Sea levels rising faster than IPCC projections

Sea levels rising faster than IPCC projections

ScienceDaily (Nov. 27, 2012) — Sea levels are rising 60 per cent faster than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) central projections, new research suggests.

While temperature rises appear to be consistent with the projections made in the IPCC's fourth assessment report (AR4), satellite measurements show that sea levels are actually rising at a rate of 3.2 mm a year compared to the best estimate of 2 mm a year in the report.

The researchers, from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Tempo Analytics and Laboratoire d'Etudes en Géophysique et Océanographie Spatiales, believe that findings such as these are important for keeping track of how well past projections match the accumulating observational data, especially as projections made by the IPCC are increasingly being used in decision making.

The study, which has been published November 28, in IOP Publishing's journal Environmental Research Letters, involved an analysis of global temperatures and sea-level data over the past two decades, comparing them both to projections made in the IPCC's third and fourth assessment reports.

Results were obtained by taking averages from the five available global land and ocean temperature series.

After removing the three known phenomena that cause short-term variability in global temperatures -- solar variations, volcanic aerosols and El Nino/Southern Oscillation -- the researchers found that the overall warming trend at the moment is 0.16°C per decade, which closely follows the IPCC's projections.
Satellite measurements of sea levels showed a different picture, however, with current rates of increase being 60 per cent faster than the IPCC's AR4 projections.
Satellites measure sea-level rise by bouncing radar waves back off the sea surface and are much more accurate than tide gauges as they have near-global coverage; tide gauges only sample along the coast. Tide gauges also include variability that has nothing to do with changes in global sea level, but rather with how the water moves around in the oceans, such as under the influence of wind.
The study also shows that it is very unlikely that the increased rate is down to internal variability in our climate system and also shows that non-climatic components of sea-level rise, such as water storage in reservoirs and groundwater extraction, do not have an effect on the comparisons made.
Lead author of the study, Stefan Rahmstorf, said: "This study shows once again that the IPCC is far from alarmist, but in fact has under-estimated the problem of climate change. That applies not just for sea-level rise, but also to extreme events and the Arctic sea-ice loss."

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研究：全球暖化未放緩‧海平面上升速度快60%

资料来源： 星洲日報 http://www.sinchew.com.my/node/269799?tid=2

  2012-11-28 18:47

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  在 週二，悉尼邦迪沙灘海水、沙灘都一片血紅色，還飄來陣陣魚腥味。這一景象嚇壞海灘上的遊客。當地政府封閉多處沙灘，並抽樣檢查，據悉應是紅藻作怪，令海水 看來像血海般。當地政府初步認為，是大量紅藻快速增生所致。受太陽照射及氣候變化影響，加上當地正值夏天，海水溫度上升，令紅藻大量生長。這些藻類應對人 體影響不大，但直接接觸仍會讓皮膚過敏而不適。 （圖：法新社）

（卡塔爾‧多哈28日訊）全球暖化腳步未放緩！一項研究報告顯示，海平面正在上升中，速度比聯合國氣候部門最新評估報告中的預測高出60%。

世界各國代表正聚集卡塔爾首都多哈，參加《聯合國氣候變化框架公約》第十八次締約方會議，3名專家在會上發佈的報告也顯示，全球氣溫上升幅度也與聯合國預測的一致，顯示聯合國並未誇大其詞。

報告指，例如孟加拉，有眾多人口居住在海平面1公尺內的地勢低窪地區，屆時維持他們生計的土地將會消失，從而出現好幾億氣候難民，同時可能引發資源戰和其他衝突。

紐約東京恐被洪水淹沒

此外，紐約、東京等沿岸大城市面對風暴潮的風險也會增加，最糟糕的情況是被洪水淹沒。

IPCC在2007年發佈的一份報告，因誇大喜馬拉雅冰川融化的速度，及錯誤預該冰川將於2035年消失，而遭到批評和質疑。

但上述專家在報告指出，在納入火山爆發、使太平洋溫度上升的厄爾尼諾現象等自然因素進行考量後，在1990年至2011年之間，全球氣溫升高了0.16攝氏度，與氣IPCC預測的一致。

德國波茨坦研究所的氣象物理學者拉姆斯多夫和另外兩名法國和美國專家，對比聯合國的預測和1990年代初期至2011年的實際情況後總結，“全球暖化並未放緩腳步。＂

每年平均上升3.2毫米

他們在《環境研究快報》發表報告指出，目前海平面每年平均上升3.2毫米，比聯合國政府間氣候變遷問題小組（IPCC）最新評估報告中的預測高出60%。

IPCC2007年時預估，海平面每年升高2毫米，到了2100年，海平面將上升59公分。但有關預測未考慮到格陵蘭和南極冰層可能加速融化，使海洋水量增加。

在上世紀，地球海平面上升了約17公分。

拉姆斯多夫預測，本世紀內海平面將上升50公分至1公尺之間，倘若溫室氣體排放增加，更多冰層融化，海平面上升幅度將升高。

Climate change evident across Europe, confirming urgent need for adaptation

Climate change evident across Europe, confirming urgent need for adaptation

ScienceDaily (Nov. 23, 2012) — Climate change is affecting all regions in Europe, causing a wide range of impacts on society and the environment. Further impacts are expected in the future, potentially causing high damage costs, according to the latest assessment published by the European Environment Agency this week.

