Science, Art, Litt, Science based Art & Science Communication
Climate science and its relevance
Recently we saw the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) 5th report on climate change ( http://www.ipcc.ch/ ). While some agree with it - most scientists do (1) - others - like the industry lobby- completely rubbishes it like this one:
http://www.naturalnews.com/042304_UN_climate_change_report_selectiv...
Some scientists - supported by the industrial lobby too don't agree with it. They say: The UN-promoted theory about the missing warming being hidden somewhere in the ocean is really an admission that its climate models do not accurately simulate natural internal variability in the system.
http://www.thenewamerican.com/tech/environment/item/16643-top-scien... ( this report is definitely written by the Industry lobby and the Republican lobby).
It is known that 'dark money' supports climate change denial effort. A Drexel University study finds that a large slice of donations to organizations that deny global warming are funneled through third-party pass-through organizations that conceal the original funder.
( http://drexel.edu/~/media/Files/now/pdfs/Institutionalizing%20Delay...
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=dark-money-funds-c... )
An interesting blog by a science communicator says scientists have been framed and global warming hasn't been slowed down like the skeptics and deniers say! Read it here: http://talkingscience.weebly.com/1/post/2013/12/you-have-been-frame...!
The author of this blog made some very good points.
And this blog on SA
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/climate-risks-as-conclusi...
says:
Climate Risks as Conclusive as Link between Smoking and Lung Cancer
Climate Deniers Intimidate Journal into Retracting Paper that Finds They Believe Conspiracy Theories
The paper was sound but a libel threat apparently exerted pressure on management at Frontiers in Psychology, suggesting a blow to academic freedomHowever, this topic really is all confusing to a layman with so much of contradictory news making the rounds.
Well, who should we believe when so many reports and articles flooding the media with contradictory arguments?
The studies are still going on and nobody knows for sure the real causes for the climate change at the global level. But still local changes can effect you!
I will try to help you in coming to your own conclusion
Okay, imagine these two situations:
(1)You are on a holiday and go to a forest. You feel happy and relieved for getting out of the smoke you are inhaling in your city. You can breathe easily now, feel relaxed and more energetic. Your young son and old mother get relief from their asthmatic conditions. You can see the pollution markers - lichens- growing everywhere. You don't see them in your city! You see several unknown birds singing and chirping in a forest. The water tastes so different and sweet. This is a fact. I myself faced this situation and most of you must have been too. Now want to know the reason why? Because you get clean and fresh natural air in this place. You get pure water in the forest. The Nature is untouched by human beings here. Well, almost!
(2) Now you return back from your holiday tour. You are in your home city. You definitely feel the heat difference, the air quality, and the resultant mood difference. You don't see several birds here. You will notice the smog, the thick black water flowing down the road after a spell of rain different as compared to the brown or transparent water you saw in the forest or a water fall you loved there. You feel breathless and you again start hearing the wheezing sound while your mother tries to breathe. Your water tastes rancid! Why? Because we are interfering with Nature and polluting it in the city! You can smell some chemicals in the air while rain starts coming down slowly? Acid rain? Exactly!
So?! Do you think I am lying when I say climate science is relevant or scientists are lying when they say climate change is happening?
Climate change is not only happening at the global level, but also at the local level, effecting each and every living being on this planet.
It is happening alright and the proof is before you! Forget about the IPCC report or what others say contradicting it. Feel the difference for yourself and come to your conclusions. And then help save the planet.
"Only after the last tree has been cut down. Only after the last river has been poisoned. Only after the last fish has been caught. Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten."
- Cree proverb
What’s the use of having developed a science well enough to make predictions, if in the end, all we’re willing to do is stand around and wait for them to come true? - Nobel Laureate Sherwood Rowland ( On climate science predictions) - just because the models are not very accurate?--
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on
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https://www.ted.com/talks/gavin_schmidt_the_emergent_patterns_of_cl...
Why climate predictions and models go wrong- and why we cannot wait for the full informationhttps://www.ted.com/talks/gavin_schmidt_the_emergent_patterns_of_cl...
