Archive for July, 2010

Nature stunner: Global warming blamed for 40% decline in the ocean’s phytoplankton

by: admin July 30, 2010

Scientists may have found the most devastating impact yet of human-caused global warming — a 40% decline in phytoplankton since 1950 linked to the rise in ocean sea surface temperatures. If confirmed, it may represent the single most important finding of the year in climate science.

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Nature stunner: Global warming blamed for 40% decline in the ocean’s phytoplankton

by: admin July 30, 2010

Scientists may have found the most devastating impact yet of human-caused global warming — a 40% decline in phytoplankton since 1950 linked to the rise in ocean sea surface temperatures. If confirmed, it may represent the single most important finding of the year in climate science.

read more

First results from Transition Together evaluation

by: admin July 30, 2010

“Transition Together”, the street-by-street behaviour change programme developed by Transition Town Totnes and now being piloted in 10 other communities, has just completed analysing the data that has come back from the first 4 groups, comprising 32 households in Totnes. They have completed all 7 of the sessions set out in the workbook, and the data offers a fascinating first look at whether the process works or not. The results from the other 31 groups currently underway are expected this Autumn. Here, Fiona Ward of Transition Together shares the results that have emerged.

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First results from Transition Together evaluation

by: admin July 30, 2010

“Transition Together”, the street-by-street behaviour change programme developed by Transition Town Totnes and now being piloted in 10 other communities, has just completed analysing the data that has come back from the first 4 groups, comprising 32 households in Totnes. They have completed all 7 of the sessions set out in the workbook, and the data offers a fascinating first look at whether the process works or not. The results from the other 31 groups currently underway are expected this Autumn. Here, Fiona Ward of Transition Together shares the results that have emerged.

read more

UK Gov’t Department of Energy and Climate Change Pathways 2050 report - July 30

by: admin July 30, 2010

-2050 Pathways Analysis
-UK energy scenarios: working with a flawed model
-DECC publishes plans for achieving 2050 targets
-DECC lays out six possible futures for low-carbon energy

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UK Gov’t Department of Energy and Climate Change Pathways 2050 report - July 30

by: admin July 30, 2010

-2050 Pathways Analysis
-UK energy scenarios: working with a flawed model
-DECC publishes plans for achieving 2050 targets
-DECC lays out six possible futures for low-carbon energy

read more

Slack Oversight of Peru’s Amazon Rainforest

by: admin July 29, 2010

Fifty-three percent of Peru is covered with native rainforest, but the agencies in charge of protecting and monitoring this vast area are toothless and have neither the staff nor the resources to cope with the job, according to a report from the Defensoría del Pueblo (Ombudsperson’s Office).

Climate Extremes Fuel Hunger in Guatemala

by: admin July 29, 2010

“Three-quarters of the fields are still under water. Maize, plantains, okra and pasture are all lost,” José Asencio told IPS at the village of Santa Ana Mixtán in southern Guatemala, the area worst affected by tropical storm Agatha.

Gulf of Mexico reconsidered: building your house on salt

by: admin July 29, 2010

A strategically timed item in the New York Times presents an overview of the geology that makes the Gulf of Mexico so rich in oil, how new technology has enabled us to track these deposits - and the risks we run to extract them. It was published Wednesday [July 28], one day before a special judicial panel in Boise, Idaho began to consider “how to bring order to the hundreds of civil lawsuits” stemming from BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil disaster. The seven judges will “consider which U.S. court, or courts, should oversee hundreds of spill-related suits by injured rig workers, fishermen, investors and property owners,”

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In wreckage of climate bill, some clues for moving forward

by: admin July 29, 2010

Ample blame exists for the demise of climate legislation in the U.S. Senate, from President Obama’s lack of political courage, to the environmental community’s overly ambitious strategy, to Republican intransigence. A way forward exists, however, to build on the rubble of the Senate’s failure to cap carbon emissions.

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Book Review: The Climate Files by Fred Pearce

by: admin July 29, 2010

The saga of the hacked, or leaked, emails from University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit (CRU) has gone on to become known, predictably, as “Climategate”. This release of thousands of emails and documents, sceptics argued, proved that climate science was fabricated and fraudulent, and showed scientists deliberately falsifying data…In this, the first book to look in depth at Climategate, Pearce offers a remarkably well balanced and up-to-date account of what really happened, what it all means and where climate science finds itself in the wake of the whole sorry saga.

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Transport - July 28

by: admin July 29, 2010

-Modern cargo ships slow to the speed of the sailing clippers
-Testing a London ‘Cycle Superhighway’
-Festival transforms autobahn into world’s longest street party

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Happy homestead happenstances

by: admin July 29, 2010

How many slick tricks have you learned about farming and gardening more or less by accident? My favorite example happened because of laziness.

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Transport - July 28

by: admin July 29, 2010

-Modern cargo ships slow to the speed of the sailing clippers
-Testing a London ‘Cycle Superhighway’
-Festival transforms autobahn into world’s longest street party

read more

The cybernetics of black knights

by: admin July 29, 2010

What do fifty years of failed fusion research, today’s avant-garde believers in the Singularity, and the antics of the characters in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” have in common? The answer lies in information, which forms — along with energy and matter — a triad of principles that shape whole systems, and have to be understood in order to craft new systems for the deindustrial age.

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