Climate Change Bunch

Reblogging posts from Climate Change bunch members

Old Man of the Forest

Growing up in a privileged western society its quite easy to be apathetic, especially to what is happening far away. Then one day you see something or hear something that stirs something inside you to push you towards action, to not simply stand by and let it happen. For me I wasn’t sure why but one day the face of an infant orangutan stared back at me from the banner of some website that forget and I’m not sure why, because I’ve seen plenty of baby orangutans before, the big bulging eyes pulled me in and I began to study and research what is happening to these creatures’ homes at this very moment.

I was aware of their dire predicament, but I didn’t know why. I didn’t know that this naturally docile creature which shares at least 98% of our DNA was being pushed to extinction for unnecessary human greed. I guess all human greed is unnecessary, but the destruction of Rainforests in Borneo and Sumatra is occurring predominately for the production of Palm Oil.

Now if your not aware, palm oil which is extracted from tropical palm trees is found in a wide variety of cosmetics and food products. Palm Oil is very cheap to produce, that being the only benefit there are even more negatives to the production of Palm Oil. For one it is extremely high in saturated fat meaning that any food products with Palm Oil can lead to heart attacks and high cholesterol. Plus well the genocide of many many rare and unique animal species is occurring for the production of Palm Oil. The more I read the facts, the more angry I got at the unnecessary destruction of such a rare and unique area of the world.

Indonesia is now the third largest producer of carbon dioxide! Incredible to think how far greed can go. Its incredible to think that even with a billion dollar offer from Norway to stop cutting down their trees they continue, so perplexing. The more I read the more I have become invested in this issue and in the Orangutans….

Called the Old Man of the Forest by the locals due to its uncanny appearance to an elderly human, the orangutan is so much like us its ridiculous. So much like us that hearing countless stories of mother Orangs killed with infants clinging to their backs really makes me sick. Baby Orangutans just like human babies are completely dependent on their mothers for the first few years of their lives. Most of these babies end up being sold as illegal pets, imagine a human child being sold like a pet, being kept in a tiny box :( It pulls at your heartstrings when you see a baby Orangutan missing a hand because her mother was killed by machetes while she held on for dear life. For me it seems inherently wrong to kill a creature that is so intelligent it can use hand tools.

Seeing photos or videos of these innocent docile sentient creatures and knowing what they have been through is what pushes me to help save them from disappearing because of human ignorance and greed. I hope in someway any of the material posted on this blog pushes you to do something to help change our world for better, to not be like all the other apathetic people but to be part of those who do something. Make your voice heard for those who don’t have one, to stand for those creatures who have unfortunately felt the extent of human cruelty for no reason.

Santi

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Image Credit & Copyright: Walter Lyons (FMA Research), WeatherVideoHD.TV Explanation: What’s that in the sky? It is a rarely seen form of lightning confirmed only about 25 years ago: a red sprite. Recent research has shown that following a powerful positive cloud-to-ground lightning strike, red sprites may start as 100-meter balls of ionized air that shoot down from about 80-km high at 10 percent the speed of light and are quickly followed by a group of upward streaking ionized balls. The above image, taken a few days ago above central South Dakota, USA, captured a bright red sprite, and is a candidate for the first color image ever recorded of a sprite and aurora together. Distant storm clouds cross the bottom of the image, while streaks of colorful aurora are visible in the background. Red sprites take only a fraction of a second to occur and are best seen when powerful thunderstorms are visible from the side. Source: Astronomy Picture of the Day. Blog about Sustainability and Climate Change? Share your blog with more Sustainability and Climate Change enthusiasts. via on

Image Credit & Copyright: Walter Lyons (FMA Research), WeatherVideoHD.TV

Explanation:

What’s that in the sky? It is a rarely seen form of lightning confirmed only about 25 years ago: a red sprite. Recent research has shown that following a powerful positive cloud-to-ground lightning strike, red sprites may start as 100-meter balls of ionized air that shoot down from about 80-km high at 10 percent the speed of light and are quickly followed by a group of upward streaking ionized balls. The above image, taken a few days ago above central South Dakota, USA, captured a bright red sprite, and is a candidate for the first color image ever recorded of a sprite and aurora together. Distant storm clouds cross the bottom of the image, while streaks of colorful aurora are visible in the background. Red sprites take only a fraction of a second to occur and are best seen when powerful thunderstorms are visible from the side.

Source: Astronomy Picture of the Day.