The report, 'Climate change, impacts and vulnerability in Europe 2012' finds that higher average temperatures have been observed across Europe as well as decreasing precipitation in southern regions and increasing precipitation in northern Europe. The Greenland ice sheet, Arctic sea ice and many glaciers across Europe are melting, snow cover has decreased and most permafrost soils have warmed.

Extreme weather events such as heat waves, floods and droughts have caused rising damage costs across Europe in recent years. While more evidence is needed to discern the part played by climate change in this trend, growing human activity in hazard-prone areas has been a key factor. Future climate change is expected to add to this vulnerability, as extreme weather events are expected to become more intense and frequent. If European societies do not adapt, damage costs are expected to continue to rise, according to the report.

Some regions will be less able to adapt to climate change than others, in part due to economic disparities across Europe, the report says. The effects of climate change could deepen these inequalities.

Jacqueline McGlade, EEA Executive Director said: "Climate change is a reality around the world, and the extent and speed of change is becoming ever more evident. This means that every part of the economy, including households, needs to adapt as well as reduce emissions."

Report: http://www.eea.europa.eu/pressroom/publications/climate-impacts-and-vulnerability-2012/

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Climate change: Believing and seeing implies adapting

Climate change: Believing and seeing implies adapting

ScienceDaily (Nov. 22, 2012) — To communicate climate change and adaptation to stakeholders such as European forest owners is a challenge. A capacity to adapt to climate change has, until now, mainly been understood as how trees and forest ecosystems can adapt to climate change and which socio-economic factors determine the implementation of adaptive measures.

The new study lead by Kristina Blennow from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), shows, for the first time, the importance of two personal factors; when forest owners believe in and see the effects of climate change, they are more likely to have taken adaptive measures. These two personal factors almost completely explain and predict forest owners' adaptation to climate change.

The paper was published online in the journal PLOS ONE on 21 November 2012.

Knowing what triggers humans to respond to climate change is crucial in communicating climate change policies. Because climate is defined in terms of average weather, climate change has been claimed to have low salience as a risk issue because it cannot be directly experienced. An international team of scientists from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Lund University (Sweden), the Technical University of Lisbon (Portugal), the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL and the University of Freiburg (Germany) present, based on survey data from 845 private forest owners operating across Europe, that a substantial proportion of the respondents strongly believe that they have directly perceived climate change. Furthermore, the researchers present the first evidence that the personal strength of belief and perception of local effects of climate change significantly and almost completely explain and predict their responses to climate change.

The results are based on responses to a questionnaire among private forest owners in Sweden, Germany and Portugal. These countries represent a north-south gradient across Europe and cover a wide range of bio-climatic conditions as well as economic-social-political structures. In addition to socio-demographic data (gender, age, size of forest holding etc.), the survey addressed three main questions: how strongly do forest owners believe that climate change will affect their forest, how strongly do they believe that they have experienced local effects of climate change and have they adapted their forest management in response to climate change? Using statistical models, the collected data was used to simulate estimated expected probabilities of having taken measures to adapt to climate change.

Fifty percent of the forest area in Europe is privately owned. Hence, the results of the study show that the personal climate change belief and perception of those who make decisions for adaptation at the local level strongly influences the adaptive capacity of a substantial proportion of the European forest sector.

The findings of the team of researchers have implications for effective climate change policy communication. They indicate that gathering and disseminating evidence of climate change and its effects could be an efficient strategy to increase people’s perceptions of having experienced climate change and hence to consider the need to take adaptive measures.

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Unexpected microbes fighting harmful greenhouse gas

Unexpected microbes fighting harmful greenhouse gas

ScienceDaily (Nov. 21, 2012) — The environment has a more formidable opponent than carbon dioxide. Another greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide, is 300 times more potent and also destroys the ozone layer each time it is released into the atmosphere through agricultural practices, sewage treatment and fossil fuel combustion.

Luckily, nature has a larger army than previously thought combating this greenhouse gas -- according to a study by Frank Loeffler, University of Tennessee, Knoxville-Oak Ridge National Laboratory Governor's Chair for Microbiology, and his colleagues.

The findings are published in the Nov. 12 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Scientists have long known about naturally occurring microorganisms called denitrifiers, which fight nitrous oxide by transforming it into harmless nitrogen gas. Loeffler and his team have now discovered that this ability also exists in many other groups of microorganisms, all of which consume nitrous oxide and potentially mitigate emissions.

The research team screened available microbial genomes encoding the enzyme systems that catalyze the reduction of the nitrous oxide to harmless nitrogen gas.

They discovered an unexpected broad distribution of this class of enzymes across different groups of microbes with the power to transform nitrous oxide to innocuous nitrogen gas. Within these groups, the enzymes were related yet evolutionarily distinct from those of the known denitrifiers. Microbes with this capability can be found in most, if not all, soils and sediments, indicating that a much larger microbial army contributes to nitrous oxide consumption.

