Care for Earth
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| Religion and Science |
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 There are two types of knowledge. One needs no love -- the scientific knowledge. You need not love the object you are going to know. In fact if you love, scientific knowledge will not be possible. For scientific knowledge an absolutely non-emotional attitude is needed. You should not be loving. You should be completely aloof, indifferent -- not for or against. So for scientific knowledge a detached attitude is needed.
Religious knowledge is totally different. If you are detached you will never be able to know what religion is. You have to be deeply in love with it because this is a knowledge that comes through deep participation. You cannot remain out of it. The knower becomes part of the known. In fact the more the knower dissolves into the unknown, the more he comes to know. A moment comes when the knower is completely lost. Only then knowledge is perfect.
Knowledge that comes through love, personal knowledge; not objective but subjective knowledge. All that is beautiful comes through love and all that comes without love is dangerous. It will bring Nagasaki, Hiroshima. It is going to be destructive because in the first place it has not been through love.
If the seed has not been loving, the fruit is going to be poisonous. That's why the whole scientific effort, and such a tremendous effort leads nowhere but to deeper and deeper misery -- to war, to technology, to ecological destruction. In fact it is sabotaging the whole life rather than enhancing it.
Sooner or later ... the last part of the twenty-five years of this century is going to bring a revolution in the scientific attitude. It has to learn something from religion only then science can be a help to humanity, otherwise it is going to destroy everything.
OSHO
Get Out of Your Own Way, Chapter-15
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| Arctic shrinkage |
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 Arctic shrinkage is the decrease in size of the Arctic region (as defined by the 10 °C (50 °F). This is a change in the regional climate generally agreed to be a result of global warming. Projections of sea ice loss suggest that the Arctic ocean will likely be free of summer sea ice sometime between 2060 and 2080. Because of the rapid response of the Arctic to global warming, it is often seen as a high-sensitivity indicator of climate change. Scientists also point to the potential for release of methane from the Arctic region, especially through the thawing of permafrost and methane clathrates.
 The effects of Arctic shrinkage include a marked decrease in Arctic sea ice; melting permafrost, leading to the release of methane, a potent greenhouse gas; the release of methane fromclathrates, leading to longer time-scale methane release; the observed increase in melt on the Greenland Ice Sheet in recent years; and potential changes in patterns of ocean circulation. Scientists worry that some of these effects may cause positive feedbacks which could accelerate the rate of global warming.
Sea ice
The sea ice in the Arctic region is in itself important in maintaining global climate due to its albedo(reflectivity). Melting of this sea ice will therefore exacerbate global warming due to positive feedback effects, where warming creates more warming by increased solar absorption. An important feedback in the Arctic currently is ice-albedo feedback. The  loss of the Arctic sea ice may represent a tipping point in global warming, when 'runaway' climate change starts. This would be due to the release of methane from permafrost and clathrates in the region, and also because of ice-albedo feedback effects. However, recent research has challenged the notion of ice-albedo feedback causing an imminent Arctic sea ice tipping point.
April 3, 2007, the National Wildlife Federation urged the U.S. Congress to place polar bears under the Endangered Species Act. Four months later, the United States Geological Survey completed a year-long study which concluded in part that the floating Arctic sea ice will continue its rapid shrinkage over the next 50 years, consequently wiping out much of the polar bear habitat. The bears would disappear from Alaska, but would continue to exist in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and areas off the northern Greenland coast. Secondary ecological effects are also resultant from the shrinkage of sea ice; for example, Polar Bears are denied their historic length of seal hunting season due to late formation and early thaw of pack ice.
Loss of permafrost
 Sea ice loss has melting effects on permafrost, both in the sea, and on land and consequential effects on methane release, and wildlife. Some studies imply a direct link, as they predict cold air passing over ice is replaced by warm air passing over the sea. This warm air carries heat to the permafrost around the Arctic, and melts it. This thawing of the permafrost might accelerate methane release from areas like Siberia.
 Clathrate gun
Sea ice serves to stabilise methane deposits on and near the shoreline, preventing the clathrate breaking down and outgassing methane into the atmosphere. Any methane released to the atmosphere will then causing further warming.
Melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet
Models predict a sea-level contribution of about 5 centimetres (2 in) from melting in Greenland during the 21st century. It is also predicted that Greenland will become warm enough by 2100 to begin an almost complete melt during the next 1,000 years or more.
Ice thickness measurements from the GRACE satellite indicate that ice mass loss is accelerating. For the period 2002–2009, the rate of loss increased from −137 Gt/yr to −286 Gt/yr, with an acceleration of −30 gigatonnes per year per year.
