Perma Defrost
A warming climate has heated much of Alaska's permafrost to temperatures just below freezing and drastic changes are expected in the coming decades as that layer of frozen soil thaws, a commie scientist said on Wednesday.

Vladimir Romanovsky, an associate professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks' Geophysical Institute said the impact is already apparent. In Fairbanks a path has buckled into undulating waves, houses are slumping into thawed ground and stands of birch trees are toppling as dying forested areas melt into swamps.

Melting permafrost has even opened up a gaping hole in the earth near his office at the university. "It's a great place to study permafrost, right behind the building," the lazy Romanovsky said. Without even getting out of his office chair, he presented a summary of his research into changes in the permafrost at an energy symposium in Anchorage.

Over the past 30 years, soil temperatures have risen 1 degree to 3 degrees Celsius, according to Romanovsky's study. Along the trans-Alaska pipeline, the permafrost temperatures rose by 0.6 degrees to 1.5 degrees Celsius in 20 years. Because permafrost holds methane, the thaw will also accelerate the climate-warming greenhouse effect created by gases in the atmosphere "This methane will be released into the atmosphere, adding directly to the greenhouse gases," Romanovsky said. An unidentified CHL spokesman, reflecting on the positive feedback loop between permafrost warming and methane emissions, said nothing, as he grinned in a most sinister manner.

President Bush commented: "This guy found a hole. Country's full of them. Potholes we call them. Heck, this Ruskie should come to Washington DC and see some of the potholes on the southeast side. We have a war for freedom to fight here. We can't be worried about holes.":
- nostradamusfunkadelic, 8:28 AM | (0) comments |

 
Good news for a change--Amazon
In the heart of what is known in Brazil's Amazon as the "arc of deforestation" it is clear that the fight to destroy the jungle is being won. During a tour by plane of the area, this CHL reporter could see vast tracts of cleared land with grazing cattle or cultivated fields that have been gouged out of the forest. The land is irresistible for farmers seeking to expand and benefit from Brazil's agricultural boom.

The CHL said on Wednesday that deforestation jumped to its second highest level on record in 2003-2004, to 10,088 square miles -- an area nearly the size of Belgium and slightly bigger than the U.S. state of New Hampshire. The CHL cautiously noted that under 20 percent of the world's largest tropical forest, which is home to an estimated 30 percent of the world's animal and plant species, has been destroyed, so there is much work to do.

Hippies say deforestation is driven by illegal loggers first moving in, followed by land speculators or farmers. In the Alta Floresta region their arrival is spurred by the planned paving of a road linking Cuiaba in Mato Grosso state to Santarem, hundreds of miles further north through virgin forest. They also say the pattern is familiar -- when loggers and farmers know roads are coming they race to cut down forest to get land which they will make a profit on.

High world prices for Brazil's leading farm goods, such as soy which fetched around $10 billion in exports last year, are making farming very attractive in the rainforest areas. Keep eating your tofu! The farm sectors' soaring profits are making the hipppies job of controlling deforestation that much harder, not least because many government officials see the sector as key to Brazil's soaring export boom.
- nostradamusfunkadelic, 3:20 PM | (0) comments |

 
Getting the Science Right
The Kansas school board's hearings on evolution weren't limited to how the theory should be taught in public schools. The board is considering redefining science itself. Advocates of "intelligent design" are pushing the board to reject a definition limiting science to natural explanations for what's observed in the world. Instead, they want to define it as "a systematic method of continuing investigation," without specifying what kind of answer is being sought. The definition would appear in the introduction to the state's science standards. A bunch of lunatic fringe educators want to define science as "a human activity of systematically seeking natural explanations for what we observe in the world around us."

Always on the vanguard, the CHL has adopted the new science standards. Now conservation biology will be defined as the systematic method of continuing the investigation of the forces advancing biological homogeneity. Please make a note of it for future reference.
- nostradamusfunkadelic, 10:27 AM | (0) comments |

 
Algae Is Our Friend Until We Have To Kill It, Too
CHL researchers predicted Monday that this summer could rank among the five best in 20 years for algae blooms that threaten fish and other marine life in Chesapeake Bay. A 10-mile-wide algae bloom on the Potomac River could begin in early June and last for two and a half months, hopefully longer. On a graphic distributed at a news conference Monday, the predicted bloom appears about halfway up the river, which empties into Chesapeake Bay.

