Tag Archives: space

Watermelon Snow: Not Edible but Important for Climate Change

by Myrna Posted on June 22, 2016

A study called for better understanding of potential effects on the climate of red algae that grows on snow in warmer months. Link –  Watermelon Snow: Not Edible but Important for Climate Change ; ; ;

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Watermelon Snow: Not Edible but Important for Climate Change

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Rare Visitor to Taiwan Is a Bird-Watcher’s Dream

by Myrna Posted on June 2, 2016

The only Siberian crane ever seen in Taiwan set off a frenzy by sightseers, the hiring of a 24-hour guard and environmental efforts to welcome such migratory species. Source article:  Rare Visitor to Taiwan Is a Bird-Watcher’s Dream ; ; ;

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Rare Visitor to Taiwan Is a Bird-Watcher’s Dream

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The Value and Gaps in a Big San Francisco Clean-Energy Conclave

by Myrna Posted on June 1, 2016

Can an international gathering in San Francisco take big greenhouse-gas emitters from ambitious clean-energy pledges to real-world action? Follow this link:  The Value and Gaps in a Big San Francisco Clean-Energy Conclave ; ; ;

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The Value and Gaps in a Big San Francisco Clean-Energy Conclave

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House Science Republicans find a way to hit rock bottom

by MalorieHutcheson Posted on May 20, 2016

House Science Republicans find a way to hit rock bottom

By on May 20, 2016Share

In March, a coalition of 17 state attorneys general announced they would begin an investigation aimed at corporate forces like ExxonMobil that have — over a period of decades — obstructed efforts to combat climate change. Now, corporations and their allies in Congress are striking back.

Thirteen Republicans on the U.S. House Science, Space, and Technology Committee circulated letters on Wednesday to the attorneys general and several environmental organizations. They claim the proceedings amount to a violation of free speech, and so they’re requesting documents related to the legal efforts against Exxon and industry-funded nonprofits.

The letters read, in part:

The Committee is concerned that these efforts to silence speech are based on political theater rather than legal or scientific arguments, and that they run counter to an attorney general’s duty to serve ‘as the guardian of the legal rights of the citizens’ and to ‘assert, protect, and defend the rights of the people.’ These legal actions may even amount to an abuse of prosecutorial discretion.

You read that right: The House Science Committee — the committee that’s headed by noted climate change denier Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) and has jurisdiction over federal scientific research — wants everyone to stop picking on poor little Exxon and the most profitable industry in human history. As Greenpeace executive director Annie Leonard said, “America’s least-respected politicians have now courageously stepped up to defend one of America’s most-hated corporations from scrutiny.”

Exxon, proving itself perfectly capable of fighting its own battles, has more payback in the works: It filed court papers last month to challenge one attorney general’s investigation.

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House Science Republicans find a way to hit rock bottom

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No human alive has seen 7 months this hot before

by AshelyTrvjb Posted on May 17, 2016

No human alive has seen 7 months this hot before

By on May 17, 2016Share

This story was originally published by Slate and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

N.B. If this article sounds familiar, it should. This has been happening so frequently I just copied the post for March and updated it.

October. November. December. January. February. March. And now April.

For the sixth seventh month in a row, we’ve had a month that has broken the global high temperature record. And not just broken it, but shattered it, blasting through it like the previous record wasn’t even there.

No human alive has seen a month of

March

April like this before.

NASA GISS

According to NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, March April 2016 was the hottest March April on record, going back 136 years. It was a staggering 1.28 degrees C 1.11 degrees C above average across the planet.* The previous March April record, from 2010, was 0.92 degrees C 0.87 degrees C above average. This year took a huge jump over that.

Welcome to the new normal, and our new world.

As you can see from the map above, much of this incredible heat spike is located in the extreme northern latitudes. That is not good; it’s this region that’s most fragile to heating. Temperatures soaring to 7 degrees C or more above normal means more ice melting, a longer melting season, loss of thinner ice, loss of longer-term ice, and most alarmingly the dumping of billions of tons of fresh water into the saltier ocean which can and will disrupt the Earth’s ability to move that heat around.

