|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Warming Hobbles Ancient Climate Cycle
|
|
Human activities are putting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere about 14,000 times as fast as natural processes do.
|
Before humans began burning fossil fuels, there was an eons-long balance between carbon dioxide emissions and Earth’s ability to absorb them, but now the planet can’t keep up, environmentalists said.
The finding, reported in the journal Nature Geoscience, relies on ancient Antarctic ice bubbles that contain air samples going back 610,000 years, Reuters reported.
Climate scientists for the last 25 years or so have suggested that some kind of natural mechanism regulates our planet’s temperature and the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Those skeptical about human influence on global warming point to this as the cause for recent climate change.
This research is likely the first observable evidence for this natural mechanism.
This mechanism, known as “feedback,“ has been thrown out of whack by a steep rise in carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of coal and petroleum for the last 200 years or so, said Richard Zeebe, a co-author of the report.
“These feedbacks operate so slowly that they will not help us in terms of climate change ... that we’re going to see in the next several hundred years,“ Zeebe said by telephone from the University of Hawaii. “Right now we have put the system entirely out of equilibrium.“
In the ancient past, excess carbon dioxide came mostly from volcanoes, which spewed very little of the chemical compared to what humans activities do now, but it still had to be addressed.
This antique excess carbon dioxide--a powerful greenhouse gas--was removed from the atmosphere through the weathering of mountains, which take in the chemical. In the end, it was washed downhill into oceans and buried in deep sea sediments, Zeebe said.
Zeebe analyzed carbon dioxide that had been captured in Antarctic ice, and by figuring out how much carbon dioxide was in the atmosphere at various points in time, he and his co-author determined that it waxed and waned along with the world’s temperature.
“When the carbon dioxide was low, the temperature was low, and we had an ice age,“ he said. And while Earth’s temperature fell during ice ages and rose during so-called interglacial periods between them, the planet’s mean temperature has been going slowly down for about 600,000 years.
The average change in the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide over the last 600,000 years has been just 22 parts per million by volume, Zeebe said, which means that 22 molecules of carbon dioxide were added to, or removed from, every million molecules of air.
Since the Industrial Revolution began in the 18th century, ushering in the widespread human use of fossil fuels, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen by 100 parts per million.
That means human activities are putting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere about 14,000 times as fast as natural processes do, Zeebe said.
And it appears to be speeding up: the US government reported last week that in 2007 alone, atmospheric carbon dioxide increased by 2.4 parts per million.
|
|
|
|
Austrian Imprisoned, Abused Daughter for 24 Years
|
|
Josef
|
Before humans began burning fossil fuels, there was an eons-long balance between carbon dioxide emissions and Earth’s ability to absorb them, but now the planet can’t keep up, environmentalists said.
The finding, reported in the journal Nature Geoscience, relies on ancient Antarctic ice bubbles that contain air samples going back 610,000 years, Reuters reported.
Climate scientists for the last 25 years or so have suggested that some kind of natural mechanism regulates our planet’s temperature and the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Those skeptical about human influence on global warming point to this as the cause for recent climate change.
This research is likely the first observable evidence for this natural mechanism.
This mechanism, known as “feedback,“ has been thrown out of whack by a steep rise in carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of coal and petroleum for the last 200 years or so, said Richard Zeebe, a co-author of the report.
“These feedbacks operate so slowly that they will not help us in terms of climate change ... that we’re going to see in the next several hundred years,“ Zeebe said by telephone from the University of Hawaii. “Right now we have put the system entirely out of equilibrium.“
In the ancient past, excess carbon dioxide came mostly from volcanoes, which spewed very little of the chemical compared to what humans activities do now, but it still had to be addressed.
This antique excess carbon dioxide--a powerful greenhouse gas--was removed from the atmosphere through the weathering of mountains, which take in the chemical. In the end, it was washed downhill into oceans and buried in deep sea sediments, Zeebe said.
Zeebe analyzed carbon dioxide that had been captured in Antarctic ice, and by figuring out how much carbon dioxide was in the atmosphere at various points in time, he and his co-author determined that it waxed and waned along with the world’s temperature.
“When the carbon dioxide was low, the temperature was low, and we had an ice age,“ he said. And while Earth’s temperature fell during ice ages and rose during so-called interglacial periods between them, the planet’s mean temperature has been going slowly down for about 600,000 years.