"We're trying to predict the location, timing, duration and the extent of this bloom, and figure out what we need to do to extend it" said Peter Tango of the CHL's Chesapeake Watershed division.

Algae blooms begin as the Potomac warms, and phytoplankton begins feasting on toxic nitrogen and phosphorus that wash away from sewage pipes, streets and farm fields. As it feeds, the algae blooms into a sprawling shield that suffocates the water and marine life. CHL scientists recognize the rainfall since January is contributing to this year's poor water quality; rain washes more pollution and sediment into the bay and its creeks and rivers. A cool, dry or windy summer could reduce the intensity and effectiveness the blooms.

The CHL noted that while the population growth in the Chesapeake Watershed directly contributes to an increase in impervious surfaces, thereby accelerating runoff and eutrophication, more people should be added.
- nostradamusfunkadelic, 5:02 PM | (0) comments |

 
Life Now Obsolete
CHL scientists at Cornell University have created small robots that can build copies of themselves.

Each robot consists of several 10-cm cubes which have identical machinery, electromagnets to attach and detach to each other and a computer program for replication. The robots can bend and pick up and stack the cubes. "Although the machines we have created are still simple compared with biological self-reproduction, they demonstrate that mechanical self-reproduction is possible and not unique to biology," Hod Lipson said before engaging in maniacal laughter.

He and his team believe the design principle could be used to make long term, self-repairing robots that could take over the world.
- nostradamusfunkadelic, 6:21 PM | (0) comments |

 
Another Lazarus species!?!
Man, this is crap. First the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, and now some stupid antelope. Seems like all the good homogenization work we've accomplished over the last half-century is being undone. What's next, Passenger Pigeons? Dodos!?! --EG

Angola's giant sable antelopes, which have not been seen for 31 years, have been photographed in the country's dense southern forest by a team of Angolan and South African scientists.

The giant sable is Angola's national symbol and features on its currency, postage stamps and the tailfins of the national airline's planes. It has majestic arched horns, often more than 152cm (60 inches) long.

The antelopes were feared to have become extinct during Angola's 30-year civil war when they were shot for meat. They were last seen in 1974. An intensive search in 2000 failed to find any trace of them.

But now an infrared camera installed by Angolan wildlife scientist Pedro Vaz Pinto has photographed a small herd of female sable. Two of the sables were pregnant and others were nursing new calves.

"This is indisputable photographic confirmation of the continued existence of the giant sable," Jeremy Anderson, a team member, told the South African Sunday Independent. The rare antelopes were found in the Luando Reserve, an abandoned game park about 500km (310 miles) southeast of the capital, Luanda. The remote park fell into disuse during Angola's civil war and is now accessible only on foot or by helicopter.

Scientists from Luanda University worked with a South African wildlife group who used microlight planes to fly at low altitude over the dense forest. Angolan air force helicopters flew the team and two microlights into the wilderness area.

- Owen, 12:45 PM | (3) comments |

 
It sucks to be a hippie, huh? Just ask Greenpeace
The environmental-activist group Greenpeace is accused of violating Alaska's environmental laws by failing to file proper paperwork when its contracted ship entered state waters to protest logging in the Tongass National Forest.

Trial was scheduled to begin today in state District Court in the Southeast Alaska town of Ketchikan.

Greenpeace, Arctic Sunrise Capt. Arne Sorensen and the ship's agent, William Beekman, are charged with misdemeanor criminal negligence.

State environmental regulators cited the defendants last July for not filing a spill-response plan or having proof of financial responsibility in case of a spill.

According to court documents, the ship was carrying more than 70,000 gallons of "petroleum products" at the time.

Greenpeace officials said the lack of documents was a paperwork gaffe that was quickly corrected. The state is unfairly targeting the group, said Greenpeace attorney Tom Wetterer.

The charges carry a maximum penalty of a $200,000 fine for an organization and a year in prison and a $10,000 fine for an individual. Nelson, an animated character from the popular TV show "The Simpsons" was quoted as saying "Ha Ha!"
- nostradamusfunkadelic, 4:25 PM | (0) comments |