The number of large-diameter trees in Yosemite National Park have declined 24-percent between the 1930s and 1990s.

The findings are based on a study done by the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Washington. Scientists compared tree densities from 1932-1936 to those from 1988-1999 where large-diameter trees are those with a diameter greater than three feet.

Along with large-diameter tree loss, they also found a shift to fire-intolerant trees. Amazingly, this shift was experienced in areas that hadn’t seen a wildfire in nearly a century. Trees changed from fire-tolerant ponderosa pines to fire-intolerant white fir and incense cedar. In burned areas, however, the pines remained dominant.

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Data used in this study comes from one of 15 (so far) research cruises that are part of a much larger, international project called CLIVAR; the Climate Variability (CLIVAR) Repeat Hydrography/CO2 research   program.

Data analysis of the water samples indicated that total mercury levels in the North Pacific Ocean water have risen about 30 percent over the last 20 years.

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The U.S. Department of the Interior reports that they will start spending the stimulus money granted them in February, and among the $140 million-worth of projects is $15.2 million for Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s favorite activity: volcano monitoring!

This has been covered before, but it’s too good to let go easily. The complete disregard for actual science shown was thrown back in Jinda’s face immediately, but the volcano gods joined in only a month later when Alaska’s Mt. Redoubt erupted. Residents of the area had been warned two months earlier than eruption was pending, and perhaps as a result there were no major incidents when the volcano finally blew. Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said that the Alaska Volcano Observatory’s “top priority is to prevent repetition of the incident that occurred during Redoubt’s eruption 19 years ago, when a Boeing 747 passenger aircraft strayed into an ash cloud and nearly crashed.” Eh, who needs monitoring, right?

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US Scientists have revealed how natural gas locked up in frozen water crystals could provide massive amounts of energy, and claim that it could even be totally emissions-free.

The astonishing claim was made by Tim Collett of the United States Geological Survey at last weeks national meeting of the American Chemical Society. Collett told the gathering that, to the naked eye, clathrate hydrate (CH) looks like everyday ice but, as well as being partly made of water, the molecules are also organised into “cages”, which trap individual molecules of methane.

Remarkably, a new method of extracting the methane and ’swapping’ it with carbon dioxide could turn the substance into a revolutionary carbon-neutral fossil fuel.

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A new United States Geological Survey (USGS) report has found that climate change is occurring more rapidly than previous studies have found. Melting ice in the Arctic and longer droughts in the Southwest indicate earlier projections have underestimated the climatic shifts that will take place by the end of the century.

Over two years, 32 scientists completed a new climate change survey that was commissioned by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program.  Although the results predict an increase in many climate change effects, the scientists have found that the release of methane from seabeds and permafrost will not abruptly change by 2100, but once it begins, there is no return. 

However, the USGS report did find that increasing sea levels and prolonged droughts in the Southwest will occur by mid-century as a result of climate change.

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The first national geothermal assessment done in 30 years by a governmental agency, the report indicates that the U.S. has “identified conventional” sources of geothermal systems that, if fully developed, are capable of generating 9,057 megawatts-electric (MWe). An additional 30,033 MWe of potential power generation is available from “conventional undiscovered” geothermal sources, and 517,800 MWe from unconventional Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) or high temperature, low-permeability resources.

By developing the already known conventional sources, the reports says, geothermal electric power production could expand 260%, adding 6,500MWe to the total of slightly more than 2,500 MWe currently generated.

We’ve heard a lot about drilling for oil offshore and in Alaska as a means to increase our domestic sources of energy, but the clamor for “drill now” has overshadowed the significant contribution geothermal can contribute to our domestic “energy portfolio”.

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