Archive for February 6th, 2010

Netherlands Enters The Climate Fray

redOrbit: A claim made by the UN climate change panel in 2007 that half of the country of the Netherlands was below sea level, is being contested by the country itself. Dutch authorities estimate that only 26 percent of the country is below sea level and will be asking the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to check its figures, environment ministry spokesman Trimo Vallaart told AFP. The IPCC's calculation that 55 percent of the Netherlands was below sea level came from adding the ...

Explore the earth’s oceans without getting your feet wet

Independent (UK): A new feature on Google Earth lets you virtually dive with dolphins and follow the migratory paths of whales as they navigate their way through great blue oceans. Google launched their underwater tour, Ocean Showcase, on February 4. Google's Ocean Showcase opens up a whole new world of marine animals, shipwrecks, dive sites, and underwater terrain. "Dive into the ocean and discover who lives there - from a deep sea octopus to humpback whales. Explore lost shipwrecks, dive and ...

UN wildlife agency backs ban on bluefin tuna trade

Independent (UK): The UN's wildlife trade agency on Friday said it backed a proposed ban on the international trade in bluefin tuna, a prized delicacy in Asia, which is due to be examined by 175 countries next month. "We are recommending that the parties approve the proposals made by Monaco," said David Morgan, head of the scientific support unit at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Japan has opposed the ban proposed by Monaco, which would classify the ...

Arctic sea ice vanishing faster than ‘our most pessimistic models’: researcher

Vancouver Sun: Sea ice in Canada's fragile Arctic is melting faster than anyone expected, the lead investigator in Canada's largest climate-change study yet said Friday -- raising the possibility that the Arctic could, in a worst-case scenario, be ice-free in about three years. University of Manitoba Prof. David Barber, the lead investigator of the Circumpolar Flaw Lead System Study, said the rapid decay of thick Arctic Sea ice highlights the rapid pace of climate change in the North and foreshadows ...

Whaler and Activist Ship Collide Off Antarctica

New York Times: The anti-whaling ship the Bob Barker and a Japanese harpoon boat collided in the icy waters off Antarctica on Saturday -- the second major clash this year in the increasingly aggressive confrontations between the two sides. No one was reportedly injured in the latest strike. The U.S.-based activist group Sea Shepherd, which sends vessels to confront the Japanese fleet each year, said a small hole was torn in the hull of its ship, but it was above the water line and the vessel was not ...

Arctic ice melt alarms scientists

Winnipeg Free Press: A Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker makes its way through the ice in Baffin Bay. A local researcher says the melt of sea ice surpasses even pessimistic forecasts. (JONATHAN HAYWARD / THE CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES) Sea ice in Canada's fragile Arctic is melting more quickly than anyone expected, the lead investigator in the largest climate change study done in Canada said Friday. University of Manitoba Prof. David Barber, the lead investigator of the Circumpolar Flaw Lead System ...

Blue Whales Croon A New Tune

National Public Radio: Blue whales are updating their playlist, according to new research on the huge mammals. It's not quite West Side Story, but male blue whales use songs to warn away other males and attract females. It's a pulsing sound, more like a large piece of machinery than the Jets and the Sharks. But that song has been changing. John Hildebrand of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography studies whale sounds and says he's been hearing something new lately. "They've been ...

Whalers, activists clash again off Antarctica

Associated Press: Anti-whaling ship the Bob Barker and a Japanese harpoon boat collided in icy Antarctic waters in the second major clash this year in increasingly aggressive confrontations between conservationists and the whaling fleet. No one was injured in the clash Saturday, which each side blamed on the other. The U.S.-based activist group Sea Shepherd, which sends vessels to confront the Japanese fleet each year, accused the Japanese ship of deliberately rammed the Bob Barker -- named ...

Mann is Off the Hook, So Let’s Look at the Real Crime [Video of Mann]

Michael Mann, the somewhat infamous climate scientist from Penn State, shouldn’t be so infamous after all, we find out yet another time! “An academic inquiry into the so-called ‘climategate’ email scandal has concluded that a well-known U.S. scientist [Mann] did not directly or indirectly falsify data in his research,” according to Mike De Souza of the National Post. The investigation made it very clear (as other peer-reviewed analyses have done) that Mann’s “trick,” so horribly taken out of context and demonized by anti-science media and followers, was nothing unscientific, misleading or to be concerned about. “They were not falsifying data,” said the report. “They were trying to construct an understandable graph for those who were not experts in the field. The so-called ‘trick’ was nothing more than a statistical method used to bring two or more different kinds of data sets together in a legitimate fashion by a technique that has been reviewed by a broad array of peers in the field.” Furthermore, the report went on to praise Mann for how he dealt with this greatly unfounded skepticism and criticism of his scientific work. “The report praised Dr. Mann for his ‘composure’ and ‘forthright response’ to all questions, finding no evidence that he ...