Earthbytes

Greenland’s Ice Is Growing Darker

The Earth Observatory newsletter yesterday had several great stories and photos. Here are some photos, excerpts and links to the one on Greenland's dark ice:

In the past, the bright surface of the Greenland Ice Sheet reflected well over half of the sunlight that fell on it. This reflectiveness helped keep the ice sheet stable, as less absorbed sunlight meant less heating and melting. In the past decade, however, satellites have observed a decrease in Greenland’s reflectiveness. This darker surface now absorbs more sunlight, which accelerates melting.

The map above shows the difference between the amount of sunlight Greenland reflected in the summer of 2011 versus the average percent it reflected between 2000 to 2006. Virtually the entire ice sheet shows some change, with some areas reflecting close to 20 percent less light than a decade ago. The map is based on observations from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments on NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites. It was produced as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Arctic Report Card.

 

Ohio State University scientist Jason Box says the darkening is due to changes in the shape and size of the ice crystals in the snowpack. The grains of snow clump together and reflect less light than the many-faceted, smaller crystals. Sharp crystal edges become rounded when exposed to more heat. These absorb more sunlight than jagged snow crystals:

Read mora via earthobservatory.nasa.gov

 

 

Warmer temperatures allow plant communities in Quebec to expand northward

An amazing NASA study utilizing Landsat images of northern Quebec show that more than 20 years of warming temperatures have led to an expanding number and range of shrubs and grasses.

Comparison of area in Northern Quebec showing increased vegetation between 1986 and 2004. In this false-color Landsat image, more red color indicates more vegetation. Credit: Jeff Masek

"For the first time, we've been able to map this change in detail, and it's because of the spatial resolution and length-of-record that you can get with Landsat," says Jeff Masek, one of the study's authors.

According to NASA, this study is one of the first to present a detailed look at how warmer temperatures influence how plants spread out across the landscape and how dense they grow in northern regions of North America.

As I looked at some other photos from this study at the Earth Observatory website, I wondered how the scientists knew how to interpret the changes of shown in the images. Here's how the Earth Observatory article explains this:

Scientists typically track vegetation by measuring the “greenness” of a study area. Doug Morton, a NASA Goddard scientist and lead author, noted that previous satellite studies used yearly compilations, making it difficult to determine if increasing greenness was due to the expansion of vegetation cover or just the effect of a longer growing season.

For this study, Morton, Masek, and colleagues focused only on greenness measurements during the peak summer growth from 1986 to 2010. By using Landsat's 30-meter (98 foot) resolution and viewing the same area at the same time for 23 years, the researchers were able to decipher vegetation growing denser and more widespread.

Masek and his co-authors presented their study at the American Geophysical Union fall meeting in San Francisco on December 9th.

The day before that, former vice president Al Gore attended a session on the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite. A primary mission of DSCOVR was to help document global warming, but the project was cancelled before the satellite could be launched. It is being refurbished, however, and the Obama administration hopes it can be launched to replace the ageing Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) satellite that monitors solar storms and space weather.

Also see:

More info on Landsat

NASA's Earth Observatory website

 

 

 

EcoWatch launches nationwide news service website today

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Joins EcoWatch to Announce Launch of Nationwide News Service Website

Live Webcast at www.ecowatch.org begins at 3 p.m. EST

WHAT: Launch of Nationwide News Service Website with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as Keynote

WHY: Celebrate EcoWatch and Waterkeeper Alliance’s Nationwide News Service

WHEN:   Thursday, Oct. 27 at 2:30 p.m. EST

WHERE: Rivergate Park, 1785 Merwin Ave., Cleveland, Ohio 44113

Cleveland, OH—EcoWatch, in partnership with Waterkeeper Alliance, is hosting a public event today along the Cuyahoga River to celebrate the launch of their nationwide news service website with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., founder and president of Waterkeeper Alliance, as keynote speaker.  The website—www.ecowatch.org—went live this morning and will work to unite the voice of the grassroots environmental movement and mobilize millions of Americans to engage in democracy to protect human health and the environment.  

