since modern meteorological records began in 1880, nine of the last 10 years have been the warmest wherein 2010 was the warmest.
"As greenhouse gas emissions from energy production, industry and vehicles have increased, temperatures have climbed, most notably since the late 1970s." NASA
Since 1880 the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere was approximately 225 parts per million (ppm), but since 1960 the average amount rose to be 315 ppm. Today however it's more than 390 ppm and continues to increase to rise at an accelerating pace.
"Climate change–related increased burden of disease, specifically from allergy and asthma, is anticipated because of changes in the distribution, quantity, and quality of pollen, and lengthening of the pollen season. Asthma and allergic disease will also likely be worsened because of interaction between heavier pollen loads and increasing air pollution from natural and man-made sources. People with allergy and asthma may expect worsening disease, more days with symptoms, and reduced quality of life as a result of these environmental changes."
Quick, go grab your decongestant spray since the ensuing exquisite media art piece de resistance may either spontaneously trigger a tickling sneeze, or merely lightly entertain and educate our awareness of its delirious outcome in our global warming world.
Fabrice Mathieu filmed Flying Pollen in slow motion at 50 frames per second using his Canon 550D 18-55mm, 100-300mm with a shrilling zinging sound design.
While this charming slow motion video beautifully illustrates the dispersion of flying pollen we may need to reflect on Scott Browns climate progress analysis, of the health allergies associated with early and more pronounced flying pollen. This nevertheless appears likely to result in an unanticipated boom in decongestant pharmaceuticals.
Large areas of the world’s oceans are experiencing devastation caused by coral bleaching. According to Clive Wilkinson of the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network: “…May, June, we started seeing massive bleaching in the Andaman Sea side and then in the Gulf of Thailand and now it is appearing to spread across through Indonesia and up into Vietnam and Southeast Asia. And it will possibly start to affect Taiwan and southern Japan very soon.”
You might think its tides floods and disasters that are chiefly to blame for coral reefs fast disappearing, but nay its largely due to human interventions like global warming and overtly heavy industrialized or exploitative fishing, depleting the ocean of a huge range of fisheries.
Jonathan Clay directed and produced this documentary video for the BBC Natural History Unit, and its about an amazing pilot project in Fiji that is bringing damaged coral reefs back to life.
Judging by the success of a few Fijian divers, in the above video, it now appears to be up to science researchers, marine engineers and governments to upscale this ecological remediation technique !
Go here for more information on the project featured in the above video.
Creative ecology activist Natalie Jeremijenko puts art to work, to address environmental issues by combining engineering know-how, public art and a team of volunteers. Among her real-life experiments are; walking tadpoles, texting "fish," planting fire-hydrant gardens and more.
She outlines a paradigm shift in how we administer medical health in order to usurp the ecological disaster we are continually creating in our globally warming world. In the video below she interprets health as outside of the body and a collective effort rather than an individual one.
She clearly exemplifies how displacement is the wrong method to use in dealing with environmental pollution, in relation to the oil containment's running down the roadways and gutters of Lower Manhattan.
In this fast paced wordy but articulate TED lecture Natalie interweaves art, engineering, environmentalism, biochemistry and more to create real-life experiments that enable social change.
Natalie Jeremijenko is based in New York, but currently in Sydney until December 10 working on her latest collaboration: Remnant/Emergency ArtLab project.
"The focus will be on the issues surrounding the long-running attempt to remove a large colony of Grey Headed Flying Foxes ('fruit bats') from the Sydney Botanical Gardens. It will be conducted between the 17th-30th November in Sydney with outcomes presented both at the UTS Gallery and at the International Participatory Design Conference at UTS. "
I'm certain many a Botanical gardens enthusiast will be crossing their fingers and hoping with baited breath that she succeeds with her project !
Biologist Willie Smits has discovered a method of sustainable energy production: using the forest to generate biofuels with a carbon-positive impact. His idea is grounded on his experience of having lived and worked in Indonesia for the last thirty years searching for ways to restore fragile ecosystems.
"The world is in need of bio-fuels, but most have many problems, Tapergy's does not. It is produced from a previously untapped, efficient and sustainable resource —the Sugar Palm, a tree that is three times more efficient than sugar cane and yields more than seven times the productivity of corn. Sugar Palm grows best in a bio-diverse forest environment and does not compete with food crops for valuable agricultural land. Our proprietary, zero-waste process is scalable and can satisfy a significant part of the world's energy needs while providing meaningful, everyday employment in developing countries across the tropical forest belt. Degraded land is reforested, watersheds protected and our carbon positive approach moderates our global climate."
Many scientists are puzzled as to why the thermosphere is contracting. The upper most layer of the earths atmosphere begins 80 to 90 kilometers above the surface and extends several hundred kilometers into the sky. This region is occupied by numerous satellites and the International Space Station.
In a recent study of satellite orbital decay (due to light atmospheric drag) found that the contraction during 2008 and 2009 was unusually more severe than expected, leaving researchers at a loss for how to explain it.
Nevertheless the following video/animation clip, from NCAR scientist Stan Solomon offers us his theory as to why the thermosphere is contracting.
"With anthropogenic activities there has been an increase in global carbon emissions. The concentration of CO2 in the thermosphere has therefore increased. When the CO2 atoms are energized in the thermosphere by collisions with other atoms and molecules, their energy is radiated as heat before it can transfer its energy by other means such as another collision. Over time this manifests itself as an overall cooling and contraction of the thermosphere." Source
Game designer Jane McGonigal from the Institute for the Future, reports in this video, that games like World of Warcraft give players the means to save worlds, and incentive to learn the habits of heroes. Here she asks; What if we could harness this gamer power to solve real-world problems ?
Her aim in this video is kind of metaphysical, she's attempting to push our thinking beyond the notion of winning the virtual Epic game, into game changing our approach to solving real world dilemmas, like global warming.
I wonder how many of us are aware that 2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity ? But it is only in the last couple of years that scientists have begun to realize the impact that global warming and the burning of fossil fuels is having on the biodiversity of our marine life.
The video here gives us a little window of information on the rise of acidification in earth's oceans and the profound affect its having on the food chain around coral reefs.
"for those hesitant to accept the science of climate change, one thing that may be easier to digest is the problem of ocean acidification. It doesn’t take rocket science or more than elementary biology to understand that all life needs balance to survive. Drastically tip the ecological scale too much and too fast in any direction, and you’re asking for trouble. This is why rising levels of acidification—largely due to the ocean’s being forced to absorb more carbon emissions—have many fishermen and scientists fretting:"
"the ocean is becoming more acidic because of carbon-dioxide emissions that are damaging coral reefs, decimating populations of tiny animals at the base of the food chain and eating away at the shells of clams, mussels, and oysters.” Source
If we aren't prepared to accept this and begin to act on cutting greenhouse emissions now, then this startling and deeply disturbing news puts at risk the future of our children's well being !
Nevertheless is a showcase of ideas, inventions and creative inventiveness of individuals, groups and companies, concerns for things green that can help change a polluted and climate disrupted world. Also of interest is the harm that human penetration and exploitation is doing to the world around us especially habitat destruction and species extinction.
