Go ahead, pack your surfboards. This article – Pack your surfboards… better… with recycled materials ; ;Related ArticlesHow many people does it take to save a coastline?We’re a platform… not the black helicoptersHow do you stop a bad coastal project which has more lives than an ill-conceived TV zombie? ;
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A 24-year-old conservation cropping experiment in rural Australia has become a test case for capturing carbon. rach2k/Flickr As the Blue Mountains burned last week, a grumble of local farmers gathered in Harden, on the south-west slopes of New South Wales. I met them in the middle of a wheat crop, hunched against the cold wind. It had been snowing in the ski fields as the state’s rural fire service chief, Shane Fitzsimmons, predicted catastrophic bushfire conditions in greater Sydney area. While Tony Abbott and Christiana Figueres traded blows about the origins of the early bushfire season, I joined the farmers to hear about a 24-year-old conservation cropping experiment in a paddock not far from my home. Every day, farmers deal with the pointy end of the climate debate. There is nothing like having some skin in the game to focus the mind on the facts behind climate science. Get it wrong and you will, eventually, starve. To keep reading, click here. View this article: Carbon Farming: It’s a Nice Theory, but Don’t Get Your Hopes Up ; ;Related ArticlesWATCH: One Year After Sandy, Breezy Point RebuildsThe County Council Election That Could Make or Break Big CoalThe Science of Tea Party Wrath ;
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Carbon Farming: It’s a Nice Theory, but Don’t Get Your Hopes Up
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Index Astartes: Volume I – Games Workshop
Index Astartes explores the units, heroes and vehicles of the Space Marine Chapters. This eBook collects together a selection of these great articles in one place. About this Series: The Adeptus Astartes are genetically engineered warriors, created by the Emperor of Mankind and tempered by centuries of bloody warfare. The Index Astartes series explores the o […]
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Codex: Adepta Sororitas – Games Workshop
The Adepta Sororitas, also known as the Sisters of Battle, are an elite sisterhood of warriors raised from infancy to adore the Emperor of Mankind. Their fanatical devotion and unwavering purity is a bulwark against corruption, heresy and alien attack, and once battle has been joined they will stop at nothing until their enemies are utterly crushed In this b […]
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Sentinels of Terra – A Codex: Space Marines Supplement – Games Workshop
The Imperial Fists have defended the Imperium since the days of the Great Crusade. They stood with the Emperor at the Siege of Terra, and have continued his life’s work in the centuries since. They are indefatigable defenders of Mankind, and the foremost guardians of Terra itself. About this book: Sentinels of Terra is a supplement to Codex: Space Marines Th […]
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Trident K9 Warriors – Michael Ritland & Gary Brozek
As Seen on “60 Minutes”! As a Navy SEAL during a combat deployment in Iraq, Mike Ritland saw a military working dog in action and instantly knew he’d found his true calling. Ritland started his own company training and supplying dogs for the SEAL teams, U.S. Government, and Department of Defense. He knew that fewer than 1 percent of […]
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Codex: Space Marines (Enhanced Edition) – Games Workshop
The Space Marines are the chosen warriors of the Emperor, and the greatest fighting force of the Imperium. Each Space Marine is a genetically enhanced super soldier, easily a match for a dozen lesser men, armed with some of the deadliest weapons in the galaxy and encased in formidable power armour. This codex explores the formations and Chapters of the Space […]
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Inside of a Dog – Alexandra Horowitz
The bestselling book that asks what dogs know and how they think, now in paperback. The answers will surprise and delight you as Alexandra Horowitz, a cognitive scientist, explains how dogs perceive their daily worlds, each other, and that other quirky animal, the human. Horowitz introduces the reader to dogs’ perceptual and cognitive abilities and then draw […]
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Codex: Adepta Sororitas (eBook Edition) – Games Workshop
The Adepta Sororitas, also known as the Sisters of Battle, are an elite sisterhood of warriors raised from infancy to adore the Emperor of Mankind. Their fanatical devotion and unwavering purity is a bulwark against corruption, heresy and alien attack, and once battle has been joined they will stop at nothing until their enemies are utterly crushed In this b […]
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The Art of Raising a Puppy (Revised Edition) – Monks of New Skete
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How to Raise the Perfect Dog – Cesar Millan & Melissa Jo Peltier
From the bestselling author and star of National Geographic Channel’s Dog Whisperer , the only resource you’ll need for raising a happy, healthy dog. For the millions of people every year who consider bringing a puppy into their lives–as well as those who have already brought a dog home–Cesar Millan, the preeminent dog behavior expert, says, “Yes, […]
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Tom Dokken’s Retriever Training – Tom Dokken
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Populations across the continent are experiencing a sharp decline, and the exact cause is a mystery. But there is a common thread among possible factors: climate change. Read More: Moose Die-Off Alarms Scientists ; ;Related ArticlesDespite Climate Concern, Global Study Finds Fewer Carbon Capture ProjectsStudy Finds Setbacks in Carbon Capture ProjectsFrance Upholds Ban on Hydraulic Fracturing ;
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An abandoned grain processor that dates back to Soviet era.
