Wilderness areas have shrunk by one tenth worldwide since the nineties...not protected



A tenth of the world's wilderness has vanished in the past two decades, research shows.

New maps show "alarming losses" of pristine landscapes, particularly in South America and Africa, according to World Conservation Society scientists.
They argue in Current Biology that wild areas are ignored in international conservation agreements, despite their ecological and cultural value. About 20% of the world's land area is classed as wilderness. By this, scientists mean landscapes free of large-scale human disturbances such as housing, development and industry.

The majority of these untouched spaces are found in North America, north Asia, north Africa and Australia.  They are often home to indigenous peoples as well as endangered plants and animals.
James Watson of the University of Queensland, Australia, and the US Wildlife Conservation Society in New York said wilderness areas "are completely ignored in environmental policy".
"International policy mechanisms must recognize the actions needed to maintain wilderness areas before it is too late," said Prof Watson.
"We probably have one to two decades to turn this around."
Rewilding
The findings are based on a current map of wilderness areas around the globe compared with one produced in the same way in the early 1990s.
The maps show that an estimated 3.3 million sq km (almost 10%) of wilderness area has been lost in that time.

The researchers say all wilderness areas, regardless of their size, should be assessed immediately for protection measures.  If not, all attempts to restore places to nature - known as "rewilding" - will be futile, they argue.
Toos van Noordwijk, director of engagement and science at Earthwatch Institute (Europe), said the research highlighted a very troubling trend that affects us all.
"In Europe, we lost most of our wilderness long before 1990," she said.
"But even here, biodiversity is still declining, as will be demonstrated again by the State of Nature report that will be released next Wednesday."
She said we all shared responsibility for the main cause of this loss around the world - unsustainable land use, particularly for agriculture. But she said the good news was that there were more opportunities for action than ever before, including the growing field of citizen science.
"We urgently need to embrace these opportunities to preserve wilderness areas and a rich biodiversity," she added.
Mike Barrett of WWF-UK said the vast scale of loss in global wilderness is having grave impacts.
"As we seemingly enter the Anthropocene era, ( the era of human impact on the planet ) this report further signifies humanity's immense impact and the effects that is having for wildlife and people alike."

These negative impacts on the planet inevitably filter down to negatively affect  humanity and our future survival.

Shocking satellite images show Aral Sea has almost disappeared

To  put it in perspective - last century Greenland lost 90 billion tons of ice a year. That has now increased to 269 billion tons a year.
The Aral Sea in central Asia used to be one of the world's largest lakes.

NASA explains, "In the 1960s, the Soviet Union undertook a major water diversion project on the arid plains of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. The region's two major rivers...were used to transform the desert into farms for cotton and other crops. Before the project, the Syr Darya and the Amu Darya rivers flowed down from the mountains...and finally pooled together in the lowest part of the basin. The lake they made, the Aral Sea, was once the fourth largest in the world."

However, after irrigation and drought, the Aral Sea has dramatically shrunk over the years. NASA's Terra satellite has documented the changes and images show the water body being a mere fraction of the size in 2000s compared to what it was in 1960s.
NASA notes, "As the Aral Sea has dried up, fisheries and the communities that depended on them collapsed. The increasingly salty water became polluted with fertilizer and pesticides. The blowing dust from the exposed lakebed, contaminated with agricultural chemicals, became a public health hazard."

The deteriorating condition of the Aral Sea also led to changes in local weather patterns, making winters and summers more extreme.

According to NASA, "In a last-ditch effort to save some of the lake, Kazakhstan built a dam between the northern and southern parts of the Aral Sea. Completed in 2005, the dam was basically a death sentence for the southern Aral Sea, which was judged to be beyond saving. All of the water flowing into the desert basin from the Syr Darya now stays in the Northern Aral Sea."

Climate change  effects our planet  in more ways than one .

Greenland's ice is melting and here's why you should care

AOL.COM EDITORS    September  9th 2016 
Greenland's ice is melting.

Global warming is having an adverse effect on Greenland's ice sheet.

The sheet currently covers most of the island and is three times the size of Texas, but it's shrinking.

From 1979 to 2006, the summer heat has increased the amount of melting ice by 30 percent.

And while the winter snow used to offset the loss of ice, scientists say warmer temperatures are causing the island's ice to melt at a faster rate.

If the Earth's temperature increases by two degrees Celsius, it would result in the total loss of Greenland's ice sheet.
This poses serious problems because of the runoff of freshwater from the ice sheet.

If Greenland's ice sheet were to melt entirely the sea level would rise more than 20 feet.

Combined with the arctic's ice caps melting, scientists predict the rise in sea level would affect almost every major coast city in the world.

The influx of freshwater won't just affect coastlines, it will disrupt ocean circulation and habitat's climates.

 I just figured out why we haven't been visited by intelligent beings from another planet.

ANY QUESTIONS??WE ARE OPEN 24/7

Ocean levels are getting higher at an accelerating rate ... Why?

Scientific research indicates sea levels worldwide have been rising at a rate of 0.14 inches (3.5 millimeters) per year since the early 1990s. The trend, linked to global warming, puts thousands of coastal cities, like Venice, Italy, (seen here during a historic flood in 2008), and even whole islands at risk of being claimed by the ocean.

Over the past century, the Global Mean Sea Level (GMSL) has risen by 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters). However, the annual rate of rise over the past 20 years has been 0.13 inches (3.2 millimeters) a year, roughly twice the average speed of the preceding 80 years. How do we know?  By analyzing core samples, tide gauge readings, and most recently and most scientifically accurate, satellite measurements.
Over the past century, the burning of fossil fuels and other mostly  human activities has released enormous amounts of heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere. These emissions have caused the Earth's surface temperature to rise, and the oceans absorb about 80 percent of this additional heat.
The rise in sea levels is linked to three primary factors, all induced by this ongoing global climate change:
Thermal expansion: When water heats up, it expands. About half of the past century's rise in sea level is attributable to warmer oceans simply occupying more space.



