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about: global warming
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NASA
photo - earth's atmosphere from space
Global Warming-Related Resources and Links
- Updated, 11/21/09—
(This page is updated from time to time with new links.)
This
is a page of useful and informative links on the topic
of Global Warming, including everything from Al Gore's
Inconvenient Truth website and related organizations
he has established which are concerned with climate
protection, to the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Assessment
and Research Reports page. In putting together this page, I have tried to keep up with the latest developments on the topic, and then add sites to this page which I think have valuable information, or other resources for people interested in the environment and the problem of global warming. Also included are
links to news articles, or other sites that deal with the environment, wildlife and nature, such as The Environmental Defense Fund, The World Wildlife Foundation, Defenders
of Wildlife, and The Nature Conservancy, to name a few, detailing
what they are doing to help fight the threats of global warming
and protect the planet and wildlife through their conservation efforts
around the world. Newest sites at the top of the list.
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Ocean Voices.org - is a creative sound project and endeavour initiated by... “sound artist Halsey Burgund, and marine biologist, Wallace J. Nichols, who have joined forces to collect the voices of people around the world, recounting their personal experiences with the ocean. Combined with music written by Halsey, these voices will soon become audio collages which listeners can create to suit their own preferences. Help us by sharing your voice and spreading the words of all participants around the globe.”
You can read more about all of the details of the project on their website, at: http://www.oceanvoices.org. The website is set up to accept audio recordings, as well as to allow users to listen to already recorded voices combined with music, and view an interactive Google map of where the participants are located, as well.
** Ocean voices is seeking participants of all ages and occupations from around the globe, (and especially would like people from Europe to contribute), to relate their personal experiences, stories and/or knowledge and concern for the oceans. All it requires is to have a microphone connected to your computer, so that you can record your voice on the site. Whatever your occupation, age, or other demographics, your voice and thoughts are welcome! A recommended microphone that you can order from Amazon.com, is the plug and play, Logitech USB Desktop microphone, available at this link: http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Desktop-Microphone-Black-Silver/dp/B00009EHJV/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=pc&qid=1254938609&sr=1-1-spell , or by doing a search under Computers & Accessories, then microphones on Amazon.
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LATEST
NEWS articles and other sites:
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Union of Concerned Scientists:Thoreau's Legacy: American Stories about Global Warming: http://www.ucsusa.org/americanstories/index.html, an anthology of personal essays written by people from around the country about how global warming and climate change is affecting the places and wildlife that they love, and want to preserve for future generations. The webiste tells the history of the book project, and is also available in a visually stunning, online interactive format on the site with photos, which you can read. You can also order a hard copy of the book on the site.
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Ice-Free
Arctic Summers Likely Sooner Than Expected
National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Report /
April 2, 2009
“The
Arctic is changing faster than anticipated,”
said James Overland, an oceanographer at NOAA’s
Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (Seattle)
and co-author of the study, which will appear April
3 in Geophysical Research Letters. “It’s
a combination of natural variability, along with
warmer air and sea conditions caused by increased
greenhouse gases.”
- DC
Environmental Film Festival documentary debut of “A
Sea Change” at
the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum, March
14, 2009.
For
anyone who cares about the oceans, and is interested
in the future of our planet, you should try to see
this movie, if/when it comes to your area. A
Sea Change premiered at the Washington DC
Environmental Film Festival on March 14th, to a packed
auditorium of over 500 people. The film was made by
Sven Huseby and his wife Barbara Ettinger—a husband-wife
filmmaking team—to highlight their concerns about
the growing problem of ocean acidification, why
it is a very serious problem, and how it is affecting
marine life in our oceans. In the documentary, Sven
becomes aware of the problem from reading an article
in a scientific journal titled, “The Darkening Oceans.” He travels to different parts
of our country including Alaska, Seattle (Washington
state) and California; as well as to arctic Norway,
where he meets with several scientists who are studying
the problem to try to understand more about the changing
chemistry of the oceans, and how the accumulation
of C02 is altering the ph balance in the oceans and making
it more difficult for life there to survive.
In a unique, storytelling fashion, he seeks answers
to his questions, what the future holds, as well as
what we can do to reduce fossil fuels and convert
to other forms of energy now, in order to save our oceans
(and the planet) from global warming. Two scientists
from the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental laboratory
in Seattle are featured in the movie, including Dr.
Richard Feely, an ocean chemist and expert on the
problem of global warming and ocean acidification.
According
to Dr. Feely,
In
the first article from a series entitled, “Rising
Carbon Dioxide Concentrations Make Oceans More Acidic
— Gradual chemical changes may already be affecting
marine ecosystems” Richard Feely and another
scientist Christopher Sabine, from the Pacific Marine
Environmental NOAA Laboratory in Seattle, led an effort
to study the anthropogenic C02 in oceans around the
world. The problem and their findings are explained
in greater detail, with an excerpt from this article
shown below:
“The
rising concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide
(CO2) from human activities is doing more than warming
the planet’s climate system. It is being absorbed
into the oceans, where changing sea water chemistry
could gradually transform ocean ecosystems.
