I listen to Living on Earth all the time, but the have a spot where they have collected a number of stories regarding the early signs of Global Warming, and how it is affecting local populations around the population.

If you have the time, check out the stories at this link, all are available for streaming or in mp3 format.

According to this article, a huge lake covering 38,000 square miles has formed in the Beaufort Sea - part of the Artic Ocean. These lakes, known by their Russian name as a "polynya", are common occurences and form by melting themselves out of the sea ice that surrounds them.

What makes this polynya unique is it's massive size (larger than the state of Indiana), the time it took for it to form (only six weeks), and the fact that it has formed on multiyear perennial ice. This week the polynya melted through part of the ice that surounded it, releasing it's fresh water content to the open ocean and forming an open bay in the northern polar ice cap.

More information about sea ice and it's importance in the scheme of global climate can be found at the National Snow and Ice Data Center

The Old Farmers Almanac was first published in 1792, and is the oldest continuously published periodical in the United States. It covers a wide range of subjects that include yearly predictions for weather, planting, crop yeilds, home economics, fashion, and other social trends. It is read by 18 million people world wide.

The 2007 Old Farmer's Almanac has an article on page 202 that covers the benefits of Global Warming - lower health care cost, increased crop yield due to increased CO2 production, energy savings due to warmer winters, etc. This is all presented with the tongue in cheek attitude that made the Old Farmer's Almanac famous.

Order the 2007 Old Farmer's Almanac from Amazon

We posted some articles about this a last year. The latest study published in the journal Nature finds that the Sun's role in affecting climate change is negligible. I haven't read the study yet, but am pretty skeptical about the findings.

The Sun plays such a huge role in our daily weather, that it has to have some sort of affect on our climate over a long term. Maybe what they are trying to say is that the Sun is not directly responsible for the causes of Global Warming... Sounds like a good read to me.

This is a pretty interesting article that covers the disappearing seasonal sea ice in the Arctic Ocean. It is a great first hand testament to how quickly the ice is disappearing from a group of Arctic Guides and Naturalists that take frequent trips to the Arctic Ocean.

The Article not only goes into the causes of Sea Ice Melt, but highlights the directs affects on the surrounding environment and wildlife.

Apparently the EPA and the Bush Administration are so reluctant to address the Global Warming issue that 12 states have banded together with environmental groups to wue the EPA to take action. Briefs requesting that the Supreme Court use it's power to force the EPA to institute regulations that curb greenhouse gas emissions were due in the court today.

"It's really not that complicated," Tom Dressler, spokesman for the California attorney general, said Wednesday. "We want the federal government to take its head out of the sand, start performing its statutory duty, and start protecting California and the rest of this nation from the potentially devastating effects of global warming."

California, the 9th largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, is pushing a landmark deal through it's legislature that will require a 25% reduction in industrial greenhouse gases by 2020. The agreement's measures will have little effect on the global warming, but it's symbolic effect will be wide-spread - putting California in a leadership position in the fight against Global Climate Change.

The agreement also breaks ranks with the Bush Administration, which has resisted efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emmisions citing increase costs to businesses and damage the economy. Many manufacturing and technology pundits agree, and are afraid that the new agreement will make California appear hostile to industry, drive existing businesses to other states, and cause higher unemployment through loss of jobs.

According to a new study just completed by UC Berkeley, the economic impact will be just the oppsite - boosting the state's economy by 74 billion dollars and creating 88,000 new jobs.

On August 23rd N.O.A.A. Scientists issued a second coral reef warning this year for the Carribean. Recent measurements show that the water surface temperature reached about 84° F (~28.7° C), more than 3° F higher than the average high temperature for the area. Normally, the sea surface temperatures in the Carribean peak during September and October, so such high surface temperatures this early in the season could have dire consequences for Carribean coral reefs.

Prolonged exposure to the high water temperature can cause bleaching - a process that kills off the algae that lives in and builds coral, which in turn kills the coral itself.

In the 2005 season, coral in the Carribean suffered a massive 40% die-off in some areas around the U.S. Virgin Islands, leaving behind a severely weakened coral ecosystem - a home and breeding ground to many creatures that live in the shallow waters including fish, lobster and marine mammals.

The U.S. has been blessed with a mild start to the hurricane season, with NOAA downgrading it's seasonal forcast for Tropical Storm activity in the Atlantic. The predictions for this year are still higher than the long term average, but until August 14th, Hurricane Alley could not spawn a hurricane due to a missing key ingredient in hurricane formation - sea surface temperatures.

For a Hurricane to form, the sea surface water temperature must reach and maintain a temperature of 82° F, referred to as "Hurricane Ready Sea Surface Temperature". During the first two weeks of August 2006, imagery from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) aboard the NASA's Aqua Sattelite confirmed that the sea surface temperatures crossed the 82° threshhold over a widespread area of the tropical Atlantic - enough to fuel and sustain a tropical storm to hurricane level.