"Before we did this study, there was an inconsistency in nitrous oxide emission predictions based on the known processes contributing to nitrous oxide consumption, suggesting the existence of an unaccounted nitrous oxide sink," said Loeffler. "The new findings potentially reconcile this discrepancy."

According to Loeffler, the discovery of this microbial diversity and its contributions to nitrous oxide consumption will allow the scientific community to advance its understanding of the ecological controls on global nitrous oxide emissions and to refine greenhouse gas cycle models.

"This will allow us to better describe and predict the consequences of human activities on ozone layer destruction and global warming," said Loeffler. "Our results imply that the analysis of the typical denitrifier populations provides an incomplete picture and is insufficient to account for or accurately predict the true nitrous oxide emissions."

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Himalayan glaciers will shrink by almost 10 percent, even if temperatures hold steady

Himalayan glaciers will shrink by almost 10 percent, even if temperatures hold steady

ScienceDaily (Nov. 15, 2012) — Come rain or shine, or even snow, some glaciers of the Himalayas will continue shrinking for many years to come.

The forecast by Brigham Young University geology professor Summer Rupper comes after her research on Bhutan, a region in the bull's-eye of the monsoonal Himalayas. Published in Geophysical Research Letters, Rupper's most conservative findings indicate that even if climate remained steady, almost 10 percent of Bhutan's glaciers would vanish within the next few decades. What's more, the amount of melt water coming off these glaciers could drop by 30 percent.

Rupper says increasing temperatures are just one culprit behind glacier retreat. A number of climate factors such as wind, humidity, precipitation and evaporation can affect how glaciers behave. With some Bhutanese glaciers as long as 13 miles, an imbalance in any of these areas can take them decades to completely respond.

"These particular glaciers have seen so much warming in the past few decades that they're currently playing lots of catch up," Rupper explains.

In fact, snowfall rates in Bhutan would need to almost double to avoid glacier retreat, but it's not a likely scenario because warmer temperatures lead to rainfall instead of snow. If glaciers continue to lose more water than they gain, the combination of more rain and more glacial melt will increase the probability of flooding -- which can be devastating to neighboring villages.

"Much of the world's population is just downstream of the Himalayas," Rupper points out. "A lot of culture and history could be lost, not just for Bhutan but for neighboring nations facing the same risks."

To illustrate the likelihood of such an outcome, Rupper took her research one moderate step further. Her results show if temperatures were to rise just 1 degree Celsius, the Bhutanese glaciers would shrink by 25 percent and the annual melt water would drop by as much as 65 percent. With climate continuing to warm, such a prediction is not altogether unlikely, especially given the years it can take for glaciers to react to change.

To make more precise predictions for Bhutan, Rupper and BYU graduate students Landon Burgener and Josh Maurer joined researchers from Columbia University, the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, NASA and Bhutan's Department of Hydro-Meteorological Services. Together, they trekked through rainforests and barren cliffs to reach some of the world's most remote blocks of ice. There they placed a weather station and glacier monitoring equipment that can be used to gather real-time data in the months and years to follow.

"It took seven days just to get to the target glacier," Rupper recounts, having returned in October. "For our pack animals, horsemen and guides, that terrain and elevation are a way of life, but I'll admit the westerners in the group were a bit slower-moving."

Rupper's forecasts and fieldwork are among the first to look at glaciers in Bhutan, and the government hopes to use her research to make long-term decisions about the nation's water resources and flooding hazards.

"They could potentially have a better idea of where best to fortify homes or build new power plants," Rupper says. "Hopefully, good science can lead to good engineering solutions for the changes we're likely to witness in the coming decades."

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Plants and soils could exacerbate climate change as global climate warms

Plants and soils could exacerbate climate change as global climate warms

ScienceDaily (Nov. 13, 2012) — Scientists from the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and University of California, Berkeley have demonstrated that plants and soils could release large amounts of carbon dioxide as global climate warms. This finding contrasts with the expectation that plants and soils will absorb carbon dioxide and is important because that additional carbon release from land surface could be a potent positive feedback that exacerbates climate warming.

The study was published today in a Journal of Climate paper titled, "Carbon cycle uncertainty increases climate change risks and mitigation challenges."

"We have been counting on plants and soils to soak up and store much of the carbon we're releasing when we burn fossil fuels," Paul Higgins, a study co-author and associate director of the AMS Policy Program, said. "However, our results suggest the opposite possibility. Plants and soils could react to warming by releasing additional carbon dioxide, increasing greenhouse gas concentrations and leading to even more climate warming."

The research team used a computer model of Earth's land surface to examine how carbon storage might react to a warmer planet with higher atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. The experimental design helps quantify the possible range in future terrestrial carbon storage.