When the USSR collapsed, the communal farming systems that helped feed the union’s citizens collapsed with it. Farmers abandoned 1 million acres of farmland and headed into the cities in search of work.
New research by European scientists has revealed the staggering climate benefits of that sweeping change in land use. According to the study, published in the journal Global Change Biology, wild vegetation growing on former USSR farming lands has sucked up approximately 50 million tons of carbon every year since 1990.
New Scientist reports that’s equivalent to 10 percent of Russia’s yearly fossil fuel carbon emissions:
“Everything like this makes a difference,” says Jonathan Sanderman, a soil chemist at CSIRO Land and Water in Australia. “Ten per cent is quite a bit considering most nations are only committed to 5 per cent reduction targets. So by doing absolutely nothing — by having depressed their economy — they’ve achieved quite a bit.”
He says the abandoned farmland is probably the largest human-made carbon sink, but notes it came at the cost of enormous social and economic hardship.
Modelling the effect into the future, [study co-author Irina] Kurganova estimates that, since the land has remained uncultivated, another 261 million tonnes will be sequestered over the next 30 years. At this point, the landscape will reach equilibrium, with the same amount of carbon escaping into the atmosphere as is being taken up.
The finding is a stark reminder of how Earth does a bang-up job of soaking up carbon if we leave more of it undeveloped and un-farmed.
Source
Fall of USSR locked up world’s largest store of carbon, New Scientist
Carbon cost of collective farming collapse in Russia, Global Change Biology
John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.
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Abandoned Russian farmland soaks up 50 million tons of carbon every year
Scientist and explorer Sylvia Earle warns that the oceans are “not too big to fail.” But she also says that just maybe, we’re growing wise enough to save them. Dr. Sylvia Earle prepares for a dive in the DeepSee submersible – Coiba, Panama. ©Kip Evans – Mission Blue. Climate Desk has launched a new science podcast, Inquiring Minds, cohosted by contributing writer Chris Mooney and neuroscientist and musician Indre Viskontas. To subscribe via iTunes, click here. You can also follow the show on Twitter at @inquiringshow, and like us on Facebook. Sylvia Earle hasn’t quite spent a year under water—yet. At age 78, she’s at over 7,000 hours, which translates into about 292 days. But she’s going strong. “I just added a few more hours to time under water,” Earle says, “because I’ve just returned from the Gulf of Mexico, 100 miles offshore to a place called the Flower Garden Banks, where at this time of the year, several key species of corals whoop it up and do what it takes to make more corals.” Earle is referring to the phenomenon of mass coral spawning, in which huge numbers of corals all release gametes into the water at once, which in turn float to the surface where fertilization occurs. To hear divers tell it, these events of mass reproduction are one of the great wonders of the undersea world—one that all too few of us ever get to see. “We were diving three times a day, and then another dive at night,” Earle continues, “to observe the action on these reefs.” If you’re inspired by Earle’s ability to pull this off at age 78, just wait: The real inspiration lies in her stunning plea for ocean conservation. In this episode of Inquiring Minds (click above to stream audio), Earle doesn’t shy away from giving us the really, really big picture. She explains that we’re the first generation of humans to even know what we’re doing to 96 percent of the Earth’s water—through assaults ranging from over-fishing to noise pollution to global warming’s evil twin, ocean acidification. Older generations just didn’t get it; they simply had no idea they could have this effect. “We have been under the illusion for most of our history, thinking that the ocean is too big to fail,” Earle says. Now, thanks in large part to the work of ocean adventurer-scientists like Earle, we know better. And we’re right at that crucial moment where knowing something might actually help us make a difference. Dr. Sylvia Earle diving along a deep ledge off the coast of Honduras. ©Kip Evans/Mission Blue Earle ought to know: She hasn’t just studied the oceans, she’s lived them. Her titles include National Geographic Society Explorer in Residence, and former chief scientist at NOAA—plus she’s a TED Prize winner who used that award to form Mission Blue, an ocean conservation initiative. Her unofficial titles go further: Time called her “Hero of the Planet,” and many other call her “Her Deepness.” Earle has set several underwater depth records, including diving to 1,250 feet without a tether (in other words, without a safety line connecting