Amazon’s grim future causes concern
The Amazon region in South America, also known as Amazonia, is the world’s largest tropical rainforest and called the “lungs of the planet” for its ability to provide 20 percent of the world’s oxygen. It has endured two severe droughts within five years’ time, the first in 2005 and the second in 2010, causing alarm among scientists over its potentially devastating impact on the world’s climate. The carbon impact of last year’s drought, thought to eventually exceed 5 billion tons, is roughly equal to the United States’ total carbon emissions in 2009. The first extreme drought in 2005 was called a “one-in-100-year event,” but then five years later the Amazon was struck with another devastating drought.
Dr. Simon Lewis, from the University of Leeds, and who analyzes the drought’s impact, said: “Having two events of this magnitude in such close succession is extremely unusual, but is unfortunately consistent with those climate models that project a grim future for Amazonia.”
Based on global climate models, droughts such as the ones the Amazon rainforest has recently experienced will likely become more common as an increasing amount of greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere.
Dr Lewis added: “Two unusual and extreme droughts occurring within a decade may largely offset the carbon absorbed by intact Amazon forests during that time. If events like this happen more often, the Amazon rainforest would reach a point where it shifts from being a valuable carbon sink slowing climate change, to a major source of greenhouse gasses that could speed it up.
“Considerable uncertainty remains surrounding the impacts of climate change on the Amazon. This new research adds to a body of evidence suggesting that severe droughts will become more frequent leading to important consequences for Amazonian forests. If greenhouse gas emissions contribute to Amazon droughts that in turn cause forests to release carbon, this feedback loop would be extremely concerning. Put more starkly, current emissions pathways risk playing Russian roulette with the world’s largest rainforest.”
EarthTalk: The EPA’s first 40 years; and have E-ZPass and similar programs reduced traffic and pollution?
Dear EarthTalk: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had its 40th anniversary in 2010. How effective has the EPA been and what are its biggest challenges today?
– Bill A., Seattle, WA
By most accounts the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which turned 40 in December 2009, has been very effective. The first dedicated national environmental agency of its kind, the EPA has been instrumental in setting policy priorities and writing and enforcing a wide range of laws that have literally changed the face of the Earth for the better. The EPA’s existence and effectiveness has also inspired scores of other countries to create their own environmental agencies along the same lines.
Several environmental wake-up calls during the 1960s
set the stage for the creation of the EPA in 1970 by the
Nixon administration. Pictured: EPA Administrator Lisa
Jackson (with Actor Anthony Mackie) at the Riverside
Valley Community Garden in Harlem, New York City,
on April 22 (Earth Day), 2010.
Photo credit: greenforall.org/Flickr
Several environmental wake-up calls during the 1960s—from revelations about the hazards of pesticides to smog causing respiratory problems to rivers catching on fire as they flowed through industrial areas—set the stage for the creation of EPA in 1970 by the Nixon administration. The agency was charged with overseeing implementation and enforcement of a new raft of laws designed to protect Americans’ air, water and land from the ill effects of pollution, development and urbanization. The Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act are early examples of sweeping legislation that only a dedicated environmental agency could properly oversee. Today the EPA has also taken up the mantle of helping Americans find and implement remedies for pressing global problems from ozone depletion to climate change.
The Aspen Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to fostering leadership and dialogue on wide range of topics, recently unveiled a list of “10 ways the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has strengthened America over the past 40 years.”
The home runs on the list—which was compiled by a group of more than 20 environmental leaders, including several former EPA officials—include: banning the widespread use of the pesticide DDT, which was decimating bald eagles and other birds and threatening public health; achieving significant reductions in sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions that were polluting water sources via acid rain; changing public perceptions of waste, leading to innovations that make use of waste for energy creation and making new products; getting lead out of gasoline; classifying secondhand smoke as a known cause of cancer, leading to smoking bans in indoor public places; establishing stringent emission standards for pollutants emitted by cars and trucks; regulating toxic chemicals and encouraging the development of more benign chemicals; establishing a national commitment to restore and maintain the safety of fresh water, via the Clean Water Act; promoting equitable environmental protection for minority and low-income citizens; and increasing public information and communities’ “right to know” what chemicals and/or pollutants they may be exposed to in their daily lives.
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Rapid progress made toward important discovery at Large Hadron Collider
Researchers at CERN working with high-energy particle accelerator the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) say they are within reach of answering some fundamental questions about the origins of our Universe, and have delayed shutting down the project for 12 months at the end of this year.
Professor Geoff Hall from the Department of Physics at Imperial College London, who works on the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment, said: “We have made an important step forward in the hunt for dark matter, although no discovery has yet been made. These results have come faster than we expected because the LHC and CMS ran better last year than we dared hope and we are now very optimistic about the prospects of pinning down Supersymmetry in the next few years.”
If successful, the LHC will – among other objectives – track the hypothetical Higgs boson particle, otherwise known as the God particle, believed to be the force which turned mass into solid matter soon after the creation of the universe 13.7 billion years ago.
Doomsday prophecies over the centuries and their resurgence
Lorenzo DiTommaso knows about frenzy over the Mayan Calendar. And the end times described in the book of Revelations. And apocalyptic elements in the movie, “The Matrix.”
“The Matrix has all the key elements of the worldview, rebooted on a science-fiction platform,” says DiTommaso, referring to the 1999 blockbuster starring Keanu Reeves. “The main character Neo is the prophesized messiah, who overthrows the system, destroys the oppressors and redeems humanity.”
In fact, he knows so much about doomsday scenarios, he’s authored or edited five books and written over 100 journal articles, book chapters and other short works on apocalypticism, with a new book due soon, called “The Architecture of Apocalypticism,” the first volume of a projected trilogy.
