‘Catastrophic Losses’ of Animals Feared due to UK Spring Snow

Many animals dead or dying in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales: NFU

The late snow has hit the UK during lambing season, making it impossible for hundreds of farmers to get to their animals.

Many animals are already dead or dying, said a NI farmer. “There are hundreds of farmers who have sheep buried.”

“Road conditions are just incredibly bad. There’s places where the snow at the side of the road is higher than the vehicles. It’s coming late in a very, very tough winter – it’s just putting the tin hat on it for many of us,” said another farmer.

There are fears of “catastrophic losses,” with thousands of animals buried on the Isle of Man, where the recent snowfall was reportedly the heaviest recorded in 50 years.

Southern Scotland has been the worst affected region, with many animals trapped, and no way of getting food to them, said Carolyn Lamb from NFU Scotland.

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DISASTER CALENDAR – March 26, 2013 — 
SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,082 Days Left 

Mass die-offs resulting from human impact and the planetary response to the anthropogenic assault could occur by early 2016.

• SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,082 Days Left to ‘Worst Day’ in the brief Human  History
• The countdown began on May 15, 2011 …

GLOBAL WARNINGS

• WARNING: Human impact 2.85 x Earth’s diminishing carrying capacity
• WARNING: RAPID PLANETARY DECLINE IN PROGRESS!
• Europe: The First Phase of Collapse Has Started 
• United States: The First Phase of Collapse Has Begun

Global Disasters: Links, Forecasts and Background

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Back to the Primordial Future
• The Fate of Energy Dinosaurs
• Mass Die-offs

U.S. Climate: Warmest YTD on Record

Drought-related stress affecting 80% of U.S. corn and soybeans, causing crops failure

The January-August 2012 was the warmest first 8 months of any year on record for the contiguous United States. The national temperature of 58.7°F (14.3°C) was 4.0°F above the 20^th century average, and 1.0°F above the previous record warm in 2006, NOAA said.

• Summer 2012 was the 3rd hottest summer on record for the contiguous United States since recordkeeping began 117 years ago. [ 2011 and 1936 had higher summer temperatures for the Lower 48.]

Temperature Anomalies, June – August  2012

Reds show June-August temperatures up to 8° F warmer than average. Blues show temperatures up to 2° F cooler than average—the darker the color, the larger the difference. Source: NOAA climate.gov

• During the period, 33 states had record warm and an additional 12 states experienced top ten warm.
• The average temperature for the Lower 48 between June and August was higher than 74°F (24.3°C), which is more than 2° F above the 20^th century average.
• “The average global temperature across land and oceans during July 2012 was 0.62°C (1.12°F) above the 20^th century average of 15.8°C (60.4°F) and ranked as the fourth warmest July since records began in 1880. The previous three months—April, May, and June—also ranked among the top five warmest for their respective months. July 2012 marks the 36^th consecutive July and 329^th consecutive month with a global temperature above the 20^th century average.” NOAA reported.

GLOBAL WARNING

• WARNING: Human impact 2.85 x Earth’s diminishing carrying capacity
• WARNING: RAPID DECLINE IN PROGRESS!

Disaster Calendar – 10 May 2012

DISASTER CALENDAR SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,406 Days Left

[10 May 2012] Mass die-offs resulting from human impact and the planetary response to the anthropogenic assault could occur by early 2016. SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,406 Days Left to the ‘Worst Day’ in Human History

Global Disasters: Links, Forecasts and Background

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Back to the Primordial Future
• The Fate of Energy Dinosaurs
• Mass Die-offs

• 2010 Disasters [Links to 2010 Disaster Calendar]
• Mega Disasters
• 2011 Disaster Calendar
• 2012 Disaster Calendar

Disaster Calendar 2012 – 9 May

DISASTER CALENDAR SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,407 Days Left

[9 May 2012] Mass die-offs resulting from human impact and the planetary response to the anthropogenic assault could occur by early 2016. SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,407 Days Left to the ‘Worst Day’ in Human History

Global Disasters: Links, Forecasts and Background

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Back to the Primordial Future
• The Fate of Energy Dinosaurs
• Mass Die-offs

