Friday, July 25, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
How To Minimize The Impacts Of Climate Change On Ecosystems
Climate change is threatening forests, rivers, wetlands, and coral reefs as well as the valuable, life-sustaining services that these ecosystems provide. A report released by the U.S. EPA suggests tools, some of which are already in use, to minimize the impact of climate change by making the ecosystems more resilient to disturbances.
The report, Preliminary Review of Adaptation Options for Climate-Sensitive Ecosystems and Resources, is one in a series of 21 such reports commissioned by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, an interagency program that studies climate-related environmental changes.
By studying federally protected landscapes—including national parks, estuaries, and marine protected areas—and the management goals set for each, the authors developed a set of strategies to help policy makers and natural-resource managers take action.
Pollution, nutrient runoff, and habitat destruction have already threatened the health of many ecosystems; in some cases the ecosystems have been pushed toward large-scale, sometimes irreversible, changes.
Source
The British Government Must Set A Deadline For Closing All Coal-Fired Power Stations
The British government must set a deadline for closing all coal-fired power stations whose smokestack emissions have not been slashed by carbon capture technology, a parliamentary report said.
The Environmental Audit Committee also warned against the government allowing coal-fired power plants to be built that were “CCS ready” — able to be fitted with carbon capture and storage technology once it is commercially proven and available.
“Carbon capture and storage has undoubted potential, but there is a real question about when it will become technologically and, equally importantly, commercially viable,” said committee chairman Tim Yeo.
“We cannot afford to develop new coal-fired power stations when we have no guarantee about when they will be fitted with CCS, if at all,” he added.
Source
Monday, July 21, 2008
Why It Matters.
Should it matter to humans that other life forms are disappearing? Many people think so. Human populations depend on plants and animals for much of their food, medicines, clothing, and shelter.
Perhaps even more important, intact ecosystems perform many vital functions, like purifying the air, filtering harmful substances out of water, turning decayed matter into nutrients, preventing erosion and flooding, and moderating climate. It is not known how many species can be eliminated from an ecosystem without its functioning being impaired.
It is likely that an ecosystem with more species is more stable than one that has lost some species. For example, research has shown that grassland plots with a greater number of plant species are better able to withstand drought than those with less species diversity. This stability may well be important in the future, as changes in precipitation brought on by global warming stress ecosystems.
Some species are particularly important to the health of their ecosystems. These are called "keystone species", because like the center stone in an arch, their removal can greatly affect the entire system. A classic example of the consequences of removing a keystone species occurred when fur hunters eliminated sea otters from some Pacific kelp beds. Otters eat sea urchins, which eat kelp. With its major predator gone, urchin populations exploded and consumed most of the kelp. Fish and other animals associated with kelp beds disappeared.
In many cultures, humans value animals for reasons other than maintaining ecosystem health. Animals play a prominent role in the religions or belief systems of many cultures. Many people value other species for the enjoyment they give. Still others believe humans have a moral obligation to live in harmony with other life forms. Whatever their reasons, most people agree that it is important to try to prevent species extinction. Not all people agree on how to do this, however, or what to do when human needs conflict with needs of other species.
It is only recently that people have begun to be concerned about the decline of wildlife that has no commercial value to humans. Wildlife laws originally were passed to control exploitation of animals that people hunted. For example, international regulation of whaling started after hunting had depleted many whale populations.
Whalers were worried that soon no more whales would be left and their livelihood would disappear. In the United States, the first wildlife laws regulated hunting of game animals to preserve populations large enough for people to continue hunting.
Now, our concern has expanded to include animals that have little or no obvious economic value, like songbirds, as well as those we value for food or other uses.
Should it matter to humans that other life forms are disappearing? Many people think so. Human populations depend on plants and animals for much of their food, medicines, clothing, and shelter.
Perhaps even more important, intact ecosystems perform many vital functions, like purifying the air, filtering harmful substances out of water, turning decayed matter into nutrients, preventing erosion and flooding, and moderating climate. It is not known how many species can be eliminated from an ecosystem without its functioning being impaired.
It is likely that an ecosystem with more species is more stable than one that has lost some species. For example, research has shown that grassland plots with a greater number of plant species are better able to withstand drought than those with less species diversity. This stability may well be important in the future, as changes in precipitation brought on by global warming stress ecosystems.
Some species are particularly important to the health of their ecosystems. These are called "keystone species", because like the center stone in an arch, their removal can greatly affect the entire system. A classic example of the consequences of removing a keystone species occurred when fur hunters eliminated sea otters from some Pacific kelp beds. Otters eat sea urchins, which eat kelp. With its major predator gone, urchin populations exploded and consumed most of the kelp. Fish and other animals associated with kelp beds disappeared.
In many cultures, humans value animals for reasons other than maintaining ecosystem health. Animals play a prominent role in the religions or belief systems of many cultures. Many people value other species for the enjoyment they give. Still others believe humans have a moral obligation to live in harmony with other life forms. Whatever their reasons, most people agree that it is important to try to prevent species extinction. Not all people agree on how to do this, however, or what to do when human needs conflict with needs of other species.
It is only recently that people have begun to be concerned about the decline of wildlife that has no commercial value to humans. Wildlife laws originally were passed to control exploitation of animals that people hunted. For example, international regulation of whaling started after hunting had depleted many whale populations.