 Effect on ocean circulation
Although this is now thought unlikely in the near future, it has also been suggested that there could be a shutdown of thermohaline circulation, similar to that which is believed to have driven the Younger Dryas, an abrupt climate change event. There is also potentially a possibility of a more general disruption of ocean circulation, which may lead to an ocean anoxic event, although these are believed to be much more common in the distant past. It is unclear whether the appropriate pre-conditions for such an event exist today.
Courtesy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_shrinkage
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| News Update |
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Cool roofs and pavements may help fight global warming
Sify News
2010-07-20 13:30:00
 Light-coloured cool rooftops and roads can curb carbon emissions and combat global climate change, found a new study by searchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
The study is the first to use a global model to study the idea.
And the researchers have found that implementing cool roofs and cool pavements in cities around the world can not only help cities stay cooler, they can also cool the world, with the potential of cancelling the heating effect of up to two years of worldwide carbon dioxide emissions.
Because white roofs reflect far more of the sun's heat than black ones, buildings with white roofs will stay cooler.
If the building is air conditioned, less air conditioning will be required, thus saving energy.
Even if there is no air conditioning, the heat absorbed by a black roof both heats the space below, making the space less comfortable, and is also carried into the city air by wind-raising the ambient temperature in what is known as the urban heat island effect.
Additionally, there's a third, less familiar way in which a black roof heats the world- it radiates energy directly into the atmosphere, which is then absorbed by the nearest clouds and ends up trapped by the greenhouse effect, contributing to global warming.
In the latest study, the Berkeley Lab researchers and their collaborators used a detailed global land surface model from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, which contained regional information on surface variables, such as topography, evaporation, radiation and temperature, as well as on cloud cover.
For the northern hemisphere summer, they found that increasing the reflectivity of roof and pavement materials in cities with a population greater than 1 million would achieve a one-time offset of 57 gigatons (1gigaton equals 1 billion metric tons) of CO2 emissions (31 Gt from roofs and 26 Gt from pavements).
That's double the worldwide CO2 emissions in 2006 of 28 gigatons.
 "These offsets help delay warming that would otherwise take place if actual CO2 emissions are not reduced," said Surabi Menon, lead author of the paper.
Co-author Hashem Akbari emphasizes that cool roofs and pavements are only a part of the solution.
"Two years worth of emissions is huge, but compared to what we need to do, it's just a dent in the problem. We've been dumping CO2 into the atmosphere for the last 200 years as if there's no future," said Akbari.
The results of the study were published online in the journal Environmental Research Letters. (ANI)
Courtesy: http://sify.com/news
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‘Increasing reflectivity of clouds an option to cool the earth'
DIVYA GANDHI
The Hindu
JULY 22, 2010
 The spectre of global warming has generated some rather novel emergency fix-it proposals to stave off solar radiation from reaching the Earth. These include placing mirrors in space to reflect sunlight, injecting sulphate aerosols in the stratosphere and other such techniques of geo-engineering to manipulate the environment.
A research article by scientists at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc.), in collaboration with the Carnegie Institution, Stanford University, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) -Ames, California, has established that the most sustainable geo-engineering option is to increase the reflectivity of low marine clouds by seeding them with tiny condensation nuclei. These reflective clouds reduce the solar radiation reaching earth, thereby keeping the planet cooler.
Seeding low marine clouds (found off the west coasts of continents) even increases rainfall, says the research paper on the “Enhancement of Marine Clouds.” The lead author is G. Bala of the Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Science and the Divecha Centre for Climate Change, IISc. The study is published in the latest issue of the international journal Climate Dynamics.
“Clouds reflect sunlight and cool the planet... If the number of droplets in clouds is increased, the reflectivity increases. This is the basic mechanism behind the proposal for whitening marine clouds to counteract global warming,” said Professor Bala.
Salt as seeds
Marine cloud droplets can be increased by spraying tiny droplets of seawater into the marine atmosphere. “The salt particles in seawater serve as seeds for many tiny cloud droplets,” Professor Bala explained.
Scientists used a computer simulation of the global climate system in which atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations were set at approximately twice that of present-day levels. Cloud droplets over the oceans in the model were reduced to make the clouds more reflective, while clouds over land were unaltered. As expected, the marine clouds reflected more solar radiation and offset the warming effect of the high carbon dioxide levels.
Courtesy: http://www.thehindu.com
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Global warming threatens coral growth in Red Sea
Sify News
16-07-2010
 Carbon dioxide-induced global warming is slowly killing off a major coral species in the Red Sea, scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have discovered.
As summer sea surface temperatures have remained about 1.5 degrees Celsius above ambient over the last 10 years, growth of the coral, Diploastrea heliopora, has declined by 30 per cent and "could cease growing altogether by 2070" or sooner, the researchers report in the journal Science.