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Organizing a Movement

This weekend I went to an retreat and I learned how to better organizing a movement. I thought about other ways to start a movement and I think that the most important movement to me is clean air. Because as I was listening to the different speakers I realized that coal plants are destroying our air and water.
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Learn more about the impact of cigarette butt litter here: http://www.muni.com.ph/cut-the-crap-no-more-butts/#.UZvsY5UTM1g Blog about Sustainability and Climate Change? Share your blog with more Sustainability and Climate Change enthusiasts. via on

Learn more about the impact of cigarette butt litter here:
http://www.muni.com.ph/cut-the-crap-no-more-butts/#.UZvsY5UTM1g
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The birds - the Tufted duck, Goosander and Goldeneye - are common in Britain and Ireland during northern Europe’s winter. But their numbers in these countries have shrunk in the last 30 years. According to the findings, published in the journal Global Change Biology, many now stop short on their annual journey. Gathering and analysing data from the three-decade-long International Waterbird Census, the researchers found many birds were staying closer to their summer breeding grounds all year round. At the northern end of their migratory flyway, in Sweden and Finland, there were approximately 130,000 more of the ducks in 2010 than in 1980. On the southern end - in Britain, France, Ireland and Switzerland - numbers have dropped by about the same amount. According to Richard Hearn from the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT), who was involved in the study, this represented a loss of between 45 and 60% of the population in Britain and Ireland. This “huge” shift he said was caused by increasingly warmer European winters. The researchers drew this conclusion by examining temperature data gathered from the same areas of Europe over the last three decades. “Early winter temperature in south Finland,” Dr Hearn said, “increased by about 3.8C between 1980 and 2010.” Stopping short This shift in migration is known as “short-stopping”, whereby Arctic-breeding species that head to milder climates for the winter find they no longer need to travel so far for the unfrozen lakes that allow them to find food. Goldeneye ducks are becoming a less common winter sight in Britain and Ireland, “This may have implications for their conservation, because birds are making less use of the areas that were designated to protect them,” said Dr Hearn. “These northern shifts can’t go on forever, because the birds will simply run out of habitat,” he said. Andy Musgrove, head of monitoring at the British Trust for Ornithology, said this was “an important paper” adding to a growing body of evidence concerning the response of wildlife to a changing climate. source: BBC Science and Environment. Blog about Sustainability and Climate Change? Share your blog with more Sustainability and Climate Change enthusiasts. via on

The birds - the Tufted duck, Goosander and Goldeneye - are common in Britain and Ireland during northern Europe’s winter. But their numbers in these countries have shrunk in the last 30 years.

According to the findings, published in the journal Global Change Biology, many now stop short on their annual journey.

Gathering and analysing data from the three-decade-long International Waterbird Census, the researchers found many birds were staying closer to their summer breeding grounds all year round.

At the northern end of their migratory flyway, in Sweden and Finland, there were approximately 130,000 more of the ducks in 2010 than in 1980.

On the southern end - in Britain, France, Ireland and Switzerland - numbers have dropped by about the same amount.

According to Richard Hearn from the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT), who was involved in the study, this represented a loss of between 45 and 60% of the population in Britain and Ireland.

This “huge” shift he said was caused by increasingly warmer European winters. The researchers drew this conclusion by examining temperature data gathered from the same areas of Europe over the last three decades.

“Early winter temperature in south Finland,” Dr Hearn said, “increased by about 3.8C between 1980 and 2010.”

Stopping short

This shift in migration is known as “short-stopping”, whereby Arctic-breeding species that head to milder climates for the winter find they no longer need to travel so far for the unfrozen lakes that allow them to find food.

Goldeneye ducks are becoming a less common winter sight in Britain and Ireland, “This may have implications for their conservation, because birds are making less use of the areas that were designated to protect them,” said Dr Hearn. “These northern shifts can’t go on forever, because the birds will simply run out of habitat,” he said.

Andy Musgrove, head of monitoring at the British Trust for Ornithology, said this was “an important paper” adding to a growing body of evidence concerning the response of wildlife to a changing climate.

source: BBC Science and Environment.
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The Banaue Rice Terraces World Heritage Site, Ifugao, Philippines. Ms. Kuyapi Cabbigat is an 85 year old resident of Viewpoint, Banaue, Ifugao, Philippines. A member of the Indigenous Tuwali ethnic group, Ms. Cabbigat comes daily to one of the viewpoints overlooking the rice terraces, to pose for pictures eagerly snapped by tourists. A few pesos she earns from this routine helps her offset the costs of food she needs to buy when rice supplies run out. Such additional sources of income become increasingly important for local farming families looking for ways to adapt to the diminishing rice yields, due to climate change. © Gleb Raygorodetsky 2013 for Land is Life http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/722 Blog about Sustainability and Climate Change? Share your blog with more Sustainability and Climate Change enthusiasts. via on

The Banaue Rice Terraces World Heritage Site, Ifugao, Philippines.