Whalers were worried that soon no more whales would be left and their livelihood would disappear. In the United States, the first wildlife laws regulated hunting of game animals to preserve populations large enough for people to continue hunting.
Now, our concern has expanded to include animals that have little or no obvious economic value, like songbirds, as well as those we value for food or other uses.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
An Air Car You Could See in 2009:106 MPG
Compressed-Air Powered cars could take you over 800 miles on a single fill-up, at speeds of up to 96 mph. They should refuel in less than 3 minutes, and at speeds over 35 mph emit about half the CO2 of a Toyota Prius. Best part? You could see them in the US at the end of next year.
Full Story and how it works at GAS2.org
Monday, July 14, 2008
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Monday, July 7, 2008
Invisible magnetic fields
Magnetic Movie from Semiconductor on Vimeo.
The secret lives of invisible magnetic fields are revealed as chaotic ever-changing geometries . All action takes place around NASA's Space Sciences Laboratories, UC Berkeley, to recordings of space scientists describing their discoveries . Actual VLF audio recordings control the evolution of the fields as they delve into our inaudible surroundings, revealing recurrent ‘whistlers' produced by fleeting electrons . Are we observing a series of scientific experiments, the universe in flux, or a documentary of a fictional world?
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Soundless Music Shown to Produce Weird Sensations
MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) -
Mysteriously snuffed out candles, weird sensations and shivers down the spine may not be due to the presence of ghosts in haunted houses but to very low frequency sound that is inaudible to humans.
British scientists have shown in a controlled experiment that the extreme bass sound known as infrasound produces a range of bizarre effects in people including anxiety, extreme sorrow and chills -- supporting popular suggestions of a link between infrasound and strange sensations.
"Normally you can't hear it," Dr Richard Lord, an acoustic scientist at the National Physical Laboratory in England who worked on the project, said Monday.
Lord and his colleagues, who produced infrasound with a seven meter (yard) pipe and tested its impact on 750 people at a concert, said infrasound is also generated by natural phenomena.
"Some scientists have suggested that this level of sound may be present at some allegedly haunted sites and so cause people to have odd sensations that they attribute to a ghost -- our findings support these ideas," said Professor Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire in southern England.
In the first controlled experiment of infrasound, Lord and Wiseman played four contemporary pieces of live music, including some laced with infrasound, at a London concert hall and asked the audience to describe their reactions to the music.
The audience did not know which pieces included infrasound but 22 percent reported more unusual experiences when it was present in the music.
Their unusual experiences included feeling uneasy or sorrowful, getting chills down the spine or nervous feelings of revulsion or fear.
"These results suggest that low frequency sound can cause people to have unusual experiences even though they cannot consciously detect infrasound," said Wiseman, who presented his findings to the British Association science conference.
Infrasound is also produced by storms, seasonal winds and weather patterns and some types of earthquakes (news - web sites). Animals such as elephants also use infrasound to communicate over long distances or as weapons to repel foes.
"So much has been said about infrasound -- it's been associated with just about everything from beam weapons to bad driving. It's wonderful to be able to examine the evidence," said Sarah Angliss, a composer and engineer who worked on the project.
source:http://www.timeenoughforlove.org/saved/YahooNewsSoundlessMusicShownToProduceWeirdSensations.htm
Mysteriously snuffed out candles, weird sensations and shivers down the spine may not be due to the presence of ghosts in haunted houses but to very low frequency sound that is inaudible to humans.
British scientists have shown in a controlled experiment that the extreme bass sound known as infrasound produces a range of bizarre effects in people including anxiety, extreme sorrow and chills -- supporting popular suggestions of a link between infrasound and strange sensations.
"Normally you can't hear it," Dr Richard Lord, an acoustic scientist at the National Physical Laboratory in England who worked on the project, said Monday.
Lord and his colleagues, who produced infrasound with a seven meter (yard) pipe and tested its impact on 750 people at a concert, said infrasound is also generated by natural phenomena.
"Some scientists have suggested that this level of sound may be present at some allegedly haunted sites and so cause people to have odd sensations that they attribute to a ghost -- our findings support these ideas," said Professor Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire in southern England.
In the first controlled experiment of infrasound, Lord and Wiseman played four contemporary pieces of live music, including some laced with infrasound, at a London concert hall and asked the audience to describe their reactions to the music.
The audience did not know which pieces included infrasound but 22 percent reported more unusual experiences when it was present in the music.
Their unusual experiences included feeling uneasy or sorrowful, getting chills down the spine or nervous feelings of revulsion or fear.
"These results suggest that low frequency sound can cause people to have unusual experiences even though they cannot consciously detect infrasound," said Wiseman, who presented his findings to the British Association science conference.
Infrasound is also produced by storms, seasonal winds and weather patterns and some types of earthquakes (news - web sites). Animals such as elephants also use infrasound to communicate over long distances or as weapons to repel foes.
"So much has been said about infrasound -- it's been associated with just about everything from beam weapons to bad driving. It's wonderful to be able to examine the evidence," said Sarah Angliss, a composer and engineer who worked on the project.
source:http://www.timeenoughforlove.org/saved/YahooNewsSoundlessMusicShownToProduceWeirdSensations.htm
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