Signs From Earth

Oil Impact: Journal makes Exxon Valdez and other oil-related studies available free (via @eurekalert)

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-05/ru-ljm052710.php

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Photographers Say BP Restricts Access to Oil Spill (via @newsweek @sejorg)

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/05/26/the-missing-oil-spill-photos.html

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The Science of the Oil Spill (via @sciencemagazine)

http://news.sciencemag.org/oilspill/

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Soil as Salvation: Does a Country's Dirt Determine Its Destiny? (via @sciencenow & @PLoS)

From PLoS Study link below: Figure 1. Modelled "suitability" (probability of occurrence, Maxent) for (A) agriculture, (B) sedentary animal husbandry, (C) nomadic pastoralism, and (D) hunting and gathering.

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/05/does-a-countrys-dirt-determine-i.html

David Malakoff @sciencenow: "Chad is dirt poor because its dirt is poor. Germany is relatively rich because its soil is rich. That’s the provocative conclusion flowing from a new study, which suggests that just two fundamental factors—soil type and climate—can largely explain why humans have prospered in some places but not in others. The finding, drawn from a computer model originally used to predict the distribution of moths, also may help explain why some regions are more prone to violence than others...

From: @PLoS: Is the Spatial Distribution of Mankind's Most Basic Economic Traits Determined by Climate and Soil Alone?

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0010416

Jan Beck, Andrea Sieber, University of Basel, Switzerland: Several authors, most prominently Jared Diamond (1997, Guns, Germs and Steel), have investigated biogeographic determinants of human history and civilization. The timing of the transition to an agricultural lifestyle, associated with steep population growth and consequent societal change, has been suggested to be affected by the availability of suitable organisms for domestication. These factors were shown to quantitatively explain some of the current global inequalities of economy and political power. Here, we advance this approach one step further by looking at climate and soil as sole determining factors..."

Also see: Our Good Earth: The Future Rests on the SoIl Beneath our Feet: National Geographic September 2008 (@ngmag) 

by Charles Mann and Jim Richardson (@jrichardson4754)

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/09/soil/mann-text

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Cheap Eye on Earth: Weather balloon+Powershot camera+GPS = Earth Pix @90,000 ft. (via @nytimes)

View from near space NIXHAB-3 November 23, 2009

Fascinating story of an Iowa man who modifies the internal software of Canon Powershot (point-and-shoot category) cameras to allow extended time-lapse photography. Pete Lilja of Cedar Rapids attaches the camera and a GPS transmitter to a helium balloon and launches the rig into the stratosphere over the US Midwest for near space photography. He gets pictures of Earth from above 85,000 feet, like this example above from the NIXHAB website, link below.

Tweaking a Camera to Suit a Hobby (via @nytimes)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/27/technology/personaltech/27basics.html

Peter Wayner: "When he is not fighting fires in Waterloo, Iowa, Pete Lilja likes to rig his camera to a weather balloon and send it up to record the world.

"I got a picture when the balloon was at about 87,000 feet above northeast Iowa," he said. "We could see Lake Michigan. That was pretty impressive."

To take these photos, Mr. Lilja, of Cedar Falls, packed his Canon A570is with a GPS transmitter in a cushioned box (and attached his phone number in case the GPS failed). He chose that particular point-and-shoot camera because a group of programmers from around the world had created software that gave photo hobbyists like him the ability to change the way Canon intended the camera to operate...."

NIXHAB: North Iowa Experimental High Altitude Ballooning

http://nixhab.com/

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The Gulf of Oil from Space in 35 Days (via @MotherJones @mojobluemarble @NASA_EO) #oilspill #oilpocalypse

http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/05/gulf-oil-space-35-days

NASA Satellites' View of Gulf Oil Spill Over Time

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=44097

NASA May 27: "Two NASA satellites are capturing images of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which began April 20, 2010, with the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. This series of images reveals a space-based view of the burning oil rig and the ensuing oil spill, through May 24. The imagery comes from the MODIS instruments aboard NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites. The oil slick appears grayish-beige in these images. The shape of the spill changes due to weather conditions, currents and the use of oil-dispersing chemicals...."