This
process, called ocean acidification, most visibly
will affect —some scientists say it is already
affecting—sea animals, small and large, that
form their chalky calcium-carbonate shells and other
hard parts from chemicals that have been plentiful
in the ocean for millions of years.
Ocean
acidification could reduce the amount of these chemicals,
making it harder for the animals to secrete their
shells. It could even, under highly acidic future
conditions, dissolve the shells.
Using
data gathered through activities like the Climate
Variability and Predictability program, the World
Ocean Circulation Experiment and ocean-circulation
computer models, scientists have confirmed that ocean
chemistry is changing as the sea surface absorbs anthropogenic
(people-generated) CO2.
...“What
was projected to occur in the open ocean models by
the end of the century, we found is occurring right
now along our entire continental shelf as far as we
looked,” Feely said. “This puts the problem
into the present instead of into the future.”
To
read the complete Journal article, visit this link: http://oceanacidification.wordpress.com/2009/04/06/rising-carbon-dioxide-concentrations-make-oceans-more-acidic/
As the movie progresses, Sven
also travels to arctic Norway, where he meets with a
team of research scientists in Svalbard to get their
opinion on the seriuosness of the problem, as well as
to learn more about the Norwegians’ use of things
like hydro and geothermal energy to heat their buildings;
and their future plans for wind farms in the northern
Atlantic ocean (which could potentially provide electrical
power for the entire country of Norway). The film emphasizes
the generational impacts on both young and old, as
Sven is relating his concerns about the troubled oceans
to his grandson, in between his visits with the scientists.
The purpose of all his visits is to try to highlight, and to bring to the
attention of the public an awareness of the seriousness
of the problems of global warming and how C02 concentrations in the oceans are impacting marine life
to the point of the probable extinction of many
species. These species include the most microscopic of organisms such
as the pterapod, (whose calcium carbonate shells are
evaporating because of the increasing acidity) to the
largest sea mammals. His concerns are that within our
lifetime (or more likely his grandson’s) that many
of these problems will be realized. The movie attempts
to educate us and to make us acutely aware that the
oceans and the marine life within it may already be
in serious decline given the amount of C02 they have absorbed over the past industrialized century
from cars, coal factories, and other pollutants; creating
the changes that are altering the chemistry of the oceans
now on a mass scale, which could become permanent. This
imbalance is not only affecting all ocean creatures,
but human life on land as well. As an example, 50% of
the oxygen that we breathe on land actually comes from
the oceans, and if the phytoplankton or the survivial
of other microorganisms in the oceans is threatened
by even a small temperature increase of as much as 2 degrees, as
well as an increase in acidity, we as humans will also
suffer, ultimately. The movie, however, does not seek
to alarm so much as to make us think seriously about
what we can do now, to try to reverse this trend and
save our planet and its ecosystems.
More can be learned about this fantastic movie on the
movie’s website, as well as the schedule where
it will be showing in upcoming months. On the site you
can also watch the movie’s trailer, which shows
some of the beautiful cinematography of the film, at: www.aseachange.net.
The movie is scheduled to travel to England, Norway,
Spain and the Netherlands, and may also be coming to a theatre near you on World Ocean Day in June.
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EPA:
Greenhouse Gases Threaten Humans
Agency wants to
use Clean Air Act to enforce stricter regulations
MSNBC.com
website- climate change news/March 23, 2009
Where
there is a will, there is a way....
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Climate
experts: Risk of 'irreversible' shifts
“Worst-case
IPCC scenario trajectories ... are being realized,” they warn.
—
Climate Change/MSNBC.com website/ Associated Press,
Copenhagen, March 12, 2009
Dr.
Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of the UN Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change outlines the seriousness of
the problem of global warming at international talks
in Copenhagen, in preparation for the upcoming international
Conference in Copenhagen this December.
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- “Senate
Rejects Murkowski Amendment to Undermine Protection
for Polar Bears and Other Marine Wildlife” —
March 5, 2009:
The
Senate voted to leave intact language in the Omnibus Appropriations Bill
(HR 1105), authorizing both the Secretary
of the Interior and the Secretary of Commerce
to reverse the flawed regulations of the Bush
Administration, with regard to listing species
such as the Polar Bear as endangered. The bill
was supported by Senators Barbara Boxer, Senator
Ben Cardin and Senator Feinstein. The bill will
also protect other marine mammals such as the Beluga
Whale. Just listing these species
as endangered is a big step, and will help to
provide some much-needed protections for them,
but other serious climate change legislation
needs to be enacted by the Congress and President
Obama, in order to really save animals such
as the Polar Bear from eventual extinction,
due to the melting of its arctic habitat.
You can read more about other pending legislation
and efforts to protect wildlife on the Defenders’
of Wildlife website: www.defenders.org.
