Best Protected Great Barrier Reef Corals Are Now Dead | Climate Central

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GR:  Marine parks can’t protect coral from global warming.

 :  The colorless coral corpses of north Queensland will soon be blanketed with mats of algae, and the hard skeletons will begin to crumble. It may take decades for the submerged wonders of what had recently been unspoiled reefs to resprout and recover from the wipeout, if they ever do.

Temperatures continue to rise worldwide. The amount of heat-trapping pollution released every year from fuel burning and deforestation has plateaued in recent years, while the amount of pollution in the atmosphere continues to pile up. Bleaching is caused primarily by warm waters, and the current worldwide bleaching is the third and worst on record, all since the late 1990s.

The extent of the coral wipeout was particularly remarkable because it occurred inside one of the world’s best protected natural areas. Fishing restrictions and other rules are in place to protect reefs that serve as nurseries for large fisheries and as drawing cards for a tourism-heavy economy.

“The coral animal is the keystone species on a coral reef — like the trees in a forest,” Kline said. “When the corals die you lose the three-dimensional structure that’s really important. A lot of these fish, their larval stages depend on hiding in among the corals to hide from predators.”

Kline said the Great Barrier Reef is inside what’s considered to be “one of the best managed and most successful” marine parks in the world.

Source: Best Protected Great Barrier Reef Corals Are Now Dead | Climate Central

 

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Arizona Public Service seeks to raise costs for solar customers | azdailysun.com

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GR:  The justification for raising costs for solar customers is without merit.  The idea from the start has been to encourage the switch to solar.

BOB CHRISTIE Associated Press:  The most contentious parts of the proposal are likely to be the new “demand charges” and the ending of “net metering” for solar customers.

Net metering pays homeowners with rooftop solar full retail rates for excess power sent back to the grid. APS is proposing to pay only wholesale market rates for that power, a rate that will dramatically cut the amount of credits solar customers receive. APS and other utilities have been pushing for the changes in recent years, arguing that they unfairly benefit solar customers while shifting costs of maintaining the grid to non-solar customers.  Source: APS seeks 8 percent rate boost, solar changes | Local | azdailysun.com

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Voluntary family planning to minimise and mitigate climate change | The BMJ

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What is the relation between population and environmental impact?

During 1971-72, Ehrlich and Holdren identified three factors that create humanity’s environmental (including climatic) impact, related by a simple equation2:Environmental impact, I =P×A×T.  in which A is affluence (material consumption and the concomitant “effluence” of pollutants such as carbon dioxide (CO2) per person); T is technology impact per person (in which fossil fuels measure more highly than solar based energy); and P is population (the number of people).

Population’s effect on the other two factors is multiplicative. Reducing P can reduce environmental impact if the other factors are constant. In fig 1⇓, for example, fewer people requiring food would manifestly reduce the startling 30% of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and meat production combined (including CO2 from deforestation, methane from livestock, and nitrous oxide from fertilisers).3 That said, other contributory factors, including the worldwide trend towards higher meat consumption, must also be reversed.

Source: Voluntary family planning to minimise and mitigate climate change | The BMJ

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Australian state MP admits eating elephant he shot in Zimbabwe | Australia news | The Guardian

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A member of the New South Wales parliament belonging to the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party has revealed he once shot and ate an elephant while hunting in Zimbabwe.Robert Borsak has previously admitted shooting an elephant during an African hunting tour, with a picture of the state senator kneeling beside the kill sparking controversy.

According to the Zambezi Society, a conservation group, elephant populations in Zimbabwe have fallen dramatically in the past 15 years, particularly in the Middle Zambezi Valley, where last January there were around 11,500 elephants, down from 18,000 in 2001.

Source: Australian state MP admits eating elephant he shot in Zimbabwe | Australia news | The Guardian

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Elephants could vanish from one of Africa’s key reserves within six years | Environment | The Guardian

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Elephants could disappear from one of Africa’s most important wildlife reserves within six years unless industrial scale poaching is stopped and mining is brought under control, the WWF has said.

Selous national park, a world heritage site in southern Tanzania, has lost an average of almost 2,500 elephants a year since the 1970s. But it has now reached a crtitical stage with only about 15,000 left, according to the latest census.

“The population is at an historic low. and urgent measures are required to protect the remaining animals and return the population to a stable and sustainable size. If this trend continues, elephants could vanish from Selous by early 2022,” says the WWF in a new study.

