Warm out today. Warm yesterday. Even warmer today.
In fact, it looks set to be the warmest year since records began in 1880.
No summer in recent memory has highlighted the impact of climate change more vividly than 2010. From flooding in Pakistan (one fifth of the nation is underwater) to more frequent landslides in China to heat-waves around the world, extreme climate events are becoming more regular.
An accelerated pattern of climate anomalies is ubiquitous. Finland experienced a record temperature of 37.2 degrees on July 29th, while Russia has endured its hottest summer since records began 130 years ago. Oppressive heat (temperatures as high as 39 degrees) has led to peat and forest fires across the country pumping smoke into the air. The Moscow Times reported that “the worst smog to hit Moscow in almost a decade has sent pollution soaring 10 times above safe levels”. These circumstances have forced Russia to declare a state of emergency in 23 regions. Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Chad, Sudan, Niger, Burma, Colombia and the Solomon Islands have all witnessed record temperatures. Hundreds have perished in Northern India where temperatures reached 48.5C in Gujarat state several days ago, but the worst may still be to come with forecasts nearing 50C for the weeks to come. The Indian Meteorological Department attributed this to the lack of atmospheric humidity, hot dry winds blowing across the south-western Thar desert and the effects of last year’s El Nino cycle.
Meanwhile, Arctic summer sea ice continues to decline for the 14th year in succession and covered an average of 8.4 million sq km during July – nearly 17% below the 1979-2000 average and the second lowest July extent since records began in 1979, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said. This will undoubtedly have an impact on ice sheets and, in the end, sea levels.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Niger - A Case of the Tuareg Blues
Niger should really grab more headlines.
Five times the size of the United Kingdom, it is one of the poorest nations on earth. The statistics are pretty grim – a 2.9% population growth; child mortality worse than Afghanistan; less than a third of the people are literate: boys spend on average five years in school; girls, just three. Two-thirds of people live beneath the poverty line, 85% on less than $2 a day. Half of the government budget derives from donor aid.
Classified by the UN as the world’s least developed country, its location hardly helps. Niger is handicapped by its landlocked position, desert terrain and environmental degradation. Drought cycles and desertification have undercut the economy and with record temperatures of 48.2°C (118.8°F) in Bilma on June 23 2010, there is no sign of any relief.
Since independence from France in 1960, long periods of military rule have devastated the country. Five constitutions and three military juntas later, little has changed. Add to this catastrophic famines (1974, 1984, 2005 and now another in 2010) and you begin to get a sense of how bleak the outlook is for this country.
Forced to eat leaves, wild berries and collect grain from ant hills, 8 million people (more than half the population), are suffering from malnutrition, 3 million of which are on the brink of starvation. Rains and crops failed last year. Take the village of Dailli as an example. Erratic rainfall and a protracted drought led to the complete failure of its cereal production. Elsewhere, it’s a similar story. The absence of regular rainfall throughout 2009 has led to poor harvests, lack of grazing for animals and food reserves exhausted. The result? Soaring food prices and crisis.
Unless we need to exploit their uranium for our nuclear power industry or see how far on their oil production is, we’re really not interested. As usual, West Africa is not very high on the developed world’s priority list.
Five times the size of the United Kingdom, it is one of the poorest nations on earth. The statistics are pretty grim – a 2.9% population growth; child mortality worse than Afghanistan; less than a third of the people are literate: boys spend on average five years in school; girls, just three. Two-thirds of people live beneath the poverty line, 85% on less than $2 a day. Half of the government budget derives from donor aid.
Classified by the UN as the world’s least developed country, its location hardly helps. Niger is handicapped by its landlocked position, desert terrain and environmental degradation. Drought cycles and desertification have undercut the economy and with record temperatures of 48.2°C (118.8°F) in Bilma on June 23 2010, there is no sign of any relief.
Since independence from France in 1960, long periods of military rule have devastated the country. Five constitutions and three military juntas later, little has changed. Add to this catastrophic famines (1974, 1984, 2005 and now another in 2010) and you begin to get a sense of how bleak the outlook is for this country.
Forced to eat leaves, wild berries and collect grain from ant hills, 8 million people (more than half the population), are suffering from malnutrition, 3 million of which are on the brink of starvation. Rains and crops failed last year. Take the village of Dailli as an example. Erratic rainfall and a protracted drought led to the complete failure of its cereal production. Elsewhere, it’s a similar story. The absence of regular rainfall throughout 2009 has led to poor harvests, lack of grazing for animals and food reserves exhausted. The result? Soaring food prices and crisis.
Unless we need to exploit their uranium for our nuclear power industry or see how far on their oil production is, we’re really not interested. As usual, West Africa is not very high on the developed world’s priority list.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
A Sleeping Giant Awakens
The big kahuna! The biggest event in the Arctic in nearly 50 years! An ice island four times the size of Manhattan broke off from one of Greenland’s two main glaciers and it’s now drifting in a remote area called the Nares Strait between Greenland and Canada.
How should this be interpreted? Is this another demonstration of the onward march of global warming? Or is it simply a natural consequence of a series of factors at play around Greenland?
Scientists are divided. On the one hand, Jason E. Box, a glacier and climate researcher at Ohio State University, stated that the coincidence of this area loss and a 30 square kilometre loss in 2008 along with abnormal warmth this year, the setting of increasing sea surface temperatures and sea ice decline are all part of a climate warming pattern. While on the other, Andreas Muenchow, Associate Professor of Physical Ocean Science and Engineering at the University of Delaware, is more cautious about attributing the ice breakup to recent warming. He has referred to boundary layer physics, turbulence, tides, and glacier dynamics as factors relating to its occurrence.