Results indicated that the potential range of outcomes is vast and includes the possibility that plant and soil responses to human-caused warming could trigger a large additional release of carbon. If that outcome is realized, a given level of human emissions could result in much larger climate changes than scientists currently anticipate. It would also mean that greater reductions in greenhouse gas emissions could be required to ensure carbon dioxide concentrations remain at what might be considered safe levels for the climate system.

These findings could pose additional challenges for climate change risk management. Recognizing such challenges will afford decision makers a greater chance of managing the risks of climate change more effectively.

Dr. Higgins works on climate change and its causes, consequences, and potential solutions. His scientific research examines the two-way interaction between the atmosphere and the land-surface, which helps quantify responses and feedbacks to climate change. Dr. Higgins's policy analysis helps characterize climate risks and identify potential solutions. He also works to inform policy makers, members of the media, and the general public about climate science and climate policy.

Dr. John Harte, the study's other co-author, is a professor of energy and resources and of environmental science, policy and management at University of California, Berkeley. His research interests include climate-ecosystem interactions, theoretical ecology and environmental policy.

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Cultural dimensions of climate change are underestimated, overlooked and misunderstood

Cultural dimensions of climate change are underestimated, overlooked and misunderstood

ScienceDaily (Nov. 11, 2012) — The impact of climate change on many aspects of cultural life for people all over the world is not being sufficiently accounted for by scientists and policy-makers. University of Exeter-led research by an international team, published on 11th November in Nature Climate Change, shows that cultural factors are key to making climate change real to people and to motivating their responses.

From enjoying beaches or winter sports and visiting iconic natural spaces to using traditional methods of agriculture and construction in our daily lives, the research highlights the cultural experiences that bind our communities and are under threat as a result of climate change. The paper argues that governments' programmes for dealing with the consequences of climate  change do not give enough consideration to what really matters to individuals and communities.

Culture binds people together and helps them overcome threats to their environments and livelihoods. Some are already experiencing such threats and profound changes to their lives. For example, the Polynesian Island of Niue, which experiences cyclones, has a population of 1,500 with four times as many Niueans now living in New Zealand. The research shows that most people remaining on the island resist migrating because of a strong attachment to the island. There is strong evidence to suggest that it is important for people's emotional well-being to have control over whether and where they move. The researchers argue that these psychological factors have not been addressed.

Lead researcher Professor Neil Adger of the University of Exeter said: "Governments have not yet addressed the cultural losses we are all facing as a result of global climate change and this could have catastrophic consequences. If the cultural dimensions of climate change continue to be ignored, it is likely that responses will fail to be effective because they simply do not connect with what matters to individuals and communities. It is vital that the cultural impact of climate change is considered, alongside plans to adapt our physical spaces to the changing environment."

Professor Katrina Brown from the University of Exeter's Environment and Sustainability Institute adds: "The evidence is clear; when people experience the impacts of climate change in places that matter to them, the problems become real and they are motivated to make their futures more sustainable. This is as true in coastal Cornwall as in Pacific Islands."

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Mengapa tidak pilih kasih sayang....

Kalau manusia boleh hidup sihat tanpa mengambil nyawa dan mengakibatkan penderitaan terhadap haiwan atau hidupan lain... mengapa tidak? Mengapa tak ambil pilihan tersebut?

Dalam era kini, sudah semakin ramai orang yang mengamalkan cara hidup vegan (diet berasaskan tumbuhan, tanpa daging, telur ataupun bahan tenusu). Mereka bukti manusia boleh hidup tanpa membunuh untuk makanan. Antara sebab mereka ialah:

1) belas kasihan terhadap haiwan (elakkan pembunuhan)

2) alam sekitar (mesra alam: penternakan akibat utama pencemaran & pembebasan gas-gas hijau)

3) kebuluran (bahan makanan ternakan spt soya, gandum dll diberi dlm jumlah yg besar kpd haiwan yg akan disembelih sebalik diberi kepada kanak-kanak yang kebulur.)

4) agama (saling kait dengan belas kasihan / elak pembunuhan)

Mari kita dengar suara hati, perlukah kita bunuh haiwan-haiwan yang juga ingin hidup dan mampu luahkan kasih sayang kepada anak-anak mereka semata-mata untuk memuaskan selera kita?

Soalannya sekali lagi: Kalau kita boleh hidup dengan sihat tanpa pembunuhan hidupan lain, mengapa tidak?

Semua khasiat yang diperlukan oleh tubuh badan manusia, ada terkandung dlm semua jenis makanan berasaskan tumbuhan, malah khasiatnya lebih dan lebih 'bersih': ia tidak datang bersama lemak haiwan yang mengakibatkan pelbagai penyakit.... 

Sekurang-kurangnya, kita boleh mula dengan cuba mengurangkan pemakanan daging. Banyakkan memakan buah-buahan, sayuran hijau (tanpa masak-'raw'), bijirin & kekacang. Jemputlah cuba!