• 2010 Disasters [Links to 2010 Disaster Calendar]
• Mega Disasters
• 2011 Disaster Calendar
• 2012 Disaster Calendar

Disaster Calendar – 8 May 2012

DISASTER CALENDAR SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,408 Days Left

[8 May 2012] Mass die-offs resulting from human impact and the planetary response to the anthropogenic assault could occur by early 2016. SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,408 Days Left to the ‘Worst Day’ in Human History

Global Disasters: Links, Forecasts and Background

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Back to the Primordial Future
• The Fate of Energy Dinosaurs
• Mass Die-offs

• 2010 Disasters [Links to 2010 Disaster Calendar]
• Mega Disasters
• 2011 Disaster Calendar
• 2012 Disaster Calendar

Disaster Calendar – 28 April 2012

DISASTER CALENDAR SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,418 Days Left

[28 April 2012] Mass die-offs resulting from human impact and the planetary response to the anthropogenic assault could occur by early 2016. SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,418 Days Left to the ‘Worst Day’ in Human History

Global Disasters: Links, Forecasts and Background

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Back to the Primordial Future
• The Fate of Energy Dinosaurs
• Mass Die-offs

• 2010 Disasters [Links to 2010 Disaster Calendar]
• Mega Disasters
• 2011 Disaster Calendar
• 2012 Disaster Calendar

Disaster Calendar – 21 April 2012

DISASTER CALENDAR SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,425 Days Left

[21 April 2012] Mass die-offs resulting from human impact and the planetary response to the anthropogenic assault could occur by early 2016. SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,425 Days Left to the ‘Worst Day’ in Human History

Global Disasters: Links, Forecasts and Background

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Back to the Primordial Future
• The Fate of Energy Dinosaurs
• Mass Die-offs

• 2010 Disasters [Links to 2010 Disaster Calendar]
• Mega Disasters
• 2011 Disaster Calendar

Disaster Calendar – 20 April 2012

DISASTER CALENDAR SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,426 Days Left

[20 April 2012] Mass die-offs resulting from human impact and the planetary response to the anthropogenic assault could occur by early 2016. SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,426 Days Left to the ‘Worst Day’ in Human History

Global Disasters: Links, Forecasts and Background

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Back to the Primordial Future
• The Fate of Energy Dinosaurs
• Mass Die-offs

• 2010 Disasters [Links to 2010 Disaster Calendar]
• Mega Disasters
• 2011 Disaster Calendar

Disaster Calendar – 19 April 2012

DISASTER CALENDAR SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,427 Days Left

[19 April 2012] Mass die-offs resulting from human impact and the planetary response to the anthropogenic assault could occur by early 2016. SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,427 Days Left to the ‘Worst Day’ in Human History

Global Disasters: Links, Forecasts and Background

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Back to the Primordial Future
• The Fate of Energy Dinosaurs
• Mass Die-offs

• 2010 Disasters [Links to 2010 Disaster Calendar]
• Mega Disasters
• 2011 Disaster Calendar

Disaster Calendar – 17 April 2012

DISASTER CALENDAR SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,429 Days Left

[17 April 2012] Mass die-offs resulting from human impact and the planetary response to the anthropogenic assault could occur by early 2016. SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,429 Days Left to the ‘Worst Day’ in Human History

Global Disasters: Links, Forecasts and Background

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Back to the Primordial Future
• The Fate of Energy Dinosaurs
• Mass Die-offs

• 2010 Disasters [Links to 2010 Disaster Calendar]
• Mega Disasters
• 2011 Disaster Calendar

Flooding and Mudslides Leave Thousands of Filipinos Displaced

Disaster Calendar 2012 – April 10

Mass die-offs resulting from human impact and the planetary response to the anthropogenic assault could occur by early 2016.  SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,436 Days Left to the ‘Worst Day’ in Human History

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Philippine flash floods and mudslides affect thousands, destroy crops

Days of heavy rains have caused flash floods in the towns of Claveria and Sta. Praxedes in the northern Philippine province of Cagayan leaving at least 1,200 families displaced, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said.

“A total of 31 out of 41 villages were inundated in Claveria, affecting 877 families. Ten villages were also inundated in Sta. Praxedes, affecting 338 families.”

