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Posted by feww on July 2, 2008
A dried up river filled with sand winds its way across the desert in eastern Chad, June 5, 2008. REUTERS/Finbarr O’Reilly. Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!
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Posted in Climate Change, energy, environment, food, Global Warming, health, politics | Tagged: agriculture, clearcut, Collapse of ecosystems, corn, cropland, cultivated land, deforestation, desertification, Drying Aquifers, Failing Ecosystems, First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities, Food insecurity, Food Security, GHG, grassland, human rights, Land and Water, Land clearing, land degradation, land for survival, loss of biomass, loss of organic matter, Mojavefication, politics, rangeland, Root Cause Matrix, Severe soil erosion, sinking cities, soybean, State of the World, The Economy, topsoil, wheat, Year of the Fire | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on July 2, 2008
From NASA’s Earth Observatory:
by Holli Riebeek • design by Robert Simmon • June 30, 2008
[WARNING: Beware of booby traps!]
The idea seemed simple enough: the more carbon dioxide that people pumped into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels, the more the oceans would absorb. The ocean would continue to soak up more and more carbon dioxide until global warming heated the ocean enough to slow down ocean circulation. Water trapped at the surface would become saturated, at which point, the ocean would slow its carbon uptake. To oceanographers of 30 years ago, the question was less, how will human emissions change the ocean carbon cycle, and more, is the ocean carbon cycle changing yet?
One of the largest unknowns in our understanding of the greenhouse effect is the role of the oceans as a carbon sink. Much of the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels is soaked up by the oceans, but changes in the climate are altering this absorption in surprising ways. (Photograph ©2007 *Fede*.)
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The question matters because if the ocean starts to take up less carbon because of global warming, more is left in the atmosphere where it can contribute to additional warming. Scientists wanted to understand how the ocean carbon cycle might change so that they could make more accurate predictions about global warming. Thus motivated, oceanographers began a series of research cruises, trolling across the Pacific from Japan to California, from Alaska to Hawaii, and through the North Atlantic from Europe to North America. On shore, others developed computer models.
For more than 30 years, research ships have cruised the world’s oceans, measuring carbon dioxide concentrations, ocean temperatures, winds, and other properties. The map shows the paths of research cruises conducted as part of the World Climate Research Programme’s Climate Variability and Predictability project. Cruise measurements—along with those from buoys, drifting floats, orbiting satellites, and land-based weather stations—are beginning to reveal long-term trends to ocean researchers. (Map by Robert Simmon, based on data from Dana Greeley, NOAA.)
After 30 years of research, the question itself hasn’t changed, but the reasoning behind it couldn’t be more different. Oceanographers started out wanting to know if the ocean was keeping up with the amount of carbon dioxide people are putting into the atmosphere. Instead, they found that people aren’t the only players changing the ocean carbon cycle. Over decades, natural cycles in weather and ocean currents alter the rate at which the ocean soaks up and vents carbon dioxide. What’s more, scientists are beginning to find evidence that human-induced changes in the atmosphere also change the rate at which the ocean takes up carbon. In other words, it turns out that the world is not a simple place. More …
For eons, the world’s oceans have been sucking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and releasing it again in a steady inhale and exhale. The ocean takes up carbon dioxide through photosynthesis by plant-like organisms (phytoplankton), as well as by simple chemistry: carbon dioxide dissolves in water. It reacts with seawater, creating carbonic acid. Carbonic acid releases hydrogen ions, which combine with carbonate in seawater to form bicarbonate, a form of carbon that doesn’t escape the ocean easily.
As we burn fossil fuels and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels go up, the ocean absorbs more carbon dioxide to stay in balance. But this absorption has a price: these reactions lower the water’s pH, meaning it’s more acidic. And the ocean has its limits. As temperatures rise, carbon dioxide leaks out of the ocean like a glass of root beer going flat on a warm day. Carbonate gets used up and has to be re-stocked by upwelling of deeper waters, which are rich in carbonate dissolved from limestone and other rocks.
In the center of the ocean, wind-driven currents bring cool waters and fresh carbonate to the surface. The new water takes up yet more carbon to match the atmosphere, while the old water carries the carbon it has captured into the ocean.
The warmer the surface water becomes, the harder it is for winds to mix the surface layers with the deeper layers. The ocean settles into layers, or stratifies. Without an infusion of fresh carbonate-rich water from below, the surface water saturates with carbon dioxide. The stagnant water also supports fewer phytoplankton, and carbon dioxide uptake from photosynthesis slows. In short, stratification cuts down the amount of carbon the ocean can take up.
The rest of this feature article is available at: The Ocean’s Carbon Balance
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Posted in air soil and water pollutions, atmosphere, biosphere, Climate Change, energy, environment, food, Global Warming, health | Tagged: bicarbonate, carbon dioxide absorption, Carbonic acid, human emissions, hydrogen ions, ocean carbon cycle, photosynthesis | 4 Comments »
Posted by feww on July 2, 2008
From NASA’s Earth Observatory
Unlike the water in a sink or a bathtub, the water level in Earth’s oceans is not the same everywhere; sea level varies with location and time. On time spans of hours to days, sea level is influenced by tides, winds, and waves, including storm surges. Sea level rises when oceans warm, and it drops when they cool (because water expands when it heats up and contracts when it cools). Regional variations in sea level can persist for many years, even a decade. Underlying all these changes is the slower rise and fall in global average sea level as ice ages recede and advance over millenia.