Intensive farming with a climate-friendly touch: Farming/woodland mix increases yields

Intensive farming with a climate-friendly touch: Farming/woodland mix increases yields

ScienceDaily (Nov. 8, 2012) — In the world of agriculture, climate protection and intensive farming are generally assumed to be a contradiction in terms. At Technische Universität München (TUM), however, scientists have come up with a new land development concept that could change this view. The new model is tailored to medium-sized farms in South America and sees farmers transitioning from large-scale monoculture to more diverse crop mixtures spread over smaller plots interspersed with wooded areas -- a switch that can bring significant financial benefits.

Each year, huge carbon stores are lost as a result of deforestation. In South America, around four million hectares of forest are cut down every year. As a result, international climate protection programs are planning to financially compensate farmers who preserve forests or plant new trees. Demand for land is rising, however. And growing need for food and energy crops will inevitably lead to conflicts of interest over fertile land in countries such as Brazil and Ecuador.

Thomas Knoke and Michael Weber at Technische Universität München (TUM) firmly believe that intensive, high-yield agricultural practices can go hand-in-hand with climate and environmental protection. The two scientists and their colleagues have developed a "diversified land-use" concept for medium-sized holdings in South America based on an idea originally developed by retired TUM professor, Wolfgang Haber. The new concept encourages farmers to move away from large-scale monocropping and plant a mix of field crops on smaller plots, while at the same time setting aside part of their land for forests and hedges. Any unused land will be reforested. The smaller plots of farmland will still be large enough for intensive farming practices using fertilizers, planting machines and harvesters. The interspersed wooded areas and hedges will protect the soil from erosion and serve as long-term carbon stores.

Knoke and Weber have evaluated the economic viability of their concept based on a typical medium-sized agricultural holding. This model hacienda comprises an area of over 116 hectares and includes croplands, wooded areas and unused land. There are around five million family-owned farms of this size on the South American continent.

Adopting this sustainable method of intensive farming initially means higher costs for farmers due to reforestation and the division of land into individual plots. However, the combination of woodland management and smaller plots of land pays off in the long term. Working lots of individual plots enables farmers to diversify and spread risk -- in much the same way as smart investors. By growing a broader portfolio of crops such as soya, sugar cane, corn and coffee, they can reduce their dependency on price fluctuations. The wooded areas also provide extra income. Smaller material from forest thinning can be used as firewood, while larger logs can be sold as building material. Depending on the crops harvested, a farm modeled on the diversified land-use method will achieve higher returns than a monocrop farm in eight years at the latest. Farmers working this new model can achieve between 19 and 25 percent more yield than they would with large-scale monoculture.

To ease the transition to diversified land development, Knoke and Weber are lobbying for start-up funding and knowledge sharing. "The associated costs, however, are the same or less than comparable measures aimed at reducing CO2 levels," explains Professor Knoke from the TUM's Institute of Forest Management. "Which makes diversified land development in line with local dynamics an effective approach to ensuring highly productive yet climate-friendly agriculture."

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Earth on acid: Present & future of global acidification

Earth on acid: Present & future of global acidification

ScienceDaily (Nov. 5, 2012) — Climate change and extreme weather events grab the headlines, but there is another, lesser known, global change underway on land, in the seas, and in the air: acidification.

It turns out that combustion of fossil fuels, smelting of ores, mining of coal and metal ores, and application of nitrogen fertilizer to soils are all driving down the pH of the air, water, and the soil at rates far faster than Earth's natural systems can buffer, posing threats to both land and sea life.

"It's a bigger picture than most of us know," says Janet Herman of the Department of Environmental Sciences at University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

Herman and her colleague, Karen Rice of the USGS, discovered that despite the fact that they worked on different kinds of acidification in the environment, they were not well informed about the matter beyond their own specialties. So they have done an extensive review of science papers about all kinds of environmental acidification and are presenting their work in a poster session on Nov. 6, at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America (GSA) in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA.

Acidification is both a local and global problem, since it can be as close as a nearby stream contaminated by mine tailings or as far-reaching as the world's oceans, which are becoming more acidic as sea water absorbs higher concentrations of carbon dioxide that humans dump into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels.

Coal gives a double whammy by being the biggest contributor of anthropogenic carbon dioxide to the global atmosphere as well as creating regional acidification. Coal burning is famous for creating acid rain, which had dramatic environmental impacts on forests, streams, and lakes in eastern North America and Europe and led to major policy changes.

"It's not at all clear that other regions are considering such policy restrictions to be important," Herman says, regarding places where population growth is expected to increase acidifying activities.
Normally, acids in the environment are buffered by alkaline compounds released by the weathering of minerals in rocks. The problem today, according to Herman, is that the rate of acidification by human activities has outstripped the weathering rate and buffering capacity of the planet.

In their work, Herman and Rice look at the population projections by country over the next four decades to see where the increased industrialization and agriculture will likely lead to new acidification hot spots. Their hope is that by doing this people can anticipate the problem and plan to mitigate the harmful environmental effects, says Herman.

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Warmer future oceans could cause phytoplankton to thrive near poles, shrink in tropics

Warmer future oceans could cause phytoplankton to thrive near poles, shrink in tropics

ScienceDaily (Oct. 25, 2012) — In the future, warmer waters could significantly change ocean distribution of populations of phytoplankton, tiny organisms that could have a major effect on climate change.