• Mudslides  have destroyed houses and dozens of hectares of rice paddies vegetables.
• Flash floods and landslides have claimed dozens of lives in the Philippines since the begin9ing of the year.

Other Global Disasters

• China. Climate-related disasters left [at least] 66 people dead or missing, and affected about 22 million people in the first quarter of 2012 in the Chinese mainland, according to official sources.  
  • The disasters resulted in direct economic losses of 9.63 billion yuan (1.53 billion U.S. dollars) from January to March 2012.
  • Extreme weather events destroyed or damaged more than 2.4 million hectares of crops  and 200,000 homes, the report said.

Significant Events

U.S.A.  The U.S. has recorded its warmest March since records began in 1895, with  more than 15,000 warm temperature records broken during the month, NOAA reported.

2012 year-to-date temperature evolution for Green Bay, Wisconsin versus the previous four warmest years. Source: NOAA/NCDC

• “The average temperature of 51.1°F was 8.6 degrees above the 20^th century average for March and 0.5°F warmer than the previous warmest March in 1910. Of the more than 1,400 months (117+ years) that have passed since the U.S. climate record began, only one month, January 2006, has seen a larger departure from its average temperature than March 2012.”
•   Preliminary data shows that 15,272 warm temperature records were broken (7,755 daytime records, 7,517 nighttime records).
• 25 states east of the Rockies saw their warmest March on record, with an additional 15 states recording temperatures ranking among their ten warmest, said NOAA.
• In contrast, temperatures in Alaska during March, which are not included in the contiguous U.S. average value, were the tenth coolest on record.
• “The first three months of 2012 were also record warm for the contiguous United States with an average temperature of 42.0°F, 6.0°F above the long-term average.”
• As of April 3^rd, 36.8 percent of the contiguous U.S. was in drought,  an increase from 28.8 percent a year ago on April 5, 2011, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
• SPC received 223 preliminary tornado reports during March, about 3 times the averages of 80 tornadoes for the month. “The majority of the tornadoes occurred during the March 2^nd-3^rd outbreak across the Ohio Valley and Southeast, which caused 40 fatalities. Total losses from this event are estimated to exceed $1.5 billion dollars, making this the first event of 2012 to exceed one billion dollars in damages and losses.”

Global Disasters: Links, Forecasts and Background 

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Back to the Primordial Future
• Mass Die-offs

• 2010 Disasters [Links to 2010 Disaster Calendar]
• Mega Disasters
• 2011 Disaster Calendar
• 2012 Disaster Calendar: Collapse has already Begun

Louisiana Declared Disaster Area

The Entire State of Louisiana Declared Natural Disaster Area

All Louisiana’s 64 parishes have been designated natural disaster areas due the combined effects of severe storms, tornadoes, severe spring flooding, Tropical Storm Lee, widespread drought and excessive heat that began Jan. 1, 2011, and continues, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported.

READ THIS FIRST

Continued hacking and content censorship

In view of the continued hacking and censorship of this blog by the Internet Mafia, the Moderators have decided to maintain only a minimum presence at this site, until further notice.

FIRE-EARTH will continue to update the 2011 Disaster Calendar for the benefit of its readers.

WordPress is HACKING this blog!

WordPress Continues to Hack Fire-Earth, Affiliated Blogs

The Blog Moderators Condemn in the Strongest Possible Terms the Continued Removal of Content and Hacking of FIRE-EARTH and Affiliated Blogs by WordPress!

United States of Censorship

Even Twitter Counters are disabled when Blog posts criticize Obama, or contain “forbidden phrases.”  See also: Google’s Top 10 List of ‘Holy Cows’.

