Tag Archives: North America

Today’s Severe Drought, Tomorrow’s Normal

By Guest PostDecember 7, 2011Environmentatmospheric greenhouse gases, balance, benjamin santer, berkeley lab, canada, century, climate models, david easterling, drought, dust bowl, evapotranspiration, global climate, jay lawrimore, Mexico, michael wehner, noaa, normal occurrence, North America, oklahoma, precipitation, richard heim, russell vose, severe drought conditions, simulations, state-of-the-art, texas, united states, warming planet

*Berkeley Lab scientists part of team that analyzed 19 state-of-the-art climate models.*

While the worst drought since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s grips Oklahoma and Texas, scientists are warning that what we consider severe drought conditions in North America today may be normal for the continent by the mid-21^st century, due to a warming planet.

A team of scientists from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) came to this conclusion after analyzing 19 different state-of-the-art climate models. Looking at the balance between precipitation and evapotranspiration—the movement of water from soil to air—they found that no matter how rainfall patterns change over the next 100 years, a warming planet leads to drought. Their results were published in the December 2011 issue of the American Meteorological Society’s Journal of Hydrometerology. (more…)

Examining The Changing Face of Christianity

By Guest PostNovember 28, 2011Cultureafrica, anthropologist, asia, chaplains in guatemala, charismatic christianity, China, christianity, christians, diversity, downtown toronto, Europe, faith, girish daswani, god, ju hui judy han, kevin o neill, korean missionaries, latin america, nigeria, North America, north korea, pamela klassen, pentecostal christianity, pentecostalism, politics of global christianity, rural villages, ruth marshall, simon coleman, social process, spiritual warriors, university of toronto, valentina napolitano

U of T leading centre for study of global Christianity

A century ago, 80 per cent of the world’s Christians lived in Europe and North America; today, nearly 70 per cent live in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, making Christianity a predominantly non-Western religion.

A critical mass of scholars who are looking into the implications of this shift has made the University of Toronto a leading centre for the study of global Christianity.

Christianity today has more than 2.2 billion adherents worldwide. The majority are overwhelmingly poor, displaced from rural villages into overcrowded cities in search of work, and adhere strictly to the word of Scripture, which can command their loyalty far more than state or society. (more…)

For UCLA Expert on Chumash Indians, Roughly Hewn Beads are Child’s Play

By Guest PostMay 8, 2011Culture, Scienceamerican southwest pueblos, archaeologist, archaeology, artifacts, bead makers, beads, california, channel islands, chumash, chumash indians, chumash people, craft apprenticeship, europeans, france, global archaeological record, jeanne arnold, North America, olivella, olivella biplicata shells, Paris, santa cruz island, shells, southern california, stone age, ucla

As the world’s leading authority on beads manufactured from shells by California’s Chumash Indians, UCLA archaeologist Jeanne Arnold was stumped by a series of anomalous artifacts excavated at former settlements on the Channel Islands.

Pierced with more than one hole, often at unconventional angles or too close to the edges, the oddly configured multi-hole beads differ considerably from the smooth, round, precisely drilled beauties that served as currency among the Chumash prior to the arrival of Europeans in Southern California. (more…)

Online Banking on the Rise in Southeast Asia

By Guest PostMarch 4, 2011Technologybank mandiri, citigroup, Comscore, Europe, global banking brands, hong kong, internet growth, joe nguyen, malaysia, North America, southeast asia, vietcombank, Vietnam

*Brands with Strong Local Presence Top List as Most-Visited Online Banking Destinations*

*comScore Presents ‘The State of the Internet Southeast Asia’ *

Singapore, March 4, 2011 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released the latest results from a study of Internet usage in Southeast Asia. The report found that an increasing number of consumers across the region turned to online banking throughout 2010. In each of the six markets included in the study (Malaysia, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines), visitation to the online banking category grew by double-digits percentages, outpacing overall Internet growth by a factor of two in most cases. These results will be presented along with other key online trends via a complimentary, live webinar The State of the Internet Southeast Asia on Wednesday, March 9. For more information and to register, please visit: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/302171344 (more…)