Reporting in this week's online journal Science Express, researchers show that by the end of the 21st century, warmer oceans will cause populations of these marine microorganisms to thrive near the poles and shrink in equatorial waters.

"In the tropical oceans, we are predicting a 40 percent drop in potential diversity, the number of strains of phytoplankton," says Mridul Thomas, a biologist at Michigan State University (MSU) and co-author of the journal paper.

"If the oceans continue to warm as predicted," says Thomas, "there will be a sharp decline in the diversity of phytoplankton in tropical waters and a poleward shift in species' thermal niches--if they don't adapt."

Thomas co-authored the paper with scientists Colin Kremer, Elena Litchman and Christopher Klausmeier, all of MSU.

"The research is an important contribution to predicting plankton productivity and community structure in the oceans of the future," says David Garrison, program director in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Ocean Sciences, which funded the research along with NSF's Division of Environmental Biology.

"The work addresses how phytoplankton species are affected by a changing environment," says Garrison, "and the really difficult question of whether adaptation to these changes is possible."

The MSU scientists say that since phytoplankton play a key role in regulating atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, and therefore global climate, the shift could in turn cause further climate change.
Phytoplankton and Earth's climate are inextricably intertwined.

"These results will allow scientists to make predictions about how global warming will shift phytoplankton species distribution and diversity in the oceans," says Alan Tessier, program director in NSF's Division of Environmental Biology.

"They illustrate the value of combining ecology and evolution in predicting species' responses."
The microorganisms use light, carbon dioxide and nutrients to grow. Although phytoplankton are small, they flourish in every ocean, consuming about half of the carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere.

When they die, some sink to the ocean bottom, depositing their carbon in the sediment, where it can be trapped for long periods of time.

Water temperatures strongly influence their growth rates.

Phytoplankton in warmer equatorial waters grow much faster than their cold-water cousins.
With worldwide temperatures predicted to increase over the next century, it's important to gauge the reactions of phytoplankton species, say the scientists.

They were able to show that phytoplankton have adapted to local temperatures.

Based on projections of ocean temperatures in the future, however, many phytoplankton may not adapt quickly enough.

Since they can't regulate their temperatures or migrate, if they don't adapt, they could be hard hit, Kremer says.

"We've shown that a critical group of the world's organisms has evolved to do well under the temperatures to which they're accustomed," he says.

But warming oceans may significantly limit their growth and diversity, with far-reaching implications for the global carbon cycle.

"Future models that incorporate genetic variability within species will allow us to determine whether particular species can adapt," says Klausmeier, "or whether they will face extinction."

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Nanosilver from clothing can pose major environmental problems

Nanosilver from clothing can pose major environmental problems

ScienceDaily (Nov. 1, 2012) — Silver nanoparticles can have a severe environmental impact if their utilisation in clothing continues to increase. If everyone buys one silver nanoparticle-treated sock a year, the silver concentration in waste water treatment plant sludge can double. If the sludge is subsequently used as fertilizer, the silver can cause long-term damage to agricultural land. These are the results of a study conducted at Chalmers University of Technology.

Chalmers researcher Rickard Arvidsson recently defended his doctoral thesis, which addressed the risks associated with nanomaterials -- a field with a great many knowledge gaps. He has developed new methods to assess the risks of nanomaterials, as well as used the methods on a few specific materials such as silver nanomaterials.

Silver nanoparticles have an antibacterial effect, and are used in a variety of consumer products such as workout clothing to prevent the smell of sweat. When the clothes are washed, nanoparticles are released and enter waste water treatment plants through waste water. The particles release silver ions that cannot be broken down at waste water treatment plants or in nature. The silver ions are toxic to many organisms.

"Clothing is considered to be a large source of nanosilver emissions already," says Rickard Arvidsson. "If silver usage in clothing continues to increase, the consequences for the environment can be major. For example, silver can accumulate in soil if sludge from waste water treatment plants is used as fertilizer, which can result in long-term damage to soil ecosystems."

Utilising sludge as fertilizer in soil is a way to restore phosphorus from waste water to agricultural land. There is a global shortage of phosphorus, but if sludge is to be used as fertilizer, contaminated content must remain at a low level.

Rickard Arvidsson conducted a study at Gothenburg's waste water treatment plant in Sweden. The study shows that the effect on sludge, and agricultural land if sludge is used as fertilizer, is entirely dependent on the amount of silver that manufacturers use in clothing. The silver concentration in the examined clothing varied by a factor of one million -- between 0.003 mg/kg and 1400 mg/kg. With the lowest concentration, there would not be an observable effect on sludge and soil even if the utilisation of silver in clothing increased significantly.

"Using silver in clothing is a new technology, and it is still difficult to ascertain patterns for how much is being used. However, if the negative environmental impact is to be avoided, either the silver concentration in clothing or consumption of silver nanoparticle-treated clothing must be limited."

"With the highest concentration, however, it would suffice if all of the city's residents bought and used one silver nanoparticle-treated sock a year for the silver concentration in waste water treatment plant sludge to double," says Rickard Arvidsson.