What’s going on? El Niño might be the obvious culprit, but in fact it’s only contributing a small amount of overall warming to the globe, probably around 0.1 degrees C or so. That’s not nearly enough to account for this. It’s almost certain that even without El Niño, we’d be experiencing record heat.

Most likely there is a confluence of events going on to produce this huge spike in temperature — latent heat in the Pacific waters, wind patterns distributing it, and more.

The Japanese Meteorological Agency measured similar temperatures as GISS (though it uses a different baseline for the average). Note the trend. See a “pause”? I don’t.

Japanese Meteorological Agency

And underlying it all, stoking the fire, is us. Humans. Climate scientists — experts who have devoted their lives to studying and understanding how this all works — agree to an extraordinary degree that humans are responsible for the heating of our planet.

That’s why we’re seeing so many records lately; El Niño might produce a spike, but that spike is sitting on top of an upward trend, the physical manifestation of human induced global warming, driven mostly by our dumping 40 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the air every year.

Until our politicians recognize that this is a threat, and a very serious one, things are unlikely to change much. And the way I see it, the only way to get our politicians to recognize that is to change the politicians we have in office.

That’s a new world we need, and one I sincerely hope we make happen.

*GISS uses the temperatures from 1951–1980 to calculate the average. The Japanese Meteorological Agency uses 1981–2010, which gives different anomaly numbers, but the trend remains the same. Realistically, the range GISS uses is better; by 1981 global warming was already causing average temperatures to rise.

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No human alive has seen 7 months this hot before

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Here’s An Idea For Urban Living

by Jill Tsai Posted on May 9, 2016

Mother Jones

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A couple of days ago I read a post at New York magazine about a new kind of apartment:

This weekend, residents will begin moving into New York’s newest experiment in communal living: a blocky red-and-white building in Williamsburg, nestled snugly against the BQE. It’s run by the company Common, which sells “co-living,” a relatively new product that’s a start-up version of rental roommate shares.

Click the link for the full story, but it brought to mind a random thought that’s been on my mind for a long time. I’ve never mentioned it since it’s light years outside my wheelhouse of knowledge, but it’s Monday, so why not?

As near as I can tell, the Common approach is a building full of bedrooms of various sizes and prices. There are common bathrooms and dining areas in various places, and the rent ranges from $2,250 to $3,190. But if you’re going to go the dorm route, why not do it better? Take a look at the floor plan below:

I chose the bedroom size because it’s the size of my master bedroom. It’s plenty large and comfy, with room for two, lots of closet space, and a nice private bathroom. Five of these bedrooms enclose a 1,100 square foot common area, which is about the size of the entire downstairs of my house. In real life it would be divided into various areas, either via walls or potted plants or what have you. There’s plenty of space for a large kitchen in the center and various dining, seating, and TV rooms around it. The entire thing is 3,162 square feet, and every bedroom has two doors: one into the common area and a private door to the outside. The building would presumably have the usual amenities depending on how upscale it is: fitness center, laundry facilities, storage areas, etc.

So I’m curious: why doesn’t anyone do this? Are there regulatory issues? Has it been tried and failed? It seems like a decent idea that provides a lot of space for the money, and plenty of privacy too if you build the bedrooms right (i.e., good soundproofing). If five roommates are just too many, you could do the same thing with three bedrooms at a somewhat higher cost.

Obviously this isn’t ideal for everyone, but especially in high-cost urban areas it seems like a decent compromise between commune and private apartment that could be rented out for a reasonable price. Has this been done? If so, is there something I’m not thinking of that kept it from catching on?

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Here’s An Idea For Urban Living

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Don’t gloat over Ted Cruz’s loss. He’ll just go back to harassing climate scientists.

by AngelaJNTN Posted on May 5, 2016

Don’t gloat over Ted Cruz’s loss. He’ll just go back to harassing climate scientists.

By on May 5, 2016Share

The 2016 presidential field lost one of its more vocal climate deniers when Ted Cruz suspended his campaign this week (Donald Trump will be picking up the slack there). But Cruz won’t disappear entirely. He’s still in the U.S. Senate serving a term through 2018, so he’ll be free to return to one of his favorite hobbies: terrorizing federal scientists, NASA, and climate advocates once more.

