Center for Biological Diversity

Governor Sarah Palin won’t give wildlife a break. Last week, she announced the state of Alaska will sue to strike down Endangered Species Act protection for the imperiled Cook Inlet beluga whale. This rare white whale’s population has already plummeted from thousands to just 375 in the last two decades. They will certainly go extinct if Palin has her way.

Our lawyers and scientists are already in court to block Palin’s anti-polar bear actions, and we’ll soon jump in to save the beluga from her reckless campaign to promote oil & gas interests. But we also need to build a groundswell of public support. Please help us now to protect beluga whales by sending a letter asking the Obama administration to oppose Palin’s lawsuit.

What’s At Stake

The Center for Biological Diversity has gone up against Governor Sarah Palin before and is gearing up to do it again. Last August, after we won federal protection for the polar bear, Palin filed suit to strike the protections down in order to make things easier for Big Oil in the Arctic.

Cook Inlet beluga whales face serious threats from oil and gas development, pollution, gillnets, global warming, underwater seismic blasting and sonar devices. They won’t survive if Palin strips away the protection of the Endangered Species Act.

Palin’s bloodthirsty attitude towards wildlife – from promoting the shooting of wolves from helicopters to gutting protection for polar bears – ignores government scientists and runs roughshod over our laws. Tell the Obama administration to oppose Palin’s lawsuit – we must protect endangered Cook Inlet beluga whales.

In the Bush years, the federal government often capitulated on industry-friendly lawsuits, using them as an excuse to revoke environmental protections. Palin is betting on that trend continuing, but we’re counting on you. We need to take advantage of this historic opportunity to raise a public outcry to the Obama administration to keep protections in place.

Please send a letter today urging the administration to reject Palin’s spurious claims and defend the imperiled Cook Inlet beluga whale against this assault.

Discovery

The habitats of wild bird species are shifting in response to global warming, but not fast enough to keep pace with rising temperatures, according to a study released Wednesday.

Researchers in France also found that the delicate balance of wildlife in different ecosystems is changing up to eight times more quickly than previously suspected, with potentially severe consequences for some species.

:

These “mismatches” are likely to become greater over time, and could eventually threaten some birds with extinction, he added.

The study showed that the geographic range of 105 birds species in France — accounting for 99.5 percent of the country’s wild avian population — moved north, on average, 91 kilometers (56.5 miles) from 1989 through 2006.

Average temperatures, however, shifted northward 273 kilometers (170 miles) over the same period, nearly three times farther.

:

Earlier studies looked at the impact of global warming by comparing “snapshots” — taken years or decades apart — of the range across which a given species lived.

But trying to define the outer boundary of a shifting habitat is extremely difficult because data is, by definition, scarce.

Devictor took another approach, taking advantage of France’s French Breeding Bird Survey, which has gathered data collected by hundreds of ornithologists from more than 1500 well-defined plots since 1989.

This made it possible to look at the entire distribution of a species over a continuous period, he explained.

The northward shift of most species “is most likely changing at its maximal possible rate, which is insufficient to catch up to climate change,” Devictor said.

“This discrepancy may have profound consequences on the ability of species to cope with climate change in the long run.”

The study was published in the British journal Proceedings of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

reuters

Elephant seals swimming under Antarctic ice and fitted with special sensors are providing scientists with crucial data on ice formation, ocean currents and climate change, a study released on Tuesday said.

The seals swimming under winter sea ice have overcome a “blind-spot” for scientists by allowing them to calculate how fast sea ice forms during winter.

Sea ice reflects sunlight back into space, so less sea ice means more energy is absorbed by the earth, causing more warming.

:

Conventional oceanographic monitoring from ships, satellites and drifting buoys, cannot provide observations under sea ice.

:

The elephant seals have provided scientists with a 30-fold increase in data recorded in parts of the Southern Ocean, said the study by a team of French, Australian, U.S. and British scientists and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Between 2004 and 2005, the seals swam up to 65 kilometers (40 miles) a day, supplying scientists with 16,500 ice profiles. The seals dived to a depth of more than 500 meters (1,500 feet) on average and to a maximum depth of nearly 2 km (a mile).

