Stories tagged global climate change
Getting stoned: Here's an array of shapes and sizes of kidney stones. Researchers say global warming will lead to an increase in the production of the little buggers in our bodies.
Courtesy Trevor BlakeIt’s going after polar bears and ice sheets. It’s threatening glaciers and coastal cities. Now, global warming has is setting it’s evil intentions against your kidneys.
That’s the conclusion a group of scientists announced yesterday. Increases in global temperatures could lead to an increase in kidney stones.
Having had more than my share of bouts with those pesky stones, that alone is scaring me straight to reduce my carbon footprint and do my part to reduce global climate change.
A kidney stone forms from salts that crystallize inside the kidney. That process speeds up when bodies become dehydrated. As the stones grow and move through the urinary tract, they can cause enormous (and I mean enormous) pain until it passes out through urination. The bigger the stone gets, the greater the discomfort. About 12 percent of men and seven percent of women in the U.S. will experience a bout of kidney stones in their life.
What the scientists announced this week is that warm states in the southeastern U.S. have a 50 percent higher rate of kidney stone cases than in the northeast.
Warm weather and dehydration are two factors that can accelerate kidney stone production, the researchers said. They’re seeing an unusually high rate of kidney stones among soldiers serving in the heat of Iraq.
On the flip side, drinking lots of water and staying cool can help reduce kidney stone risks, the scientists added. Kidney stone rates have been on the rise in the U.S. since 1976
So what do you think? Is there a connection between hot weather and kidney stones? Do you have a great kidney stone story to share? Ever see the Seinfeld episode where Kramer passes a kidney stone at the circus? Share your thoughts about kidney stones and/or global warming here with other Buzzers.
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Tusk, tusk: A pair of narwhals surface in the Arctic waters. A new study says that the sea creatures are the most at risk to changes from global warming
Courtesy Glenn WilliamsIs there a more overlooked creature of the animal kingdom than the narwhal? Granted, it lives in the frosty waters of the Arctic Ocean and has a twisted, mean-looking tusk, but why don’t we give the narwhal more love?
Global climate change researchers are taking note of the odd sea beast. They’ve categorized the narwhal as being the sea creature most at risk from global warming changes. The pronouncement was made following in-depth analysis of how potential environmental problems that could affect the 11 marine animals that live year-round in the Artic region.
Polar bears, which have been generally considered the most “at-risk” animals from global warming, came in second place in the rankings.
Right now there are actually a lot more narwhals in the Arctic region (50,000 to 80,000) than polar bears (20,000). But researchers feel the overall impacts of global warming could have a quicker, more devastating impact on narwhals.
What’s the difference? Adaptability. Polar bears are able to gather food either by swimming or roaming land. As ice sheets diminish, they can forage for food on land.
Narwhals, on the other hand, are highly specialized creatures. A main feeding practice is diving to depths of 6,000 feet to feed on halibut. They live in areas with 99-percent ice cover. If that ice area diminishes, predators like orcas and polar bears will have easier access to getting to narwhals. And warming waters could send the narwhal’s favorite food of halibut to non-icy areas as well.
Following narwhals and polar bears as the most at-risk Arctic animals were the hooded seal, bowhead whale and walrus. Least at-risk are ringed seals and bearded seals according to the study.
Aerial view: A group of narwhals can be seen swimming together from an aerial view.
Courtesy narwhal.infoBTW: Here’s a little more general information about narwhals:
• They don’t use their tusks for hunting. Males do have “duels” with each other using the tusks to establish dominance. Male tusks can grow up to be 10 feet long. Females grow a much smaller tusk. The tusks are also twisted in a corkscrew fashion.
• An adult narwhal can measure to around 25 feet in length. Males can weigh up to 3,500 pounds while females are about 2,200 pounds.
• The animals also exclusively hunt under thick ice sheets.
• Inuit legends has it that the narwhal was created when a woman holding onto a harpoon had been pulled into the ocean and twisted around the harpoon. The submerged woman was wrapped around a beluga whale on the other end of the harpoon, and that is how the narwhal was created.
A matter of immense gravity: After receiving his Nobel Peace Prize this past December, Al Gore has turned his attention to raising awareness about the global gravity loss problem.
Courtesy Kjetil BjørnsrudI think this got lost in all the hoopla about the NCAA basketball tournament, but Al Gore was on 60 Minutes last Sunday to unveil his latest crusade, one that could be more devastating to life on Earth than the global climate change crisis he’s been raising awareness of in recent years.
The former vice president used the highly-rated TV show to be the inaugural event of his effort to raise public awareness of the growing gravity crisis on the planet. Three independent studies conducted in the U.S., Great Britain and South Africa have confirmed a strange but deep side effect to global warming. Increased temperatures on Earth are diminishing its gravitational fields. Projections foresee that at the current pace, Earth could have 25 percent less gravity in the next 10 years.
Click here for the full report.
The new studies confirm that increases in carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are causing chemical reaction with heavy metals in the top layer of Earth’s crust that are shielding gravity’s pull from deeper in Earth’s core. And the real scary fact is that these chemical reactions are progressing at a geometric rate. While they’re still negligible today, each year they increase by a factor of 10.
