Sea Level Rise, Ocean Warming and Ocean Acidification
By Daniel de la Calle If you can spare 18 minutes, please watch this video of a conference about the oceans delivered by Professor Rob Dunbar, of Stanford University. I believe it was held in the Galapagos Islands not long ago. Professor Dunbar talks about sea level rise, ocean warming and about what “frightens [him] […]
Beauty In Tragedy
By Daniel de la Calle There is a mesmerizing power and intensity in tragedy, a fascination that traps the eye and pushes us toward it the way cliffs tempt bodies to fall. It is one of the main ingredients in most artistic expressions and I assume it must be linked to our desire to understand […]
Webcombing
By Daniel de la Calle I did a little webcombing this afternoon and found some news that could interest you, whoever you are, the reader of this blog. These are the fruits of that labor: 1 NOAA is proposing to establish a research area in Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary. Their idea is to designate an […]
Where will the U.S. be?
The impression we have of COP-15 is that we are two of 50,000 people plus working steadily to focus this process towards a similar goal, lowering global CO2 concentrations. There are several critical fault lines, but the largest is still, “Where is the US going to be by the end of next week?” -Sven
Live from the Protests
Helicopters are making a deafening noise today, as they follow the protesters who have taken to the streets. We can barely hear ourselves think as we wait it out, this time in our warm apartment. Today is Oceans Day at COP-15, and there is a surge of interest in ocean acidification. We attended a conference […]
NIIJII FILMS WIN 2010 NOAA ENVIRONMENTAL HERO AWARD
On Earth Day this week, Barbara and Sven were announced as 2010 NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Environmental Heroes for their tireless work to bring attention to ocean acidification through A Sea Change. To see the official announcement, click here.
In Copenhagen
We made it! Bleary eyed and a bit soggy from the constant drizzle, we in arrived in Copenhagen yesterday. Christmas and Climate Change are in evidence everywhere! I’ll email photographic evidence later today (see below), but meanwhile, my first favorite factoid from Denmark courtesy of the Danish National Museum: Did you know… Some 14,000 years […]
Day 2
Barbara and I are here in Copenhagen at COP-15 to continue our efforts to get oceans and ocean acidification onto the global climate agenda. We are part of the team from Scripps and the University of California. Towards that end, I was asked to give a talk yesterday on Ocean Acidification and its Human Impacts. […]
Day 3 – At the Bella Center
Today will be a full day at the Bella Center. Yesterday we met with a journalist from Barcelona who writes for La Vanguardia. He, like many, wanted to know why it has taken so long for ocean acidification to become a known issue. He asked us what the delegates would say if asked why it […]
On the Road Again
Sven, on the way to make some noise about ocean acidification in Copenhagen.
Niijii Films in Copenhagen
Barbara, Sven, Angela and Gwen have landed in Copenhagen. We have at least 4 screenings of A Sea Change planned during the COP-15 conference, and we plan to do everything we can to put the oceans on the agenda of discussion for our nations’ leaders. While there is little likelihood of a significant treaty being […]
Republicans block U.S. Senate’s global warming bill
Last night Democrats failed to break the Republican filibuster of major global warming legislation. The bill would have capped carbon dioxide coming from power plants,refineries and factories, with a target of cutting greenhouse gasemissions by 71 percent by the middle of this century. Notably crossing the aisle was John Warner (R-VA), arguing that the bill […]
Twenty years later
An eloquent statement from the man who first announced global warming in the U.S. Congress, James Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, published in The Guardian. An excerpt: ". . . we have used up all slack in the schedule for actions needed todefuse the global warming time bomb. The next […]
Another sea change
This courtesy of economist Mark Thomas’ blog Economist’s View: "Americans consider global warming an urgent threat, according to poll,EurekAlert: A growing number of Americans consider global warming animportant threat that calls for drastic action, and 40% say that a presidentialcandidate’s position on the issue will strongly influence how they vote,according to a national survey conducted […]
Al Gore
We found this originally on EcoGeek but went back to the source, TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design), an organization devoted to bringing together "the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes)." Al Gore was invited to deliver one of those talks this past March […]
Al Gore’s green energy challenge
Here’s Al Gore’s complete speech of July 17, in which he challenges the US to attain sustainable energy goals by 2018, courtesy EnergyEnvironmentTV.
Green For All
Greening the US plus jobs for the job-less. A win-win if I ever saw one. increasing the flow of green to the disenfranchised in the forms of jobs hence income increasing American’s use of green energy http://www.greenforall.org/
Half US corals reported at risk
In a 569-page document released Monday at the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium, NOAA reports that almost half of all coral reef ecosystems under U.S. jurisdiction are in poor or fair condition. Threats to corals include coastal development, fishing, sedimentation,recreational use, and climate-related effects of coral bleaching,disease and ocean acidification.
More about the European Project on Ocean Acidification (EPOCA)
More about EPOCA, from gattuso’s website: "The EU FP7 Integrated Project EPOCA (European Project on OCeanAcidification) was launched in June 2008 with the overall goal toadvance our understanding of the biological, ecological,biogeochemical, and societal implications of ocean acidification (Fig.1). The EPOCA consortium brings together more than 100 researchers from27 institutes1 and 9 European countries. The […]
Sea fertilizing solution for ocean acidification
Can phytoplankton absorb the excess CO2 in the oceans? Some scientists have suggested this as a solution: adding iron to the ocean’s surface to encourage the growth of these tiny plants. The first to suggest this was oceanographer John Martin in the late 1980s. In May, 200 countries reached an agreement during the ninth Conference […]
Up-to-date info on climate issues from scientists
RealClimate is a commentary site on climate science by working climate scientists for the interested public and journalists.Their goal: " to provide a quick response to developing stories and provide the context sometimes missing in mainstream commentary." They eschew discussion of the political and economic implications of their reports; however, their posts often engender extensive, […]
EPA admits climate change a human health problem
Well, the EPA (US Environmental Protection Agency) has acknowledged that climate change poses health and lifestyle risks. In a Reuters report filed last week, Joel Scheraga, agency representative is quoted as saying ""Climate change poses real risk to human health and the human systemsthat support our way of life in the United States." Possible risks […]
Climate change & the ocean
Dr. Richard Feely, Director of NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Lab, spoke at Northwestern University last February, part of their Global Warming: A Threat to Biodiversity program for the public.
Ocean chemistry 101 for the lay person
The Yale Forum on Climate Change & the Media just published a very good article by Marah J. Hardt and Carl Safina explaining ocean acidification. Their primary audience is journalists, but any layperson will find it a valuable resource for understanding the issue. "Changing ocean chemistry threatens the survival of marine life asmuch as warming […]
ABC News Covers Ocean Acidification
We were glad to stumble upon this report filed by Clayton Sandell for ABC News. The basics on ocean acidification in less than two minutes. Also amused to see corrosive becoming a meme, vis a vis seawater, hitting the mainstream.