Disaster Calendar 2011 – October 13

[October 13, 2011]  Mass die-offs resulting from human impact and the planetary response to the anthropogenic assault could occur by early 2016.  SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,616 Days Left to the ‘Worst Day’ in Human History

• Louisiana, USA.The U.S. Department of Agriculture has designated the entire state of Louisiana, which includes 64 parishes, as natural disaster areas due the combined effects of severe storms, tornadoes, severe spring flooding, Tropical Storm Lee, widespread drought and excessive heat that began Jan. 1, 2011, and continues.
• Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas. The following bordering counties in the states of Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas have also been designated as disaster areas because they are contiguous.
• Arkansas: Ashley, Columbia, Miller, Chicot, Lafayette and Union counties.
• Mississippi: Adams, Issaquena, Pike, Amite, Jefferson, Walthall, Claiborne, Marion, Warren, Hancock, Pearl River and Wilkinson counties. Adams, Issaquena, Pike, Amite, Jefferson, Walthall, Claiborne, Marion, Warren, Hancock, Pearl River and Wilkinson counties.
• Texas: Cass, Marion, Panola, Harrison, Newton, Sabine, Jefferson, Orange and Shelby counties.

Other Disasters

• Washington, USA. A total of 26 counties in Washington state have been designated as Natural Disaster Areas due to losses caused by frosts, freezes, extreme cold, high winds and excessive snow that occurred Nov. 10, 2010, through March 25, 2011, USDA reported.
• The primary disaster areas are: Benton, Grant, Okanogan, Chelan, Island, Skagit, Clallam, King, Snohomish, Douglas, Kittitas, Walla Walla, Franklin, Klickitat and Yakima counties.
• The list of contiguous disaster areas include the following counties: Adams, Kitsap, Skamania, Columbia, Lewis, Whatcom, Ferry, Lincoln, Whitman, Jefferson and Pierce.
• Oregon.  The following counties in the state of Oregon have also been included in the disaster designation because they are contiguous: Gilliam, Morrow, Umatilla, Hood River, Sherman and Wasco.
• South Dakota, USA. USDA has designated a total of 17 counties in South Dakota as natural disaster areas due to losses caused by flooding that began April 1, 2011, and continues.
• Primary Disaster Areas: Clay, Marshall and Sanborn counties.
• Contiguous Disaster Areas: Aurora, Beadle, Brown, Davison, Day, Hanson, Jerauld, Kingsbury, Lincoln, Miner, Roberts, Turner, Union and Yankton counties.
• Nebraska and North Dakota. The following counties in Nebraska and North Dakota have also been designated as disaster areas because they are contiguous.
• Nebraska: Cedar and Dixon counties.
• North Dakota: Richland and Sargent counties.
• Indiana, USA. USDA has designated a total of 37 counties in Indiana as natural disaster areas due to losses caused by excessive rain, flooding and flash flooding that occurred April 1 – July 7, 2011.
• List of Primary Disaster Ares: Dearborn, Grant, Huntington, Ohio, Lake, Knox, Lake, Porter, Vigo and Wells counties.
• List of Contiguous Disaster Areas: Adams, Allen, Blackford, Clay, Daviess, Delaware, Franklin, Fulton, Gibson, Greene, Howard, Jasper, Jay, Kosciusko, La Porte, Madison, Miami, Newton, Parke, Pike, Ripley, Starke, Sullivan, Switzerland, Tipton, Vermillion and Whitley counties.
• Illinois, Kentucky and Ohio. The following counties in Illinois, Kentucky and Ohio states have also been included in the disaster designation list because they are contiguous.
• Illinois: Clark, Crawford, Kankakee, Wabash, Cook, Edgar, Lawrence and Will.
• Kentucky: Boone.
• Ohio: Butler and Hamilton.

• Philippines. Death toll from tropical cyclone BANYAN (local name: Ramon) that struck the Philippines has risen to about a dozen.
• BANYAN, now a tropical depression, has affected about 30,000 people (about 10,000 victims have been moved to evacuation centers) in scores of villages and towns, most of which are still impassible, reports said.
• Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Death toll from the country’s worst flooding this century has risen to about 250.
• The floods have inundated about 400,000 hectares  of rice paddies
• Damaged or destroyed up to 300,000 homes affecting 2 million people
• Forced the government to cancel the nation’s biggest annual festival [The cancellation may be a good thing, since at least 350 people were killed and over 1,000 others injured in a stampede on a crowded, narrow bridge in the capital Phnom Penh during the same event last year. See entry for November 23, in 2010 Disaster Calendar.]
• Hanoi, Vietnam. At least 43 people are now dead in Vietnam’s worst flooding this century, the government said.
• The floods have also inundated tens of thousands of hectares of crops and damaged or destroyed about 75,000 homes.
• Alaska, USA. A mysterious disease has struck ring seals along Alaska’s coast, killing scores of them since July, authorities have revealed.
• “About 100 of the diseased animals have been found near Barrow, the nation’s northernmost community, and half of those have died, the borough biologists reported.”
• “Elsewhere in the sprawling borough, villagers have reported 146 ringed seals hauling themselves onto beaches, and many of those were diseased, the biologists said.”
• Dead walruses have also been found at Point Hope with similar symptoms, which includes “sometimes-bleeding lesions on the hind flippers, irritated skin around the nose and eyes and patchy hair loss on the animals’ fur coats.”
• Various species of seals and Pacific walruses depend on floating summer sea ice which are disappearing because of rapid warming in the Arctic, federal agencies have said.
• See also: Cause of death unknown for whales found in Alaska river