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What makes scientific sense doesn’t necessarily make political sense. If the scientists are right though, the bill and/or regret will come sooner or later. When will we learn?
Or to quote Nobel Laureate Sherwood Rowland (referring then to ozone depletion):
What’s the use of having developed a science well enough to make predictions, if in the end, all we’re willing to do is stand around and wait for them to come true?
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We stand unimpressed by “textbooks”, “peer review journals” and so-called “facts”. There are no facts, just informed ideas. We are infinitely small compared to nature and can’t grasp anything as certain as a fact.'
https://ourchangingclimate.wordpress.com/tag/science/
https://ourchangingclimate.wordpress.com/tag/science/ -
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Burning coal for electricity, using gasoline to fuel vehicles, clear-cutting forests and engaging in certain agricultural practices that remove carbon-trapping vegetation contribute to the problem, the assessment said.
Thirty percent of carbon released into the atmosphere ends up in the ocean, leading to acidification that’s killing coral and shell life. Coral protects young fish from predators, and tiny shellfish, at the bottom of the food chain, help feed entire ecosystems.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/us-climate-re... -
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This discussion shows no matter what evidence you give - agreed it is patchy and not full - the deniers keep denying. Now I understand why negotiations between various countries at the International level most often end up in disagreement. This discussion is a mini model of the bigger ones!
But there is good news too. No matter how much the deniers and skeptics try to stop, some sensible countries are taking steps to minimize the damage. I am happy to say India is one such country. Yes,the Government here understands the problem and is cooperating with the scientists. But still we have a long way to go.
And Ban Ki Moon, himself is actively trying to get the negotiations to a fruitful conclusion and 'initiate action' at the UN level. The news came on 5th May, this year.
5 May—In a major shift from negotiations to engagement on action, more than 1,000 participants, including 70 government ministers voiced support for the development of a range of bold initiatives to address climate change at the Abu Dhabi Ascent which concluded today.
http://www.un.org/climatechange/summit/category/news/
So who is really winning now? The perseverance of scientists is paying off. The progress may be slow but study. Deniers and skeptics keep denying but you will be confined to sidelines very soon.
'We trust in real scientific methods'!
In science
http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&gid=121217&type=mem... -
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Elevated CO2 robs crops of nutrients, say scientists
Thanks to rising carbon dioxide levels, wheat, rice, and soybeans could have lower levels of zinc and iron in the future, according to new research.
Key crops eaten by a large portion of the world’s population have lower levels of zinc and iron when grown at the elevated carbon dioxide levels that scientists predict will occur by the middle of the century, according to a new study.
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The research, detailed in this week’s issue of the journal Nature, found that wheat, rice and soybeans grown in high carbon dioxide conditions have lower levels of these important nutrients. The finding has major global health implications, as nearly 2 billion people around the world receive 70 percent or more of their dietary zinc and iron from these types of crops.
“Zinc deficiency can cause child mortality from infectious diseases because the immune system is not functioning properly, and iron deficiency can cause maternal mortality and reductions in IQ and work productivity, and increased mortality from infectious diseases,” said the study's first author Samuel Myers, a researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.
Howard Frumkin, dean and professor of environmental and occupational health sciences at the University of Washington, in Seattle, said the new study provides the strongest evidence to date that climate change could threaten the nutritional value of foods with respect to zinc and iron.
“One of the cardinal features of climate change is higher carbon dioxide levels,” said Frumkin, who was not involved in the study. “This is exactly the kind of science we need to do to understand how to anticipate impacts of climate change on nutrition and how to protect people.”
Previous research has found evidence that elevated carbon dioxide levels can lead to lower agricultural yields and reduce the protein content of food crops, Frumkin added, and the finding now that zinc and iron are also affected raises the possibility that a host of other “micronutrients” such as iodine, selenium, and individual amino acids could also be impacted. “It’s a new area of research opening up now,” he said.