For more detail, here's an interesting article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/aug/07/biggest-ice-island-greenland
How should this be interpreted? Is this another demonstration of the onward march of global warming? Or is it simply a natural consequence of a series of factors at play around Greenland?
Scientists are divided. On the one hand, Jason E. Box, a glacier and climate researcher at Ohio State University, stated that the coincidence of this area loss and a 30 square kilometre loss in 2008 along with abnormal warmth this year, the setting of increasing sea surface temperatures and sea ice decline are all part of a climate warming pattern. While on the other, Andreas Muenchow, Associate Professor of Physical Ocean Science and Engineering at the University of Delaware, is more cautious about attributing the ice breakup to recent warming. He has referred to boundary layer physics, turbulence, tides, and glacier dynamics as factors relating to its occurrence.
For more detail, here's an interesting article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/aug/07/biggest-ice-island-greenland
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Brazil and the Environment
Brazil and the environment. Get ready for a scoop.
The world’s fifth largest country has the greatest primate diversity, the highest number of mammals, the second highest number of amphibians and butterflies, the third highest number of birds, and fifth highest number of reptiles in the world. Not only is it home to the greatest amount of biodiversity on the planet, it possesses the world’s largest extent of tropical forest, 145 million acres, equivalent to one-third of the world’s total, and three times that of Indonesia, the nation in second place.
Commitment to the environment is also enshrined in the Brazilian Federal Constitution. Article 225 states: “Everyone has the right to an ecologically balanced environment, a possession of common use of the people, essential to a healthy quality of life, demanding that those in Public Office and the community in general comply with their duty to defend it for the present and future generations.” Chapter VI expands on this right.
So far, so good.
But there’s another, more conflicted side to the story of this emerging environmental superpower. Intense economic and demographic growth has caused problems. Since 1970, over 600,000 square kilometers of Amazon rainforest have been destroyed and despite Ibama’s (Brazilian environment agency) assurances that deforestation fell dramatically last year, it remains a serious issue. The discovery of oil off the coast of Rio – 50 bn barrels of it – could also upset its environmental balance, turning the country into a global petro-power.
The world’s fifth largest country has the greatest primate diversity, the highest number of mammals, the second highest number of amphibians and butterflies, the third highest number of birds, and fifth highest number of reptiles in the world. Not only is it home to the greatest amount of biodiversity on the planet, it possesses the world’s largest extent of tropical forest, 145 million acres, equivalent to one-third of the world’s total, and three times that of Indonesia, the nation in second place.
Commitment to the environment is also enshrined in the Brazilian Federal Constitution. Article 225 states: “Everyone has the right to an ecologically balanced environment, a possession of common use of the people, essential to a healthy quality of life, demanding that those in Public Office and the community in general comply with their duty to defend it for the present and future generations.” Chapter VI expands on this right.
So far, so good.
But there’s another, more conflicted side to the story of this emerging environmental superpower. Intense economic and demographic growth has caused problems. Since 1970, over 600,000 square kilometers of Amazon rainforest have been destroyed and despite Ibama’s (Brazilian environment agency) assurances that deforestation fell dramatically last year, it remains a serious issue. The discovery of oil off the coast of Rio – 50 bn barrels of it – could also upset its environmental balance, turning the country into a global petro-power.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
The Aral Sea
Who’s ever heard of the Aral Sea? It’s a rollercoaster story. The stuff of Hollywood. Man meddling with nature. Nature packing her bags. Man repenting.
In 1960 the Aral Sea was the fourth largest lake on the planet. Located between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Its fishing industry employed 40,000 people and produced 1/6th of the Soviet Union’s entire fish catch.
In the 1960s the Soviet smart set decided to make improvements. Let’s have more rice and cotton, they said. So they drained the two rivers that fed the sea, the Syr Darya and Amu Darya. The consequences: bad for the ecosystem and bad for people, who began to develop respiratory problems (strong windstorms blew salt and agricultural chemicals around – the water had previously mitigated this).
By 2007 the lake had declined to 10% of its original size; it had actually split into three lakes, crumbled like the Union that had meddled with it. By 2009, the south-eastern lake had disappeared and the south-western lake retreated to a thin strip at the extreme west of the former southern sea.
Good news: the “Kazakh Miracle” has been announced – a multi-million government program for the recovery of the Northern Aral Sea and revitalisation of the dry former seabed, partially supported by loans from the World Bank. The powers that be are now committed to undoing the damage done.
Other big lakes are in a bad way too: the Salton Sea in California’s boarder region and Lake Chad in Central Africa (labeled an ecological catastrophe by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization).
In 1960 the Aral Sea was the fourth largest lake on the planet. Located between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Its fishing industry employed 40,000 people and produced 1/6th of the Soviet Union’s entire fish catch.
In the 1960s the Soviet smart set decided to make improvements. Let’s have more rice and cotton, they said. So they drained the two rivers that fed the sea, the Syr Darya and Amu Darya. The consequences: bad for the ecosystem and bad for people, who began to develop respiratory problems (strong windstorms blew salt and agricultural chemicals around – the water had previously mitigated this).
By 2007 the lake had declined to 10% of its original size; it had actually split into three lakes, crumbled like the Union that had meddled with it. By 2009, the south-eastern lake had disappeared and the south-western lake retreated to a thin strip at the extreme west of the former southern sea.
Good news: the “Kazakh Miracle” has been announced – a multi-million government program for the recovery of the Northern Aral Sea and revitalisation of the dry former seabed, partially supported by loans from the World Bank. The powers that be are now committed to undoing the damage done.
Other big lakes are in a bad way too: the Salton Sea in California’s boarder region and Lake Chad in Central Africa (labeled an ecological catastrophe by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization).
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