The average change in the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide over the last 600,000 years has been just 22 parts per million by volume, Zeebe said, which means that 22 molecules of carbon dioxide were added to, or removed from, every million molecules of air.
Since the Industrial Revolution began in the 18th century, ushering in the widespread human use of fossil fuels, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen by 100 parts per million.
That means human activities are putting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere about 14,000 times as fast as natural processes do, Zeebe said.
And it appears to be speeding up: the US government reported last week that in 2007 alone, atmospheric carbon dioxide increased by 2.4 parts per million.
|
|
|
|
|
Immigrants Boost Birthrate
Soaring numbers of young immigrants have compensated for a low birthrate in Spain in recent years, but the country is still expected to have one of the oldest populations in the world by the middle of the century, experts say.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Book on Tibet History Published
China published a book on the history of Tibet’s liberation, which tells of several major events such as the peaceful liberation, democratic reform and the establishment of the autonomous region.
The book, under the name “The History of the Liberation of Tibet“, was compiled by more than 100 scholars, veteran cadres and generals who participated the liberation of Tibet, Xinhua reported.
It also introduced Tibet’s origin, its close link with the motherland, ethnic and religion issues, its history of feudal serfdom society, imperialist invasion into the region and the emergence of secessionist forces.
“Urban Miners“ Look for Precious Metals
Thinking of throwing out your old cell phone? Think again. Maybe you should mine it first for gold, silver, copper and a host of other metals embedded in the electronics-- many of which are enjoying near-record prices.
It’s called “urban mining,“ scavenging through the scrap metal in old electronic products in search of such gems as iridium and gold, and it is a growth industry around the world as metal prices skyrocket, Reuters said.
The materials recovered are reused in new electronics parts and the gold and other precious metals are melted down and sold as ingots to jewelers and investors as well as back to manufacturers who use gold in the circuit boards of mobile phones because gold conducts electricity even better than copper.
“It can be precious or minor metals, we want to recycle whatever we can,“ said Tadahiko Sekigawa, president of Eco-System Recycling Co which is owned by Dowa Holdings Co Ltd.
A ton of ore from a gold mine produces just 5 grams (0.18 ounce) of gold on average, whereas a ton of discarded mobile phones can yield 150 grams (5.3 ounce) or more, according to a study by Yokohama Metal Co Ltd, another recycling firm.
The same volume of discarded mobile phones also contains around 100 kg (220 lb) of copper and 3 kg (6.6 lb) of silver, among other metals.
Philippines Bans Kidney Donation to Foreigners
Health authorities in the Philippines will this week announce a ban on most kidney transplants for foreign patients in a bid to stem a thriving trade in organs, health ministry sources said.
The new rule will ban kidney transplants to foreign patients in cases where the living donor is a Filipino who is not a blood relation, they said, reported AFP.
It will effectively make permanent a temporary suspension of transplants to foreigners that was implemented last month while the authorities crafted new guidelines for donations.
The announcement will not cover transplants from living relatives, nor the harvesting of kidneys from the dead, the sources added.
The Philippines is a world “hotspot“ for human organ trafficking, according to the Philippine Society of Nephrology, whose members are renal specialists.
The medical profession and the dominant Roman Catholic Church have raised concerns over the rampant trafficking of kidneys from impoverished and poorly educated Filipino “donors.“
They can sell one of the organs for about 3,000 dollars to Arab or western recipients.
Movies a Luxury Item in Russia
Before grumbling about rising movie ticket prices in the United States, consider a trip to the multiplex in Russia.
The recent Matthew McConaughey movie “Fool’s Gold“ is playing at Moscow’s 11-screen Oktyabr Cinema for 300 rubles per ticket--that’s $12.70.
Stick around for the later showing of the horror film “Shutter,“ which is running only in Oktyabr’s 35-seat VIP room, and the price jumps to 1,200 rubles ($51), reported Reuters.
A night out at the movies or the occasional theater seats might require budget-balancing in the West. But that same escapism is becoming a luxury item in Russia, where out-of-home entertainment can eat up a sizable portion of the average wage of the working class and those on retirement incomes.
“Certainly, there is a segment of the Russian population that is left out of entertainment because of the price,“ says Maria Lipman, analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center, which studies public policy issues.
The increasing prices aren’t limited to Moscow’s entertainment industry; the city was named the most expensive in Europe two years running, according to Mercer Human Resource Consulting.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