Most of the mass media is still arguing whether Global Climate Change is real or not, but the world of science has pretty much agreed that the cycle is real and happening. Much of the debate has shifted in the Science world to how Global Warming has come to pass. Are we at the mercy of some kind of natural cycle, or is Global Warming the direct result of human activity in the natural environment?

Anthropogenic is the word to describe the latter, and basically refers to the influence of human beings on nature.

Keep your ears peeled! You'll be hearing this one in the near future, just like the word "imbroglio" appeared suddenly and was beat to death by the press during the 2000 Presidential Election Fiasco here in the U.S.

According ot a recent study published in the journal Science, the Greenland Ice Sheet is melting much faster than previously estimated. Using data collected by NASA's Grace Satellite, the authors of the study (J. L. Chen, C. R. Wilson, and B. D. Tapley) were able to estimate the changes in mass of ice from the period from April 2002 to November 2005. Their findings show an increase ion the rate of melting in Greeland's ice, which is now currently adding approximately .02 inches per year to the global sea levle rise. Currently Greenland is losing between 52 and 63 cubic miles of ice to melting each year, three times the rate of melting determined in the first yeare of the GRACE mission in 2002. If Greeanland were to lose all of it's ice to melting, it would contribute almost 22 feet to the current sea level globally.

NASA's Grace Satellite mission uses a pair of satellites that measure the gravitational pull of the area they are flying over. the denser the area under the satellite the stronger it's gravitational pull, making the satellite move faster. As the satellite pair moves over different terrains, thedistance between them fluctuates due to the gravitational pull of what is beneath. By measuring the changes in distance between the satellites, data can be extrapolated to show the surface mass change.

Although the Atlantic Hurrican Season is off to a slow start, storm activity in the South Pacific is going strong. On August 7, 2006, as the NASA Aqua satellite flew over the region, it captured an image of three typhoons following storm tracks in the area: Typhoon Saomai, Typhoon Maria, and Typhoon Bopha.

While this is not an unprecedented event, it does provide an oppurtunity to see into the lifecycle of a tropical storm in the South Pacific. Each of the storms are a different age, Bopha being the youngest at only a few hours in age, followed by Maria (24 hours older). Saomai is a day older than Maria, with sustained winds of 85 M.P.H.

Image Credit to NASA

Appartently the House Majority whip Roy Blunt has vowed to take no action regarding global warming during the entire 110th session of congress if he stays in power. Citing inadequate evidence that Global Warming even exists, Blunt seems to be ready to stand firm against any and all logic and reason. This is a perfect example of how we got in this mess in the first place.

Refusing to address THE most dangerous threat to the human race using the ostrich defense to back up your argument is sheer stupidity, complete ignorance or (worst case) cowardice. Since his vow is based on his role as leader, the best solution to the problem would be to make sure that he is no longer in power.

To contact Roy Blunt and tell him what you think, use the form on this page to send him a message (apparently he is afraid to publish his email address too!).

Other contact information:
Roy Blunt
2740-B East Sunshine
Springfield, Missouri 65804
(417) 889-1800
(417) 889-4915 Fax

Research findings published by the University of Washington shows that the atmoshpere is warming faster in subtropical areas than it is in northern lattitudes. Additional research by scientists that combed over twenty five years of satellite data also revealed that the jet stream in each hemisphere is moving closer to it's corresponding pole by approximately 1 degree (or 70 miles).

University of Washington atmospheric sciences professor John M. Wallace stated that it hasn't been determined whether the shift in the jet stream is anomoly or is a direct result of global warming. While admitting that more work has to be done to determine the causes, he said the effects of the shift could become quite serious if the trend continues.

Basically what the research shows is that the tropics are actually becoming larger, which could contribute to the growth of tropical desert regions on the planet as well as shift typical storm tracks toward the poles. Typical storm patterns like those of hurricanes in the Atlantic would be pushed Northward, and cyclonic patterns in the Pacific would be pushed Southward.

Dr. James Hansen has a long track record of being one of NASA's most outspoken representatives when it comes to Global Warming and green house gas emissions. He has been tapped by the Bush White house in the past to brief the Vice President and other cabinet members on the benefits of removing soot from the atmosphere as a first step in curbing the affects of global warming. In 2004, he fell out of grace with the current administration after confessing during a speaking engagement that he was going to vote for presidential candidate John Kerry because governement climate scientists were being muzzled by the Bush Administration. Now Dr. Hansen has accused his bosses at NASA of applying bureaucratic pressure to keep quite after a speech in December where he oulined eveidence that showed hat 2005 was the warmest year in the last 100 years of record keeping.

This is not the first time that Hansen has levied these kinds of charges against the upper management at NASA, and probably won't be the last. An outspoken personlity like Hansen's is beneficial to the whole Global Warming arena, because these kinds of charges make the news, along with his findings and data, and put the spotlight back on this very important subject.

My own feeling on the accusations is that the management at NASA may be reacting to a certain circumstance and may be panicking because of findings released by Hansen, but they are not really censoring the data. There are mountains of data available to anybody who wants to sift through it, but one must be able to understand the data and form your own conclusions from it.