Obesity Has Doubled Since 1980, Major Global Analysis of Risk Factors Reveals

By Guest PostFebruary 16, 2011Healthaustralasia, Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, blood pressure, body mass index, cholesterol, diastolic blood pressure, global problems, goodarz danaei, gretchen stevens, heart disease risk factors, high income countries, hypertension, lancet, majid ezzati, North America, obese, obesity, risk factor, southeast asia, western countries, WHO, world health organization

*Study shows western high-income countries have achieved impressive progress in lowering hypertension and cholesterol*

The worldwide prevalence of obesity has nearly doubled since 1980, according to a major study on how three important heart disease risk factors have changed across the world over the last three decades. The study, published on Feb. 4 in three papers in the Lancet, looked at all available global data to assess how body mass index, blood pressure and cholesterol changed between 1980 and 2008.

The study shows that in 2008, more than one in ten of the world’s adult population was obese, with women more likely to be obese than men. An estimated 205 million men and 297 million adult women were obese – a total of more than half a billion adults worldwide. (more…)

Online Access to the Plants of the World Is Available

By Guest PostJanuary 12, 2011Nature, Scienceafrican plants, biodiversity, digital scanner, ecologist, eldredge bermingham, Europe, flowers, global plants initiative, green tendrils, helene muller landau, herbaria, herbarium sheets, jstor, jungle, latin american, mireya correa, North America, online database, plants, pollen grains, university of panama

*The Global Plants Initiative Meets at the Smithsonian in Panama Jan. 11-13*

For centuries, jungle explorers from Europe and North America have created art of the plants they discover—pressing bright flowers and green tendrils onto herbarium sheets for prestigious museums and plant collections. But scientists in the most biodiverse countries lack easy access to this basic information needed to identify plants. The Global Plants Initiative, meeting Jan. 11-13 at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, catapults biodiversity research to a new level, sharing plant collections in a massive online database of high-resolution scans. (more…)

Wildlife Die-Offs are Relatively Common, Recent Bird Deaths Caused by Impact Trauma

By Guest PostJanuary 11, 2011Naturearkansas, arkansas bird analyses, autopsy, avian botulism, avian cholera, bat species, baton rouge, beebe, bird deaths, david e green, die off, impact trauma, internal hemorrhaging, jonathan sleeman, la, lead poisoning, louisiana, necropsies, new year eve, newcastle disease, North America, parasites, pathologist, pesticide tests, red winged blackbird, starvation, west nile virus, wildlife

Large wildlife die-off events are fairly common, though they should never be ignored, according to the U.S. Geological Survey scientists whose preliminary tests showed that the bird deaths in Arkansas on New Year’s Eve and those in Louisiana were caused by impact trauma.

Preliminary findings from the USGS National Wildlife Health Center’s Arkansas bird analyses suggest that the birds died from impact trauma, and these findings are consistent with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s statement. The State concluded that such trauma was probably a result of the birds being startled by loud noises on the night of Dec. 31, arousing them and causing them to fly into objects such as houses or trees. Scientists at the USGS NWHC performed necropsies—the animal version of an autopsy—on the birds and found internal hemorrhaging, while the pesticide tests they conducted were negative. Results from further laboratory tests are expected to be completed in 2-3 weeks. (more…)

Earth’s Lakes Warming Due to Climate Change

By Guest PostNovember 26, 2010Environmentalgal blooms, alpine lake, black, caspian seas, climate change, emerald bay, global survey, great lakes, kazakhstan, lake tahoe, lakes, lakes warming, natural ecosystem, North America, northern europe, northern hemisphere, philipp schneider, satellite data, simon hook, surface temperatures, temperature, trends

Lake Tahoe, seen here from Emerald Bay, was one of the primary validation sites for the global lake study. The lake, which straddles the borders of California and Nevada, is the largest alpine lake in North America. Image credit: NASA-JPL

WASHINGTON – In the first comprehensive global survey of temperature trends in major lakes, researchers have determined that Earth’s largest lakes have warmed during the past 25 years in response to climate change.

Philipp Schneider and Simon Hook of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., used satellite data to measure the surface temperatures of 167 large lakes worldwide.

They reported an average warming rate of 0.45 degrees Celsius (0.81 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade, with some lakes warming as much as 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade. The warming trend was global, and the greatest increases were in the mid- to high-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. (more…)