DiTommaso, a professor in Concordia University‘s Department of Religion, studies ancient scrolls, mediaeval manuscripts, modern books and films. Fascinated by the ongoing persistence of apocalyptic beliefs, especially in their secular forms, he examines judgment-day patterns on the internet and in new religions, political rhetoric, contemporary fiction, Japanese anime and graphic novels such as “The”Watchmen.”
His knowledge about modern doomsday scenarios leaves him deeply concerned about the resurgence of apocalypticism: ”More and more people see the world through the lens of apocalypticism,” he observes. “One reason is that things appear to be so irreparably broken: the environment, the economy, the political system.”
And therein lies the danger, he warns. “At its core, apocalypticism is a simplistic response to complex problems – either good or evil, nothing in between. And it’s an adolescent response, since it places responsibility for solving these problems elsewhere.”
Extremes of winter 2011: glacial conditions in U.S. while the Arctic warms
Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Ill., February 2, 2011, where approximately a thousand
cars were snarled and drivers were stuck for up to 12 hours
The Arctic is warming much faster than any other global region, and last month the Arctic’s sea ice was at its lowest point on record and temperatures have been way above normal. Meanwhile, the United States has seen numerous massive snowstorms, including one on February 3rd that stretched for thousands of miles across the U.S., snarling air travel and paralyzing much of the country. According to the Weather Channel, here are some notable facts about the latest storms:
- Snowstorm of record in at least 6 cities, including Tulsa, OK (14″) and Moline, IL (18.4″).
- Third heaviest snowstorm of record in Chicago (20.2″).
- Significant icing from MO into IL, IN, OH, PA, NJ, NYC metro.
- Roof collapses from weight of snow in parts of New England and Missouri.
- Two snow events in the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex, during Super Bowl week.
- Freezing rain/drizzle as far south as the Rio Grande River, including Houston metro.
- Demand due to cold weather leads to rolling blackouts in parts of Texas.
- Natural gas shortages in parts of the Rio Grande Valley and New Mexico.
Some of the snowy effects can be attributed to La Niña – a naturally-occurring phenomenon characterized by unusually cold ocean temperatures in the Equatorial Pacific – and its merging with Arctic air. What’s unusual is the extensive and repeated southerly path of the Arctic currents. The National Snow and Ice Center attributes these unusual changes to a breakdown of what’s known as the polar vortex:
Cold air is denser than warmer air, so it sits closer to the surface. Around the North Pole, this dense cold air causes a circular wind pattern called the polar vortex , which helps keep cold air trapped near the poles. When sea ice has not formed during autumn and winter, heat from the ocean escapes and warms the atmosphere. This may weaken the polar vortex and allow air to spill out of the Arctic and into mid-latitude regions in some years, bringing potentially cold winter weather to lower latitudes.
This condition is known as a negative Arctic oscillation – warm conditions in the Arctic and cold conditions in northern Europe and the U.S. – and some scientists speculate that frequent episodes are linked to the loss of Arctic sea ice. So, as this cycle continues, Americans and Europeans can expect more chaotic winter weather in years to come.
EarthTalk: Reducing global population pressures; and antibiotic use in raising food animals
– T. Healy, via e-mail
The short answer is yes. President Obama is much more interested in family planning around the world than his predecessor ever was. One of Obama’s first acts upon assuming office in 2009 was the restoration of funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). George W. Bush had withheld some $244 million in aid to the UNFPA over the previous seven years. UNFPA works with developing countries around the world to “reduce poverty and to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person is free of HIV/AIDS, and every girl and woman is treated with dignity and respect.”
The Obama administration’s
reinstatement of funding to the
United Nations Population Fund
helps the agency’s efforts around
the world to reduce poverty and to
ensure that every pregnancy is
wanted, every birth is safe,
every young person is free of
HIV/AIDS, and every girl and
woman is treated with dignity
and respect.
Photo credit: CIMMYT/Flickr
Reinstated U.S. funding will help the agency pursue its goals of universal access to reproductive health services, universal primary education and closing of the gender gap in education, reducing maternal and infant mortality, increasing life expectancy and decreasing HIV infection rates.
Along with restoring UNFPA funding, Obama also overturned the so-called “Global Gag Rule” that prohibited groups funded by the U.S. Agency in International Development (USAID) from using any government or non-government funds for “providing advice, counseling or information regarding abortion, or lobbying a foreign government to legalize or make abortion available.” Foreign nonprofits were already not allowed to use U.S. funds to pay for abortions, but the Global Gag Rule—first instituted as the ‘Mexico City Policy’ in 1984 by the Reagan White House, then overturned by Clinton and later reinstated by George W. Bush—went further by restricting the free speech rights of government grantees and stifling public debate on the contentious topic. Foreign NGOs that accept U.S. funding still cannot perform abortions, but can discuss the options openly with the families they serve.
“For too long, international family planning assistance has been used as a political wedge issue, the subject of a back and forth debate that has served only to divide us,” said Barack Obama upon overturning the policy as one of his first acts in office. “It is time that we end the politicization of this issue.”
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Green companies have greater morale among employees
New research points to greater satisfaction among employees of environmentally-friendly companies. However, employee happiness does not correlate with a firm’s financial performance.
Based on the results of the study, it is believed that the marked satisfaction occurs when a company’s environmental policies are aligned with an employee’s sustainability-based beliefs and lifestyle practices.
“The results of the analysis indicate a significant positive relationship between employee satisfaction and level of perceived environmental performance,” the research team says. “This study does not find a significant relationship between employee satisfaction and firm financial value.”
The team, which includes Cassandra Walsh and Adam Sulkowski, both of the Charlton College of Business at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, suggests those companies who engage in environmentally practices can help improve company-wide morale by increasing communication about their environmental performance and implementing regular sustainability, or corporate social responsibility, reporting.