Science News Share   Blog   Cite Print   Email   Bookmark Fast Pace of Glacier Melt in the 1940s: Lower Aerosol Pollution

ScienceDaily (Jan. 1, 2010) -- The most recent studies by researchers at ETH Zurich show that in the 1940s Swiss glaciers were melting at an even-faster pace than at present. This is despite the fact that the temperatures in the 20th century were lower than in this century. Researchers see the main reason for this as the lower level of aerosol pollution in the atmosphere.

In Switzerland, the increase in snow in wintertime and the glacier melt in summertime have been measured at measurement points at around 3,000 metres above sea level -- on the Clariden Firn, the Great Aletsch glacier and the Silvretta glacier -- without interruption for almost 100 years. As part of his doctoral work, Matthias Huss used this unique range of measurements to examine how climate change in the last century affected the glaciers. The work was carried out under the supervision of Martin Funk, professor and head of the Department for Glaciology at the Laboratory for Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology ('VAW') at ETH Zurich, who is also co-author of the stud

Egypt comes high on the list of 18 countries that import the largest amounts of grains, especially wheat and corn, according to the International Grains Council (IGC). Egyptians gobble up some 220 million loaves of bread daily. On average, an Egyptian consumes 180 kilograms of flour every year, compared to the international average of 90 kilograms. Egypt uses an amount of wheat equivalent to that used by 37 European countries combined.

Scientists and conservationists are to intensify their efforts this year to save one of Earth's most powerful, and threatened, creatures: the tiger.

Biologists have placed Panthera tigris at the top of a list of 10 key animals facing extinction, which should become the focus for major conservation efforts in 2010, they say.

"This year has been designated the International Year of Biodiversity by the United Nations and so we have created a list of 10 critically important endangered animals that we believe will need special monitoring over the next 12 months," said Diane Walkington, head of species programme for the WWF in the UK. Animals on the WWF list include the polar bear and the giant panda.

Lisa Simpson becomes a vegetarian...some will recognize the challenges she faces...

CHICAGO -- Asian carp, the voracious, nonnative fish whose arrival near Lake Michigan is threatening to cause havoc in the Great Lakes, are now setting off strife on land as well.

In an urgent effort to close down Chicago-area passages that could allow the unwanted fish to reach Lake Michigan, the State of Michigan is suing the State of Illinois and other entities that govern the waterways here. Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin have filed documents in recent days supporting Michigan's move, and Indiana says it will soon do the same.

The new rift between these Midwestern states, which would reopen a nearly century-old legal case in the United States Supreme Court over Great Lakes waters, comes at a particularly sensitive moment -- just as the numerous entities with interests in the Great Lakes had united in what lakes advocates consider some of their most significant progress in decades.

In 2008, the eight states that touch the Great Lakes helped push through a federal-state compact that bars diversion of water from the lakes unless all of the states (and the Canadian provinces involved) agree. That Great Lakes Compact, which was years in the making, at last calmed fears that other water-starved regions might tap into the lakes, which make up 20 percent of the world's freshwater.

And this fall, the federal government approved what many saw as the first step in a major restoration for the lakes, long sought in these states.

Some $475 million was designated to clean up pollution, protect habitat and fight invasive species in the Great Lakes

France has joined other European countries in selling off part of its stock of swine flu vaccines after it emerged that one shot was enough to fight off the virus.

AFP -  France has joined other European countries in selling off millions of its emergency swine flu vaccines after buying far more than it needed to fight the outbreak, the government said Sunday.

A diesel oil leak from a pipeline in northwest China's Shaanxi Province has been taken under control, said the pipeline owner, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) on Saturday.

The company said it has immediately shut down the pipeline when the accident, which led to "large amounts of" diesel fuel leaking into the Chishui River, as well as the Weihe River - a major branch of the Yellow River, was discovered early Wednesday.

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A 700-people crew has been working on the cleanup. So far, much of the leaked oil and polluted silt has already been taken away, according to the company.

Despite the cleanup, oil has been detected in the river water 33 km downstream the leakage site, the government said.

It added that it has warned the local residents not to use the river water directly as the leakage may pollute the Yellow River.  ...

OSLO, Norway - Aker University Hospital is a dingy place to heal. The floors are streaked and scratched. A light layer of dust coats the blood pressure monitors. A faint stench of urine and bleach wafts from a pile of soiled bedsheets dropped in a corner.

Look closer, however, at a microscopic level, and this place is pristine. There is no sign of a dangerous and contagious staph infection that killed tens of thousands of patients in the most sophisticated hospitals of Europe, North America and Asia this year, soaring virtually unchecked.

The reason: Norwegians stopped taking so many drugs.

Twenty-five years ago, Norwegians were also losing their lives to this bacteria. But Norway's public health system fought back with an aggressive program that made it the most infection-free country in the world. A key part of that program was cutting back severely on the use of antibiotics.

It is, as we like to say on this cynical little island, "typical" that a few weeks after the Met Office assured us that this would be one of the warmest winters on record we find ourselves in the midst of the deepest freeze for thirty years. This is, after all, the same Met Office that assured us of a "barbeque summer" last year. The past three years have seen a similar pattern of Met Office hype followed by disappointment and shivering. In today's Sunday Telegraph, Christopher Booker claims that the Exeter-based institution's bad record in recent years is no coincidence:

It would connect turbines off the wind-lashed north coast of Scotland with Germany's vast arrays of solar panels, and join the power of waves crashing on to the Belgian and Danish coasts with the hydro-electric dams nestled in Norway's fjords: Europe's first electricity grid dedicated to renewable power will become a political reality this month, as nine countries formally draw up plans to link their clean energy projects around the North Sea.

The network, made up of thousands of kilometres of highly efficient undersea cables that could cost up to €30bn (£26.5bn), would solve one of the biggest criticisms faced by renewable power - that unpredictable weather means it is unreliable.

... One issue, [Steven] Solomon says, is that water's cost doesn't reflect its true economic value. While a society's transition from oil may be painful, water is irreplaceable. Yet water costs far less per gallo---- and even less than that for some.

"In some cases, where there are large political subsidies, largely in agriculture, it does not [cost very much]," Solomon says. "In many cases, irrigated agriculture is getting its water for free. And we in the cities are paying a lot, and industries are also paying an awful lot. That's unfair. It's inefficient to the allocation of water to the most productive economic ends."

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"I think there's plenty of water in the world, even in the poorest and most water-famished country, for that 13 gallons to be given for free to individuals -- and let them pay beyond that," he says.

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Solomon notes some good water news, too. The United States has made significant progress in curbing its water use, thanks to market forces and legislation such as the Clean Water Act.

"Our water use between 1900 and 1975 actually tripled relative to population growth," he says. "Since 1975 to the present day, it has flat-lined. And we still had a population increase of about 30 percent and our GDP continued to grow. So it's an amazing increase in water productivity."

It appears to be centered around an article from august:

So someone sent out a press-release.

It is a bit funny that this group is situated about 10 kilometers from Aleklett.

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