:

The experiment involved 85 seals with sensors attached to their heads.

:

The polar regions play an important role in the earth’s climate and are changing more rapidly than any other part of the world, with the Southern Ocean warming more rapidly than the global ocean average.

Sea ice not only affects the amount of energy reflected back into space, but also the amount of dense water around the Antarctic which drives ocean currents that transports heat around the globe.

Sea ice also provides a critical habitat for krill, penguins and seals.

An elephant seal is seen with a special sensor fitted to its head in South Georgia in this undated photo released on August 12, 2008 by the Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).

REUTERS

AP

The dwindling march of the penguins is signaling that the world’s oceans are in trouble, scientists now say. Penguins may be the tuxedo-clad version of a canary in the coal mine, with generally ailing populations from a combination of global warming, ocean oil pollution, depleted fisheries, and tourism and development, according to a new scientific review paper.

A University of Washington biologist detailed specific problems around the world with remote penguin populations, linking their decline to the overall health of southern oceans.

:

Scientists figure there are between 16 to 19 species of penguins. About a dozen are in some form of trouble, Boersma wrote. A few, such as the king penguin found in islands north of Antarctica, are improving in numbers, she said.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature lists three penguin species as endangered, seven as vulnerable, which means they are “facing a high risk of extinction in the wild,” and two more as “near threatened.” About 15 years ago only five to seven penguin species were considered vulnerable, experts said.

And the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which has already listed one penguin species on its endangered list, is studying whether it needs to add 10 more.

:

For the ice-loving Adelie penguins, global warming in the western Antarctica peninsula is a problem, making it harder for them to find food, said Phil Trathan, head of conservation biology at the British Antarctic Survey, a top penguin scientist who had no role in the new report.

For penguins that live on the Galapagos island, El Nino weather patterns are a problem because the warmer water makes penguins travel farther for food, at times abandoning their chicks, Boersma said. At the end of the 1998 record El Nino, female penguins were only 80 percent of their normal body weight. Scientists have tied climate change to stronger El Ninos.

:

“What happens to penguins, a few years down the road can happen to a lot of other species and possibly humans,” said longtime penguin expert Susie Ellis, now executive director of the International Rhino Foundation.

AP Photo/OBED ZILWA

independent.co.uk

It seems unthinkable, but for the first time in human history, ice is on course to disappear entirely from the North Pole this year.

The disappearance of the Arctic sea ice, making it possible to reach the Pole sailing in a boat through open water, would be one of the most dramatic – and worrying – examples of the impact of global warming on the planet. Scientists say the ice at 90 degrees north may well have melted away by the summer.

:

If it happens, it raises the prospect of the Arctic nations being able to exploit the valuable oil and mineral deposits below these a bed which have until now been impossible to extract because of the thick sea ice above.

Seasoned polar scientists believe the chances of a totally ice-free North Pole this summer are greater than 50:50 because the normally thick ice formed over many years at the Pole has been blown away and replaced by huge swathes of thinner ice formed over a single year.

:

Each summer the sea ice melts before reforming again during the long Arctic winter but the loss of sea ice last year was so extensive that much of the Arctic Ocean became open water, with the water-ice boundary coming just 700 miles away from the North Pole.

This meant that about 70 per cent of the sea ice present this spring was single-year ice formed over last winter. Scientists predict that at least 70 per cent of this single-year ice – and perhaps all of it – will melt completely this summer, Dr Serreze said.

:

Ron Lindsay, a polar scientist at the University of Washington in Seattle, agreed that much now depends on what happens to the Arctic weather in terms of wind patterns and hours of sunshine. “There’s a good chance that it will all melt away at the North Pole, it’s certainly feasible, but it’s not guaranteed,” Dr Lindsay said.

