Coming up in a couple of weeks is the International Furniture Fair in Valencia Spain, Sept. 23-27. There, from the NEL Collective (produced by Nanimarquina), will be the Global Warming Rug. The rug (shown above) features a blue sea spotted by a lonely ice floe with a polar bear riding out his isolated, floating fate.
Source: designboom.com
“Satellite images gathered by NASA show that the north-west passage opened last weekend and the final blockage on the east side of the ice cap, an area of sea ice stretching to Siberia, dissolved a few days later.”
Whether or not you subscribe to the concept of global climate change due to human factors, there is no dispute that, for the first time in recorded human history, the North Pole is an island, with unobstructed sea between the Pole and both Canada and Russia.
“Measurements on August 26 showed an ice cap of just over two million square miles, confirming the second biggest ice cap melt since records began.”
via: Telegraph.co.uk and Aftenposten.no
image via: Telegraph.co.uk
What will a future world shaped by accelerating climate change look like? Imagine this season’s Atlantic hurricanes and devastating flooding in India, and kick those up a notch or three, says the head of the United Nation’s Environment Programme (UNEP). As of this June, the world has already seen some 400 natural disasters (including the non-weather-related Sichuan earthquake in China) rack up damages of $82 billion. At that rate, says insurance company Munich Re, 2008 is “following the long-term trend towards more weather catastrophes, which is influenced by climate change.”
Read more at UNEP’s Website and find an insightful commentary on “Gustav, Global Warming and Sarah Palin” at Salon.
Image credit: NASA at Wikimedia Commons.
Scientists have put elephant seals into action, donning head devices to transmit information about climate change from under Antarctic sea ice in winter. View related photos.
Al Gore presented a dramatic and widely discussed speech on matters of climate, carbon emissions, and energy last week. Maybe you didn’t get to listen to it at the time, and would like to read the text, but reading speeches can be boring.
Science-fiction author and journalist Bruce Sterling, who founded something called the Viridian Design Movement back in 1998 has posted the text of Gore’s speech interspersed with his own comments (((which he nests in triple parentheses))).
It makes an interesting document that much more fun to read:
We’re borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. (((Or, “American politician schemes to save civilization.” Hey, it’s a plan. Who else has got such a plan? Any similar politician of any other country? No, I didn’t think so.)))
Fireworks displays create surges of pollutant ozone in lower levels of the atmosphere, where it is a respiratory irritant, greenhouse gas, and plant toxin. Some scientists believe fireworks are an “insignificant source of pollution”, because they occur infrequently; however, no source of greenhouse gases is insignificant considering our current climate crisis, not to mention the heavy metals and potassium perchlorate in these grand patriotic displays.
Via: www.abc.net.au & Grist
Image: dcJohn on Flickr under a Creative Commons license
The River Ganges is provides spiritual and physical sustenance for 400 million people. Raw sewage and industrial waste contaminate the river at every city along its banks (fecal contamination is thousands of times above the safe limit for bathing). The glaciers that feed the river are melting due to global warming, and dam/hydro-electric projects are altering the upper reaches of the river to feed India’s massive demand for energy. Dr.G.D.Agrawal, India’s pre-eminent environmental Scientist, will “fast-unto-death” for the conservation of River Bhagirathi/Ganga. Dr Agrawal explained his decision in a letter to close friends:
As you are aware, R. Bhagirathi Ganga has a very special place in Indian culture, thought and tradition. In the past few years, however, the continuity, quantity, quality and regime of flows are being disrupted for generation of hydro-electricity like all other rivers. Already in the reach downstream of Maneri, long stretches of Bhagirathi remain waterless for long periods. In the near future this may become the state of the entire river. As a serious student of environment sciences and as a faithful Hindu, this is hard for me to swallow. I strongly believe that at least Bhagirathi upstream of Uttarkashi should be spared of any works that disturb its natural flow-regime, ecology, purity or piety and, after brooding over it for several months, I have decided to oppose such works with all the might I have……. So after deep deliberation I have decided to “fast-unto-death” to oppose the destruction of this ecological marvel and the epitome of Hindu cultural faith.
Image: jonrawlinson on flickr under a Creative Commons license
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, 20 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at trapping heat. New Zealand scientists have developed a vaccine to cut down on livestock flatulence, which should help farmers avoid a proposed “flatulence tax” on the methane their livestock produces. New Zealand cows and sheep are responsible for about half of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.
For a more in depth post on the anti-farting vaccine, please visit Planetsave.
Those extra pounds Americans are carrying around are causing climate change. Considering eating more food requires more agriculture production and transportation costs, obese people are contributing to food shortages and higher energy prices, according to the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. “We are all becoming heavier and it is a global responsibility,” said Phil Edwards. “Obesity is a key part of the big picture.” 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions are produced by agriculture.
Image: colros on Flickr under a Creative Commons license
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