Green Options

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We spend a lot of our time looking at research and studies that focuses on one particular aspect of the planet. Rarely does anyone spend the time to look at a multitude of aspects, to acquire a look at the overall picture. It seems like science is all about proving the big picture by proving a small portion of that big picture. However critics will be the first to tell us that the small picture does not necessarily reflect the big picture. Just like a jigsaw of the planet Earth, you might think that the whole planet is blue if they are the only pieces of the puzzle you saw, but look at it in total, and you’ll find a few solid bits as well! So that is why a new study has assembled information never before gathered together in one spot. The study looked at a vast array of physical and biological systems across our planet, and looked at if and how they were being affected by global warming. The study appears in the May 15 issue of the journal Nature.

Innovative solutions could very well be vital in the coming years, if we are to solve the worsening pollution of our planet. Whether or not you attribute its increase to global warming, carbon dioxide has long been on the rise and subsequent damages have been seen worldwide in flora and fauna ecosystems. One of the principal sinks for the carbon we do produce, or that exists naturally, are trees. Naturally, as intelligent humans, we’ve decided to cut down as many of those trees as possible. We cut them down, we burn them, and we destroy entire ecosystems while also destroying our own future. However a novel idea has been raised by Fritz Scholz and Ulrich Hasse from the University of Greifswald, and has been published in the journal ChemSusChem.

A recent paper published in the prestigious Nature journal suggesting that over the next decade we could experience a temporary global temperature drop has naturally seen the climate skeptics announce that they were right all along. Of course, reality – a term long since forgotten to many – would suggest that global warming will still continue unabated in the background, but that would just kill a good story.

The movie The Day After Tomorrow saw the planet globally affected by the cessation of the ocean conveyor belt, or, more precisely known as the thermohaline circulation (THC). The northern hemisphere suffered massive drops in temperature, rises in sea level and a variety of other climate conditions. Putting aside the fantastical nature of the speed with which this happened, the base science is sound; that an increase in freshwater could slow or shutdown the thermohaline circulation, causing an unexpected and unhelpful ice age.

The world today is full of those who promise to be greener, promise to do more for the environment, promise to make the world a better place. But empty promises mean as much to us as an empty jar of peanut butter does to me; nothing! So it is gratifying to see that Europe is picking up the gauntlet of creating a cleaner place for us to live.

If anyone ever thought climate sciences were anything but complex, they obviously weren’t looking hard enough. Recent research from prominent UK and Brazilian climate scientists have found a link between reducing sulphur dioxide emissions from burning coal, and the increase in sea surface temperatures in the tropical north Atlantic, that heightens the risk of drought in the Amazon rainforest. The Amazon is without a doubt one of the planet’s most valuable and important ecological resources; and not for logging. The rainforest contains approximately one tenth of the total carbon stored in land ecosystems, and recycles much of the rain that falls upon its leafy canopy. Thus, any major change to its vegetation has massive implications for the global climate system.

An increase in rains along our eastern seaboard has eased the Australian drought over the past few months, however the Bureau of Meteorology has announced that steady rain for several years is needed before the drought finally breaks. There are varying degrees of drought stricken country in Australia, due to two varieties of drought. The majority of the north and bits of the west have suffered from drought for almost two decades now, with agriculture suffering catastrophic losses.

Greenpeace, always good for stirring up trouble, have released a report entitled False Hope to coincide with the seventh annual Carbon Capture & Sequestration conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The report is said to be “…critically examining the status and promise of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.” Needless to say, Greenpeace aren’t overly happy.

There’s nothing quite as nice as a really catchy title that perfectly sums up your story. If you want to leave it at that, then you’ve probably got the whole of the story. However if you want to know just a bit more about how climate change is affecting our planet’s poles, then keep reading. Speaking in a telephone briefing last Friday, Jennifer Francis, an atmospheric scientist at Rutgers University in New Jersey, said that the Arctic and Antarctic are exhibiting opposite effects to the climate change affecting our planet.

Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have finally explained a mystery that fishermen in the California current of the Pacific Ocean have monitored over the past 70 years. Their discovery has resulted in the naming of a new climate pattern, one called the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation (NPGO).