Signs From Earth

National Academies Report: "Farming Practices Should Evolve to Meet New Challenges, Expanding Needs"

HTTP://NATIONAL-ACADEMIES.ORG/morenews/20100629.html

"...To help achieve a sustainable agriculture system that looks beyond the end goal of providing more goods, the committee identified four goals that should be considered simultaneously:

--satisfy human food, fiber, and feed requirements, and contribute to biofuels needs .         

--enhance environmental quality and the resource base

--maintain the economic viability of agriculture

--improve the quality of life for farmers, farm workers, and society as a whole..."

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Comparison: Climate Change and Gulf Oil Spill as "Environmental Disasters" (via @RockEthicsPSU)

Gulf Oil Spill: Blue vs. oiled water in Gulf of Mexico. June 18. Photo from Creative Commons by kris krug/flickr

Penn State Climate Ethics: http://rockblogs.psu.edu/climate/

"Stopping the Worst Environmental Disaster?: An Ethical and Scientific Comparison of the Gulf Oil Spill and Climate Change."

http://rockblogs.psu.edu/climate/2010/06/stopping-the-worst-environmental-disaster-an-ethical-and-scientific-comparison-of-the-gulf-oil-spill.html

Donald A. Brown: "...Climate change not only threatens more people, animals, and ecological systems around the world than the Gulf spill; it promises to be a problem that will continually wreck havoc for centuries while harming the world's poorest and most vulnerable people with drought, floods, killer storms, rising sea levels, and vector borne disease.

"BP may shut down the oil gusher in the Gulf by the end of the summer, yet the harms from human-induced climate change will likely plague the world for centuries. While the threat from the BP gusher to the wildlife in the Gulf is huge, the threat to people, animals, and ecological systems from climate change is much larger..."

Climate Change: Icebergs breaking off Illulisat Glacier, Greenland, Sept. 2008. Photo from Creative Commons by Tim Norris/flickr

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Rorschach: Oil Slick Wraps Around Mississippi Barrier Islands (via @NASA_EO) #oilspill #oilpocalypse

June 26 image showing oil slick as it swirls around coastal Mississippi islands. Image: NASA. (more info & hi-res at link below.)

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=44466

NASA Earth Observatory: "As of June 27, 2010, the entire gulf-facing beachfront of several barrier islands in eastern Mississippi (offshore of Pascagoula) had received a designation of at least "lightly oiled" ... A few small stretches of Petit Bois Island had been labeled heavily or moderately oiled.

"This high-resolution image shows Petit Bois Island (top right) and the eastern end of Horn Island (top left) on June 26. In general, oil-covered waters are silvery and cleaner waters are blue-gray....

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PNAS: Experts believe climate could reach tipping point (via @eurekalert)

"Expert judgments about transient climate response to alternative future trajectories of radiative forcing"

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2010/06/24/0908906107

Authors: Kirsten Zickfeld, M. Morgan, Dave Frame, and David Keith

Study description from Eurekalert: "The odds may be better than 50-50 that human-induced global warming can push Earth’s climate past a tipping point within 200 years, if carbon dioxide emissions continue to increase, according to a survey of climate experts. 

"Researchers have recently begun defining tipping points as fundamental climate shifts that affect at least half the planet and persist for several decades. M. Granger Morgan and colleagues conducted face-to-face interviews with 14 prominent climate scientists who, according to the study, represented the range of mainstream opinion. 

"During the interviews, the experts were presented with low, medium, and high trajectories for CO2 increases —all within the latest IPCC projections—through the year 2200, and were asked to specify the probability that each of the scenarios would force the climate system past a tipping point. 

"The authors report that for the high trajectory, 13 of the 14 experts responded that the probability was greater than 50%, and 10 specified 75% or more. The potentially climate-altering CO2 scenario, though high, is still within the range of plausible scenarios offered by the IPCC, according to the authors."

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Study assesses carbon sequestration leakage risks (via @eurekalert @naturenews)

Graphic showing carbon storage technique at Statoil Hydro Sleipner site on Norwegian continental shelf. Image: Alligator film/BUG/Statoil 

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-06/uoc-csb061810.php

Eurekalert: "Carbon sequestration: Boon or burden?" "...Large scale use of carbon sequestration could help to avoid extreme global warming that would otherwise occur in the near future unless fossil fuel emissions are reduced significantly. But it is not clear how effective different types of sequestration are in the long run, owing to leakage of stored CO2 back out to the atmosphere. Nor is it clear what would be the long-term consequences of such leakage for the Earth's environment...."