The website expands EcoWatch’s coverage nationwide and becomes the first media source to focus exclusively on environmental news culled from more than 700 environmental organizations across the country.  The site showcases original content in its Insights column from leading national voices in the environmental movement, including EcoWatch’s advisory board members. 

The news service provides timely access to relevant information that seeks to motivate individuals to become engaged in their community, adopt sustainable practices and support strong environmental policy.  The site focuses on five critical issue areas—water, air, food, energy and biodiversity—and covers topics including, renewable energy, water and air quality, sustainable agriculture, fossil fuel depletion, solution-based sustainability projects, species protection, global warming, climate change and pending legislation.

“The current assault on America’s environmental laws, like the Clean Water Act, creates a pressing need to educate and engage people to protect our infrastructure, the air we breathe, the water we drink, to provide our children with the same opportunities for dignity and enrichment as our parents gave us,” said Kennedy. “This website encourages people to be part of the solution and engage in democracy.”

EcoWatch, publisher of EcoWatch Journal with a distribution of more than 80,000 copies across Ohio, will launch the nationwide news service out of Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood and become part of the growing online news media market.

“Northeast Ohio is a national leader in sustainability and EcoWatch is proud to call Cleveland its home,” said Stefanie Penn Spear, founder and executive director of EcoWatch. “This news service website follows the model we developed in Ohio over the last five years and expands on my more than 20 years of publishing environmental news.”

The public event will feature brief remarks from Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson; Cleveland City Councilman Joe Cimperman; the George Gund Foundation’s Senior Program Officer for the Environment, John Mitterholzer; the Cleveland Foundation’s Program Officer, Nelson Beckford; and Kennedy, a member of EcoWatch’s advisory board, who will serve as keynote speaker. 

Other advisory board members are Wendy Abrams, an eco-advocate and philanthropist; Ed Begley, Jr., an actor and environmentalist; Lester Brown, a  prize-winning author and critical thinker; Laurie David, a bestselling author and activist; Paul Hawken, an environmentalist, entrepreneur and author; Randy Hayes, founder of Rainforest Action Network; Phil Radford, executive director of Greenpeace, and Harvey Wasserman, an anti-nuclear activist.

In addition to commemorating the launch of the national website, EcoWatch and Waterkeeper Alliance will acknowledge the significance of the celebration’s location, near the historic site where the then oily Cuyahoga River caught on fire in June 1969.  This event played a major role in the growth of the modern-day environmental movement and passage of the Clean Water Act. The event will also highlight the need for water advocacy and stewardship, public access to our waterways, human-powered recreation on the water and collaboration on solution-based projects like Rivergate Park. Immediately following the event, participants are encouraged to enjoy Rivergate Park, home to the Cleveland Rowing Foundation, by touring the grounds and watching rowing, kayaking and paddleboarding on the river.

Kennedy will also keynote a fundraising event at Windows on the River at 2000 Sycamore St. at 6 p.m. that evening. The event includes a VIP reception, dinner and keynote speech.  Tickets can be purchased at www.ecowatchohio.org.

To view the website, visit http://www.ecowatch.org/.

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EcoWatch is a Cleveland-based nonprofit dedicated to uniting the voice of the grassroots environmental movement and mobilizing millions of Americans to engage in democracy to protect human health and the environment. EcoWatch, founded in 2006, publishes the bimonthly newspaper EcoWatch Journal, distributed for free throughout Ohio printing 80,000 copies per issue. For more information, visit www.ecowatchohio.org

Waterkeeper Alliance is a global environmental organization uniting more than 190 Waterkeeper organizations around

the world and focusing citizen advocacy on the issues that affect our waterways, from pollution to climate change.

Waterkeepers patrol more than 1.5 million square miles of rivers, streams and coastlines in the Americas, Europe,

Australia, Asia and Africa.  For more information, visit www.waterkeeper.org.