Cruz has often used his position as chair of the Subcommittee on Science and Space to elevate some of his favorite climate denier tropes — especially the (incorrect) point that over the “last 15 years, there has been no recorded warming.”

In December, Cruz held a hearing entitled “Data or Dogma” to “debate over climate science, the impact of federal funding on the objectivity of climate research, and the ways in which political pressure can suppress opposing viewpoints in the field of climate science.” He invited mostly climate change deniers to make his case that global warming is on pause. At another committee hearing last fall, Cruz grilled Sierra Club President Aaron Mair on the point that 97 percent of scientists agree global warming is human-caused.

Cruz’s other focus while chairing this committee has been to pressure NASA to abandon its Earth-focused studies of the climate.

Cruz will still have enough of a megaphone from the Senate to frustrate and confound any of us who believe in facts — and he won’t have the presidential campaign to distract him.

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Don’t gloat over Ted Cruz’s loss. He’ll just go back to harassing climate scientists.

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After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight

by Myrna Posted on May 2, 2016

Contestants lost hundreds of pounds during Season 8, but gained them back. A study of their struggles helps explain why so many people fail to keep off the weight they lose. Excerpt from –  After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight ; ; ;

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After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight

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This week’s deadly flooding in Houston is just the beginning

by ShanelVwzzrgzaa Posted on April 19, 2016

A scene from 2015’s disastrous floods in Houston. REUTERS/Lee Celano

This week’s deadly flooding in Houston is just the beginning

By on Apr 19, 2016commentsShare

Houston is in the throes of a flood that is, according to recent headlines, “historic,” “deadly,” and “unprecedented.”

None of that is hyperbole. As of Tuesday, the floods had killed at least six people, destroyed miles of homes and highways, and displaced hundreds of residents. More than 17 inches of rain had fallen in Texas’ Harris County since the previous morning, according to ABC News. And it wasn’t over yet: The National Weather Service issued flood warnings into late Tuesday night. (Meanwhile, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner helpfully commented that there was “nothing you can do” in the face of “a lot of rain coming in a very short period of time.”)

Flooding has become an annual hazard in the city, which sits at just 43 feet above sea level. Unfortunately, it’s very likely that the situation will only worsen.

For starters, when floodwaters begin to recede, they bring their own set of hazards and dangers. A spokesperson for the American Red Cross noted the extreme toxicity of floodwater, reports ABC News, which constitutes a sludge of debris from cars, houses, and infrastructure — not to mention overflow from contaminated waterways like Texas’ Blanco River. The rising waters also disrupted wildlife — officials warned that aggressive snakes washing up on people’s properties were a risk factor. During cleanup, Houstonians will be exposed to a Pandora’s Box of mold and airborne toxins that could aggravate asthma or respiratory illness.

Plus, Houston is woefully underprepared for natural disasters, as an investigation by ProPublica and Texas Monthly revealed in March. The investigation, which relied on predictive meteorological models, found that the near-miss of Hurricane Ike in 2008 was a relative blessing for the city that no one should bank on occurring again. According to scientists interviewed for the project, the odds of Houston’s “perfect storm” happening in a given year exceed that of being killed in a car crash or by a firearm — both of which are fairly common occurrences in the U.S.

According to ProPublica, Houston is the fourth-largest American city and a major industrial hub that contains the country’s largest refining and petrochemical complex, NASA’s Johnson Space Center, the Houston Ship Channel, and multiple rapidly expanding residential areas. If the storm hits at the wrong spot, all of those place would be at risk of being underwater or severely damaged by flooding. That’s a scenario that would halt supply chains all over the country and wreak havoc on the American economy.

But experts told media outlets this week that there was no way that Houston could prepare in time. “Could we have engineered our way out of this?” said Rice University engineer Philip Bedient, quoted in the Guardian. “Only if we started talking about alterations 35 or 40 years ago.”

Bedient went on to say that the best that Houston could hope for for was a good warning system. NASA might want to get on that — if only certain presidential candidates wouldn’t get in its way.

