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MADE IN IBM LABS: IBM Inventors Create Warning System to Accurately Analyze, Assess and Predict Natural Disasters

By Guest PostOctober 22, 2010Environment, Technologyanalytics, catastrophic events, data, earthquakes, firefighters, ibm, james kraemer, mems accelerometers, natural disaster warning system, robert friedlander, seismic events, tsunamis, vibration sensors

ARMONK, N.Y. – 22 Oct 2010: IBM (NYSE: IBM) inventors have developed a patented natural disaster warning system, which uses analytics to improve the effectiveness and timeliness of post-event rescue efforts in cities and other locations where efficient emergency response is essential following a natural disaster. It also offers a means to accurately predict the location and timing of subsequent catastrophic events, which will further aid evacuation efforts. (more…)

Drought May Threaten Much of Globe Within Decades

By Guest PostOctober 20, 2010Environmentdrought conditions, drought intensity, future droughts, historical drought, palmer model, warming temperatures

Dryness likely to increase substantially across Eurasia, Africa, Australia (more…)

Many Still Do Not Understand The ‘Why’ of Climate Change

By Guest PostOctober 16, 2010Environmentclimate change, why

Sixty-three percent of Americans believe that global warming is happening, but many do not understand why, according to a national study conducted by researchers at Yale University. (more…)

Taking Measure of the Greenhouse Effect

By Guest PostOctober 15, 20101 commentEnvironmentclouds, greenhouse effect, heat trapping

WASHINGTON — Scientists have long known that heat-absorbing components of Earth’s atmosphere, such as clouds and certain gases, prevent our planet from being an ice-covered ball. Now a study, for the first time, comprehensively calculates the relative contributions of the components responsible for that heating, known as the greenhouse effect.

Besides clarifying an important aspect of climate science, the study also demonstrates that rising concentrations of one heat-trapping gas — carbon dioxide — leads to much more greenhouse warming than just the heat the gas absorbs directly itself.

Various studies have looked at the contributions of water vapor, CO₂, and other greenhouse gases. But none had systematically estimated the contributions of each of the main players, says climate scientist Gavin Schmidt of NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and lead author of the new research. (more…)

Smithsonian Researchers Report that Regional Sea Temperature Rise and Coral Bleaching Event Has Reached Western Caribbean

By Guest PostOctober 15, 20101 commentEnvironmentanomalous sea temperature rise, anoxic conditions, arcadio castillo, bocas del toro research station, caribbean coast, coral bleaching, coral polyps, costa rica, dissolved oxygen, héctor m guzmán, hotosynthetic algae, isla colon, kuna-yala to bocas del toro, nancy knowlton, noaa, panama, sea surface temperatures, turbid waters, warm pocket, western caribbean, zoxanthellae

The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute’s Bocas del Toro Research Station and Galeta Point Marine Laboratory are reporting an anomalous sea temperature rise and a major coral bleaching event in the western Caribbean. Although the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, issued an advisory in July announcing above-average sea surface temperatures in the wider Caribbean region, there had been no clear indication of increased sea temperatures in Panama and the western Caribbean until late August-early September. (more…)

Cloud-Based Computing System Helps Scientists Study the Breathing of the Biosphere

By Guest PostOctober 13, 2010Environment, Technologybiosphere breathing, breathing dataset, evapotranspiration data, microsoft research, sensor arrays

Researchers at University of California, Berkeley, work with Microsoft Research to analyze vast amounts of data without supercomputers

BERKELEY, Calif. — Studying the environment would be simple if it weren’t for one thing: Even an isolated ecosystem is unbelievably complicated. Factors to study include water systems, plant life cycles, carbon dioxide fluctuations, resource use by humans, and far more — and each can be studied at the scale of a plant or of the planet, and measured in an instant or over decades. (more…)

Listen Up: Ocean Acidification Poses Little Threat to Whales’ Hearing

By Guest PostOctober 13, 2010Environmentabsorption, acidic, animals, atmospheric carbon dioxide, boric acid, CO2, decibel, hearing, ilya udovydchenkov, ivan lima, mathematical models, noise levels, ocean, ocean acidification, scott doney, seawater, sound propagation, sound waves, tim duda, whales, whoi, woods hole oceanographic institution

Contrary to some previous, highly publicized, reports, ocean acidification is not likely to worsen the hearing of whales and other animals, according to a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) scientist who studies sound propagation in the ocean. (more…)

Population Change: Another Influence on Climate Change

By Guest PostOctober 12, 2010Environmentclimate change, population aging, population change, population dynamics

Changes in population, including aging and urbanization, could affect global carbon dioxide emissions

Changes in the human population, including aging and urbanization, could significantly affect global emissions of carbon dioxide over the next 40 years, according to research results published this week. (more…)

Category Archives: Environment