Nature Geoscience: Long-term effectiveness and consequences of carbon dioxide sequestration

http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/ngeo896.html

Statoil Hydro: http://www.statoil.com/en/NewsAndMedia/PressRoom/Pages/Pictures.aspx

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Shale Gas: Hydrofracking: "The Next Drilling Disaster?" (via @thenation)

http://www.thenation.com/article/next-drilling-disaster?page=full

"Hydrofracking is a hugely lucrative and rapidly expanding industry--the consulting firm PFC Energy recently reported that shale gas production accounts for about 10 percent of US natural gas production, up from 1 percent in 2000. It is bolstered not only by a powerful lobby but also by growing awareness of the threats posed by climate change and America's dependence on foreign oil. 

"In recent years, a broad coalition of energy analysts and government officials have embraced domestic natural gas as a promising "bridge fuel" that could help smooth the transition from more carbon-intensive fossil fuels like oil and coal to renewable energy sources like solar and wind. The catch, though, is that the natural gas industry shares the same history as other energy industries operating in the United States. 

"A string of recent disasters--including the TVA coal ash spill, the Massey coal mine explosion and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill--have demonstrated all too vividly that failure to regulate and oversee resource extraction can lead to catastrophe. Some fear that Dimock is the first natural gas casualty, an early warning of what could happen on a much larger scale if fracking spreads unchecked to other residential areas in the Marcellus region and across the country..."

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Hard Times: When it paid to photograph the hard truths (via @latimes) #documentary #photojournalism

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-ca-doc-photos-20100627,0,3090645.story

"The 10 photographers in 'Engaged Observers,' opening June 29 at the Getty Museum, are bound by a personal perspective and an endangered profession."

Leah Ollman: "The 10 photographers in "Engaged Observers," opening June 29 at the Getty Museum, are at once storytellers, witnesses, advocates for justice, investigative journalists, consciousness raisers, evidence gatherers and educators. They're also something of an endangered species, threatened by the destruction of their professional habitat...

"...The tenuous state of print journalism, with so many publications closing or contracting, suggests a rough road ahead for photographers (as with writers) needing time and support to address subjects with depth and complexity. The Internet offers myriad new avenues for exposure but no viable system to pay for such work to be produced. Also, viewing an extensive essay on screen is not the same as making one's way through the pages of a book or magazine.

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Global Migration: A World Ever More on the Move (via @nytimesweek)

Keep Out: US Mexico border wall from Mexican side. Photo from Creative Commons by wonderlane/flickr

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/weekinreview/27deparle.html?ref=weekinreview

Jason DeParle: "Perhaps no force in modern life is as omnipresent yet overlooked as global migration, that vehicle of creative destruction that is reordering ever more of the world. Overlooked? A skeptic may well question the statement, given how often the topic makes news and how divisive the news can be. After all, Arizona's campaign against illegal immigrants, codified in an April law, set off high-decibel debates from Melbourne to Madrid. But migration also shapes the landscape beneath the seemingly unrelated events of the headlines. It is a story-behind-the-story, a complicating tide, in issues as diverse as school bond fights and efforts to isolate Iran. ..."

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Gulf Oil Spill Primer: Q&A: How Much, How Far... (via @nytimes) #oilspill

Oil across the water. Gulf of Mexico, June 19. Photo from Creative Commons by Duncan Davidson/flickr

Seeking Answers on Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill as Questions Mount

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/26/us/26primerWEB.html

"Since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in April, killing 11 and setting off the biggest maritime oil spill in the nation’s history, questions about the potential dimensions of the disaster have only multiplied from week to week. Readers have been asking whether the oil can be contained, how serious the damage will be and what they can do to help....a primer on the spill."

also see: Deep Dive: Encyclopedia Roundup on Gulf Oil Spill (via Encyclopedia of Earth) #oilspill #oilpocalypse

http://ddimick.posterous.com/deep-dive-comprehensive-encyclopedic-roundup

Oiled boom, BaratariaBay, June 24. Photo from Creative Commons by Duncan Davidson/flickr

Burning oil on oil-covered Gulf of Mexico, June 17. Photo from Creative Commons by Duncan Davidson/flickr

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Best Satellite Shot in Weeks: Cloudless June 25 image of Oil Slick in Gulf of Mexico (via @NASA_EO) #oilspill

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=44452

NASA Earth Observatory: "Oil from the Deepwater Horizon rig remained visible on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico on June 25, 2010. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra captured this natural-color image the same day. The oil appears as interlocking curved tendrils varying in color from white to dark gray...."

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Six Stories Up: Rooftop Brooklyn Farmers Seek to Feed the Neighborhood (via @PRI Living on Earth)

Rooftop New York tomatoes from crop year 2009. Photo from Creative Commons by tmgonzalez/Brooklyn Grange/flickr

http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.htm?programID=10-P13-00026&segmentID=7

"It took a crane, a million pounds of soil, and lots of people power, but a group of young farmers called the Brooklyn Grange have opened a commercial farm on top of an office building in Queens, New York. Their goal is to provide local, healthy food to city residents and restaurants and to prove that urban farming is a viable enterprise. Stephanie Hughes reports."