Ms. Kuyapi Cabbigat is an 85 year old resident of Viewpoint, Banaue, Ifugao, Philippines. A member of the Indigenous Tuwali ethnic group, Ms. Cabbigat comes daily to one of the viewpoints overlooking the rice terraces, to pose for pictures eagerly snapped by tourists. A few pesos she earns from this routine helps her offset the costs of food she needs to buy when rice supplies run out. Such additional sources of income become increasingly important for local farming families looking for ways to adapt to the diminishing rice yields, due to climate change.

© Gleb Raygorodetsky 2013 for Land is Life

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/722
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In 40 years, 2.7 billion more people will live in world cities than do now, according to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Urban growth in China, India, and most of the developing world will be massive. But what is less known is that population growth will also be enormous in the United States. The U.S. population will grow 36 percent to 438 million in 2050 from 322 million today. At today’s average of 2.58 persons per household, such growth would require 44.9 million new homes. However American households are getting smaller. If one were to estimate 2.2 persons per household—the household size in Germany today and the likely U.S. size by 2050—the United States would need 74.3 million new homes, not including secondary vacation homes. This means that over the next 40 years, the United States will build more homes than all those existing today in the United Kingdom, France, and Canada combined. Urban planner and theorist Peter Calthorpe predicts that California alone will add 20 million people and 7 million households by 2050. To meet this demand, completely new urban environments will have to be created in the United States. Where and how will the new American homes be built? What urban structures are to be created?” Photo: Battery Park City in Manhattan exemplifies how the quality of urban life can be enhanced by replacing waterfront roadways with parks or pedestrian infrastructure. (Left); A “highway” for pedestrians, bicycles, and transit on Jiménez Avenue in Bogotá, Colombia. (Right) Photo courtesy of Enrique Peñalosa. Blog about Sustainability and Climate Change? Share your blog with more Sustainability and Climate Change enthusiasts. via on

In 40 years, 2.7 billion more people will live in world cities than do now, according to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Urban growth in China, India, and most of the developing world will be massive. But what is less known is that population growth will also be enormous in the United States.

The U.S. population will grow 36 percent to 438 million in 2050 from 322 million today. At today’s average of 2.58 persons per household, such growth would require 44.9 million new homes. However American households are getting smaller. If one were to estimate 2.2 persons per household—the household size in Germany today and the likely U.S. size by 2050—the United States would need 74.3 million new homes, not including secondary vacation homes. This means that over the next 40 years, the United States will build more homes than all those existing today in the United Kingdom, France, and Canada combined. Urban planner and theorist Peter Calthorpe predicts that California alone will add 20 million people and 7 million households by 2050.

To meet this demand, completely new urban environments will have to be created in the United States. Where and how will the new American homes be built? What urban structures are to be created?”

Photo: Battery Park City in Manhattan exemplifies how the quality of urban life can be enhanced by replacing waterfront roadways with parks or pedestrian infrastructure. (Left); A “highway” for pedestrians, bicycles, and transit on Jiménez Avenue in Bogotá, Colombia. (Right) Photo courtesy of Enrique Peñalosa.
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Global warming will likely harm the habitats of about 57% of plants and 34% of animals

According to the Guardian, one-third of animal species will be hit by climate change. An estimated 57% of plants and 34% of animals were likely to lose half or more of their habitat range. As you may know, human populations depend on natural ecosystems. The collapse of ecosystems would have major economic impacts on agriculture, air quality, clean water access, and tourism. Good news is the damage can be reduced if we manage to scale down the emissions in time.

What steps have you taken to lower CO2 emissions? Let’s exchange ideas, challenges and help make a difference.
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is Climate Change real? Are humans really causing it?

Here is a link to the IPCC (intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) sythesis report that will equip you with the data you eloquently discuss the causes and impacts of climate change with anyone… It only takes 30 min to read and the content is solid.

http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/syr/en/spm.html

Let me know your thoughts!

Dirk
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