Environment – Page 192 – Shamskm: A site to exchange knowledge and solutions

Mercury in Bay Area Fish a Legacy of California Mining

By Guest PostJanuary 26, 2011Environmentcalifornia mining, fingerprinting technique, fingerprints of mercury, mercury contamination, mercury in fish, mercury mining

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Mercury contamination, a worldwide environmental problem, has been called “public enemy No. 1” in California’s San Francisco Bay. (more…)

War, Plague No Match for Deforestation in Driving CO2 Buildup

By Guest PostJanuary 22, 2011Environmentagriculture, Antarctica, atmosphere, black death, black death in europe, burning of coal and oil, carbon dioxide, China, conquest of the americas, deforestation, demand for gasoline, earth, Environment, fall of the ming dynasty, forests, genghis khan, global carbon budget, global carbon cycle, greenland, human impact on climate, industrial era, julia pongratz, ken caldeira, mongol hordes, mongol invasions in asia, vegetation cover

Stanford, CA — Genghis Khan and his Mongol hordes had an impact on the global carbon cycle as big as today’s annual demand for gasoline. The Black Death, on the other hand, came and went too quickly for it to cause much of a blip in the global carbon budget. Dwarfing both of these events, however, has been the historical trend towards increasing deforestation, which over centuries has released vast amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, as crop and pasture lands expanded to feed growing human populations. Even Genghis Kahn couldn’t stop it for long. (more…)

Shrinking Snow and Ice Cover Intensify Global Warming

By Guest PostJanuary 19, 2011Environmentalbedo feedback, atmospheric cooling effect, climate perturbations, cryospheric albedo feedback, frozen surface area, shrinking snow, summer sea ice

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— The decreases in Earth’s snow and ice cover over the past 30 years have exacerbated global warming more than models predict they should have, on average, new research from the University of Michigan shows. (more…)

Scientists: Big City Life May Alter Green Attitudes

By Guest PostJanuary 18, 20111 commentCulture, EnvironmentBeijing, center for systems integration and sustainability, China, chinese citizens, csis, economic, employment status, Environment, environmental behavior, environmental problems, environmental values, environmentally friendly activities, human behavior, jianguo jack liu, large cities, pro environmental behavior, rapid economic growth, shanghai, thomas baerwald, tianjin, united states, urban areas, urban china, xiaodong chen

*Study of Chinese citizens says jobs more important than salary when it comes to pro-environmental behavior*

People with good jobs found in large cities are more likely to engage in pro-environmental activities. So says a new study of China’s environmental behavior published this week in the British journal Environmental Conservation.

For the first time, scientists weighed employment and leadership when considering how people act regarding their natural surroundings. They found the status and political power of companies in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin strongly influence the conservation practices of their employees. (more…)

Have We Changed Our Ways After the BP Oil Spill? Not Really

By Guest PostJanuary 18, 2011Culture, Environmentandrew Hoffman, cultural anomaly, environmental management, fossil fuel production, Halliburton, journal of management, obama administration, offshore drilling, oil spill, transocean, university of Alberta, university of michigan

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—On the heels of last week’s federal recommendations to help prevent another BP oil spill disaster, a University of Michigan researcher says the tragedy has come close to acting as a catalyst for deeper change—but not quite.

“The BP oil spill is, potentially, a ‘cultural anomaly’ for institutional changes in environmental management and fossil fuel production,” said Andrew Hoffman, professor of management and organizations at the Ross School of Business and a professor at the School of Natural Resources and Environment. “But true change in our approach to handling issues related to oil drilling, oil consumption and environmental management have yet to occur.” (more…)

Improved Measurements of Sun to Advance Understanding of Climate Change

By Guest PostJanuary 17, 2011Environment, Scienceamount of energy, anthropogenic causes of climate change, calibration facility, climate change, climate respond, earth, global temperature, global warming, greg kopp, industrial revolution, judith lean, laboratory, NASA, optical design, planet, satellite data, solar fluctuations, solar irradiance, solar radiation and climate experiment spacecraft, sorce, spacecraft easurements, sun, tim, total irradiance monitor, total solar irradiance, tsi, tsi value

WASHINGTON — Scientists have taken a major step toward accurately determining the amount of energy that the sun provides to Earth, and how variations in that energy may contribute to climate change.

In a new study of laboratory and satellite data, researchers report a lower value of that energy, known as total solar irradiance, than previously measured and demonstrate that the satellite instrument that made the measurement—which has a new optical design and was calibrated in a new way—has significantly improved the accuracy and consistency of such measurements. (more…)

ARkStorm: California’s other “Big One”

By Guest PostJanuary 17, 20111 commentEnvironmentarkstorm scenario, arkstorm summit, cal ema, climate change, economic systems of california, emergency planning purposes, fema, flood modeling, flooding, forecasting, geologic flood history in california, hypothetical california scenario, lucy jones, marcia mcnutt, mike dayton, nancy ward, sacramento, san andreas earthquakes, scenario, sea level rise scenarios, storm, united states

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — For emergency planning purposes, scientists unveiled a hypothetical California scenario that describes a storm that could produce up to 10 feet of rain, cause extensive flooding (in many cases overwhelming the state’s flood-protection system) and result in more than $300 billion in damage.

The “ARkStorm Scenario,” prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey and released at the ARkStorm Summit in Sacramento on Jan. 13 – 14, combines prehistoric geologic flood history in California with modern flood mapping and climate-change projections to produce a hypothetical, but plausible, scenario aimed at preparing the emergency response community for this type of hazard. (more…)

Highwater in Saale River

By Volker MintzlaffJanuary 17, 2011Environment, Naturecastle gieblichenstein, disaster alarm, flood situation, flood water, gauge, giebichenstein bridge, halle, halle trotha, island of peissnitz, saale river, saale valley, saale walk, saxony anhalt, shipping company riedel, snow melting, talstrasse, temperature, water touristics, winter highwater

Due to heavy snow melting as the temperature turns to be ‘mild’ and simultaneous rainfall, 2011’s Winter highwater is the highest since 1946 in the Saale river in Halle (Saxony-Anhalt). The flood water reached a maximum of 6.92 m on the gauge of Halle Trotha. A record of 7 m would cause a ‘disaster alarm’. (more…)

Category Archives: Environment