The Rat in the Hat .... Climate? Shmimate!

I do not like this Trump one bit
I think he is a racist twit
I do not like his funky hair
I do not like that he don't care
I do not like that he finds strange,
Science facts on climate change
Global warming, he explains,
Was made up by some feeble brains
I do not like his 50's views
About a woman's right to choose
I do not like the way he speaks
And insults everyone he meets
I do not like his lies and tricks
I do not like his head of bricks
His brain may be a few quarts low
With bull shit he does overflow

Anonymous

The heaviest flooding ever recorded has occurred in the last couple of decades

Heavy rainfall in August in the American state of Louisiana has led to the flooding across the entire state, with the Amite and Comite rivers rising to record levels. The death toll currently stands at 13 with reportedly 60,000 homes destroyed. More than 106,600 residents have registered for help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Heavy and consistent rainfall in central Europe in May through June of 2013 caused massive flooding in many countries including Germany, Czech Republic and Austria among several others. The Elbe and Danube rivers flooded their banks, leading to a reported 25 deaths with 23,000 people evacuated from Magdeburg, Germany, alone. 

     

Superstorm Sandy ravaged the United States in the Atlantic hurricane season of 2012 and affected 24 states, flooded streets and caused a total damage of $71.4 billion. A total of 117 deaths were reported with damage caused to 200,000 homes.

    

After typhoon Ketsana struck the Philippines in September of 2009, it left behind the worst flooding and mudslides the island nation has faced in 60 years. A few days later, Typhoon Parma struck and damaged whatever was left untouched. 3 million people were affected and as many as 540 people died. The storms and the subsequent flooding cost the country $250 million in damages.

When cyclones Domini and Ellie struck northwest Queensland in Australia in 2009, rivers flooded their banks and led to the flooding of the entire region that caused over $210 million in damages.

In 2009, Turkey faced the worst flooding in nearly 80 years after two days of torrential rain fell. The flooding killed 37 people and caused damages in the range of $170 million.    

  

   

 Indian state of Bihar flooded after the Kosi River flooded its banks in 2008. The floods destroyed 225,000 homes and directly affected a whopping 2 million people.

    

 Tropical cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar in May of 2008, causing one of the worst floods in the history of the country. The death toll went as high as 138,000 and directly affected 2.4 million people. The flooding was estimated to have cost the country more than $10 billion.

    

May of 2008 brought four rounds of heavy rainfall to south China leading to landslides and floods that lasted for 20 days. The floods killed 55 people and forced around 1.3 million to leave their homes.

We have shown you only a few examples and I think you can see a pattern forming. The global climate is changing .. and not for the better. All we can do, as citizens, is control and reduce our individual contribution to climate change. And, just as important, teach others about the changes occurring to our planet that will intensify and accelerate in the next couple of decades and at some time pass the point of no return. The best way to turn off global warming is knowledge. If everyone is educated and aware about what the future holds and makes their governments co -operate, then we can save earth and avoid catastrophe. Climate change is a global problem and the solution is also global.

Protecting our food sources in the future .... Seed Vaults

Deep inside a mountain on a remote island in the Svalbard archipelago, halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole, lies the Global Seed Vault.

It is a fail-safe seed storage facility, built to stand the test of time — and the challenge of natural or man-made disasters. The Seed Vault represents the world’s largest collection of crop diversity.

The need

Worldwide, more than 1,700 genebanks hold collections of food crops for safekeeping, yet many of these are vulnerable, exposed not only to natural catastrophes and war, but also to avoidable disasters, such as lack of funding or poor management. Something as mundane as a poorly functioning freezer can ruin an entire collection. And the loss of a crop variety is as irreversible as the extinction of a dinosaur, animal or any form of life.

The purpose

It was the recognition of the vulnerability of the world’s genebanks that sparked the idea of establishing a global seed vault to serve as a backup storage facility. The purpose of the Vault is to store duplicates (backups) of seed samples from the world’s crop collections.

Permafrost and thick rock ensure that the seed samples will remain frozen even without power. The Vault is the ultimate insurance policy for the world’s food supply, offering options for future generations to overcome the challenges of climate change and population growth. It will secure, for centuries, millions of seeds representing every important crop variety available in the world today. It is the final back up.

The location

The Vault is in an ideal location for long-term seed storage, for several reasons

Svalbard is the farthest north a person can fly on a scheduled flight, offering a remote location that is nevertheless accessible.

Svalbard is the farthest north a person can fly on a scheduled flight, offering a remote location that is nevertheless accessible.

