For the first time in human history, the North Pole can be circumnavigated
For the first time in human history, the North Pole can be circumnavigated – Climate Change, Environment – The Independent. Or is global warming a myth?
Aug 292008
Text: Barack Obama’s speech – International Herald Tribune.
Al Gore seems to have found a powerful ally in his quest to change America into the world’s leader on renewable energy…
Stark warning on Britain’s shrinking coast
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Aug 182008
The Independent is carrying a stark warning from the newly appointed head of the UK Environment Agency that homes will have to be abandoned to the sea as sea levels continue to rise. The BBC is also covering the same story although it disappeared quickly from the front page. This is partly global warming and partly us humans just accepting that the world doesn’t really care what we put where. Physics still works and the geographical processes of coastal erosion will simply be sped up. The sea has risen before and will rise again. This doesn’t mean it will be pleasant when it does – just ask anyone from New Orleans.
Two Large Solar Plants Planned in California
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Aug 182008
Cool! Good news from the New York Times – Two Large Solar Plants Planned in California – NYTimes.com. These plants, covering 12.5 square miles of land aim to produce up to 800 MegaWatts of electricity or about the same as a large coal-fired plant. All with no raw materials being ferried in, no waste materials going out and no worries about filtering pollution and carbon. This makes me really happy to see this sort of power plant being introduced.
Aug 172008
www.ecotricity.co.uk looks to be a good way to put your money where your mouth is if you claim to be green and are in the UK. Hard cash is the only thing that will get businesses doing something about going green, so lead the way.
Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet
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Aug 102008
Six Degrees is both a very scary book and a very necessary one. Mark manages to cut through the scientific and political waffle and show us what it will actually mean to live on a hotter planet. One degree seems like nothing, but is already having quite an impact. Two degrees is probably the least we can hope for and is already scary. The scale goes up to six.
Six Degrees by Mark Lynas
Aug 082008
Environment: Intense rainfall due to global warming could raise flood risk. The Guardian reports that “Climate scientists have issued a fresh warning over the future risk of flooding after research showed heavy rainstorms are likely to become even more intense than predicted.”
Note that this is not flooding due to sea level rise, but simply intense rainstorms will cause more flooding as the drainage systems in place where simply not designed to cope with rainfall this heavy.
Global Warming: Act Now or Wait?
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Aug 072008
Global Warming: Act Now or Wait? is a great article which summarises the consequenses of acting or not acting on global warming.
Aug 052008
The guys over at Firetree.Net have made a great Google Maps hack so you can explore what would happen to your area as sea level rises. This only goes to +14m, which is just getting started if any of the large ice sheets in Greenland or Antarctica slide off into the sea.
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