This map shows global patterns of changes in sea level (sea surface height) measured by satellite-based altimeters (Topex and Jason 1 satellites) from 1993 through the end of 2007. Places where the sea surface height increased up to 225 millimeters (about 8.9 inches) are shown in dark red; places where sea level dropped are blue. The most widespread change in sea level over this time period was an increase in the Western Pacific sea surface height. During the period spanned by this image, a climate pattern called the Pacific Decadal Oscillation was in its warm phase, and sea surface temperatures were above average in much of the basin. Thermal expansion during this warm phase would be consistent with a rise in sea level.
Other changes reflect shifts in large-scale ocean currents. For example, the sea level rose in the North Atlantic Ocean south of Greenland. The rise is related to a weakening of an ocean current known as the North Atlantic Subpolar Gyre. The subpolar gyre is a counter-clockwise current in the North Atlantic whose descending branch flows southward along the southeast coast of Greenland. When the gyre is strong, it carries cold, salty water deep into the ocean, where it flows back toward the equator. When the current weakens, temperatures warm and sea level rises.
Other areas in the image that suggest a decadal-scale change in ocean currents include the mid-Atlantic off the east coast of the United States, where the line of blue (drop in sea level) could indicate a change in the average latitude or velocity of the Gulf Stream Current. A sea level rise occurred in the area of the western Pacific east of Japan that is influenced by the Kuroshio Current, which is the analogue of North America’s Gulf Stream. Finally, a scattering of dark red dots across the Southern Ocean between Africa and Australia may signify a change in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.
Full article including references is available at: Regional Patterns of Sea Level Change 1993-2007
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Posted in Climate Change, energy, environment, food, Global Warming, health | Tagged: Antarctic Circumpolar Current, equator, greenland, Gulf Stream, Jason 1 satellites, Kuroshio Current, North Atlantic Subpolar Gyre, Pacific Decadal Oscillation, sea level variations | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on July 2, 2008
From NASA’s Earth Observatory:
If you drove to work or school this morning or used electricity to power the computer on which you’re looking at this image, chances are you released carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, people released about 7.8 billion tons (7.8 gigatons) of carbon into the atmosphere in 2005 by burning fossil fuels and making cement, and that number grows every year. What happens to all of the carbon dioxide that people release into the atmosphere? About half stays in the atmosphere, where it warms Earth, and the other half is absorbed by growing plants on land and by the ocean.
As people have put more and more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the ocean has responded by soaking up more carbon dioxide—a trend scientists expected to continue for many years. But in 2007, a team of scientists reported in the journal Science that between 1981 and 2004 carbon dioxide concentrations in the Southern Ocean didn’t change at all, even though global atmospheric levels continued to rise. This graph shows the changes scientists expected to see (blue line) compared to their estimate of actual carbon dioxide absorption (red line). The results suggested that the Southern Ocean was no longer keeping pace with human carbon dioxide emissions.
Why has the Southern Ocean started to lag behind human emissions? The answer, believes Corinne Le Quéré, is in the wind. An ocean scientist at the University of East Anglia, Le Quéré led the study that discovered the Southern Ocean’s change of pace. Le Quéré modeled the mechanisms that influence how the ocean takes up carbon and found that winds increased between 1981 and 2004. Winds stirred the ocean and enhanced the upwelling of deep, carbon-rich water. The ocean releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in areas where deep water comes to the surface, so increased upwelling allowed the ocean to vent more carbon dioxide. This increased venting made it look like the Southern Ocean was no longer taking up carbon dioxide as quickly as people were pumping it into the atmosphere.
Full article and references are available at: Southern Ocean Carbon Sink
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Posted in energy, environment, food, Global Warming, health, politics | Tagged: carbon dioxide, Carbon Sink, Climate Change, CO2, GHG, IPCC, Ocean acidification, oceans, oceans warming, Southern Ocean, Water pollution | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on July 2, 2008
The Llaima volcano dribbles lava. Cherquenco town July 2, 2008. REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado. Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!
Llaima volcano, a stratovolcano, is spewing lava, Chilean Govt said, issuing an evacuation order which imposed a 15 km exclusion zone. The lava, flowing towards the Calbuco River, has reached about 1 km from the crater.
Llaima volcano eruption viewed from Temuco (Araucanía Region, Chile) January 1, 2008
Source: Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/8556851@N04/2170301355/); License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0; via Wikimedia Commons,
Llaima volcano erupted on New Year’s Day and spewed ash and smoke on february. The volcano’s last major eruption occurred in 1994. On January 1, 2008, another eruption forced hundreds of residents from nearby villages and tourists in the national parkto evacuate the are. A column of smoke reaching 3000 m high spewed above the volcano. The volcanic ash expelled by Llaima reached Argentina.
It is feared that that the lava could cause an abrupt melting of snow and producing waves of lahars that could bury the nearby villages.
The snow-capped Llaima’s renewed activity starts just two months after the eruption of the Chaiten volcano about 525 km further south.
The top of Llaima rises about 3, 120 meters above the sea level and consists of two summits. Pichillaima, the lower summit is about 2,920 meters high. The ski center Las Araucarias lies on Llaima’s western slopes.
Llaima is located about 85 km northeast of Temuco and 665 km southeast of Santiago, within the borders of Conguillío National Park, and overloks the Sierra Nevada and the Conguillío Lake. Llaima’s slopes are drained by the rivers Captrén, Quepe and Trufultruful.
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Posted in Climate Change, energy, environment, food, health | Tagged: Araucanía Region, Ash, Captrén, Chaiten volcano, Cherquenco town, chile, Conguillío Lake, evacuation, lahar, Las Araucarias, lava, Llaima Volcano, Pichillaima, Quepe, santiago, smoke, Temuco, Trufultruful, volcanic eruptions | 4 Comments »
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