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/oil-spill-video.html

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Risk Assessment: How do We Manage Systems We Don't Understand? (Via @nytimesopinion) #oilspill

David Brooks: Op-Ed Columnist - Drilling for Certainty 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/28/opinion/28brooks.html?ref=opinion

David Brooks: "In the weeks since the Deepwater Horizon explosion, the political debate has fallen into predictably partisan and often puerile categories. Conservatives say this is Obama's Katrina. Liberals say the spill is proof the government should have more control over industry.

"But the real issue has to do with risk assessment. It has to do with the bloody crossroads where complex technical systems meet human psychology.

"Over the past decades, we've come to depend on an ever-expanding array of intricate high-tech systems. These hardware and software systems are the guts of financial markets, energy exploration, space exploration, air travel, defense programs and modern production plants.

"These systems, which allow us to live as well as we do, are too complex for any single person to understand. Yet every day, individuals are asked to monitor the health of these networks, weigh the risks of a system failure and take appropriate measures to reduce those risks.

If there is one thing we've learned, it is that humans are not great at measuring and responding to risk when placed in situations too complicated to understand..."

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Extreme Weather: Severe Flooding on Poland's Vistula River, May 2010 (via @NASA_EO and @GlobalPost)

Vistula River, Poland, May 22, 2010 Photo from International Space Station via @NASA_EO

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=44102

NASA Earth Observatory: This image from  the International Space Station shows widespread flooding along the Vistula River in southeastern Poland. A major river in Poland, the Vistula originates on the western slopes of the mountain Barania Gora in the Carpathian Mountains in southern Poland. ...While the flooding illustrated here is extensive, it represents but a small "snapshot" of conditions that have developed in Eastern Europe over the past one to two weeks.

Spring flooding of rivers is not an uncommon occurrence in Poland but this event has been described as the most serious flood in several decades....In the spring of 2010, heavy rains caused high waters in the Vistula River, first in southern Poland. Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated as the river level rose and broke through waterlogged dikes and embankments. The flood surge then moved northward through Warsaw, continuing towards the Baltic Sea.

@Global Post: In Poland, Floods Threaten Political Consequences

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/poland/100524/vistula-river-flood-natural-disaster-news

Jan Cienski: Warsaw, Poland: Bridges across the Vistula River, which runs through the heart of Warsaw, were packed Saturday with sightseers coming to get a look at the most serious flood in more than a century, part of a widespread natural disaster that has inundated parts of the south of Poland and is now moving north.

Vistula River in flood, Krakow Poland, May 18, 2010, Photo from Creative Commons by sharpetka86/flickr

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Planet Manager: You (Too) Can Model Future Climate Change with this "App" (via @newsecuritybeat)

Eye on Environmental Security: Want to Model Climate Change? There's an App for That (@newsecuritybeat)

http://newsecuritybeat.blogspot.com/2010/05/eye-on-environmental-security-want-to.html

Dan Asin: "C-Learn, developed by the coalition group Climate Interactive, is a three-region climate simulator that allows users to input targets for fossil fuels emissions, emissions from deforestation, and reductions from afforestation. The app then outputs the expected results for atmospheric CO2 concentrations and global temperature..."

C-Learn: http://forio.com/simulation/climate-development/index.htm

Climate Interactive: http://climateinteractive.org/

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Oiled Wildlife: In Louisiana, wildlife shows effects of gulf oil spill (via @washingtonpost) #oilspill #oilpocalypse

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/26/AR2010052602509.html

Juliet Eilperin and David A. Fahrenthold: "Grand Isle, LA. -- In the Louisiana marsh, oil-coated pelicans flap their wings in a futile attempt to dry them. A shorebird repeatedly dunks its face in a puddle, unable to wash off. Lines of dead jellyfish float in the gulf, traces of oil visible in their clear "bells." These scenes, scientists say, are confirmation of what they had feared for a month. Now that oil from the Gulf of Mexico's vast spill has come ashore -- in some places, as thick as soft fudge -- it is causing serious damage in one of the country's great natural nurseries.

