EcoWorldly

Despite the fact that Mount Kilimanjaro is located in one of the world’s warmer climates, like any other mountain with such high altitude, it has snowy peaks and glaciers that add interest to climbers, (although it doesn’t do much for the wildlife on the mountain); however, according to research, as a result of climate change, we can expect that snow atop Mount Kilimanjaro is a fleeting thing.

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Diatoms are one of the most common types of phytoplankton.

Climate change isn’t just warming the atmosphere, it’s also warming the ocean’s surface and deeper levels of the water column. This is known as the pelagic ocean (the “pelagic zone” is any part of the water column other than that at the sea floor) and it just so happens to harbor the most productive ecosystem on planet Earth. The pelagic ocean is responsible for an estimated half of the world’s primary production (i.e., the basic food or nutrient making needed to sustain other life), and sustains most of the world’s natural fisheries.

The pelagic zone also plays a very complex but important role in the global carbon cycle. Inorganic carbon (mostly in the form of CO2) can be “drawn down” from the atmosphere by two main processes: the respiration of photo-synthetic algae and plankton (which produce oxygen and serve as a food source as well), and, secondly, the sedimentation of carbon (in the form of sinking, dead marine matter) onto the sea floor. Most algae and phytoplankton have chlorophyll and live in the upper most layer of the water column where there is sufficient sunlight penetration (this is called the euphotic zone; from the surface down to 200 meters is the epipelagic zone). Although carbon is also removed via “outgassing” (the exporting of carbon and carbon-based molecules into the atmosphere via ocean-air circulation), these two processes keep carbon out of the atmosphere. And of the two, bottom accumulation (via sinking) is the predominant means by which carbon is removed from the water column.

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Bylot Ice Cap on Bylot Island, one of the Canadian Arctic Islands, August 14, 1975 (USGS)

The Arctic: Cooling No More.

A group of climatologists at Northern Arizona University are confirming that 2000 years ago, the Earth’s Arctic region had already entered a prolonged cooling phase. The phase continued up through the Middle Ages and on past the so-called Little Ice Age (1400 - 1800 C.E.). However, that all started to change (in the positive direction) between 1850 and 1900 C.E.–roughly in parallel with the onset and rise of the Industrial Revolution in the U.S. and Europe. And, by 1950, the warming trend had picked up in earnest.

The results of their 2000-year reconstruction of Arctic temperatures also showed clearly that four of the five warmest decades occurred in the period between 1950 and 2000. This buttresses the mounting evidence (such as that from the International Polar Year studies) of recent climate change and would suggest some newer mechanism at work impacting global temperatures.

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In a recent international conference on ‘Climate Change: Technology Development & Transfer’ held in Delhi, the Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh began his speech by stating that climate friendly and environmentally sound technologies should be viewed as global public goods.

The panel, also chaired by the Maldives President after his country’s recent underwater stunt, called for the Northern countries to do (much) more than just emissions reduction. The statement also comes shortly after media reports suggest India could change its national position on climate change to drop the ‘deal-breaker’ tag put on it by the West.

The BIG question: Will India change its official position ahead of Copenhagen?

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The thunderstorms of the Intertropical Convergence Zone form a line across the eastern Pacific Ocean.

It’s called the Pacific Intertropical Convergence Zone (PICZ) and its activity brings roughly 4 meters of rainfall per year to the Pacific equatorial region. Tropical rainfall patterns greatly impact the livelihoods of more than a billion people. Historically, this zone appears to shift in tandem with cooling and warming trends in more northern latitudes. And, it may be on the move again.

This possibility is born out in the results from a recent, oceanographic research project detailing the southward movement of this zone in the past (Southward movement of the Pacific intertropical convergence zone AD 1400–1850, Sachs et al, Dept. of Oceanography/Atmospheric Sciences, Univ. of Wash., June 2009, Nature GeoScience), but which also suggest that, in the present era, a potential, northward movement of this important, climate-impacting zone may be underway.

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Now that the polar bear is about to receive over 128 million acres of critical habitat designation, the state of Alaska is taking legal action to challenge the decision.

Following the announcement that threatened polar bears are set to receive over 128 million acres of critical habitat designation, Alaska Governor Sean Parnell and Attorney General Dan Sullivan responded by taking legal action against federal protection of polar bears.

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File Photo: Hillary Clinton and the Indian Environment Minister in New Delhi

..and then takes a U-Turn the very next day!

In a reported letter to the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Jairam Ramesh, the Indian Environment Minister proposed a radical shift in India’s stand on climate change–away from its national position on climate negotiations–which India has backed since 1990 and which was defended robustly even in UN talks in Bangkok earlier this month.

Minutes after the news spread, political parties sitting in the opposition were quick to respond. Within the next few hours, the Environment Minister issued a clarifying statement for national media and the entire Nation!

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Chaired by President M. Nasheed, the Government of Maldives recently concluded the world’s first ever underwater cabinet meeting. The small island nation of Maldives will perhaps be the first country to go under water, if predictions based on climate change models come true.

The underwater meeting was called to raise this concern and put pressure on the West to act NOW, and for a fair deal at COP in Copenhagen this December. A day after the event, extensively covered by the media (View on: CNN | BBC), the Government of India has announced the setting up of a National institute for long-term research on climate change.

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Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed has told his cabinet members to get ready for an underwater cabinet meeting later this month.

Maldives is a collection of islands and atolls in the Indian Ocean that is less than 2 meters above sea level. Therefore, it is the first country expected to go underwater due to climate change.

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Following action by Nike, the nation’s leading utility company, and others, Apple resigned from the US Chamber of Commerce this week, and in force.

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