The area is geologically stable and humidity levels are low.

The Vault is well above sea level, protected from flooding.

The permafrost offers natural freezing, providing a cost effective and fail-safe method to conserve seeds.

The storage

The Seed Vault has the capacity to store 4.5 million varieties of crops. Each variety will contain on average 500 seeds, so a maximum of 2.5 billion seeds may be stored in the Vault.

Currently, the Vault holds more than 860,000 samples, originating from almost every country in the world. Ranging from unique varieties of major African and Asian food staples such as maize, rice, wheat, cowpea, and sorghum to European and South American varieties of eggplant, lettuce, barley, and potato. In fact, the Vault already holds the most diverse collection of food crop seeds in the world.

The focus of the Vault is to safeguard as much of the world’s unique crop genetic material as possible, while also avoiding unnecessary duplication. It will take some years to assemble because some gene banks need to multiply stocks of seed first, and other seeds need regenerating before they can be shipped to Svalbard.

For a complete overview of the samples stored in the Vault, please visit Nord Gen’s public online database.

A temperature of -18ºC is required for optimal storage of the seeds, which are stored and sealed in custom made three-ply foil packages. The packages are sealed inside boxes and stored on shelves inside the vault. The low temperature and moisture levels inside the Vault ensuring low metabolic activity, keeping the seeds viable for long periods of time.

An international black box system

The depositors who will deposit material will do so consistently with relevant national and international law. The Seed Vault will only agree to receive seeds that are shared under the Multilateral System or under Article 15 of the International Treaty or seeds that have originated in the country of the depositor.
Each country or institution will still own and control access to the seeds they have deposited. The Black Box System entails that the depositor is the only one that can withdraw the seeds and open the boxes.



It's by Issac Cordal

Awesome

NASA monitors the 'new normal' of sea ice

Date : August 19, 2016
This year's melt season in the Arctic Ocean and surrounding seas started with a bang, with a record low maximum extent in March and relatively rapid ice loss through May. The melt slowed down in June, however, making it highly unlikely that this year's summertime sea ice minimum extent will set a new "A decade ago, this year's sea ice extent would have set a new record low and by a fair amount. Nrecord.

"Even when it's likely that we won't have a record low, the sea ice is not showing any kind of recovery. It's still in a continued decline over the long term," said Walt Meier, a sea ice scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "It's just not going to be as extreme as other years because the weather conditions in the Arctic were not as extreme as in other years."now, we're kind of used to these low levels of sea ice -- it's the new normal."

This year's sea ice cover of the Barents and Kara seas north of Russia opened up early, in April, exposing the surface ocean waters to the energy from the sun weeks ahead of schedule. By May 31, the extent of the Arctic sea ice cover was comparable to end-of-June average levels. But the Arctic weather changed in June and slowed the sea ice loss. A persistent area of low atmospheric pressure, accompanied by cloudiness, winds that dispersed ice and lower-than-average temperatures, didn't favor melt.

The rate of ice loss picked up again during the first two weeks of August, and is now greater than average for this time of the year. A strong cyclone is moving through the Arctic, similar to one that occurred in early August 2012. Four years ago, the storm caused an accelerated loss of ice during a period when the decline in sea ice is normally slowing because the sun is setting in the Arctic. However, the current storm doesn't appear to be as strong as the 2012 cyclone and ice conditions are less vulnerable than four years ago, Meier said.

"This year is a great case study in showing how important the weather conditions are during the summer, especially in June and July, when you have 24 hours of sunlight and the sun is high in the sky in the Arctic," Meier said. "If you get the right atmospheric conditions during those two months, they can really accelerate the ice loss. If you don't, they can slow down any melting momentum you had. So our predictive ability in May of the September minimum is limited, because the sea ice cover is so sensitive to the early-to-mid-summer atmospheric conditions, and you can't foresee summer weather."

As scientists are keeping an eye on the Arctic sea ice cover, NASA is also preparing for a new method to measure the thickness of sea ice -- a difficult but key characteristic to track from orbit.

"We have a good handle on the sea ice area change," said Thorsten Markus, Goddard's cryosphere lab chief. "We have very limited knowledge how thick it is."

Research vessels or submarines can measure ice thickness directly, and some airborne instruments have taken readings that can be used to calculate thickness. But satellites haven't been able to provide a complete look at sea ice thickness in particular during melting conditions, Markus said. The radar instruments that penetrate the snow during winter to measure thickness don't work once you add in the salty water of the melting sea ice, since the salinity interferes with the radar.

The Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2, or ICESat-2, will use lasers to try to get more complete answers of sea ice thickness. The satellite, slated to launch by 2018, will use a laser altimeter to measure the heights of Earth's surface.

In the Arctic, it will measure the elevation of the ice floes, compared to the water level. However, only about one-tenth of sea ice is above the water surface; the other nine-tenths lie below.

To estimate the entire thickness of the ice floe, researchers will need to go beyond the above-water height measurements, and perform calculations to account for factors like the snow on top of the ice and the densities of the frozen layers. Scientists are eager to see the measurements turned into data on sea ice thickness, Markus said.

"If we want to estimate mass changes of sea ice, or increased melting, we need the sea ice thickness," he said. "It's critically important to understanding the changes in the Arctic."
Story Source:

The above post is reprinted from materials provided by NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. The original item was written by Maria-José Viñas and Kate Ramsayer. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

The Effects of Climate Change on Your Health

An important question: What consistently progressing issue could potentially cause 250,000 thousand people to die between 2030 and 2050?

The answer isn’t what you’d think. In fact, it may be the last thing you’d expect, but it’s something you need to be aware of.

The cause of these multiple deaths will be climate change, and the World Health Organization (WHO) says that a number of health issues will play a part in this process. Sadly, 38,000 deaths may occur as a result of heat exposure in the world’s elderly population. In addition, 48,000 people will die from diarrhea, 60,000 people will die from malaria and 95,000 children will die from malnutrition.  

Even more concerning, though everyone will see the effects of climate change, some people will be more affected than others. The WHO says that this will include people living in areas near the coast and those living in large cities. Those in mountainous and polar regions and those residing on small islands that are in the process of being developed also will be affected.

The sad thing is that children will suffer the consequences of climate change, especially children in developing countries. Plus, the elderly and sick will pay the price. And healthcare workers may not be able to keep up with the demand for treatment in these areas. 

According to NASA, climate change is not new. In fact, there are said to have been seven different glacial advance and retreat cycles during the past 650,000 years. The most recent happened 7,000 years ago, which was the end of the ice age. NASA says that most of these occurrences happened because of variations in Earth's orbit, which affects solar energy.

Here’s the thing: Scientists say humans probably causing the global warming that the earth now experiences. These days, scientists can see what’s going on, thanks to technology. This has allowed researchers to collect ample amounts of data for a long time to see patterns.  

What they’ve learned is that greenhouse gases are most likely responsible for this effect. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), most greenhouse gases found in the United States are due to energy use. In fact, carbon dioxide emissions related to petroleum and natural gas account for more than 80 percent of greenhouse gases. Three things are thought to contribute: economic growth, the need for fuel to generate electricity, and weather that fuels the need for heating and cooling. 

As a result, a number of things have happened. For example, the sea has risen more than six and a half inches in the past 100 years. But in the past 10 years, it’s risen almost twice that amount. 

Global surface temperatures have been rising since the late 1800s. Record highs are on the rise, and record lows are decreasing, which most people have noticed. The oceans have even heated up, with an increase of .302 degrees Fahrenheit since the late 1960s. Further, ice sheets are decreasing, and the ocean has become more acidic. 

The question is: What health issues will be seen as a result of changes in the climate?

The first thing that concerns experts is health issues regarding heat. According to the WHO, high temps can be deadly because they can play a role in both heart disease and breathing issues. Plus, extreme temps are said to raise ozone levels and air pollutants, which adds to health effects. Pollen levels will even rise, making for a dangerous situation for those with asthma and allergies. 

The risk of infections will increase. As the climate changes, disease seasons get longer and reach places that they once did not reach. The WHO says that the conditions of the climate are linked to diseases found in water and diseases that we get by way of living things, like bugs, snails, and other animals that are cold-blooded. This may have devastating health consequences. 

The WHO says that these changes even affect the amount of rain that we get, which can, in turn, affect health. This can put a damper on efforts to keep water safe and affect the ability of some communities to have water at all. To put it simply, experts say they’ve now seen three times the amount of weather-related disasters when compared to the amount of weather-related disasters that occurred in the 1960s. And with sea levels rising, relocating communities is becoming more and more probable. Drought is even said to be an impending doom, with experts predicting stronger and more droughts by the end of the 21st century. And the amount of flooding that we see is even increasing. All of these factors will play a role in global nutrition and the spread of disease.  

