, it reveals that the frequency of this formation is high.

"Though further study is necessary to find out what could be the exact source of the up-sloping pollutants, this research clearly shows how pollution can affect particle formation [at high altitudes] and hence climate change and the monsoon cycle in the region," says Laj.

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GW : Global Warming can be predicted while travelling

There have been a lot of predictions on global warming. Effects of global warming is seen in day to day life. But the main effect of global warming is seen while traveling. Many of the current tourist hotspots that are currently in the eyes of tourists will be literally too hot for the comfort. And the other tourist spots will definitely lose their beauty, due to any reason, like catastrophic storms, or we can say that they will be going underwater.

According to the reports of the Intergovernmental panel on the climate change, the planet's average temperature can rise by 3.5 degrees (estimated) by 2100 leading to nearly 4 feet rise in the sea level. If, then, there is a melt of the ice sheets of antarctic and greenland, there could be an additional rise of nearly 25-30 feet of sea level. Some side effects would also be there viz. the increment in heat waves, catastrophic storms etc. and these too, more specifically towards the tourist spots, because most of the tourist spots are separated from rest of the places by some of their natural features.

But due to these changes, the places, far from the equator and those at higher altitudes can also become more inviting for the tourists.

ND : Lightning and thunder kills people in Jharkhand - India

8 deaths and 3 more casualties were recorded in Jharkhand, last week, due to the lightning there in 2-3 districts, which happens there nearly every week.

October 2nd :

Lightning struck a hut in Kambo village, about 40 km from Ranchi city, and took away 5 lives, and 4 injuries, according to the news of local police.

October 4th :

On spot death of a 12 yr old boy and 25 more injuries were recorded due to lightning at Islamnagar village in Jharkhand's Lohardagga district at about 12 noon. Injured people were admitted to Lohardagga Sadar Hospital. 2007 & 2008 data :

* 2007 : >=150 people died including 5 of Ranchi.
* 2008 : >=70 people till now have died and more than 100 injured due to lightning.

The weather in Jharkhand is so nice for the local people as always, that it is preferring lightning over the deadly heat waves to kill the people, since the last few years, at an alarming rate. Mainly high elevated places , and people who makes their shelter beneath the trees during storm, are more prone to lightning attack. The lightning type, which is most frequent in the state, is Fork Lightning.

Lightning has been used as a natural instrument for measuring the electrical nature of the ground, according to the recent studies. Few modern studies tell that soils having higher conductivity viz. marsh, are more lightning-prone.

Jharkhand forest areas are also more prone to lightning because the trees act as conductors for the lightning to the ground. Earlier, Ranchi was named as "summer capital" of Bihar ( before Jharkhand was differentiated ). Now it has been captured by the regional ( Global) warming. According to prediction of a model, doubling of CO2 could increase the amount of lightning occurrences by 30–77% .

No of lightning deaths have been almost doubled in the past several years with additional injuries, and annual loss of peoperties and cattle. There is almost panic everytime the people living there sees magnificent flashes and thundering sound in the sky. Still no clear agreement is there, on the formation of lightning. It is believed still, that it’s largely due to collisions between ice crystals. Whatever be the thoughts, Lightning and Thunders are the most common outcomes of nearly each storm. With due course of time, the lightning can also be included with the huge disasters like earthquake and tsunami.

ND : Disasters kill more in 2008 than in Tsunami - UN report

According to the recent UN report of Wednesday, the casualties in the first half of the year 2008 is itself more than the disastrous Tsunami which occured in India in 2004 and which was mainly due to the earthquake in China and cyclone in Myanmar.

Salvator Briceno, head of the UN's disaster management agency (ISDR), said, "2008 is a terrible year. There have already been more victims than in the tsunami."

This year, till now, already more than 230,000 people have lost their lives , and anoter 130 million people were affected due to these disasters, he said while addressing the people on the occasion of International Day for Disaster Reduction.


According to the datas, the cyclone "Nargis" has already swapped away 138,000 lives, and this data is also an estimation, not an exact figure.
On the other hand, the earthquake in south-west China's Sichuan province left a death toll of 87, 500.

Another disastrous event occured in India in the form of flood which took away many lives in Bihar, especially its northern region, this year. After all these, a devastating hurricane season in the Caribbeans also all contributed to the grim statistics.

The average economic cost of the natural disasters for the half of the period of the year, since the past ten years, was nearly 15 billion dollars, but this time, in 2008, this economic cost is 35 billion dollars, equivalent to 26 billion euros, till now.

GW : New Survey Uncovers Why Global Warming Solutions Are Not a Public Priority - MUIRNet-news

Why most Americans don't give priority to global warming solutions? The ACVS (American Climate Values Survey) revealed three reasons for this viz. Politics, economics and perceived lack of personal benefits.
Bob Perkowitz, founder and chairman of EcoAmerica, stated- "We need to talk about global warming as an American issue, not a political issue.We intend to make a clear and convincing case that solving global warming will produce immediate and long-lasting economic, personal and national benefits.”

Survey Reports (survey was done to almost all (90%) the democrats of America) :

1> 73% Americans beleive global warming is happening.
2> Only 54% consider it is real.
3> All the people agreed with the statement-"If I could afford it, I would be willing to install things to make my home more energy efficient than it is now.”
4> 74% of Americans want the USA to lead the world in global warming solutions.

People do not see effect of global warming on their lives, their health, their safety and well-being. ACVS survey found that this is due to more focus of people on solving global warming for the sake of environment alone, and not for the their benefit personally.
Bob Perkowitz continued his statement by adding following lines-"Making global warming personally relevant to Americans is critical to building support for solutions.When people see that climate solutions benefit them personally and directly, they change their behavior.”
ecoAmerica plans to use ACVS survey as a base for establishing partnership with companies and governments, looking forward to create connection between climate action and closely held personal values and everyday concerns of Americans, as concluded from the statement of Perkowitz.
According to Cathy Zoi, CEO, The Alliance for Climate Protection,which helped sponsor the survey, "We are confident that the findings from The American Climate Values Survey will help us refine the messages that will inspire millions of Americans to engage in the climate crisis and demand change. This work is crucial so we can understand what resonates with people the most and what will motivate them to take action.”
Another statement from Frances Beinecke, president, Natural Resources Defense Council, another sponsor of the survey, was as following-"The American Climate Values Survey provides a roadmap for us as we work to communicate more effectively about global warming, and motivate politicians and the American public to act.”
The director of conservation, The Nature Conservancy, which was another cosponsor of the survey, namely Bob Mosley, stated that "This research provides important insight into how we talk with Americans about the crisis our planet faces.When people see that climate solutions benefit them personally and directly, they change their behavior. Ultimately the main message is that every little step counts, and there are very small steps that if taken one at a time can make a real difference over the long run. Modifying any/all of our behaviors is the only way to preserve the world for future generations.”

Source or this post : MUIRNet-news