More Trouble For Our Oceans

While we're talking about global warming, and worrying about its effects on climate and severe weather, there is an increasing amount of research being done on our oceans that we should be following.

Here's an excerpt from the article by Chris Mooney: Global warming is now slowing down the circulation of the oceans — with potentially dire consequences


    ...now this week brings news of another potential mega-scale perturbation. According to a new study just out in Nature Climate Change by Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and a group of co-authors, we’re now seeing a slowdown of the great ocean circulation that, among other planetary roles, helps to partly drive the Gulf Stream off the U.S. east coast. The consequences could be dire – including significant extra sea level rise for coastal cities like New York and Boston.

    A vast, powerful, and warm current, the Gulf Stream transports more water than “all the world’s rivers combined,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. But it’s just one part of a larger regional ocean conveyor system – scientists technically call it the “Atlantic meridional overturning circulation” — which, in turn, is just one part of the larger global “thermohaline” circulation (“thermohaline” conjoins terms meaning “temperature” and “salty”).

    For the whole system, a key driver occurs in the North Atlantic ocean. Here, the warm Gulf Stream flows northward into cooler waters and splits into what is called the North Atlantic Current. This stream flows still further toward northern latitudes — until it reaches points where colder, salty water sinks due to its greater density, and then travels back southward at depth.

Graph of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation by Stefan Rahmstorf from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Red colors are surface currents, blue colors are below the surface. “NADW” stands for North Atlantic Deep Water.

Read the full article at The Washington Post website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/03/23/global-warming-is-now-slowing-down-the-circulation-of-the-oceans-with-potentially-dire-consequences/

Depth of Plastic Pollution in Oceans Revealed

If this article on the state of our oceans doesn't get your attention, nothing will!

Excerpt from PHYS.org:

    PhD candidate Julia Reisser and her international team published the study in the journal Biogeosciences, reporting the first ever high-resolution vertical profiles of plastic pollution in the so-called "ocean garbage patches".

    Most of the submerged plastics were very small - less than 1 mm across. Previous studies noticed that tiny plastics were missing from the oceans.

    "We have shown that at least a fraction of this missing plastic is still adrift at sea, but at depths greater than the surface layer that is usually sampled by scientists," Ms Reisser said.

    By using a new measuring device called a Multi-level Trawl, the researchers were able to measure plastic concentrations in ten layers simultaneously, down to a depth of 5 meters.

    While taking measurements in the North Atlantic Garbage Patch, the team demonstrated that the mass concentration of millimetre-sized plastics drops exponentially from the sea surface to deeper waters.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-02-depth-plastic-pollution-oceans-revealed.html#jCp

What's California Going To Do Without Water?

The water situation in California is getting worse by the day. A recent article by SFist, based on an LA Times Op-Ed, declared:

California Has One Year Of Water Left

A section of Lake Oroville in August, 2014. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Excerpt from the SFist blog: 

A stark Op-Ed in the LA Times lays out the case for why water rationing needs to start, statewide, basically now. Also, the state has to lay out better long-term water strategies, right now, because they have none and the situation is now dire.

The piece was written by a UC Irvine professor who's also a senior water scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech, Jay Famiglietti. And he notes that California's water problems date back to at least 2002, when satellite imaging began tracking the steady decline in statewide water reserves every year. 

Groundwater pumping, especially in the Central Valley, remains a huge problem, and we now have to face the reality of what a paltry winter this has been for rain following on the extraordinary drought conditions we faced last summer and fall.

In case you've already forgotten, San Francisco got exactly zero rainfall in the month of January, which is unprecedented as far back as records have been kept. And statewide, January was the driest one on record since 1895.

Per Famiglietti:

Right now the state has only about one year of water supply left in its reservoirs, and our strategic backup supply, groundwater, is rapidly disappearing. California has no contingency plan for a persistent drought like this one (let alone a 20-plus-year mega-drought), except, apparently, staying in emergency mode and praying for rain.

In short, we have no paddle to navigate this crisis.

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Sounds pretty serious to me. Most of us are still taking access to clean water for granted. As for me, I'm watching every drop I use and try to remind others to do the same. I write a monthly newsletter for my condominium where I include reminders about saving water. Let's all do our part before it's too late.


Read More: http://sfist.com/2015/03/13/california_has_one_year_of_water_le.php

Bringing Safe Water to the World

As you begin the New Year, be sure to be mindful of the water you use and the water you waste. An article from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) tells us that one billion people around the world do not have access to clean water.

This recent article from NRDC highlights the staggering truth about access to clean water across the globe.

Excerpts from the article:

Developed countries have essentially eradicated diseases such as cholera, typhoid and malaria, but in developing nations, these and other waterborne illnesses kill 5 million people each year -- 6,000 children every day. And global warming is exacerbating this crisis as severe, prolonged droughts dry up water supplies in arid regions and heavy rains cause sewage overflows. In terms of the sheer number of people affected, the lack of access to safe water and basic sanitation is a massive problem. Yet it is a problem with proven solutions.

People who fall ill from waterborne diseases can't work. Women and girls who travel hours to fetch clean water for their families can't go to school or hold on to a job. Without proper sanitation, human waste pollutes waterways and wildlife habitat. Global warming and population pressures are drying up water supplies and instigating conflict over scarce resources. Expanding access to clean water and sanitation will have ripple effects throughout local economies and societies.