Melting of glaciers and polar ice caps: Large ice formations, like glaciers and the polar ice caps, naturally melt back a bit each summer. But in the winter, snows, made primarily from evaporated seawater, are generally sufficient to balance out the melting. Recently, though, persistently higher temperatures caused by global warming have led to greater-than-average summer melting as well as diminished snowfall due to later winters and earlier springs. This imbalance results in a significant increase and imbalance in runoff versus evaporation for the ocean, causing sea levels to rise.



Ice loss from Greenland and West Antarctica: As with glaciers and the ice caps, increased heat is causing the massive ice sheets that cover Greenland and Antarctica to melt at an accelerated pace. Scientists also believe meltwater from above and seawater from below is seeping beneath Greenland's and West Antarctica's ice sheets, effectively lubricating ice streams and causing them to move more quickly into the sea. Moreover, higher sea temperatures are causing the massive ice shelves that extend out from Antarctica to melt from below, weaken, and break off.
Consequences
When sea levels rise rapidly, as they have been doing, even a small increase can have devastating effects on coastal habitats. As seawater reaches farther inland, it can cause destructive erosion, flooding of wetlands, contamination of aquifers and agricultural soils, and lost habitat for fish, birds, and plants.
When large storms hit land, higher sea levels mean bigger, more powerful storm surges that can strip away everything in their path.
In addition, hundreds of millions of people live in areas that will become increasingly vulnerable to flooding. Higher sea levels would force them to abandon their homes and relocate. Low-lying islands could be submerged completely.
How High Will It Go? Most predictions say the warming of the planet will continue and in all probability will accelerate. Oceans will continue to rise as well, but predicting  how fast and how high is still not an exact science. A recent study says we can expect the oceans to rise between 2.5 and 6.5 feet (0.8 and 2 meters) by 2100, enough to swamp many of the cities along the U.S. East Coast. The higher estimates, including a complete meltdown of the Greenland ice sheet, push sea level rise to 23 feet (7 meters), enough to submerge London and most of southern England,  Louisiana, vast areas of California, Mexico, central America, Holland, Japan, Italy and countless other low lying countries and islands. That is something to think about. Where will all the people go?

It is beginning right now

Ocean levels are getting higher at an accelerating rate ... Why?

Scientific research indicates sea levels worldwide have been rising at a rate of 0.14 inches (3.5 millimeters) per year since the early 1990s. The trend, linked to global warming, puts thousands of coastal cities, like Venice, Italy, (seen here during a historic flood in 2008), and even whole islands at risk of being claimed by the ocean.

Over the past century, the Global Mean Sea Level (GMSL) has risen by 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters). However, the annual rate of rise over the past 20 years has been 0.13 inches (3.2 millimeters) a year, roughly twice the average speed of the preceding 80 years. How do we know?  By analyzing core samples, tide gauge readings, and most recently and most scientifically accurate, satellite measurements.
Over the past century, the burning of fossil fuels and other mostly  human activities has released enormous amounts of heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere. These emissions have caused the Earth's surface temperature to rise, and the oceans absorb about 80 percent of this additional heat.
The rise in sea levels is linked to three primary factors, all induced by this ongoing global climate change:
Thermal expansion: When water heats up, it expands. About half of the past century's rise in sea level is attributable to warmer oceans simply occupying more space.



Melting of glaciers and polar ice caps: Large ice formations, like glaciers and the polar ice caps, naturally melt back a bit each summer. But in the winter, snows, made primarily from evaporated seawater, are generally sufficient to balance out the melting. Recently, though, persistently higher temperatures caused by global warming have led to greater-than-average summer melting as well as diminished snowfall due to later winters and earlier springs. This imbalance results in a significant increase and imbalance in runoff versus evaporation for the ocean, causing sea levels to rise.



Ice loss from Greenland and West Antarctica: As with glaciers and the ice caps, increased heat is causing the massive ice sheets that cover Greenland and Antarctica to melt at an accelerated pace. Scientists also believe meltwater from above and seawater from below is seeping beneath Greenland's and West Antarctica's ice sheets, effectively lubricating ice streams and causing them to move more quickly into the sea. Moreover, higher sea temperatures are causing the massive ice shelves that extend out from Antarctica to melt from below, weaken, and break off.
Consequences
When sea levels rise rapidly, as they have been doing, even a small increase can have devastating effects on coastal habitats. As seawater reaches farther inland, it can cause destructive erosion, flooding of wetlands, contamination of aquifers and agricultural soils, and lost habitat for fish, birds, and plants.
When large storms hit land, higher sea levels mean bigger, more powerful storm surges that can strip away everything in their path.
In addition, hundreds of millions of people live in areas that will become increasingly vulnerable to flooding. Higher sea levels would force them to abandon their homes and relocate. Low-lying islands could be submerged completely.
How High Will It Go?
Most predictions say the warming of the planet will continue and in all probability will accelerate. Oceans will continue to rise as well, but predicting  how fast and how high is still not an exact science. A recent study says we can expect the oceans to rise between 2.5 and 6.5 feet (0.8 and 2 meters) by 2100, enough to swamp many of the cities along the U.S. East Coast. The higher estimates, including a complete meltdown of the Greenland ice sheet, push sea level rise to 23 feet (7 meters), enough to submerge London and most of southern England,  Louisiana, vast areas of California, Mexico, central America, Holland, Japan, Italy and countless other low lying countries and islands. That is something to think about. Where will all the people go?