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Check out the Environmental Defense Fund’s Interactive
Timeline, which
illustrates the eight years of
inaction on the part of the Bush
Administration, with respect to global warming. The
timeline has pop-up window talk bubbles with explanations
of the policy failures and inactions at significant
points, as well as photos of natural events that
occurred which either contributed to, or were
caused by the global warming problems around the
globe (such as the melting of ice sheets, flooding,
and other things). It provides a thorough snapshot
history of the problem, showing where we are today
with the issue and problem.
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Al
Gore: #1: Oscar-Winner
for Best Documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, Feb.
2007-
(link to Al's blog with entry about movie and Oscar); #2: Nobel
Peace Prize Winner for helping to
make a difference and bringing countries together
on the issue - Nov. 2007; and #3 An
advocate
who is doing more good now as greatest global warming
supporter and best known environmentalist
around the world.
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Visit
the Climate Crisis Flash website to read more about
“An Inconvenient Truth”
and  climate
change, at: www.climatecrisis.net.
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Update
October/November, 2007: By
now everyone has heard that Al Gore was awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize for his work in bringing about a
great awareness of the impacts of global warming and
the climate crisis on the planet, to people around
the world. Sharing his prize with the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change, you can view the video of
his acceptance speech from
the link below on YouTube, or visit his website to
see it at: www.algore.com.
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The
Alliance for Climate Protection a non-profit
created and headed by Al Gore whose
 mission
is to “...persuade the American people —
and people elsewhere in the world – of the importance
and urgency of adopting and implementing effective
and comprehensive solutions for the climate crisis.”
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Earth
Hour: www.earthhour.org This is a website
set up by the World Wildlife Fund. This year’s
Earth Hour will be on March 28th, 2009. “Earth
Hour 2008 was the biggest voluntary power down in
history. It inspired many people and businesses to
change their energy habits and has influenced government
policy in some countries.”
- The
T. Boone Pickens Plan/Website – In case you haven't seen his T.V.
commercials, this website explains in detail the innovative
Pickens’ Plan on how we can reduce our dependence
on foreign oil, through the development of natural gas,
wind energy, and other resources.
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OCEANS and GLOBAL WARMING:
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Ocean
Conservancy.org -
A nonprofit advocating and taking action to support
the health,
life and diverse ecosystems of the oceans.
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Understanding
oceans as the driving force behind climate changes, using Satellite data from the Topex/Poseidon and Jason
satellites. Go to Ocean Surface Topography from Space
page on the JPL website, and select the second purple
button on the right, the Sea-level viewer, and also
the Monthly Time Series button, at the link below:
The
Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Ocean Surface Topography
from Space
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ALTERNATIVE
ENERGY IDEAS and RESOURCES:
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Alternative
Energies to keep an eye on:
Geothermal | Wind and wind farms | Hydropower | Solar Panels| BioFuels| Electric | Natural
Gas
“Earth,
The Sequel” - aired on the Discovery Channel
on March 11th, and showed possibilities for several
of these alternative energies, used in different parts
of the country. You can learn more about this on the Environmental
Defense Fund’s website,
where you can also write to Congress to encourage cap
and trade legislation.
HOW
TO RECYCLE – FOR YOU, THE CONSUMER:
- How
to Recycle Your Old Electronic Batteries from
cell phones, cameras, remotes, etc.:
The Rechargable Battery Recycling Program Non-Profit:
http://www.rbrc.org/consumer/ - just type in your zip code, and a list of locations
and businesses near you where you can drop off your
old electronic batteries will come up.
NON-PROFITS
STUDYING THE PROBLEM, TAKING ACTIONS & MAKING RECOMMENDATIONS:
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The Environmental Defense Fund
— a leading national non-profit that links science,
economics and law to create innovative, equitable
and cost-effective solutions to society's most urgent
environmental problems. Provides scientific information
on global warming and facts/statistics on energy consumption.
Below are s ome points made on its website:
- The
Science: A Crisis Builds http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=29336
"The planet has a fever and it's getting
worse."
• The atmospheric concentration of carbon
dioxide, a leading greenhouse gas, is higher today
than at anytime in at least the last 800,000 years.
• So far, this is the warmest decade on record
and the 10 warmest years have all occurred since
1997.
• Polar ice is melting at a record pace in
both poles imperiling local animals like the polar
bear and threatening to accelerate the warming trend.
- EDF’s Interactive
Timeline
- World
Wildlife Foundation:
- The
Nature Conservancy:
“...the
law requires the government to protect the critical
habitat of endangered species. Ergo, if global warming
is threatening the polar bear's habitat, the government
could be forced to crack down on greenhouse-gas emissions,
a step that environmentalists consider vital to the
survival even of species that live in houses and would
never dream of biting the head off a walrus.”
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To
read a thorough analysis of global warming, climate
change, the effects of CO2 emissions,
and corresponding changes in the world's oceans,
visit the Conservation
Science Institute's website. One startling statistic: according
to measurements taken from ice cores, today's rising
CO2 concentrations are 27% higher than
they have been over the past 650,000 years.
One Earth, one Ocean, one Life.
NASA photo of the Earth showing the northern hemisphere and US,
from space.
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