FACE experiments
Prior studies of crops grown in greenhouses and chambers with elevated carbon dioxide found nutrient reductions, but those studies drew criticisms for using artificial growing conditions.
In contrast, Myers and his team compiled results from experiments that used a free-air carbon dioxide enrichment – FACE – technology, which allows plants to be grown in open fields at elevated carbon dioxide levels. The technology consists of a ring of jets surrounding the crops, which maintains a certain level of carbon dioxide by tracking wind-direction and carbon dioxide concentration.
Myers’ group included crop scientists around the world who were conducting FACE experiments on 41 different genetic strains, or “cultivars,” of grains and legumes over three continents. “Our database was more than 10 times larger than all the previously published FACE data on nutrients in food crops combined,” Myers said.
The carbon dioxide levels in all of the included FACE experiments were around 550 parts per million, which is the projected atmospheric carbon dioxide level around the year 2050. For comparison, the carbon dioxide concentration at the start of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century was 280 ppm, and April 2014 was the first time that global carbon dioxide levels climbed above 400 ppm for an entire month.
When the team analyzed their data, the results showed a significant decrease in the concentrations of zinc and iron as well as protein in wheat and rice cultivars. For example, zinc, iron, and protein concentrations in wheat grains grown at the FACE sites were reduced by about 9 percent, 5 percent, and 6 percent respectively, compared with wheat grown at ambient carbon dioxide. If people consumed more food to make up for the drop in nutrients there could be other health consequences, including increased obesity, Myers posited. “The ratio of nutrients to calories in the food is really important.”
Zinc and iron were also significantly reduced in legumes such as soybeans and field peas in the study, although protein was not.
Countermeasures
The authors suggest that some of the nutritional deficits they observed could be counteracted through breeding programs that select for decreased sensitivity to carbon dioxide. For example, their results showed that zinc and iron varied substantially across different rice strains.
David Wolfe, a plant and soil ecologist at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, said that in addition to reducing carbon dioxide admissions, other strategies include breeding for crops that take up more iron and zinc from the soil in elevated carbon dioxide conditions, or to diversify crops to include protein-rich legumes such as beans and peas or iron-rich spinach. The food industry could also fortify salts or other foods with iron and zinc, Myers added.
Myers thinks a combination of approaches will be necessary to address this issue. “All of these countermeasures have their own set of problems,” he said. “I don’t think there’s going to be a single easy fix.”
http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Latest-News-Wires/2014/0507/El... -
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US warns of wide climate impact
US warns of wide climate impact
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/global-warming/...
Democracy needs participants, not spectators - Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev -
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Global climate change is here, and it’s only going to get worse, according to a White House report released on Tuesday. To combat rising sea levels and blistering summers, the Obama administration has been pushing for clean, renewable energy sources that cut down on carbon emissions. Now one of its projects is poised to pan out: Agua Caliente, the largest photovoltaic solar power facility in the world, was completed last week in Arizona
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/world-s-largest-solar-arr...
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Increasing CO2 threatens human nutrition
Researchers have found that the elevated carbon dioxide levels of 2050 could lead to lower levels of micronutrients and protein in staple crops.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13179... -
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I know the deniers will deny this too: Sea level rise estimates are going to need to be revised upward: A portion of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet that is home to some of the fastest-flowing glaciers on the continent appears to have entered a state of retreat and melt that is “unstoppable,” two new studies have found.
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/melt-of-key-antarctic-glaciers-u... -
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Even when deniers are trying to laugh the whole thing off, look how people who understands the problem are trying to help:
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2014/05/15/in-indone... -
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The devastating wildfires scorching Southern California offer a glimpse of a warmer and more fiery future, according to scientists and federal and international reports.
In the past three months, at least three different studies and reports have warned that wildfires are getting bigger, that man-made climate change is to blame, and it's only going to get worse with more fires starting earlier in the year. While scientists are reluctant to blame global warming for any specific fire, they have been warning for years about how it will lead to more fires and earlier fire seasons.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/science/article/Studies-Wildfires-... -
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