:

There are other indications that the Arctic sea ice is showing signs of breaking up. Scientists at the Nasa Goddard Space Flight Centre said that the North Water ‘polynya’ – an expanse of open water surrounded on all sides by ice – that normally forms near Alaska and Banks Island off the Canadian coast, is much larger than normal. Polynyas absorb heat from the sun and eat away at the edge of the sea ice.

Inuit natives living near Baffin Bay between Canada and Greenland are also reporting that the sea ice there is starting to break up much earlier than normal and that they have seen wide cracks appearing in the ice where it normally remains stable. Satellite measurements collected over nearly 30 years show a significant decline in the extent of the Arctic sea ice, which has become more rapid in recent years.

Independent Graphics

reuters

Rising temperatures have forced many plants to creep to higher elevations to survive, researchers reported on Thursday.

More than two-thirds of the plants studied along six West European mountain ranges climbed an average of 29 meters in altitude in each decade since 1905 to better conditions on higher ground, the researchers reported in the journal Science.

:

Earlier this week, U.S. researchers warned warming temperatures could turn many of California’s native plants into “plant refugees” looking for more suitable habitats.

They concluded that a warming climate and rainfall changes would force many of the U.S. state’s native plants to range north or to higher elevations or possibly even go extinct in the next 100 years.

The French team’s findings suggest plants at high altitudes face the same or greater impacts from rising temperatures, Lenoir said in a telephone interview.

:

Using database on plant species found at specific locations and elevations stretching back to 1905, the researchers showed many plants have steadily crept higher to conditions best suited for survival and growth.

Plants move higher by dispersing their seeds in the wind, which blows them to higher elevations and cooler temperatures similar to their former location, Lenoir said.

:

They found that two-thirds of the plants responded to warming temperatures over that time by shifting to higher altitudes.

Plants at higher altitudes also appear most sensitive to warmer conditions because slight temperature changes at higher altitudes have a bigger impact, he added.

Rain clouds shroud a forest near the western Austrian city of Dornbirn, June 12, 2007. Rising temperatures have forced many plants to creep to higher elevations to survive, researchers reported on Thursday.

REUTERS/Miro Kuzmanovic

NOAA

The least biologically productive areas of the oceans are expanding much faster than predicted, according to a new study by researchers at NOAA and the University of Hawaii. This change in ocean biology, linked to the warming of sea surface waters, may negatively affect the populations of many fish species trying to survive in these desert-like environments.

:

“The fact that we are seeing an expansion of the ocean’s least productive areas as the subtropical gyres warm is consistent with our understanding of the impact of global warming. But with a nine-year time series, it is difficult to rule out decadal variation,” said Jeffrey J. Polovina, an oceanographer with NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service in Honolulu, who authored the study along with NOAA’s Evan A. Howell and Melanie Abecassis of the University of Hawaii.

The evidence of this expansion comes from data collected by a sensor aboard NASA’s orbiting SeaStar spacecraft.

:

The research showed that the areas of low productivity in the Pacific Ocean are expanding from the center toward Hawaii. In the Atlantic Ocean, the least productive areas of the subtropical gyre are expanding at an even more rapid rate eastward across the Caribbean toward Africa. The low-productivity zones, likened to deserts, now cover an estimated 51 million square kilometers in the two oceans. The least productive area of the Indian Ocean shows the same trend, but there has been too much variability for it to be statistically significant.

:

Black areas in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans are the least productive. (Credit NOAA)

BBC

Scientists in the US have presented one of the most dramatic forecasts yet for the disappearance of Arctic sea ice.

Their latest modelling studies indicate northern polar waters could be ice-free in summers within just 5-6 years.

:

Summer melting this year reduced the ice cover to 4.13 million sq km, the smallest ever extent in modern times.

Remarkably, this stunning low point was not even incorporated into the model runs of Professor Maslowski and his team, which used data sets from 1979 to 2004 to constrain their future projections.

:

Professor Maslowski’s group, which includes co-workers at Nasa and the Institute of Oceanology, Polish Academy of Sciences (PAS), is well known for producing modelled dates that are in advance of other teams.