USGS: Have Floods Changed with Increasing CO2 Levels?

US Geological Survey scientists R.M. Hirsch and K.R. Ryberg have published a new study investigating statistical relationships of flooding to increased CO2 levels in the Hydrologic Sciences Journal:

Only one of four large regions of the United States showed a significant relationship between carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the atmosphere and the size of floods over the last 100 years. This was in the southwestern region, where floods have become smaller as CO₂ has increased. 

This does not mean that no strong relationship between flooding and greenhouse gases will emerge in the future. 

An increase in flood magnitudes remains one of the most anticipated impacts of climate change, and land and water resource managers are asking questions about how to estimate future flood risks and develop effective flood mitigation strategies for the future.  

A new report published by U.S. Geological Survey scientists in the Hydrologic Sciences Journal looks at this potential linkage using historical records of floods throughout the nation. Scientists studied flood conditions at 200 locations across the United States looking back 127 years through 2008. 

"Currently we do not see a clear pattern that enables us to understand how climate change will alter flood conditions in the future, but the USGS will continue to collect new data over time and conduct new analyses as conditions change," said USGS scientist and lead author Robert Hirsch. "Changes in snow packs, frozen ground, soil moisture and storm tracks are all mechanisms that could be altered by greenhouse gas concentrations and possibly change flood behavior. As we continue research, we will consider these and other factors in our analyses." 

Read the whole press release at www.usgs.gov

Download the paper at Hydrologic Sciences Journal (Taylor and Francis Pubs): Has the magnitude of floods across the USA changed with global CO₂ levels

 

This weekend on LinkTV: Seed Warriors

This weekend, LinkTV's ViewChange series will air the documentary Seed Warriors:

In the remote Norwegian town of Longyearbyen, just 1000 kilometres from the North Pole, politicians from around the world came to celebrate the opening of the world’s first global seed bank. After years of difficult negotiations and searching for the right spot, this was deemed to be the safest place on earth. Eventually, 4.5 million seed samples will be stored in this "Doomsday Vault" and ensure the continued existence of biodiversity.

via www.linktv.org

 

The page for the Svalbad Global Seed Vault at Wikipedia has more info and some interesting links.

The first of several showings will air at 7pm eastern tomorrow, Friday, July 22nd on DirecTV Channel 375 and DISH Network Channel 9410.

Final Report: America's Climate Choices

The National Research Council released its final report today on America's Climate Choices. You can read it online or download an electronic version free of charge (for personal use only) by using links below or the NAP book widget in the sidebar.

The report reiterates the need for us to take substantial action if we are to limit the magnitude and adapt to the impacts of climate change:

America's Climate Choices, which builds on the four previous America's Climate Choices panel reports, reaffirms that the preponderance of scientific evidence points to human activities as the most likely cause for most of the global warming that has occurred during the last several decades. Furthermore, the risk of dangerous climate change impacts is growing with every ton of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere.

America's Climate Choices makes the case for implementing strong federal policies that establish coherent national goals and incentives, and that promote strong U.S. engagement in international-level response efforts.

What's up with disappearing bumble bees?

According to a study recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by University of Illinois entomologist Sydney Cameron, bumble bee populations are declining across North America, and individuals in declining populations have higher pathogen prevalence and reduced genetic diversity. (This is a separate issue from the concerns about honeybees and colony collapse disorder.)

While Cameron and her team see these factors as realistic predictors of alarming patterns of decline in North America, a cause and effect relationship remains uncertain:

In an article about her study in the January 6th issue of the News-Gazette, Cameron noted that 'people should be aware of the decline as a loss to nature and to the agricultural industry. Why these significant changes in this country's bumblebee population have occurred is open to speculation. Some factors that Cameron note are climate change (which appears to account for the declines in some bumble bee species in Europe); habitat loss; and the above-mentioned parasite, nosema bombi. 

via www.care2.com

If you're interested in contributing to ongoing observations of bumble bees, check out the National Phenology Network. The NPN brings citizen scientists, government agencies, non-profit groups, educators and students together to monitor the impacts of climate change on plants and animals in the United States.

