Following a three-year legal battle to protect the polar bear from extinction due to global warming, three environmental groups won protection for the species with the announcement today that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is listing the polar bear as a federally “threatened” species.
Melting ice caps, unchecked global oil consumption, mind-boggling volumes of trash accumulating in landfills — the problems facing our planet are so overwhelming, it’s tempting to tune them out. They’re just so big.
The shrinking expanse of Arctic sea ice is increasingly vulnerable to summer sunshine, new research concludes. The study, by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and Colorado State University (CSU), finds that unusually sunny weather contributed to last summer’s record loss of Arctic ice, while similar weather conditions in past summers do not appear to have had comparable impacts.
The noted Colorado State University hurricane research team on Wednesday raised the number of tropical storms and hurricanes it expects to form in the upcoming Atlantic storm season.
We don’t have to make it anymore obvious we are in a global warming situation. For the past century the human race has been wasting, destroying and polluting planet earth. Lakes and rivers with less and less of pure clean drinking water and more cities with very polluted air. Why is not the question to answer. We already know the reason of our situation.
The last time I visited a supermarket I was thinking of our lost skills. How much we indeed lost in the course of civilization. We have lost touch with nature. Most of us are very good at tracking the lowest prices on the Internet, and perhaps frozen food in a supermarket. But would we be able to understand animal tracks in the wild.
This reminds me of a story I heard as a kid. It concerned a farmer trying to get his mule to move, and a city-slicker who was watching the drama. After some coaxing, pushing and shoving, the farmer picked up a piece of 2x4 lumber and smacked the stoic mule between the eyes. The mule moved, and the city guy was outraged, asking the farmer why he did that to an animal. The farmer replied, "To get his attention", and moved off with the mule. Anyone with a 2x4 for the Bush Administration?
Science Daily — Growing food and fiber entails the use of fertilizer and irrigation systems and results in land clearing. These 'side effects' of agriculture can lead to regime shifts--or 'tipping points' which include desertification, salinisation, water degradation, and changes in climate due to altered water flows from land to atmosphere.