Children are particularly vulnerable to waterborne diseases. Their small bodies take in a disproportionately large quantity of water and its contaminants, and their immune systems are not equipped to fight off invaders such as E. coli, giardia and the typhoid bacteria. More than 2 million children are killed by such diarrheal diseases each year, and 90 percent of them are kids under five.

Safe water is a critical environmental and public health issue, as well as a means to lift people out of poverty and ensure human security. Yet the number of people without safe water is increasing. Water supply and sanitation programs can't be developed in isolation from other development issues. Global warming is affecting water supplies, creating shifts in agriculture and where people live. AIDS patients especially need access to clean water so they don't fall ill from common waterborne germs that healthy adults can fend off. Integrating safe water programs into larger development strategies often involves complex, many-sided reforms, which requires high-level coordination and firm political will to get the job done.

Read the full article here: http://www.nrdc.org/international/safewater.asp

The Demise Of The Mayan Civilization

Listen up, Earthlings!

The ancient Mayan people once lived in the area of the Yucatan Peninsula and modern-day Guatemala. The disappearance of their entire civilization has been a topic pursued by many scholars. Author Ambika Choudhary Mahadjan writes about new research that links the Mayan disappearance to severe drought.

The Blue Hole, Belize - Photo credit Belize.com

Excerpts from the article:

    Findings of a new study now suggest that the ancient race might have been wiped out due to a century old drought. The proof of this new explanation, believe the researchers, might be hidden in an underwater cave in Belize.

    Minerals taken from a famous underwater cave in Belize, known as the Blue Hole, and from adjoining lagoons now confirm that the area was hit by a severe drought between 800 AD and 1,000 AD. After the drought ended and normal conditions returned, these people moved northwards only to disappear again after a few centuries. The sediments found from the Blue Hole now confirm that the final disappearance occurred at the same time as the other dry spell.

    Though this is not the first time that the demise of this civilization has been linked to a drought, there is now concrete evidence pointing in this direction for the first time. That’s because the data come from several spots in a region central to the Mayan heartland, said study co-author André Droxler, an Earth scientist at Rice University.

    Though it is still too early to confirm that the unduly long dry spell over the region was indeed responsible for wiping off one of the most intelligent races in the history of mankind, there is strong evidence pointing in that direction for the first time.


Read the full article here: http://thewestsidestory.net/2014/12/29/26013/underwater-cave-called-blue-hole-belize-unravels-mystery-behind-mayan-disappearance/

More News On The Sinkholes in Siberia

The sinkholes that appeared in the permafrost in Siberia this year received a great deal of media coverage around the world. The latest news is not receiving as much attention, although I think it should.

Excerpts from the article:

The magnificent images of a crater on Yamal Peninsula, caused by collapsing permafrost, have become world famous. But did you know that this permafrost extends to the ocean floor? And it is thawing.

Credit: Image courtesy of CAGE - Center for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Climate and Environment

“Yamal Peninsula in Siberia has recently become world famous. Spectacular sinkholes, appeared as out of nowhere in the permafrost of the area, sparking the speculations of significant release of greenhouse gas methane into the atmosphere.

What is less known, is that there is a lot of greenhouse gas methane released from the seabed offshore the West Yamal Peninsula. Gas is released in an area of at least 7500 m2, with gas flares extending up to 25 meters in the water column. Anyhow, there is still a large amount of methane gas that is contained by an impermeable cap of permafrost. And this permafrost is thawing.

"The thawing of permafrost on the ocean floor is an ongoing process, likely to be exaggerated by the global warming of the world´s oceans." says PhD Alexey Portnov at Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Climate and Environment (CAGE) at UiT, The Arctic University of Norway.

It was previously proposed that the permafrost in the Kara Sea, and other Arctic areas, extends to water depths up to 100 meters, creating a seal that gas cannot bypass. Portnov and colleagues have found that the West Yamal shelf is leaking, profoundly, at depths much shallower than that.

Significant amount of gas is leaking at depths between 20 and 50 meters. This suggests that a continuous permafrost seal is much smaller than proposed. Close to the shore the permafrost seal may be few hundred meters thick, but tapers off towards 20 meters water depth. And it is fragile.

"The permafrost is thawing from two sides. The interior of the Earth is warm and is warming the permafrost from the bottom up. It is called geothermal heat flux and it is happening all the time, regardless of human influence," says Portnov.

Permafrost keeps the free methane gas in the sediments. But it also stabilizes gas hydrates, ice-like structures that usually need high pressure and low temperature to form.

"Gas hydrates normally form in water depths over 300 meters, because they depend on high pressure. But under permafrost the gas hydrate may stay stable even where the pressure is not that high, because of the constantly low temperatures."

Gas hydrates contain huge amount of methane gas, and it is destabilization of these that is believed to have caused the craters on the Yamal Peninsula.”

Read full article here: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141222111559.htm

Dryden: The Town That Fought Fracking - And Won

Good news in the battle against fracking in New York state.

The town of Dryden in upstate New York is fighting to stop an out-of-state gas company's bid to to force the town to accept industrial gas drilling - including fracking - within the town.

Dryden is actually being sued by Anschutz Exploration Corporation in a bid to force the town to permit gas drilling, which includes fracking.

The people of Dryden stood up against Anschutz Exploration Corporation  and won. Read more about how this town stood up to the oil and gas industry and won.

Read more here: http://earthjustice.org/features/the-story-of-dryden-the-town-that-fought-fracking-and-is-winning