Brown cloud near Pune, India

The legendary glaciers of the Himalayan and Hindu Kush mountain ranges have been losing volume at an increasing rate over the past twenty to thirty years. And over this same time period, much data has piled up confirming the role of increased CO2 emissions in global warming trends. Given this, it would be “natural” to assume that CO2-induced warming was also to blame for the glacial melting. But it turns out that much stronger evidence points to the impact of “brown cloud” events.

There have been other extensive brown cloud events elsewhere, such as in Central and Eastern China (which first made headlines back in 2005). They can be several miles wide / long, and extend hundreds of meters or more high. The clouds would be more aptly described as massive, moving blankets of thick haze (similar to smog). They typically last anywhere from a few days to a week before they dissipate. The clouds are indeed lethal to some (asthmatics, elderly, young children, those with bad hearts) and have also been known to suffocate livestock.

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As I note in Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, assessing the prospects for the Greenland ice sheet begins with looking at the warming of the Arctic region. A 2005 study, conducted by the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) team, an international group of 300 scientists, concluded that the Arctic is warming almost twice as fast as the rest of the planet. It found that in the regions surrounding the Arctic, including Alaska, western Canada, and eastern Russia, winter temperatures have already climbed by 3-4 degrees Celsius (4–7 degrees Fahrenheit) over the last half-century.

In testimony before the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, Sheila Watt-Cloutier, an Inuit speaking on behalf of the 155,000 Inuits who live in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and the Russian Federation, described their struggle to survive in the fast-changing Arctic climate as “a snapshot of what is happening to the planet.” She called the warming of the Arctic “a defining event in the history of this planet.”

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In this satellite image of deforestation in Brazil, tropical rainforest appears bright red, while pale red and brown areas represent cleared land. Black and gray areas have probably been recently burned.

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In the May issue of Scientific American Lester R. Brown, President of Earth Policy Institute, discusses how food shortages could be the weak link that brings down civilization.

In this feature article, “Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization?” Brown notes that the biggest threat to global political stability is the potential for food crises in poor countries to cause government collapse. Those crises are brought on by rising demand and ever worsening environmental degradation.

“In the twentieth century,” Brown says, “dramatic rises in grain prices results from poor harvests. They were event-driven and short-lived. In contrast, the recent escalation in world grain prices is trend-driven, making it unlikely to reverse the rise in food prices without a reversal in the trends themselves.”

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A new study from the journal Nature Geoscience has found that 50% of the total temperature increases in the Arctic over the last century have been due to black carbon, a substance that only stays in the atmosphere for several days to weeks.

This means that if black carbon emissions were immediately halted, it may only take a few weeks for warming trends to reverse by half.

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The Nature Conservancy announced this week that they have purchased ranchland in Shasta, California and hope to return Big Springs Creek to its former glory as a major salmon run.

The organization noticed the creek’s consistent, glacier-fed flowing water supply should make it the perfect spawning area for the embattled Pacific salmon, but it wasn’t being properly cared for. Years later, they’ve purchased 4,136 acres of surrounding land and plan to fence off the creek to protect it.

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The Tibetan plateau has an average height of 14,000 feet above sea level. It is also home to over ten thousand glaciers. This gargantuan network of ice feeds some of the longest rivers in the world: Salween (2820 km) Mekong (4880 km) Yellow (3180 km) Yangtze (6380 km) Indus (3180 km) and Brahmaputra (2900 km).

Seasonal glacial melting provides vast quantities of water to these rivers and their watersheds. It is critical to all life there. An Ohio State University researcher named Lonnie Thompson, who has studied the region, is very concerned global warming could cause the glaciers to shrink below levels that currently support the local ecosystems, and human communities.

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“The world has never faced such a massively predictable potential reduction in grain harvest as we are now looking at with the melting of the glaciers in the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau,” said Mr. Brown. “Keep in mind, this is not based off of a climate model with somewhat theoretical projections. This analysis is based on what is already happening–on a trend that’s very well established in both India and in China.”

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Glaciers are melting. It’s a fact. In terms of global warming, the guilt rests with us. We already saw how many of Switzerland’s glaciers are disappearing. Unfortunately, they are not alone.

Pedro Skvarca, glaciologist from Argentina in Antarctica, witnessed the progressive retreating of glaciers from the White Continent in the last ten years.

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The Canary Project

Founded in 2006, The New York-based Canary Project initially set out to build public awareness of climate change by photographing landscapes around the world that are already feeling the impact. It has since expanded its mission "to support a wide variety of other artists working at the intersection of art and ecology." But it’s still the photos, all featured on The Canary Project Website, that pack the most punch.

"Art has the capacity to penetrate received notions, generate media attention and create lasting visceral impact — all of which can be a more effective catalyst to action than mere rational apprehension," wrote co-founders Edward Morris and Susannah Sayler on their Website.
The Canary Project offers up photos illustrating several aspects of climate change: disrupted ecosystems (the Barrier Reef of Belize and the cloud forests of Costa Rica); droughts and fires (the American West); extreme weather events (New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina); glacial, ice cap and permafrost melting (Alaska and Austria); and rising sea levels (Venice, Italy).

It also features some images of encouragement: the massively built Maeslantkering storm surge barrier in the Netherlands and a windmill farm in Palm Springs, California.
Some of the images, like the picture of patterns on the surface of the melting Pasterze Glacier in Austria, are fascinating (who would have thought a flowing river of ice, close up, would resemble an elephant’s gray and wrinkled hide?). Some, such as the photograph of a Venetian crypt, its door opening directly onto a wide stretch of water, evoke the works of surrealist painters.

Others — like the bleak photo of a stripped-bare building slab and a stretch of leafless trees in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana — are chilling.
And more photos are to come. Sayler has so far taken images of 11 of 14 landscapes where the early signs of global warming are making themselves visible. Once she has visited all the locations, she plans to assemble the photographs into a book and traveling exhibition. She also intends to continue taking photos of two to three different regions around the world starting next year.

Some of Sayler’s images have already been on display at various locations, including the Sheehan Gallery at Washington’s Whitman College and The Spring’s Preserve Desert Living Center in Las Vegas. In November, the project has planned an exhibition, video installation and presentation at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry, as well as a presentation at the Chicago Humanities Festival.

With more locations yet to be photographed — the Gobi Desert, Siberia, Greenland, Tuvalu, Bangladesh and others — The Canary Project promises to deliver even more climate-oriented inspiration in the months and years to come.

It is estimated by scientists that nearly 25% of the world's undiscovered gas and oil reserves may be in the Arctic. With warming seas making the idea of a Northwest Passage for shipping lanes a reality, the enticement of setting up rigs and scooping resources is causing countries to get out and make claims. Canada, Russia, Denmark, and the United States are all shouting "Mine! Mine!". Oil aside, fishing companies are also eager to start tapping into the region, which could spell disaster for stocks in the region.

So, what does this mean? Well, to put it simply, in the face of climate change and environmental collapse, there's always a buck to be made. Opening up the Arctic, a pristine environmental area relatively untouched to human exploitation, could destroy a great deal of life. As the article states, "Apart from the risk of oil spills, more vessels could carry alien organisms into the Northwest Passage, posing a risk to indigenous life forms."

Let's also not forget the native people who actually live in these Arctic areas and depend on the natural environment for survival. Groups like the Inuits and the Sami may be directly affected in ways that could prove disastrous for their way of life. It's a sad fact that world governments may see the dollar signs of a possible ice-free Arctic, before they see the advantages of preventing such a loss. Hit the excellent article for an in-depth report on this particular situation.