Canada grey seal hunt a bust

15 March 2012 (CBC News) – An extremely small number of grey seals were killed during the annual hunt in the Gulf of St. Lawrence this year. Sealers said no animals were killed on Hay Island, off Cape Breton, during a hunt that has harvested more than 1,000 animals in past years, and about eight […]

Arctic sea ice decline may be driving snowy winters seen in recent years

Contact: Abby Robinson, abby@innovate.gatech.edu, 404-385-3364      Georgia Institute of Technology Research News27 February 2012 A new study led by the Georgia Institute of Technology provides further evidence of a relationship between melting ice in the Arctic regions and widespread cold outbreaks in the Northern Hemisphere. The study’s findings could be used to improve seasonal forecasting of […]

New melt-rate estimate for glaciers is 30 percent lower than previous estimates, still ‘a large number, and represents a lot of melting ice’

By Michael Marshall, environment reporter9 February 2012 What on Earth is going on with the world’s glaciers? Reports today suggest that the Himalayan glaciers have not lost any [as much –Des] mass in the last decade [as previously thought –Des]. But while that comes as a real surprise, the global pattern remains basically the same. […]

Loss of sea-ice bringing Arctic cold to Europe

By Steve Connor4 February 2012 The bitterly cold weather sweeping Britain and the rest of Europe has been linked by scientists with the ice-free seas of the Arctic, where global warming is exerting its greatest influence. A dramatic loss of sea ice covering the Barents and Kara Seas above northern Russia could explain why a […]

Burt Rutan: Rocketeer, climate science denier

[Desdemona admits to being very disappointed in Burt Rutan. Des was raised on Golden Age science fiction (“R is for Rocket”), and has nursed the romantic illusion that space exploration might somehow prevent humans from destroying Earth – maybe by moving industry off-world and mining asteroids, or something. But here we have an accomplished aerospace […]

Sea Shepherd declares Canada harp seal slaughter is commercially dead

By Captain Paul Watson29 January 2012 I have been fighting the Canadian seal hunt since 1974. It’s been a long hard road after nearly four decades. During that time I have taken ships into the ice six times, in 1979, 1981, 1983, 1998, 2005, and 2008. I’ve led three helicopter campaigns in 1976, 1977, and […]

Hundreds of scientists ask President Obama to halt Arctic drilling

By Margaret Kriz Hobson28 January 2012 A group of 573 scientists today released a letter (PDF) to President Obama asking him to stop oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic waters until experts can study the proposed oil development’s impacts on sensitive Arctic ecosystems and native subsistence activities. … “We want to make it a high priority […]

Orcas targeting sea lion pups, alarming scientists

[Desdemona suspects this: Sequential Collapse of Marine Mammals in the North Pacific Ocean and southern Bering Sea.] By Remy Melina, LiveScience.com 19 January 2012 Killer whales and other ocean predators are targeting and killing the pups of a threatened northern sea lion species at an increasingly high rate, scientists warned this week. Without a reduction […]

Russia warming at twice the global rate

Moscow, January 17 (IANS/RIA Novosti) – Temperatures in Russia in the past century rose at twice the rate of warming in the rest of the world, the emergencies ministry said. “Despite ongoing discussions in the scientific community about the nature and long-term outlook for global climate change, the fact of global warming itself is uncontroversial,” […]

Video: NASA says Canada ‘hot spot’ of ecological change

[cf. NASA: Climate change to bring big ecosystem changes – Current warming is 100 times faster than end of last ice age. Apologies in advance for the advertisement.] By Mychaylo Prystupa, CBC News 12 January 2012 A new NASA study predicts massive ecological changes for Canada’s Prairies and boreal regions by the year 2100. Those […]

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