Related Links

• U.S. back-to-back disasters phase has begun
• IRENE’s Legacy
• Massive ecosystem collapses occurring in Great Lakes

• Texas Wildfires Torch 1,100 Homes
• Mega Heatwaves Could Kill Tens of Thousands in the U.S.  (FIRE-EARTH Forecast)
• U.S. Disaster Losses Mounting
• 2011 Atlantic Hurricane Season: AAA  (FIRE-EARTH Forecast)

• 2011 Disaster Calendar – October
• 2011 Disaster Calendar – September
• 2011 Much More Disastrous: FIRE-EARTH Forecast
• Global Disasters in 2011 Could Impact 1/3 to 1/2 of the Human Population  (FIRE-EARTH Forecast)
• Back to the Primordial Future
• Mass Die-offs  (FIRE-EARTH Forecast)

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities  (EDRO Forecast)
• 2011 Disaster Calendar – August
• 2010 Disaster Calendar 
• 2011 Disaster Calendar

TS Lee: Louisiana and Mississippi declare states of emergency

Governors of Louisiana and Mississippi declare states of emergency, as Lee moves closer to the Gulf Coast

Up to 40 centimeters of rain is expected to fall over southern Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, with as much as 50 centimeters  (20 inches) forecast in some areas, the hurricane center said.

READ THIS FIRST

Continued hacking and content censorship

In view of the continued hacking and censorship of this blog by the Internet Mafia, the Moderators have decided to maintain only a minimum presence at this site, until further notice.

FIRE-EARTH will continue to update the 2011 Disaster Calendar for the benefit of its readers.

WordPress is HACKING this blog!

WordPress Continues to Hack Fire-Earth, Affiliated Blogs

The Blog Moderators Condemn in the Strongest Possible Terms the Continued Removal of Content and Hacking of FIRE-EARTH and Affiliated Blogs by WordPress!

Disaster Calendar 2011 – September 3

[September 3, 2011]  Mass die-offs resulting from human impact and the planetary response to the anthropogenic assault could occur by early 2016.  SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,656 Days Left to the ‘Worst Day’ in Human History

• Louisiana, USA. Governor Jindal has declared a state of emergency in 35 parishes expecting flash flooding and high tides as a result of the storm system.  State officials have urged voluntary evacuations in parts of Lafourche Parish and Grand Isle, Jindal told reporters.

• Mississippi, USA. Governor Barbour has declared a state of emergency in seven counties expected to receive heavy rain and floods as the storm moves slowly north.

• Sindh Province, Pakistan. Flooding triggered by days of monsoon rains in Pakistan’s Sindh province have killed about 70 people, destroying or damaging about a half of a million homes, wiping out hundreds of villages, washing away roads, bridges and other infrastructure, breaching irrigation canals, inundating vast tracts of land, destroying or damaging 2.5 million acres of crop, leaving hundreds of thousands of cattle dead, and displacing or severely affecting more than 2 million people, officials have said.
• The latest disasters in the area is a double whammy for tens of thousands of 2010 flood victims who had already lost their homes and were living in thatched huts which have all collapsed.\

• Texas, USA. Some 18,612 wildfires in Texas so far this year have consumed at least 3,477,685 acres, destroying 2,450 homes/structures, Texas Forest Service reported. [Note: the actual figure may be closer to 3,100 structures – FEWW]

