highlighting the future's bizzare as it transforms into the present's mundane
Posts tagged climate
Earth Day & Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot
Apr 23rd
This gives me goosebumps every time I watch it…. Happy Earth Day !
Leave it as it is…
Oct 2nd
Leave it as it is. You cannot improve it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it….
President Theodore ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt commenting on seeing the Grand Canyon
Read more about the US National Parks and President Teddy Roosevelt at http://www.nps.gov and http://blogs.nashualibrary.org/reference/2009/09/leave_it_as_it_is_1.html
Rainforests may pump winds worldwide
Apr 2nd
The NewScientist has an article titled Rainforests may pump winds worldwide, which may shake up the climate and environmental skeptics. It seems large forests are the heart, lungs and kidneys of our living planet. Large forests may be responsible for pumping moisture laden air across continents helping rainfall far inland…
Cool factoid of the day from the article: “More moisture typically evaporates from rainforests than from the ocean. The Amazon rainforest, for example, releases 20 trillion litres of moisture every day.”
How can forests create wind? Water vapour from coastal forests and oceans quickly condenses to form droplets and clouds. The Russians point out that the gas takes up less space as it turns to liquid, lowering local air pressure. Because evaporation is stronger over the forest than over the ocean, the pressure is lower over coastal forests, which suck in moist air from the ocean. This generates wind that drives moisture further inland. The process repeats itself as the moisture is recycled in stages, moving towards the continent’s heart (see diagram). As a result, giant winds transport moisture thousands of kilometres into the interior of a continent.
Knowledge Gap of How We ‘Fit In’ is Greatest Threat to Environment
Jan 30th
The article does a much better job of describing one of the great questions facing humanity – ‘How do we fit in?’ Maybe we need to ask native cultures around the world the answer to this mystery. Anyway here is the article from Treehugger.
TED on climate change
Dec 14th
TED has hosted a number of excellent speakers on the topic of climate change. However, I found 2 interesting almost opposite approaches to solving the issue.
In this talk, energy guru Amory Lovins lays out his plan for weaning the US off oil and revitalizing the economy in the process. It’s the subject of his book Winning the Oil Endgame, and he makes it sound fairly simple: On one hand, the deadly risks of continued dependency, and on the other, some win-win solutions.
Environmental scientist David Keith talks about a cheap, effective, shocking solution to climate change: What if we injected a huge cloud of ash into the atmosphere, to deflect sunlight and heat? As an emergency measure to slow a melting ice cap, it could work. Keith discusses why it’s a good idea, why it’s a terrible one — and who, despite the cost, might be tempted to use it.
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