A couple of bumble bees on an Echinacea flower in my Holler observation plot.

I signed up to be an observer last year and chose bumble bees as one of the animal species I monitor. I picked a small area here in the holler that I walk through almost everyday when I go out with my dogs and cats. I monitor two American beech trees, a redbud, and forsythia as well as jewelweed and dog-tooth violet plants. In addition to bumble bees, I watch for American goldfinches, eastern chipmunks, and whitetail deer.

After selecting the species I wanted to monitor, I used observer training material offered at the website to become familiar with the phenophases -- recurring plant and animal life cycle stages such as leafing and flowering of the plants and trees, feeding behavior of the bees and goldfinches -- so I knew what to look for and how to record it.

"American beech 1" on my NPN observation list is an older tree very close to my house. This was how it looked on October 21, 2010. I occasionally take photos of the species I observe.

Because many of these events are sensitive to variation and changes in climate, notes recorded by citizen observers can help scientists identify and understand environmental trends relative to shifts in climate.

I entered observations into a user-friendly online form linked to my observation plot and species.

This is a photo of "Jewelweed 2" take on October 16th when it was producing seeds:

In some ways, I think because I was closely observing all these plants and creatures on a regular basis, I learned new things about them. I had not really seen the jewelweed seeds before. I was more captivated by the awesome flowers they make and never really stopped by so much after the flowers went away. I was very surprised the first time I put my finger under one of the seeds to get a closer look -- it jumped about a foot or so away from the plant on which it had grown.

It was really fun to participate in the NPN program. With many plant and animal species already responding to climate change, it's very satisfying to be part of a network of so many different people collecting information and paying attention to how things are going.

Professor Cameron noted in the article excerpted above that it would be helpful if people can plant native species that larger species of bees need for habitat.

Leonardo Boff: "This Time There Will Be No Noah's Ark" - IPS News

Daniela Pastrana interviews LEONARDO BOFF, Brazilian writer and theologian:

MEXICO CITY, Dec 28, 2010 (Tierramérica) - "The market is not going to resolve the environmental crisis," says theologian and environmentalist Leonardo Boff, professor at Brazil's State University of Rio de Janeiro. The solution, he says, lies in ethics and in changing our relationship with nature.

via ipsnews.net

Maude Barlow: With Only Market-Based Solutions on the Table "The Continued Destruction of the Earth...Can Go on Quite Happily"

Democracy Now! interview with Maude Barlow at Cancun is worth reading (disclosure: I am a huge Maude Barlow fan!). She talks about attacks intended to kill the Kyoto Protocol at the front end of the Cancun talks so that controversial failure part gets done early and avoids such a bitter taste at the end of the summit: 

They’re going to take their lumps, and then they’re going to move into solutions.

And I predict the solutions are going to be all market-based, offsets, carbon trading, finance—minuscule financing, but all controlled by the World Bank. And this is a really dreadful process. It means that they can leave here feeling—or saying that they’ve come up with some kind of an agreement, but they don’t have to touch anything global. Economic globalization, unlimited growth, unregulated trade, the continued destruction of the earth, the continued rise in greenhouse gas emissions, the continued destruction of our water systems can all go on quite happily. And they can say they got together and they did something. It’s really appalling.

via www.democracynow.org

Post Carbon Institute: a 5-minute explanation of our 300 year old fossil fuel addiction

 

 

Richard Heinberg's new book has the working title 'The End of Growth' and is set for publication in July 2011. Because of the urgent and fragile nature of the global economic crisis, the Post Carbon Institute will be serializing the rough content as Richard writes it.

Richard will also be offering 'live peeks' at the events and information that inform his writing process through Facebook and Twitter accounts created expressly for this publication.