Related Links

• U.S. Disaster Losses Mounting
• 2011 Atlantic Hurricane Season: AAA  FIRE-EARTH Forecast
• U.S. back-to-back disasters phase has begun
• 2011 Much More Disastrous: FIRE-EARTH Forecast
• Global Disasters in 2011 Could Impact 1/3 to 1/2 of the Human Population
• Back to the Primordial Future
• Mass Die-offs

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• 2011 Disaster Calendar – August
• 2010 Disaster Calendar 
• 2011 Disaster Calendar

El Salvador Devastated by New Onslaught of Landslides

El Salvador’s President Mauricio Funes:

The images that we have seen today are of a devastated country

About 130 people have been killed, with at least 60 others missing after days of heavy rain that caused flooding and landslides in El Salvador.

Salvadorans look at their houses that were damaged by heavy rains in San Salvador November 8, 2009. REUTERS/William Bonilla. Image may be subject to copyright.

Map of El Salvador with the worst affected regions San Salvador, the capital, and central San Vicente province marked.

Describing the countrywide devastation as “incalculable,” the El Salvador president declared a national emergency.

San Salvador, the nation’s capital, and central San Vicente province were the hardest-hit regions, officials were reported as saying

According to local reports, San Vicente is virtually cut off by landslides and collapsed bridges, with the worst hit areas being Cuscatlan, La Libertad and La Paz.

Workers seen near a street that was damaged by heavy rain in San Martin on the outskirts of San Salvador, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009. Photo: Luis Romero/ AP. Image may be subject to copyright.

What if the rain continued?

A police officer told the AP: “The weather continues to be bad, and we already have a river flowing through the village due to a landslide. We are worried things will get worse if the rains continue.”

Large parts of El Salvador are without power or clean water and remain cut off from government aid because of collapsed bridges and washed-up roads

El Salvador’s relentless downpour that funneled rain from the mountains into populated valleys below, lasting for more than 3 days, were caused by a low pressure system in the Pacific, and did NOT occur directly as a result of Hurricane Ida, according to weather reports.

Ida strengthened to a hurricane-force storm on Thursday for the first time near the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, forcing about than 5,000 people to take shelters from heavy rains.

Related Links:

• Floods, Landslides, Extreme Rain Events
• Ida Became a Hurricane, Again!
• Could Ida Become a Hurricane?

• Mag 7.1 Offshore Quake Rattles Honduras
• Human Enhanced World Disasters: A Quick Scan
• Ethanol Dries You Out
• Food Riots Grip Egypt, Haiti, El Salvador
• Corn for Food, NOT for Fuel

 

 

The Mesopotamian Dust Bowl

Image of the day: Another Dust Storm Over Iraq and Kuwait

Thick clouds of dust blew from the agricultural lands between the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers in Iraq on August 15, 2009. The pale dust obscures most of Kuwait and culminates in a distinct plume over the Persian (Arabian) Gulf. One plume on the east side of the storm is darker than the rest of the airborne dust. This plume either comes from a different type of source—exposed agricultural soil instead of desert, perhaps—or it is a plume of smoke from a fire. Red dots mark where the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) detected fires, but in this case, a fire may be hidden from the sensor by the dust storm. Ongoing drought may be contributing to the frequent and severe dust storms Iraq has experienced in 2009.

The MODIS sensor flying on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image on August 15, 2009. Twice-daily images of Iraq and Kuwait are available from the MODIS Rapid Response System.  NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Holli Riebeek.

Related Links:

• Iraq Faces Environmental Catastrophe
• Riyadh City May Collapse by 2010

• Iraq Ecocide Nears Totality
• Image of the Day: Sandstorm in Saudi Desert

• First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Future Scenarios
• Nuking Earth for Lifestyle

• World Problems: The Root Cause Matrix
• Giga Trends
• World CO2 Emissions

• Look me straight in the eye & tell me you can’t
• Protect Economy from Climate??!
• Blind scientists examining the economic elephant
• How Much Carbon Dioxide Does Your Money Make?
• Cosmic Scale Evil
• Index of Human Impact on Nature

• New York Cognitive Dissonance

• Carbon Footprint of Your Dollar
• The Billionaires’ contribution to CO2 pollution
• Stop Burning Earth
• Protect Economy from Climate??!
• Energy: 286W

• Failing Ecosystems

Global Warming or Climate Change

From NASA with Love!