Brooklyn Grange: http://brooklyngrangefarm.com/

Six Stories Above Queens, A Fine Spot for a Little Farming (via @nytimes)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/14/nyregion/14farm.html

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Water Scarcity: Index rates India and Pakistan among most vulnerable (via @globalrisks)

Dry: Rajasthan, India. June 12, 2010. Photo from Creative Commons by Austin Yoder/flickr

http://maplecroft.com/about/news/water-security.html

Maplecroft: "A new report evaluating the water security of 165 countries has rated the supply of clean, fresh water to the societies and businesses of 10 nations at "extreme risk."

"According to the Water Security Risk Index, released by Maplecroft, a firm specialising in corporate risk intelligence, Somalia (1), Mauritania (2), Sudan (3), Niger (4), Iraq (5), Uzbekistan (6), Pakistan (7), Egypt (8), Turkmenistan (9) and Syria (10) are the countries with the least secure supplies of water...."

"...Pakistan's long-running dispute over Kashmir with India (13 and high risk) is in part fuelled by competition for critical water resources that are needed to maintain the growth of industry and investment for both countries...."

http://www.maplecroft.com/

Reuters: Africa's water most precarious, Iceland best: Study

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE65M6GU20100623

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Report: Physical Climate Science Since IPCC AR4: New Findings Update (via @nordenen)

http://www.norden.org/en/publications/publications/2010-549?set_language=en

Free PDF at link above: "...This report provides an update of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (AR4), focusing on the physical climate system that in the IPCC work is addressed by its Working Group I. The report considers progress in understanding of the human and natural drivers of climate change, climate observations and attribution and key climate feedback, ocean acidification. Developments and near future prospects of climate modeling are also discussed in brief. 

Some of the key findings that the recent literature brings forth include:

-- Parts of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have shown rapid melt over recent years.

-- Solar cycle effects on global temperatures are small compared to anthropogenic forcing

-- More emerging research on the "other CO2 problem", ocean acidification

-- Climate change may have significant effects on natural carbon sinks

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Smoke and Slick: Gulf War 2010 (via @skytruth @flickr) #oilspill

Smoke plumes from Gulf of Mexico near site of leaking Macando oil well. 

June 22 pictures by Dr. Oscar Garcia of Florida State University taken during a water sampling cruise. Images via Creative Commons SkyTruth/flickr

Oil slick near site of leaking Macondo oil well in Gulf of Mexico. 

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MIT Researchers See Natural Gas as Choice for Lower Carbon Emissions (via @nytimes from ClimateWire)

Drilling for natural gas near Pinedale, Wyoming. Photo from Creative Commons by World Resources Institute/flickr

http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/06/25/25climatewire-mit-researchers-see-natural-gas-as-the-choic-68486.html

Joel Kirkland of ClimateWire: "Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are encouraging U.S. policymakers to consider the nation's growing supply of natural gas as a short-term substitute for aging coal-fired power plants.

"In the results of a two-year study, released today, the researchers said electric utilities and other sectors of the American economy will use more gas through 2050. Under a scenario that envisions a federal policy aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions to 50 percent below 2005 levels by 2050, researchers found a substantial role for natural gas...."

MIT Energy Initiative: The Future of Natural Gas

http://web.mit.edu/mitei/research/studies/naturalgas.html

Conclusions, page 36:

"The outlook for gas over the next several decades is in general very favorable. In the electric generation sector, given the unproven and relatively high cost of other low-carbon generation alternatives, gas could well be the preferred alternative to coal. 

"A broad GHG pricing policy would increase gas use in generation but reduce its use in other sectors, on balance increasing gas use substantially from present levels. 

"International gas resources are likely less costly than those in the U.S. except for the lowest-cost domestic shale resources, and the emergence of an integrated global gas market could result in significant U.S. gas imports. 

"The shale gas resource is a major contributor to domestic resources but far from a panacea over the longer term. Under deeper cuts in CO2 emissions, cleaner tech- nologies are needed. Gas can be an effective bridge to a lower CO2 emissions future but investment in the development of still lower CO2 technologies remains an important priority."

MIT PR on study: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2010/gas-report-0625.html

PDF of Interim Report: http://web.mit.edu/mitei/research/studies/report-natural-gas.pdf

EENews.net: Climatewire

http://www.eenews.net/cw/

Global natural gas supply, fig. 2.2 from p. 7 of report: "...although resources are large, the supply base is concentrated, with an estimated 70% in only three regions: Russia, the Middle East (primarily Qatar and Iran) and North America. Political considerations and individual country depletion policies play at least as big a role in global gas resource development as geology and economics, and will dominate the evolution of the global gas market."

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