Blogging the End of the World™
Thermokarst lakes appear on thawing permafrost soil in northeast Siberia in August 2007. For thousands of years, layers of animal and plant waste have been sealed inside the frozen permafrost. Now climate change is thawing the permafrost and lifting this prehistoric ooze from suspended animation. Russian scientists believe that this organic matter will significantly accelerate […]
November 24, 2009 – 2:13PM (AAP) – As heatwave conditions hit last week, record temperatures were recorded across much of southeastern Australia, but there was no hotter place than Marree. The temperature in the small town, at the junction of the Oodnadatta and Birdsville tracks, on the edge of the desert 685km north of Adelaide, […]
East Antarctic sheet shedding 57bn tonnes of ice a year and contributing to sea level rises, according to NASA aerial survey By Ian Sample, science correspondentwww.guardian.co.uk, Sunday 22 November 2009 18.00 GMT The world’s largest ice sheet has started to melt along its coastal fringes, raising fears that global sea levels will rise faster than […]
Greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, power stations and industries far to the south are putting shellfish in the Arctic Ocean at risk, an international team reports in the Nov. 20 edition of the journal Science. Acidification may put “some species at risk,” the researchers said, saying this could have a major impact on the entire […]
By James Murray, BusinessGreen, Monday 23 November 2009 at 14:24:00 The world is dangerously close to climatic “tipping points” that could result in catastrophic environmental, social and economic consequences, according to a major new study commissioned by the WWF and global insurance giant Allianz. The report from the UK’s Tyndall Centre warns that, unless carbon […]
From The Oil Drum: World crude oil, condensate and oil sands production peaked in 2005 at an annual average of 73.72 million barrels per day (mbd) according to recent EIA production data. 2008 production was slightly less than 2005 creating a peak plateau from 2005 to 2008 as shown in the chart below. Production is […]
From Calculated Risk: The chart shows overall U.S. property total returns, quarterly (at annual rates) and lagging four quarters. This appraisal-based, lagging index shows sharp negative returns exceeding the deterioration of the RTC (Resolution Trust Corp.) period of the early 1990s. Second quarter 2009 returns indicate the possibility that total returns, while still negative, may […]
By MARIAN WILKINSON ENVIRONMENT EDITORNovember 23, 2009 SYDNEY sweltered in near record-breaking heat yesterday as the temperature climbed above 40 degrees across the city just after 3pm. At the airport the mercury hit 42.5, pipping Penrith’s high of 42.1. And the metropolitan heat was almost as fierce as the 43 recorded in the state’s north-west […]
By ELLIE HARVEY AND BELLINDA KONTOMINASNovember 23, 2009 FIRES burned aggressively across NSW yesterday, scorching about 12,000 hectares of the state but claiming just one property. About 130 fires were fanned by sweltering heat and gusty conditions that led to emergency warnings for eight towns. This level of warnings advises residents to enact their bushfire […]
By MARIAN WILKINSON ENVIRONMENT EDITORNovember 23, 2009 THE collapse of the Coorong wetlands at the mouth of the Murray River is shaping up to be one of the Australia’s worst environmental disasters, an author of a report on the region said yesterday. Bird numbers in the region have fallen dramatically and freshwater turtles continue to […]