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This week’s deadly flooding in Houston is just the beginning

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Industrial-scale aquaponics is coming of age

by AntonetHipple Posted on April 14, 2016

green4us

Spark Joy – Marie Kondo

Japanese decluttering guru Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up  has revolutionized homes—and lives—across the world. Now, Kondo presents an illustrated guide to her acclaimed KonMari Method, with step-by-step folding illustrations for everything from shirts to socks, plus drawings of perfectly organized drawers and closets. She also provides advice on frequently asked questions, such as whether to […]

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How to Grow More Vegetables, Eighth Edition – John Jeavons

Decades before the terms “eco-friendly” and “sustainable growing” entered the vernacular,  How to Grow More Vegetables  demonstrated that small-scale, high-yield, all-organic gardening methods could yield bountiful crops over multiple growing cycles using minimal resources in a suburban environment. The concept that John Jeavons and the team at Ecology Action launched more than 40 years ago […]

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Angels of Death (Enhanced Edition) – Games Workshop

The Space Marines stride across alien worlds, their boltguns roaring a benediction to the Emperor as they kill. They are the finest warriors Mankind has ever known, and it is by their courage and skill that the Imperium of Man endures. When the enemies of Humanity rise up from the darkness of the void or […]

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White Dwarf Issue 115: 9th April 2016 (Tablet Edition) – White Dwarf

This is it, folks – 30 years of Space Marines, and the celebrations begin right here! Yes, that’s right, the greatest defenders of Humanity in the grim darkness of the future have been with us for three decades now, and of course we want to mark the occasional in style. We’ve got a grand retrospective […]

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The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up – Marie Kondo

This New York Times best-selling guide to decluttering your home from Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes readers step-by-step through her revolutionary KonMari Method for simplifying, organizing, and storing. Despite constant efforts to declutter your home, do papers still accumulate like snowdrifts and clothes pile up like a tangled mess of noodles? Japanese cleaning consultant […]

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The Drunken Botanist – Amy Stewart

Sake began with a grain of rice. Scotch emerged from barley, tequila from agave, rum from sugarcane, bourbon from corn. Thirsty yet?  In The Drunken Botanist , Amy Stewart explores the dizzying array of herbs, flowers, trees, fruits, and fungi that humans have, through ingenuity, inspiration, and sheer desperation, contrived to transform into alcohol over […]

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Index Astartes: Apocrypha – Games Workshop

Celebrating thirty years of Space Marines, Index Astartes: Apocrypha brings together a number of the most elusive articles from the darkest reaches of the Citadel archives. Discover for yourself the origin, history and development of the greatest warriors humanity has ever conceived! Inside this eBook you will find classic articles from the early days of […]

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Dream Home – Jonathan Scott & Drew Scott

. Jonathan and Drew Scott have taken HGTV by storm with their four hit shows, Property Brothers, Property Brothers at Home, Buying & Selling, and Brother vs. Brother. The talented duo’s good-natured rivalry, playful banter, and no-nonsense strategies have earned the popular twins millions of devoted fans who have been anxiously waiting for a Scott […]

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Angels of Death (Tablet Edition) – Games Workshop

The Space Marines stride across alien worlds, their boltguns roaring a benediction to the Emperor as they kill. They are the finest warriors Mankind has ever known, and it is by their courage and skill that the Imperium of Man endures. When the enemies of Humanity rise up from the darkness of the void or […]

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Homer’s Odyssey – Gwen Cooper

BONUS: This edition contains a new afterword and an excerpt from Gwen Cooper’s Love Saves the Day. ONCE IN NINE LIVES, SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARY HAPPENS.   The last thing Gwen Cooper wanted was another cat. She already had two, not to mention a phenomenally underpaying job and a recently broken heart. Then Gwen’s veterinarian called with […]

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Industrial-scale aquaponics is coming of age

Posted in aquaponics, Casio, Citadel, eco-friendly, Everyone, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, Monterey, ONA, organic, organic gardening, Pines, solar, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Industrial-scale aquaponics is coming of age