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Is The End Near? Opinions Vary On Mayan Calendar, Doomsday

January 9, 2012 by ·

Have a good New Year’s Eve? Party a bit? Drink too much? First week of 2012 been going pretty well?

Well, enjoy yourself while you can because, if some anonymous and long-deceased Mayan calendar-maker is to be believed, it’s the last new year you’ll ever get.

That’s right: The official countdown to the biggest blowout Ma Earth has ever seen has begun.

Unless, of course, it hasn’t.

Wishy-washy? Sure. And for that, blame a calendar created by the Mayans a few thousand years ago that, some believe, portends all sorts of apocalyptic ugliness happening on or around Dec. 21, 2012. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Climate Change, Documentary, Environment ·

Neither Climate Nor Humans Alone Caused Ice Age Mass Extinctions

November 3, 2011 by ·

An inter-disciplinary team from more than 40 universities around the world have put an end to the controversial single-cause theories of Ice Age mass extinctions.

Scientists have for years debated the reasons behind the Ice Age mass extinctions, which caused the loss of a third of the large mammals in Eurasia and two thirds of the large mammals in North America.

They have been arguing on whether climate change or humans are responsible for the extinctions of the large-bodied Ice Age mammals (commonly called megafauna) such as the woolly rhinoceros and woolly mammoth.

Now the study, led by Professor Eske Willerslev and his group from the Centre for GeoGenetics, University of Copenhagen, has revealed dramatically different responses of Ice Age species to climate change and human impact. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Climate Change, Research & Study ·

Global Warming: Why Americans Are In Denial

September 27, 2011 by ·

Tucked between treatises on algae and prehistoric turquoise beads, the study on page 460 of a long-ago issue of the U.S. journal Science drew little attention.

“I don’t think there were any newspaper articles about it or anything like that,” the author recalls.

But the headline on the 1975 report was bold: “Are We on the Brink of a Pronounced Global Warming?” And this article that coined the term may have marked the last time a mention of “global warming” didn’t set off an instant outcry of angry denial. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Climate Change, Global Warming, Research & Study ·

Italy Scientists On Trial Over L’Aquila Earthquake

September 22, 2011 by ·

The trial of six Italian scientists and a former government official for manslaughter over the 2009 earthquake in L’Aquila has opened in the city.
The 6.3 magnitude quake devastated the city and killed 309 people.
Prosecutors allege the defendants gave a falsely reassuring statement before the quake after studying hundreds of tremors that had shaken the city.
The defence argues that there is no way to predict major earthquakes even in a seismically active area. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Climate Change, Environment, Global Warming, Nature ·

By Storing More Heat, Oceans Create ‘Hiatus Periods’ in Rise of Global Warming — Study

September 19, 2011 by ·

The “missing heat” needed to balance the Earth’s energy budget may be lurking in the deep oceans, a new study finds.

That deep ocean heat storage could help explain periods when global warming has slowed, even though satellite data show no change in the amount of energy trapped in the Earth’s atmosphere.

That “missing heat” is hiding out in ocean waters at depths of 1,000 feet or more, according to researchers from the United States and Australia. Their findings, based on computer climate simulations, were published yesterday in the journal Nature Climate Change.

The study also predicts that the continued warming of the climate will be punctuated by brief periods when the rate of warming slows, stops or even reverses, slightly. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Climate Change, Global Warming, Research & Study ·

‘Climate Change Could Increase Hunger In Pacific’

September 13, 2011 by ·

Climate change is seriously affecting food production in the Pacific region and could result in rise of hunger and malnutrition in the area, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Tuesday.

An ADB report urged Pacific nations to increase local food production, particularly of climate-resistant crops such as taro, yam and cassava, and to use new technologies to improve traditional production systems.

The report, titled Food Security and Climate Change in the Pacific: Rethinking the Options, said the Pacific region is already experiencing worsening coastal erosion, floods, drought, and storm surges as a result of climate change. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Climate Change, Food, Humanities ·

Coral Reefs ‘Will Be Gone By End Of The Century’

September 12, 2011 by ·

They will be the first entire ecosystem to be destroyed by human activity, says top UN scientist

Coral reefs are on course to become the first ecosystem that human activity will eliminate entirely from the Earth, a leading United Nations scientist claims. He says this event will occur before the end of the present century, which means that there are children already born who will live to see a world without coral.

The claim is made in a book published tomorrow, which says coral reef ecosystems are very likely to disappear this century in what would be “a new first for mankind – the ‘extinction’ of an entire ecosystem”. Its author, Professor Peter Sale, studied the Great Barrier Reef for 20 years at the University of Sydney. He currently leads a team at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Climate Change, Coral Reefs, Environment, Nature ·