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While we were arguing whether or not climate change was real....

 Check it out  ~

Recent Natural Disasters 

http://www.disaster-report.com/

10月16日世界糧食日‧全球糧食荒‧大馬酒肉臭‧每年棄500萬噸食物‧國人缺乏危機意識

我们吸收了许多有关资讯和预防措施，其实最重要还是在日常生活里实行。。。。

资料来源：http://www.sinchew.com.my/node/264896?tid=67

 2012-10-16 10:43 

世界正面臨糧食短缺危機，慶幸的是大馬人仍過著豐衣足食的生活。正因如此，大馬人嚴重缺乏對糧食危機的醒覺意識。

據統計，大馬人每天丟棄約1千500萬公斤的食物殘渣，其中的10至15%是還可食用或被浪費的食物，等於丟掉300至450輛羅里的食物。

這裡不缺蔬果魚肉，食物供應充足，糧食短缺對我們來說似乎是非常遙遠的事。

然而，糧食危機是有連鎖效應的，它牽一發而動全身，對全世界影響，危機離我們並不遠。

10月16日是世界糧食日，今年的主題是“農業合作社：養活世界的關鍵＂（Agricultural Cooperatives : Key to Feeding The World）。

配合世界糧食日，我們來探討饑餓與糧食荒和我們有甚麼關係。

汤礼聪

畜牧業是糧荒罪魁禍首之一, 湯禮聰：鼓勵吃素救地球

綠色生活協會（Green Living Society）主席湯禮聰說，在極端的天氣條件下，全球暖化、氣候轉變，全世界正面臨糧食短缺危機，但本地人絲毫未曾察覺其嚴重性。

他指出，人類一年吃掉4千億隻動物，世界人口不斷增長，基於人類的需要，畜牧業不斷擴大。而大部份的種植品，如玉米和大豆都用來餵養動物。因此，畜牧業是世界糧食危機的主要的罪魁禍首之一。

“為了紓緩糧食短缺問題，人類必須減少肉類消耗。聯合國也鼓勵人們吃素食拯救地球。＂

馬每4兒童一人超重

湯禮聰指出，全世界每隔5秒就有人死於饑荒，其中75%是兒童。
而在東南亞國家中，大馬最多孩子有肥胖的問題。

根據馬來西亞肥胖兒童兒科工作小組研究的調查顯示，大馬每
4名兒童就有一人超重或肥胖。

“全世界有三分之一的人足夠溫飽，有三分之一的人食物不足，
剩餘的三分之一人口處於挨餓狀況。

“大馬人被歸為首個部份（足夠溫飽），他們的健康問題都與食
物有關，但非並挨餓，而是營養過剩、肥胖問題。＂

從小沒養成珍惜食物習慣

“新生代的肥胖問題源自於父母縱容孩子吃垃圾食物多過日常正餐。這導致孩子們在用正餐時，吃不下而浪費不少食物。父母允許孩子浪費食物，並沒有教育他們，因此孩子們從小就沒有養成珍惜食物的習慣。

他說，大馬人在舒服的環境太久，從未經歷嚴重的環境災難或糧食危機，所以在這方面的意識相當低。

他補充，年長者因曾體驗艱難的生活，比較懂得珍惜食物。到了年輕一代，生活條件提高了，人們的購買能力也相漸提高，往往毫無節制地消費，特別是年輕人和小孩子對食物不懂得感恩，從未意識到浪費食物的問題，這種情況令人感到擔憂。

反對以木薯製塑膠袋

他指出，除了浪費食物造成全球糧食荒惡化，有些市場上的產品是以食物為原料，如木薯製成午餐盒、以淀粉製成塑膠袋，這些產品叫做“可分解物＂。

他非常反對這類產品，他說，這些生產商完全面向業務，也不瞭解整個世界糧食危機的情況。世界上很多人正在挨餓，但他們用食物來生產日用品，而且市場上仍有一部份人在使用，確沒意識到這些產品的存在，無形中對饑餓者造成“迫害＂。

“生產商解釋說，他們使用原料是第三級的木薯，不能食用。我的問題是：一些非洲國家的小孩餓得只能吃樹葉和泥土，那麼難道第三級的木薯不可以吃嗎？＂

每年扔掉75萬噸好食物

從事廢棄物管理的湯禮聰指出，我國每一天產生約3萬噸的垃圾，一年則有1千萬噸，當中50%是食物浪費，意即每年產生500萬噸食物浪費。

他把食物浪費分為4類：

1：廚餘，在準備食物前，淘汰的菜頭菜尾和果皮等。

2：食物的殘渣，這些剩餘的食物已不能再食用，如骨頭、魚頭、海鮮蚌殼類、水果種子外殼等。

3：消耗不完的食物，可能因挑食、不珍惜食物或點過多食物消耗不完，而扔掉質量良好，但還能被食用的食物。

4：沒好好策划而過期的食物，購買者因沒好好策劃食用時間，以致錯過食物的賞味期限而被迫丟掉。

湯禮聰指出，第一類和第二類的食物浪費是無可避免的，無論如何，這些食物浪費都是我們造成的。

“不過，第三和第四類的食物浪費是可以避免的。從我的研究，大約有10至15%的食物浪費屬於第三和第四類。這也意味著馬來西亞人每年扔掉或浪費約50萬至75萬噸的好食物。＂