That said, there are things you can to battle climate change. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), you can start by changing five regular light bulbs out to Energy Star light bulbs. These light bulbs create less heat and use less energy in general. Seal and insulate your home to make it more energy efficient, and consider using Energy Star appliances, which are more energy efficient than many other options. 

Further, you can make an effort to conserve the resources that we have on this planet. This begins with recycling. Enroll in your local recycling program and recycle simple items like newspapers and water bottles. Better yet, try to conserve water. Water treatment takes a ton of energy. So turn off water when you don’t need it, like if it’s running in the kitchen while you’re drying dishes or if you’re shaving. 

Two other factors can change your water use. The first is a leaky toilet. Make sure your toilets don’t leak. The EPA says that a leaking toilet can plow through 200 gallons of water daily, and refrain from running your dishwasher until it’s full. Not only does this save money, but it also saves energy. 

Finally, water your lawn and plants at appropriate times like when it’s cooler in the mornings and evenings, and consider composting. This can help to eliminate garbage pileup in landfills. It’s also the perfect way to make natural fertilizer. 

Stats ---Aug 8 --- Aug 14 , 2015

Hi Jean'ne Carano,

Weekly Stats Report: 8 Aug - 14 Aug 2016 
Project: Nanook and Friends
URL: <http://nanook and friends of the planet.blogspot.com>

Summary

Mon Tues Wed     Thur Fri Sat Sun Total Avg
Pageloads 41 8 40 5 4 3 2 103 15
Unique Visits 8 4 12 4 3 3 2 36 5
First Time Visits 2 0 6 0 1 0 0 9 1
Returning Visits 6 4 6 4 2 3 2 27 4

Climate Change 101 With Bill Nye the Science Guy --- The Meltdown

The famous scientist cuts through the global warming noise and lays out the facts .

The consequences of climate change

The potential future effects of global climate change include more frequent wildfires, longer periods of drought in some regions and an increase in the number, duration and intensity of tropical storms. Credit: Left - Mellimage/Shutterstock.com, center - Montree Hanlue/Shutterstock.com.

Global climate change has already had observable effects on the environment. Glaciers have shrunk, ice on rivers and lakes is breaking up earlier, plant and animal ranges have shifted and trees are flowering sooner.

Effects that scientists had predicted in the past would result from global climate change are now occurring: loss of sea ice, accelerated sea level rise and longer, more intense heat waves.
Taken as a whole, the range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time.
- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Scientists have high confidence that global temperatures will continue to rise for decades to come, largely due to greenhouse gases produced by human activities. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which includes more than 1,300 scientists from the United States and other countries, forecasts a temperature rise of 2.5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit over the next century.

According to the IPCC, the extent of climate change effects on individual regions will vary over time and with the ability of different societal and environmental systems to mitigate or adapt to change.

The IPCC predicts that increases in global mean temperature of less than 1.8 to 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit (1 to 3 degrees Celsius) above 1990 levels will produce beneficial impacts in some regions and harmful ones in others. Net annual costs will increase over time as global temperatures increase.

"Taken as a whole," the IPCC states, "the range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time." 1

Future effects :
Some of the long-term effects of global climate change in the United States are as follows, according to the Third National Climate Assessment Report:
Change will continue through this century and beyond :

Global climate is projected to continue to change over this century and beyond. The magnitude of climate change beyond the next few decades depends primarily on the amount of heat-trapping gases emitted globally, and how sensitive the Earth’s climate is to those emissions.
Temperatures will continue to rise :

Because human-induced warming is superimposed on a naturally varying climate, the temperature rise has not been, and will not be, uniform or smooth across the country or over time.

Stay tune , more to come  about the consequences of climate change .
Thanx NASA

Melting sheet ice in Greenland poses radioactive danger from buried US cold war army base

Global warming could release radioactive waste stored in an abandoned Cold War-era U.S. military camp deep under Greenland's ice caps if a thaw continues to spread in coming decades, scientists said on Friday.

Camp Century was built in northwest Greenland in 1959 as part of U.S. research into the feasibility of nuclear missile launch sites in the Arctic, the University of Zurich said in a statement.

Staff left gallons of fuel and an unknown amount of low-level radioactive coolant there when the base shut down in 1967 on the assumption it would be entombed forever, according to the university.

It is all currently about 35 meters (114.83 ft) down. But the part of the ice sheet covering the camp will probably melt by the end of the century, going by current trends, the scientists added.