"In nature, oil is a versatile killer. It smothers the tiny animals that make up a coral reef. It suffocates blades of marsh grass, cutting them off from air and sunlight. It clumps up a bird's feathers, leaving it unable to fly. Then, trying to remove the oil, birds swallow it..."

also see: Oiled Shores: Stunning Photo Gallery of Oil Reaching Louisiana Coast (via @big_picture) #oilspill #oilpocalypse

http://ddimick.posterous.com/oiled-shores-a-stunning-photo-gallery-of-oil

also see: Spreading Oil Slick: May 24 Satellite Image of Growing Gulf Oil Spill (via @NASA_EO) #oilspill #oilpocalypse

http://ddimick.posterous.com/spreading-oil-slick-may-24-satellite-image-of

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Maps: World Atlas of Geotagged Photos: Where People Take Pictures (via @flowingdata @flickr)

 Geotaggers World Atlas #1: New York

Eric Fischer: "The maps are ordered by the number of pictures taken in the central cluster of each one. This is a little unfair to aggressively polycentric cities like Tokyo and Los Angeles, which probably get lower placement than they really deserve because there are gaps where no one took any pictures. The central cluster of each map is not necessarily in the center of each image, because the image bounds are chosen to include as many geotagged locations as possible near the central cluster. All the maps are to the same scale, chosen to be just large enough for the central New York cluster to fit."

@flowingdata: World atlas of Flickr geotaggers is maptastic

http://flowingdata.com/2010/05/25/world-atlas-of-flickr-geotaggers/

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Emissions Map: Mapping European Carbon Emissions and Allocations

http://sandbag.org.uk/emissionsmap

Sandbag: "...This map allows you to explore how the emissions trading system is operating in the EU. New features include search by postcode, CITL sector code and installation name...."

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Oiled Shores: A Stunning Photo Gallery of Oil Reaching Louisiana Coast (via @big_picture) #oilspill #oilpocalypse

@Big_Picture: A reddish egret, its legs and tail feathers coated with oil, flies above the water in Grand Isle, Louisiana, May 20, 2010. (U.S. Coast Guard photo/Petty Officer 3rd Class Patrick Kelley)

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/oil_reaches_louisiana_shores.html

The Big Picture May 24, 2010: "Over one month after the initial explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, crude oil continues to flow into the Gulf of Mexico, and oil slicks have slowly reached as far as 12 miles into Louisiana's marshes. According to Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, more than 65 miles of Louisiana's shoreline has now been oiled. BP said it will be at least Wednesday before they will try using heavy mud and cement to plug the leak, a maneuver called a "top kill" that represents their best hope of stopping the oil after several failed attempts. Based on low estimates, at least 6 million gallons of crude have spewed into the Gulf so far - though some scientists have said they believe the spill already surpasses the 11 million-gallon 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska as the worst in U.S. history. (39 photos total)..."

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Spreading Oil Slick: May 24 Satellite Image of Growing Gulf Oil Spill (via @NASA_EO)

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=44070

"...Oil smoothes the ocean surface, making the Sun's reflection brighter in some places, and reducing the scattering of sunlight in other places. As a result, the oil slick is brighter than the surrounding water in some places (image center) and darker than the surrounding water in others (image lower right). The tip of the Mississippi Delta is surrounded by muddy water that appears light tan. Bright white ribbons of oil streak across this sediment-laden water..."

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"Reinventing Fire": Amory Lovins' proposal to get off fossil fuels, profitably (via @RockyMtnInst)

http://www.rmi.org/rmi/ReinventingFire

RMI: "Energy-related economic, security, and environmental threats are intensifying the national conversation about how to regain energy leadership and competitiveness, restore jobs and prosperity, and build a secure and climate-safe energy system. 

Yet America lacks a comprehensive vision of how a market economy can achieve these transformational goals. RMI has that vision, and is now building its detailed roadmap, which we call Reinventing Fire(TM). 

This strategy will bring together RMI's 28 years of innovation and engage the world in our most ambitious and important work yet--using whole-system thinking and integrative design to move the U.S. off fossil fuels by 2050, led by business for profit...."

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