A new study has discovered that vegetation not only emits Oxygen, but methane as well. It has long been thought that rotting vegetation on the forest floor was the main source of methane plumes measured coming from rainforests, but new studies have confirmed that living plants actually emit Methane.

This will have a major impact on the Kyoto protocol because part of the agreement states that participating countries can plant forests in lieu of reducing CO₂ emissions. Since Methane is more damaging than Carbon Dioxide, it might not make too much sense to plant more trees if the methane they produce outweighs the benefits of the CO₂ they would absorb.

Even more importantly, plants increase their methane output as the temperature rises. This of course would just accelerate the Global Warming cycle as the trend continued.

A recent Study published in the journal Nature suggests that there is concrete eveidence showing the linkage between global climate change the conditions needed for a pathogenic fungus to thrive. The increased presence of the fungus led to widespread extinctions of harlequin frogs in the middle elevations of mountainous regions in South and Central America.

Andrew Blaustien, a professor of zoology at Oregon State University is quoted in one of Nature's commentary articles. He stated that these extinctions are yet another example of the far-reaching systemic impact in our world-wide ecosystem caused by climate change. Although the amphibious extinction only apply to the a certain kind of frog with specialized habitats, they are a good example of how a species can handle challenges presented by a changing environment.

Until more resaearch focuses on pathogens, parasites and other types of disease transmission and their link to our warming climate, we will not be able to fully understand the full impact of climate change and it's effect on the global biodiversity.

More examples were cited. From nematodes that affect the mortality rate of musk oxen to the shortened life span of a pine beetle aiding in the spread of a fungus that they carry, the changes in the disrupted cycle are becoming more poignant and easier to point out.

So how does this affect you and me? One great example is the spread of Dengue Fever, a dangerous human pathogen and a distant cousin of Marburg and Ebola. Warming treands have increased the spread of Dengue out of it's typically tropical environment, to typically cooler temperature zones. As temperatue rise, Dengue is slowly migrating Northward into the Southern United States, and similar trends are being recorded in Northern Australia where Dengue is moving South.

"This new study is a breakthrough, and the powerful synergy between pathogen transmission and climate change should give us cause for concern about human health in a warmer world", said Blaustein.

Coral is like sea ice. To monitor the effect of global warming, one only has to moinitor what is happening in the poles or in tropical reefs to see what is happening. Coral bleaches when the surrounding water temperature rises 1 or 2 degrees (Celsius) above normal and the colorful part of the coral cannot survive. Coral can recover, but repeated bleachings or persistent water temperature rise will kill the coral off.

Bleached coral is not just a blow to the underwater tourism industry. Coral acts as a nursery and habitat for many forms of marine life, ranging from microscopic plankton, to jellyfish, fish and larger marine predators like the Grat White Shark. If massive amounts of coral die off from bleaching, the habitat loss can cause long term damage to the marine food chain from the bottom up.

Another function of Coral is to oxygenate water and to process carbon in the water, therefore the cycle of bleaching leads to more dead coral, which inturn lead to more carbon in the environment which in turn causes Global Warming and the cycle feeds on itself. You know the story.

On the Great Barrier reef in Australia, scientists and coral experts have raised the alarm. Water temperatures this year have reached an all time high due to the hottest year on record, and many are worried that the consistent presence of above average warm water will push the corals of the Great Barrier beyond their limits.

The resulitng widespread bleaching would be the third such event since 1998, and many are seeing this as the yet another alarm bell for the Global Climate Change Argument.

Ever hear of the name Triana? Neither had I until I found about NASA's climate observation project. Triana was the name of a NASA satellite that that would have sat in the neutral gravity point between the Earth and the Sun known as the Langrange 1 or L1. At L1, Triana would have had a view of the full disk of the sun in one direction and a full sunlit Earth in the other. Triana's purpose would have been to monitor Earth's climate balance, and would have beamed a real time image of our planet back to us. Triana's data would have helped nail down some of the real causes of Global warming - and could have narrowed the scope of research on climate change by eliminating suspected causes other than green house gases.

Development on Triana was started in 1998, and was ready for launch in 2001 with a total cost of $100 Million. So what happened to this project? It was ready for launch and paid for, but one minor thing got in the way - a presidential election. To the victors go the spoils as they say, and the industries that lobbied heavily with the new Bush White House were not big fans of any kind of research that even acknowledged the existence of Global Warming, and the scheduled launch of Triana was postponed.

The White House had other reasons for stopping this project. It was a pet project of Vice-President Al Gore. He did not invent Triana, but his vision and influence helped make Triana a reality, and he was hoping the results of the mission would inspire environmentalists and schoolchildren by giving them access to Triana's real-time data. The project was riduculed as "Gore's screen saver" - but what would Bush's screen saver look like - a photo montage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina?

In the wake of Katrina and the worst Hurricane season ever in the United States, having a climate observatory out at L1 doesn't seem like a bad idea, even if you had to give Al Gore the credit!