:

Professor Peter Wadhams from Cambridge University, UK, is an expert on Arctic ice. He has used sonar data collected by Royal Navy submarines to show that the volume loss is outstripping even area withdrawal, which is in agreement with the model result of Professor Maslowski.

:

He cited the ice-albedo feedback effect in which open water receives more solar radiation, which in turn leads to additional warming and further melting.

Professor Wadhams said the Arctic was now being set up for further ice loss in the coming years.

:

The US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) collects the observational data on the extent of Arctic sea ice, delivering regular status bulletins. Its research scientist Dr Mark Serreze was asked to give one of the main lectures here at this year’s AGU Fall Meeting.

Discussing the possibility for an open Arctic ocean in summer months, he told the meeting: “A few years ago, even I was thinking 2050, 2070, out beyond the year 2100, because that’s what our models were telling us. But as we’ve seen, the models aren’t fast enough right now; we are losing ice at a much more rapid rate.

“My thinking on this is that 2030 is not an unreasonable date to be thinking of.”

And later, to the BBC, Dr Serreze added: “I think Wieslaw is probably a little aggressive in his projections, simply because the luck of the draw means natural variability can kick in to give you a few years in which the ice loss is a little less than you’ve had in previous years. But Wieslaw is a smart guy and it would not surprise me if his projections came out.”

: The US NSIDC monitors Arctic sea ice extent on a five-day mean. The 16 September 2007 record low falls below the previous minimum set on 20-21 September 2005, by an area roughly the size of Texas and California combined, or nearly five UKs.

RIA Novosti

Temperatures on Earth have stabilized in the past decade, and the planet should brace itself for a new Ice Age rather than global warming, a Russian scientist said in an interview with RIA Novosti Tuesday.

:

According to the scientist, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere has risen more than 4% in the past decade, but global warming has practically stopped. It confirms the theory of “solar” impact on changes in the Earth’s climate, because the amount of solar energy reaching the planet has drastically decreased during the same period, the scientist said.

:

He also said that in 2008, global temperatures would drop slightly, rather than rise, due to unprecedentedly low solar radiation in the past 30 years, and would continue decreasing even if industrial emissions of carbon dioxide reach record levels.

By 2041, solar activity will reach its minimum according to a 200-year cycle, and a deep cooling period will hit the Earth approximately in 2055-2060. It will last for about 45-65 years, the scientist added.

:

The Maunder Minimum occurred between 1645 and 1715, when only about 50 spots appeared on the Sun, as opposed to the typical 40,000-50,000 spots.

It coincided with the middle and coldest part of the so called Little Ice Age, during which Europe and North America were subjected to bitterly cold winters.

:

Therefore, the Earth must brace itself for a growing ice cap, rather than rising waters in global oceans caused by ice melting.

Mankind will face serious economic, social, and demographic consequences of the coming Ice Age because it will directly affect more than 80% of the earth’s population, the scientist concluded.

underwatertimes

Coral reefs are at risk of going soft, quite literally turning to mush as rising carbon dioxide levels prevent coral from forming tough skeletons, according to UQ research.

UQ marine scientists have shown that too much carbon dioxide absorption turns seawater acidic which may prevent corals building their skeletons which make up reefs.

:

The researchers have been monitoring the effects of water temperature and carbon dioxide levels on coral growth and health using 48 tanks with varying carbon dioxide levels.

:

The research results can also be plugged into climate models to predict future reef health.

Acidification may also affect clams, bivalves, snails, cuttlefish, crustaceans, krill, prawns, lobsters as well as calcifying algae.

Dr Ward said the research project was part of the Rio Tinto Aluminium Future Reef partnership.

“Rio Tinto Aluminium produces CO2 emissions by the very nature of the industry and they’re aware of their role and this is part of many strategies the company is using to combat their negative role.”

“They have given us $1 million to work on climate change and coral reefs.”

Research has shown increased C02 levels hurt coral reef growth