As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.
— Thoreau
The Southern Ocean may slow the rate of global warming by absorbing significantly more heat and carbon dioxide than previously thought, according to new research. The Southern Hemisphere westerly winds have moved southward in the last 30 years. A new climate model predicts that as the winds shift south, they can do a better job of transferring heat and carbon dioxide from the surface waters surrounding Antarctica into the deeper, colder waters. The new finding surprised the scientists, said lead researcher Joellen L. Russell. “We think it will slow global warming. It won’t reverse or stop it, but it will slow the rate of increase.”
The Arctic Ocean’s ice field could melt entirely by 2080 due to global warming, a group of European scientists meeting in the northern Germany city of Bremen announced on Tuesday. “If the situation evolves as physics predicts, the Arctic Ocean’s summertime ice fields will completely disappear by 2080,” said Eberhard Fahrbach of the Alfred Wegner Institute (AWI), a member of the European Arctic research body DAMOCLES.
Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority meet Sunday to launch a feasibility study to build a canal linking the Red Sea to the slowly vanishing Dead Sea, a Jordanian official said Tuesday. “Representatives of Jordan, Israel, Palestine will meet on the shores of the Dead Sea with representatives of the World Bank and countries willing to finance the project,” Jordanian water ministry spokesman Adnan Zohbi told AFP. Water from the Red Sea would be pumped to a power station and a desalination plant in Jordan and the project would take about five years to build, Jordanian official have said.
Some animals stand to gain from warming climates, say researchers who have looked at the effect of changing rainfall on mating and sexual selection in grey seals in Scotland. They found that the reduction in freshwater pools in dry years forced females to wander away from their usual breeding spots, and the watchful eye of their dominant male. This allowed a greater number of previously unsuccessful males to copulate with them, and decreased the dominant males’ access to females. The result is an increase in genetic diversity in these populations of grey seals.
One more thing to worry about: The worldwide obesity epidemic is usually blamed on overeating and under-exercising. But now scientists report that organotins can cause weight gains in mice and change gene expression in pathways related to weight control, at levels found in people. Organotins are widespread through their use in boat hull antifouling paints, pesticides, wood preservatives, textiles (as a biocidal agent), plastics, and other products. Many studies have documented adverse health and environmental effects of organotins, from masculinization in some fish to liver toxicity in some mammals. Human exposure is largely through consumption of contaminated foods and contact with treated materials.
One less thing to worry about: Long or short-term mobile phone use is not associated with increased risk of cancer, a major study of 420,000 people has found. Mobile phone antennas emit electromagnetic fields that can penetrate the human brain, but a Danish team found no evidence that this was linked to an increased risk of tumors in the head or neck as had been feared.
And a hopeful story: Environmental rollbacks from the Bush administration “in the dead of the night” are history, the incoming head of the Senate environment committee declared Tuesday. “That’s over. We are going to bring these things into the light,” Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said in a wide-ranging interview laying out her agenda with The Associated Press. She cited concerns about a host of new Bush administration rules on air, land and water quality. “Any kind of weakening of environmental laws or secrecy or changes in the dead of night – it’s over,” Boxer said. “We’re going to for once, finally, make this committee an environment committee, not an anti-environment committee…. This is a sea change that is coming to this committee.”
As usual, KP this is a full bucket on enironmental issues.
Hope we get to rollback everything but unfortunately there’s so much damage that will remain beyond repair.
Bernie Sanders, newly minted VT senator, joins Patrick Leaky for investigations.
As usual, KP this is a full bucket on environmental issues.
Oh, well. Everybody’s got a weak spot. ;-D
I try to work in NASA and space stuff, medical news, and erupting volcanoes, but some days the bucket fills up too fast with the “environmental stuff.”
Well, good news if global warming is slowed.
But notice, this pushes the southern desert belt farther south. Australia is already suffering from the worst drought in centuries; this makes it look like the whole continent will turn to desert.
[Watch wingnut heads go “pop”–that is, if they don’t try to ignore and deny this story.]
December 06,2006 | WASHINGTON — Mary Cheney, the openly gay daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney and wife Lynne, is pregnant, according to a published report.
Mary Cheney, 37, and her partner of 15 years, Heather Poe, 45, are “ecstatic” about the baby, due in late spring, The Washington Post reported in Wednesday’s editions, quoting an unnamed source close to the couple.
The vice president’s other, older daughter, Elizabeth Cheney, is on leave as deputy assistant secretary of state after having her fifth child with her husband in July.
There was no formal announcement of either daughter’s pregnancy from the vice president’s office, but the Post quoted spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride as saying Tuesday night that “the vice president and Mrs. Cheney are looking forward with eager anticipation to the arrival of their sixth grandchild.”
Mary Cheney, 37, was an aide to her father during the 2004 campaign, as was Elizabeth, and now is vice president for consumer advocacy at AOL.
The Post quoted the source close to the family as saying the circumstances of Mary Cheney’s pregnancy will remain private. She and Poe moved from Colorado to Virginia a year ago to be closer to the Cheney family.
In an interview with the Post six months ago, when asked if she and Poe wanted children, Cheney said that was a “conversation I think I should have with Heather first.”
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
One by one they tell the truth. We’re now waiting for Bush and Blair to make an even dozen.
It’s swipe season:
Steve Clemons is in Dubai and shares a discussion he had with a ‘most prominent incumbent national security officials Middle East.’ Get this swipe at Condi.
Foreign Policy Journal – an al-Sadr’s spokesman on
Why America Will Fail in Iraq
Propaganda machinery:
Insurgent taunts the civil war (h/t: cursor.org) Go read.
“You have to admit, things are falling upon your head in a mysterious way. First, it was the mass destruction weapons scandal. Then Abu Ghraib. Then the secret prison scandal. And, last but not least, spying on Americans. But believe me, there will be nothing like this one.”
The former President G. H. W. Bush cried at a goodbye event for son Jeb, now leaving the Florida governor’s seat. He was recalling how Jeb was defeated by Lawton Chiles in his first run for office.
I think his tears were really for himself, for the tainted name of Bush, perhaps for the presidency Jeb would never have.
I can’t feel sorry for him. What makes his family so special? G. H. W. Bush was not a monarch. He has a lot of nerve thinking his family deserved to have more than one of them in the White House — as if there were not many millions of other Americans from which to choose a candidate.
So, Dubya comes by his arrogance naturally.
the old adage – ‘crying over split milk’- comes to mind.
H.W. could have saved us a lot of grief by warning all Americans and the world that his son W. would be an unmitigated disaster, everything he touches turns to shit.
U.N. chief: Darfur is in ‘free fall’
Too bad Egeland is leaving, he has really made a difference as the world’s top humanitarian officer.
World’s richest 1% own 40% of all wealth, UN report discovers
Gee does this mean the ‘trickle down effect’ isn’t working?