"Climate change could remobilize the abandoned hazardous waste believed to be buried forever beneath the Greenland ice sheet," the university said of findings published this week in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

The study, led by York University in Canada in collaboration with the University of Zurich, estimated that pollutants in the camp included 200,000 liters (44,000 UK gallons) of diesel fuel and the coolant from a nuclear generator used to produce power.

"It's a new breed of political challenge we have to think about," lead author William Colgan, a climate and glacier scientist at York University, said in a statement.

"If the ice melts, the camp's infrastructure, including any remaining biological, chemical, and radioactive wastes, could re-enter the environment and potentially damage nearby ecosystems," the University of Zurich said.

The study said it would be extremely costly to try to remove any waste now. It recommended waiting "until the ice sheet has melted down to almost expose the wastes before beginning site remediation."

There was no immediate comment from U.S. authorities.

Greenland lies just off the Eastern coast of Canada,  located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe (specifically Norway and Denmark). It is an autonomous country and is the world's largest island, although it is smaller than Australia, which is considered a continent. Three-quarters of Greenland is covered by the only permanent ice sheet outside of Antarctica. With a population of about 56,480 it is the least densely populated country in the world. One never hears much about Greenland but it has been inhabited for 4,500 years by Arctic peoples like the Inuit who migrated there from Canada and survive there by hunting and fishing.

Vikings settled the uninhabited southern part of Greenland beginning in the 10th century.

Polar bears, musk oxen, caribou, arctic foxes, hares, eagles, ptarmigan, lemmings and the rare Arctic wolf are  a few of the hundreds of Arctic species which are  part of the terrestrial fauna of Greenland and must be protected. Several of the species are now endangered and radioactive waste could only make their continued existence more at risk. Another tragedy we would be accountable for.

Arctic fox

Killer whales

Arctic musk ox

Arctic hares

Arctic tern

Caribou

 The rare and endangered Actic wolf makes it's homes in Greenland

Melting sheet ice in Greenland poses radioactive danger from buried US cold war army base

Global warming could release radioactive waste stored in an abandoned Cold War-era U.S. military camp deep under Greenland's ice caps if a thaw continues to spread in coming decades, scientists said on Friday.

Camp Century was built in northwest Greenland in 1959 as part of U.S. research into the feasibility of nuclear missile launch sites in the Arctic, the University of Zurich said in a statement.

Staff left gallons of fuel and an unknown amount of low-level radioactive coolant there when the base shut down in 1967 on the assumption it would be entombed forever, according to the university.

It is all currently about 35 meters (114.83 ft) down. But the part of the ice sheet covering the camp will probably melt by the end of the century, going by current trends, the scientists added.

"Climate change could remobilize the abandoned hazardous waste believed to be buried forever beneath the Greenland ice sheet," the university said of findings published this week in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

The study, led by York University in Canada in collaboration with the University of Zurich, estimated that pollutants in the camp included 200,000 liters (44,000 UK gallons) of diesel fuel and the coolant from a nuclear generator used to produce power.

"It's a new breed of political challenge we have to think about," lead author William Colgan, a climate and glacier scientist at York University, said in a statement.

"If the ice melts, the camp's infrastructure, including any remaining biological, chemical, and radioactive wastes, could re-enter the environment and potentially damage nearby ecosystems," the University of Zurich said.

The study said it would be extremely costly to try to remove any waste now. It recommended waiting "until the ice sheet has melted down to almost expose the wastes before beginning site remediation."

There was no immediate comment from U.S. authorities.

Greenland lies just off the Eastern coast of Canada,  located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe (specifically Norway and Denmark). It is an autonomous country and is the world's largest island, although it is smaller than Australia, which is considered a continent. Three-quarters of Greenland is covered by the only permanent ice sheet outside of Antarctica. With a population of about 56,480 it is the least densely populated country in the world. One never hears much about Greenland but it has been inhabited for 4,500 years by Arctic peoples like the Inuit who migrated there from Canada and survive there by hunting and fishing.

Vikings settled the uninhabited southern part of Greenland beginning in the 10th century.

Polar bears, musk oxen, caribou, arctic foxes, hares, eagles, ptarmigan, lemmings and the rare Arctic wolf are  a few of the hundreds of Arctic species which are  part of the terrestrial fauna of Greenland and must be protected. Several of the species are now endangered and radioactive waste could only make their continued existence more at risk. Another tragedy we would be accountable for.

Arctic fox

Killer whales

Arctic musk ox

Arctic hares

Arctic tern

Caribou

 The rare and endangered Actic wolf makes it's homes in Greenland