her to another human at the surface) in 1979. Oh, and then there’s her scientific research: Over 100 publications on topics including marine flora and fauna (Earle has discovered several new species), the effects of oil spills, undersea exploration technologies, and much else. Back in 1970, when some institutions of higher education were still refusing to admit women, Earle was leading female aquanauts on expeditions to the sea floor. The Tektite Program included a team of women who lived in an undersea laboratory off the Virgin Islands for two weeks, conducting research. Asked on Inquiring Minds how she was so ahead of the curve, Earle responded: “I think all of us are a little behind the curve for taking advantage of a half of the world’s population.” In pushing us to care about the oceans, Earle’s plea is as simple as it is moving. First of all: We now understand the massive effect we can have. Now we see our impact and we see tipping points already before us. Ocean acidification is one of them: As ocean waters become more acidic due to increasing concentrations of dissolved carbon dioxide, the entire chemistry of the ocean changes, creating a new environment that ocean organisms aren’t necessarily evolved to cope with. Bleaching corals go first, but corals are fundamental to entire undersea ecosystems. Many shelled organisms also fare badly under acidification—clams, oysters—and thus, by definition, so do ecosystems (or, the humans) that rely on them. Here are some other stunning facts about just how much humans have devastated the oceans: * According to the UN Environment Programme, “every square mile of ocean contains 46,000 pieces of floating plastic.” * A 2008 study found 400 ocean dead zones—regions without enough oxygen for ocean life—amounting to a total area of 245,000 square kilometers. That’s as large as the United Kingdom. * According to one prediction, unless something changes, all global stocks of fish that are harvested for human consumption will collapse by 2048. * Ocean acidification is proceeding at an insane clip: Recent research suggests the rate is faster than at any time in the last 300 million years. Dr. Sylvia Earle walks beneath the Aquarius habitat off Key Largo, Florida. ©Kip Evans/Mission Blue We can see all of this now. And we see one other big thing, too: The oceans are, in Earle’s metaphor that quickly becomes literal, a life support system. If they go, we go. “The ocean dominates the way the world works, makes our lives possible,” says Earle. “Take away the ocean, you’ve got a planet a lot like Mars.” All of this knowledge then puts us in a pretty unique place: We’re the first generation that can see what we’re doing, and just maybe take a different path. In the Inquiring Minds interview, Earle invokes a recent book by the famed Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson, The Social Conquest of the Earth, to argue perhaps the most important thing about humans is that they not only learn, they pass on knowledge they’ve gained. What this means, says Earle, is that we alone could prove to be the “visionary generation,” the “heroic generation,” the one that “for the first time could see back into the past, evaluate the present, and anticipate what needs to be done.” For as Earle puts it, “This is the sweet spot in time. Because never before could we know what we know, and never again will we have a chance, as good as we have now, to really make a difference.” You can listen to the full show with Sylvia Earle here (warning: it will make you want to do something to save the oceans): This episode of Inquiring Minds also features a discussion of the latest research on how conspiracy theories fuel the denial of science on issues ranging from climate change to vaccinations, and on how scientists are reconsidering the origins of life and…yes, bringing Mars into the picture. To catch future shows right when they release, subscribe to Inquiring Minds via iTunes. You can also follow the show on Twitter at @inquiringshow and like us on Facebook. Link: This Woman Has Spent Almost a Year of Her Life Under Water Related Articles What the Scopes Trial Teaches Us About Climate-Change Denial If You Distrust Vaccines, You’re More Likely to Think NASA Faked the Moon Landings What Happens When The Government Shuts Down 94 Percent of the EPA