"The warming in the Red Sea and the resultant decline in the health of this coral is a clear regional impact of global warming," said Neal E. Cantin, a WHOI postdoctoral investigator and co-lead researcher on the project. In the 1980s, he said, "the average summer [water] temperatures were below 30 degrees Celsius. In 2008 they were approaching 31 degrees."
Cantin and WHOI Research Specialist Anne L. Cohen, the other lead investigator, said the findings were unexpected because D. heliopora did not exhibit one of the typical signs of thermal stress: bleaching. "These corals looked healthy," said Cohen.
But computed tomography (CT) scanning of the coral's skeletal structure in the laboratory revealed "the secrets that the skeletons are hiding," she said.
"The CT scans reveal that these corals have actually been under chronic stress for the last 10 years, and that the rates of growth were the lowest in 2008," the final year of the study.
The other WHOI researchers who participated in the study are climate dynamicist Kristopher B. Karnauskas, coral biologist Ann M. Tarrant and chemical oceanographer Daniel C. McCorkle.
Cohen credits Cantin with "pioneering" the technique for this type of oceanographic research.
 She said: "He really took it to another level. What Neal really did was to adapt the imaging software, previously developed for bodies, specifically for our coral needs. This was an excruciatingly difficult task but it certainly paid off. We could not have used conventional techniques on this coral. The skeletal architecture is too complicated."
Co-author Karnauskas concurs that there is little doubt that the Red Sea phenomenon is attributable to long-term climate change.
He said: "El Nino events typically last about one year, and in a few rare cases last for two years. El Nino-and its 'cold' counterpart, La Nina-are quite well known with a very distinct signature in the Pacific Ocean, where they originate. El Nino and La Nina events have been occurring for millions of years, and the past few decades have been no exception.
"Therefore, there is no way El Nino could account for a 'trend' that persists for decades. These are simply superimposed upon the human/CO2-induced warming trend. There is probably nobody in the scientific community who would argue the rising temperatures in the Red Sea are related to El Nino. So, in the past few decades, the Red Sea temperature has been going up just like the global mean temperature, and the corals are suffering accordingly."
The scientists point out that the results show that, at least in this case, the culprit is sea surface temperatures and not ocean acidification, another effect of CO2 emissions that has become an increasing concern for scientists.
Cohen said: "We were able to pinpoint temperature as the driver of the declining growth rates because we have long records of skeletal growth going back to around 1930 and we were able to correlate skeletal growth with temperature records that span the same time period. We were also able to rule out ocean acidification because we have actual measurements of the aragonite saturation state of seawater-a measure of acidity-at our study sites."
Cohen also cautions against drawing conclusions about other coral species based on these results.
She said: "This study reports the impact of rising temperature on one coral species. It's an important reef-building coral in the Red Sea, but there are about 250 species of stony corals in this region and we have no idea what the other species are doing. Some might be doing much worse; some might be doing a little better in terms of thermal tolerances. We need much more of this type of work to be able to predict what the coral reefs will look like over the next few decades."
But now, for D. heliopora, the outlook appears bleak.
"The data in hand suggest that without immediate, aggressive global intervention to reduce carbon emissions," the researchers conclude in their report, "the pressures of predicted annual heat stress will most certainly result in further deterioration of coral health in the central Red Sea over the next century." (ANI)
Courtesy: http://sify.com/news
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| Steps you can take to help save the Environment |
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- Use Compact Fluorescent Bulbs: Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) will help increase your energy efficiency.
- Use reusable bags.
- Up to 20 percent of heating and cooling energy is lost due to poorly sealed or insulated ducts in your home. Make sure your ducts are properly insulated and install weather stripping around windows and doors for a better seal.
- Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Reducing your garbage by 25 percent will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 1,000 pounds per year. Recycling aluminum cans, glass bottles, plastic, cardboard and newspapers can reduce your home's impact by 850 pounds of carbon dioxide per year. Decreasing carbon dioxide emissions can help stop global warming.
- Conserve Water: Purifying and distributing water takes lots of energy. You can make simple changes to reduce the amount of water you use. Replacing an older toilet can save about 7,500 gallons of water a year. Fixing a leak in a toilet can save as much as 200 gallons a day. Use low-flow shower heads and turn your water heater thermostat down to 120 degrees Fahrenheit. These steps can add up to serious savings on your water and energy bills.
- Air Dry Your Clothes: Line-dry your clothes in the spring and summer instead of using the dryer.
- Buy Products Locally Buy locally and reduce the amount of energy required to drive your products to your store.
- Buy Minimally Packaged Goods: Less packaging could reduce your garbage by about 10%.
- Plant a Tree: Trees suck up carbon dioxide and make clean air for us to breathe.
- Turn off Your Computer: Shut off your computer when not in use.
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