What’s in a Name? Global Warming vs. Climate Change

December 5, 2008

The Internet is full of references to global warming. The Union of Concerned Scientists [aka, the snakeoil merchants] website on climate change is titled “Global Warming,” just one of many examples. But we don’t use global warming much on this website. We use the less appealing “climate change.” Why?

By any other name … Whether referred to as “global warming” or “climate change,” the consequences of the widescale changes currently being observed in Earth’s climate system could be considerable.

To a scientist, global warming describes the average global surface temperature increase from human emissions of greenhouse gases. Its first use was in a 1975 Science article by geochemist Wallace Broecker of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory: “Climatic Change: Are We on the Brink of a Pronounced Global Warming?”

Broecker’s term was a break with tradition. Earlier studies of human impact on climate had called it “inadvertent climate modification.”  This was because while many scientists accepted that human activities could cause climate change, they did not know what the direction of change might be. Industrial emissions of tiny airborne particles called aerosols might cause cooling, while greenhouse gas emissions would cause warming. Which effect would dominate?

For most of the 1970s, nobody knew. So “inadvertent climate modification,” while clunky and dull, was an accurate reflection of the state of knowledge.

The first decisive National Academy of Science study of carbon dioxide’s impact on climate, published in 1979, abandoned “inadvertent climate modification.” Often called the Charney Report for its chairman, Jule Charney of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, declared: “if carbon dioxide continues to increase, [we find] no reason to doubt that climate changes will result and no reason to believe that these changes will be negligible.”

In place of inadvertent climate modification, Charney adopted Broecker’s usage. When referring to surface temperature change, Charney used “global warming.” When discussing the many other changes that would be induced by increasing carbon dioxide, Charney used “climate change.”

Within scientific journals, this is still how the two terms are used. Global warming refers to surface temperature increases, while climate change includes global warming and everything else that increasing greenhouse gas amounts will affect.

Definitions:
Global warming: the increase in Earth’s average surface temperature due to rising levels of greenhouse gases.
Climate change: a long-term change in the Earth’s climate, or of a region on Earth.

During the late 1980s one more term entered the lexicon, “global change.” This term encompassed many other kinds of change in addition to climate change. When it was approved in 1989, the U.S. climate research program was embedded as a theme area within the U.S. Global Change Research Program.

But global warming became the dominant popular term in June 1988, when NASA scientist James E. Hansen had testified to Congress about climate, specifically referring to global warming. He said: “global warming has reached a level such that we can ascribe with a high degree of confidence a cause and effect relationship between the greenhouse effect and the observed warming.”  Hansen’s testimony was very widely reported in popular and business media, and after that popular use of the term global warming exploded. Global change never gained traction in either the scientific literature or the popular media.

But temperature change itself isn’t the most severe effect of changing climate. Changes to precipitation patterns and sea level are likely to have much greater human impact than the higher temperatures alone. For this reason, scientific research on climate change encompasses far more than surface temperature change. So “global climate change” is the more scientifically accurate term. Like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, we’ve chosen to emphasize global climate change on this website, and not global warming.

Erik Conway
Global Climate Change

[Text, image, caption: NASA Earth Observatory; comment on UCS: FEWW]

Drought, Floods, Crop Damage, Grain Losses…

BEIJING (Reuters) – China is suffering its worst drought in a decade, millions of people are short of drinking water, reservoirs and rivers have shrunk. The surface area of the country’s largest fresh water lake, Poyang, in the southern province of Jiangxi, has fallen to a record 50 sq km (19 sq miles) from several thousand sq km at its peak.

Children play in a dried-up pool in southwest China’s Sichuan Province. Source: Embassy of the PR China in the U.S.

About 400,000 hectares (1,545 sq miles) of crops have been damaged by drought this year, resulting in total grain losses of 37.4 million metric tones. The meteorologists have blamed the crisis on increased extreme weather conditions. About 50 million Chinese face drinking water shortages. Full report…

Related Link: The First Wave of the World’s Collapsing Cities