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In Stockholm, top climate experts are fueling up on coffee as they work through the night to synthesize five years of science. Activists erect a tribute to melting ice outside the IPCC’s meeting hall in Stockholm. Tim McDonnell/Climate Desk Today, on a walkway above Stockholm’s Riddarfjärden bay, four activists in red jumpsuits wrestled with three 2,400-pound chunks of ice. The ice, which will melt onto the sidewalk over the next two days, is meant as a reminder of melting glaciers above the Arctic Circle some 700 miles north of here—although this particular ice was hand-delivered by the same company that maintains Sweden’s famous ice hotel. A few steps away, dozens of top climate scientists from across the globe were sealed in a conference room inside an imposing brick compound that was once one of the city’s largest breweries. They’ve come to hash out last-minute details of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fifth Assessment Report, the last day of a week of tweaks and edits to cap off over five years of work. “We want to show that the climate change is real,” one of the activists, Valentina Restrepo, said. She’s not likely to face much resistance to that argument from the women and men behind the report: A leaked draft stated that global warming is “extremely likely” (or 95 percent certain) to be caused by human activities. When the report is officially released tomorrow morning, it will be the IPCC’s first global assessment of the state of climate science since 2007, and it’s expected to include updates on everything from how long carbon dioxide hangs out in the atmosphere, to the dangers posed by sea level rise, to the alleged “slowdown” in warming many climate skeptics have trumpeted in recent weeks. Stockholm’s Münchenbryggeriet, a former brewery where dozens of the world’s top climate scientists gathered this week to put the finishing touches on the next IPCC report. Tim McDonnell/Climate Desk But one question we’ll be asking scientists tomorrow goes beyond the science itself: Is a report like this really necessary? A criticism voiced by many scientists, both within and outside of the IPCC, is that while early iterations of the report were essential tools for alerting policymakers to the dangers of climate change, this fifth report is unlikely to differ significantly from the last report six years ago (which won a Nobel Prize for laying “the foundation” for climate solutions), calling into question the value of dedicating time and resources to re-producing it in its current format. “If it were up to me, there would not be an AR6 (Sixth Assessment Report),” atmospheric scientist Andrew Dessler told our friends at Climate Central. There is no original science conducted for these reports; instead, scientists meticulously aggregate, review, and summarize existing literature. While that sounds like a worthwhile endeavor in theory, the amount of time required means that some science (like, as my colleague Chris Mooney reported, on the effects of warming on hurricanes) might be already obsolete by the time it comes out. Of course, the policymakers who rely on the IPCC to inform their practical approaches to climate change aren’t suggesting that the group disband, but rather break the massive report into more manageable and regularly-issued chunks, according to a survey of participating countries the IPCC conducted earlier this year. This way, the government bureaus that deal with, say, ocean issues, wouldn’t have to sift through a stack of papers on volcanoes to find what’s relevant for them. A new format is one thing that’ll be on the table when members of the group re-convene in Batumi, Georgia, next month. No matter what form the report takes in the future, its top-line findings tomorrow will form the backbone of climate talking points for at least the next five years, and in Stockholm the coffee is flowing as scientists gear up for a long night of finishing touches (into the “early a.m.,” one wrote to us). Climate Desk will be on the scene all day tomorrow, with live updates from IPCC scientists and other analysis, so stay tuned. Read this article: World Scientists Put Finishing Touches on Major Climate Report ; ;Related ArticlesWTF is the IPCC?4 Climate Myths You’ll Hear This WeekWATCH: What’s Really Going on With Arctic Sea Ice? ;
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World Scientists Put Finishing Touches on Major Climate Report
Rising temperatures and the atmospheric changes they spawn are most likely to generate more severe-weather days in the eastern and central parts of the nation by midcentury, scientists concluded. Original link: Study Sees a Higher Risk of Storms on the Horizon ; ;Related ArticlesE.P.A. Rules on Emissions at Existing Coal Plants Might Give States LeewayTowers of Steel? Look AgainAppeal of Timber High Rises Widens ;