Source: Elephants could vanish from one of Africa’s key reserves within six years | Environment | The Guardian

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Simulated Global Temperature Change–Updated

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This animated spiral portrays the simulated changes in the global averaged monthly air temperature from 1850 through 2100 relative to the 1850 – 1900 average. The temperature data are from Community Climate System (CCSM4) global climate model maintained by the National Center for Atmospheric Research. The simulation is for the IPCC Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 (RCP8.5) emission scenario. RCP8.5 is the most aggressive scenario in which green house gases continue to rise unchecked through the end of the century, leading to an equivalent of about 1370 ppm CO2, which is roughly four times the concentration at present. The CCSM4 simulation is part of the 5th Climate Model Intercomparison Program (CMIP5) and the data can be downloaded at https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/projects/cmip5/. The 21st century animations are an extension of the graphic (http://www.climate-lab-book.ac.uk/2016/spiralling-global-temperatures/) for the 1850-2010 observed air temperature created by E. Hawkins at Reading University, UK.

Source: Simulated global temperature change

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Hydropower dams worldwide cause continued species extinction

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GR:  The decline of species on the islands is consistent with the theory of island biogeography.  No ecologist would be surprised by the decline.

Archipelago of forest islands within the Balbina hydroelectric reservoir, Brazil. Image: Eduardo M. Venticinque via C. Peres

Archipelago of forest islands within the Balbina hydroelectric reservoir, Brazil. Image: Eduardo M. Venticinque via C. Peres

University of Stirling:  New research led by the University of Stirling has found a global pattern of sustained species extinctions on islands within hydroelectric reservoirs.

Scientists have discovered that reservoir islands created by large dams across the world do not maintain the same levels of animal and plant life found prior to flooding.

Despite being hailed as conservation sanctuaries that protect species from hunting and deforestation, islands undergo sustained loss of species year on year after dam construction, a pattern otherwise known as ‘extinction debt’. These findings represent a significant environmental impact that is currently missing from assessment procedures for proposed new dams.

Source: Hydropower dams worldwide cause continued species extinction

Forest-destroying palm oil powers cars in EU. Surprised?

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GR:  The human efforts to destroy the Earth are like the moves of a chess grand master–always catching us by surprise.

Marlowe Hood:  “Palm oil produced on tropical plantations that drive deforestation has become a major biofuel for vehicles in the European Union, industry figures released Tuesday by an environmental group revealed.

“In 2014, nearly half of the palm oil used in Europe wound up in the gas tanks of cars and trucks, according to data compiled by the EU vegetable oil industry association Fediol, and obtained by Brussels-based NGO Transport & Environment.

“Second only to rapeseed as a biofuel, overall palm oil use in EU countries jumped six-fold from 2010 to 2015, accounting for a 34 percent increase in biodiesel consumption during that period, the figures showed.

“Palm oil is also found in food, animal feed and cosmetics, but use in these sectors has dropped in Europe, in part due to pressure from environmental groups on major corporations.

“Up to now, how palm oil was distributed across products in the EU was not known.

“We now know why the industry is withholding these numbers,” said Jos Dings, executive director of Transport & Environment.”They show the ugly truth of Europe’s biofuel policy, which drives tropical deforestation, increases transport emissions, and does nothing to help European farmers,” he said in a statement.

Source: Forest-destroying palm oil powers cars in EU: report

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NASA looks at ‘snow-killing’ atmospheric river storms | Summit County Citizens Voice

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The famed Pineapple Express touted by skiers in the Western U.S. may not be all it’s cracked up to be. Instead of bringing fresh powder, the the atmospheric river storms, as they’re technically known, more often bring snow-destroying rain to many areas.

A new study by NASA and several other research institutions took a close look at data from satellites and ground observations from 1998 through 2014 to show the connection between atmospheric river storms and rain-on-snow events. According to the study, the atmospheric rivers are two-and-a-half times more likely than other types of winter storms to result in destructive “rain-on-snow” events, which increase flood risks in winter and reduce water availability the following summer.

Atmospheric rivers are narrow streams of very humid air that flow thousands of miles from the warm subtropical Pacific Ocean to the West Coast of North America. When the warm, moist air flows up and over the Sierra Nevada and other mountain ranges it condenses to form precipitation.

Source: NASA looks at ‘snow-killing’ atmospheric river storms | Summit County Citizens Voice

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