他補充，傳統佳節或民俗習慣造成更多不必要的食物浪費，比如說主人家可能因為面子問題，不願減少訂食物，視桌上食物的多寡為招待賓客週到與否。

宴會30%好食物棄垃圾桶

“你可否想像一個活動結束後，如宴會，有多少的食物被丟棄？從我的研究中顯示，宴會上有30%的食物最後將倒入垃圾桶，而且皆是100%好的食物。＂

湯禮聰認為，自助餐比一桌10人的宴席對環境更友善。無論如何，最近幾年宴會上的食物浪費已有所改善，他觀察到食物的數量已從原本的9道減至8至7道。

他鼓勵賓客在宴會上打包吃不完的食物，很多人因為不好意思而沒有這麼做。他建議主人家通知賓客打包剩餘的食物，如果主人家鼓勵他們這麼做，相信許多賓客願意這麼做，這可減少婚宴上的食物浪費。

“食物浪費是溫室氣體的排放原因之一，進而引起全球暖化和氣候轉變。此外，所有浪費的食物都被送到處置場所，而食物的腐化過程會產生沼氣和二氧化碳，對環境有害，因此減少浪費食物絕對有必要。＂

珍惜食物醒覺仍低, 浪費習慣根深蒂固

湯禮聰說，為了提高人們珍惜食物的醒覺，他每次在座談會時，嘗試播放影片或照片，讓出席者瞭解有很多人因沒有食物而饑餓的情況。

“很多人看了很感動，並且後悔過去浪費食物的行為。然而過了不久，他們又故態復萌。這是非常不幸的，浪費幾乎成了人們根深蒂固的習慣，並非一朝一夕能糾正過來。＂

他補充，從他的調查所得，除了居住環境有廚餘和食物浪費，酒店、餐館、小販中心、食物加工廠及巴剎也有不少，然而這些單位都沒有好好處理廚餘的問題。

湯禮聰指出，有些酒店把處理廚餘視為社會責任，但在大馬並不普遍。

林德來：節制美德減少浪費,  鼓勵打包婚宴剩餘食物

雪隆姑蘇慎忠行餐飲業公會總會長林德來受訪時認同，國內飲業者對糧食危機的意識普遍不高，不過根據他的觀察，華人量人而點菜，不過份舖張。

他說，大馬餐館的廚餘一般是“菜頭菜尾＂，在清洗蔬菜過程中，就丟掉腐爛、不新鮮的部份。這些都是不可食用的，至於廚餘量多量少，視個別餐館的使用蔬菜量而定。

“過去我曾到中國，當地人以｀客人吃剩菜才有面子，吃完則沒面子’，因此單單冷菜近10道，熱食又有逾10道，太多佳肴美食難以消受。＂

林德來指出，相對之下，在婚宴上，本地華人展現節制的美德，一些賓客會要求把桌上剩下的食物打包回家，這種“打包＂習慣是值得鼓勵的，不應浪費食物。

他說，宴會上，一般只有至8至10道菜，相當符合一桌人的食量。一個人的食量畢竟是有限的，太多肯定吃不完。

聯合國糧食及農業組織的資料顯示

過去50年，人類對肉食的需求激增了500%，為滿足增長，全球越來越多農地被用作種植牲畜飼料，中南美洲便有66%的熱帶雨林因而消失。

●每生產一公斤牛肉，需要16公斤穀物以及1萬5千公升食水。單是美國一年餵飼牲畜用的穀物，便能餵飽13億人口。

●大馬人每天丟棄約1千500萬公斤的食物殘渣，其中的10%至15%是還可食用或被浪費的食物，等於丟掉300至450羅里的食物。

關於全球饑餓：

●全球糧食生產足以讓每一個人吃飽，但全球有超過十億人吃不飽，即是每7個人當中，便有1人挨餓。

●60%饑餓人口是女性，但她們亦是全球糧食生產的重要生力軍。

●每年，有大約30萬名孕婦因營養不良（缺乏鐵質），在分娩時因出血過多而死亡。

●同時間，全球有1億2千萬人有肥胖問題。

關於兒童饑餓：

●每5秒，就有一個兒童死於饑餓或相關疾病；每4個饑餓人口中， 就有一個是兒童。

●在發展中國家，60%的兒童死於饑餓，每4個兒童，就有一個體 重過輕。

●經濟學家指出，長期陷於饑餓會窒礙兒童身心發展，長大後的生計或收入比平均人口低5至10%。

關於饑餓人口：

●約75%來自農村或鄉郊地區，25%來自城市。

●10億饑餓人口中，65%來自以下7個國家，即印度、中國、剛果民主共和國、孟加拉、印尼、巴基斯坦和埃塞俄比亞。

（星洲日報）