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On our new show, Inquiring Minds, astronaut Marsha Ivins talks about her 5 shuttle missions, NASA’s budget, and why the Borg cube makes a good space ship. Marsha Ivins on Space Shuttle Columbia, 1997. NASA Climate Desk has launched a new science podcast, Inquiring Minds, co-hosted by contributing writer Chris Mooney and neuroscientist and musician Indre Viskontas. To subscribe via iTunes, click here. You can also follow the show on Twitter at @inquiringshow, and like us on Facebook. There aren’t many people on Earth who have spent more of their life in space than Marsha Ivins. A veteran of five Space Shuttle missions—in 1990, 1992, 1994, 1997, and 2001—Ivins has spent a total of 55 days in orbit, on missions devoted to such diverse tasks as deploying satellites, conducting scientific research, and docking with Mir and the International Space Station. Her jobs? Flight engineer, load master, robot arm operator, and photography manager, among other things. In this interview (click above to stream audio or watch the video below) with Inquiring Minds co-host Indre Viskontas, Ivins relates what it’s like to live in orbit—for instance, how your body and brain slowly adapt to the fact that no single direction is up or down. She also discusses some things you might not have known about space: why astronauts tend to be type-A personalities, for instance, and why Canada is so proud of the International Space Station’s robotic arm. Plus, for the benefit of geeks across the universe, Ivins explains why the Borg cube from Star Trek can maneuver just as well as any starfighter that Hollywood has ever dreamed up. “In space, they’re one and the same,” says Ivins. Marsha Ivins aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis, 2001. NASA In the interview, Ivins reflects broadly on where human space endeavors now stand. She discusses why publicly supported space missions are still vital, what it will take to get us to Mars and beyond, and why solving advanced space travel problems (problems involving energy and propulsion) might simultaneously help us solve many of our problems on Earth—perhaps including global warming. The interview comes at a dismaying time for the US space program. Compared with the space race heyday of the 1960s, the percentage of the federal budget devoted to NASA has steadily dwindled. “We spent 4-and-a-half percent of the fiscal budget, and we went to the moon, from having never been to space, in nine years,” says Ivins on the show. “That’s astounding. And we did that, and the United States was the technological leader of the globe from that point on. Not so much any more.” Today the NASA budget is about half a percentof total federal expenditures. As Neil deGrasse Tyson has noted, that means that if you held up a US taxpayer’s dollar, and cut into it that much, “it doesn’t even get you into the ink.” Moreover, it’s not clear that private space initiatives are the answer to the problem. “Space exploration is not an immediate payback, fiscally or otherwise,” Ivins says. “It is a generational kind of investment. And the only group that can afford to make that kind of an investment is a government.” Aurora Australis, from the International Space Station. NASA Ivins believes there would be dramatic payoffs from large scale space exploration investments, of the sort that the US made in the 1960s. That might include developing new sources of renewable energy that would not only be vital for long-range space travel, but could also help solve problems, like global warming, here at home. “When you develop something, in order to enable something like a space mission to Mars, it’s got enormous payback on the Earth,” says Ivins. Marsha Ivins, smiling in space. NASA More generally, Ivins thinks our culture simply needs to fall back in love with space, and what it means that humanity can, if it chooses, go there. “You are off the planet. Think about those words. ‘I am off the planet.’ You don’t get to say that [much]. “And I think fifty years from now, I would hope 20 years from now, it’s not a big deal to be off the planet, any more than it is to be at 30,000 feet in an airplane.” The podcast interview with Marsha Ivins is available for audio livestream and also as video. The video is also embedded below. This episode of Inquiring Minds also features a discussion about new developments in science, including research suggesting that political biases are so pervasive that they can interfere with your ability to do math, and mounting evidence of the dangers of head injuries received from playing football. To subscribe to the Inquiring Minds podcast via iTunes, click here. You can also follow the show on Twitter at @inquiringshow and like us on Facebook. From – Podcast: What It’s Like To Spend 55 Days in Space ; ;Related ArticlesWatch: Congressman Makes “Completely Wrong” Claim About TemperatureChart: Virgin America falls below the industry average on fuel performance standardsAdministration to Press Ahead With Carbon Limits ;
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The proposed rules are an aggressive move by President Obama to bypass congress on climate change with executive actions. Source article – Administration to Press Ahead With Carbon Limits ; ;Related ArticlesAdministration Presses Ahead With Limits on Emissions From Power PlantsDot Earth Blog: More on Population Growth and Planetary ProspectsThe Texas Tribune: Texas, Where Oil Rules, Turns Its Eye to Energy Efficiency ;
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