If the current pace continues over the next 50 years, researchers calculate that gravity will become extinct, just like many forms of animal and plant life of the past. Along with his continued efforts to reduce the growing carbon dioxide emissions that are contributing to global warming, Gore is offering some other gravity loss solutions.
“If everyone digs five or six 12-foot deep holes in their backyard, we might be able to create easier paths for gravity to get back to Earth’s surface and counteract the impacts of these devastating chemical reactions,” he said.
Click here to learn other things you can do to stop global gravity loss.
“Stop and really think about the gravity of this situation for a second,” Gore implored viewers on 60 Minutes. “Even with just 25 percent less gravity on our planet, our everyday lifestyles will be hugely impacted. We predict that all small animals under 10 pounds will be drifting through the air with little control. Mothers will have to tie down their infants in their cribs at night to keep them from floating around the house.”
Other significant problems that could arise if global gravity loss is not reversed, Gore added. They include prolonged autumns due to a slower release of leaves from trees, decreased income for the sky-diving and bungee-jumping businesses and a rapid increase in world records for sporting events involving jumping, leaping or throwing.
Current Vice President Dick Cheney, contacted by 60 Minutes for the administration’s reaction to global gravity loss, was much more optimistic. “Right off the top of my head, I can see a couple upsides to gravity loss,” Cheney said. “First off, less gravity will make everything weigh less. That should take care of the U.S. obesity problem. Second, this should be welcome news for the ailing airline industry, as it will be able to save a lot of money on fuel costs as planes will be able to take off a lot easier.”
Commenting at the end of the 60 Minutes episode, columnist Andy Rooney was all laughs on the topic. “Don’t you just hate it when you’ve made it this far through a blog entry and haven’t realized it is an April Fool’s Day trick?” he asked. “But here are some great links about the history of April Fool’s Day, 100 of the greatest April Fool’s pranks ever pulled off and some of the worst ever conceived.”
Ice capade: Aerial views of the ice sheet breaking at the Wilkins Ice Sheet in Antarctica show the massive amount of ice that's come free in the past month.
Courtesy National Snow and Ice Data Center/NASASo we’ve been grumbling the past few days about the latest round of snow and ice that’s descended upon us in the early days of spring. At least we’re a long way from Antarctica.
The National Snow and Ice Center today reported, and released photos, of a huge ice sheet collapse from the cold continent. About 160-square miles of ice have broken free from the Wilkins ice sheet since Feb. 28 in some major league size pieces. While the Wilkins ice sheet is about the size of Connecticut, one large portion of broken ice sheet is seven times larger than the Manhattan district of New York City.
While that’s a big chuck of ice to break free, larger ice collapses have happened two other times since scientists have been monitoring the site: in 1995 and 2002. Yet, the experts are saying that this latest ice break is another sign of global climate change.
Other portions of the ice shelf are hanging on by thin margins and one expert predicts that the entire shelf could be gone in 15 years. Cracks in the thin ice fill with water, which accelerates the melting, and leads to more major ice breaks.
Here's a link to some great video of the fragile ice sheet area from National Geographic.
Is it the changing climate, nasty bugs, a virus or some other mysterious cause? That's what researchers are asking right now in northern Minnesota as they investigate the dramatic decline in moose numbers. The Star-Tribune has excellent coverage of the situation and what's being done to figure out this problem.
Drawing down: The white banks show the one-time high water mark of Lake Meade in Arizona. One group of researchers say there's a 50 percent chance the lake could dry up by the year 2021
Courtesy amyshHave you ever been to Hoover Dam? It’s a popular day trip destination for those looking for a break from the gambling in Las Vegas.
One of the impressive sights is the huge body of water stopped up behind the dam: Lake Meade. The water stretches and snakes for miles and miles upstream on the Colorado River, which cuts its way through the Grand Canyon. That reservoir of water is also the main drinking supply for much of the southwest U.S.
But analysts from San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography that there’s a 50 percent chance that water will dry up by 2021. In a shorter time span, they say that there’s a 10 percent chance water in the lake will not be usable for drinking by 2013, just five years away.
The dire predictions are based on global climate change factors along with a growing demand for water in southern Nevada and southern California.
Due to current drought conditions, Lake Meade and its sister reservoir, Lake Powell upstream from the Grand Canyon, are only currently half full. Combined, they provide water to 27 million people spread over seven states.
But an official from the Central Arizona Project said that the predictions are alarmist and absurd and that the reservoirs are in no danger of drying up.
And I remember just a couple weeks ago we posted a story here on the Buzz that Rocky Mountain areas have seen wondrous amounts of snowfall this winter. A lot of that snow runoff finds its way into the Colorado River.
Do you have any deep thoughts to share on the southwest water situation? Post them here and let other Science Buzz readers know how you feel.
Fighting for survival?: Delays by the Department of Interior on putting polar bears on the endangered list have made some congressional leaders upset. What do you think about this?
Courtesy wikipediaCongressional environmentalists were getting cranky last week as deadlines are coming and going on giving polar bears endangered species protection. At the same time, deadlines are coming to open up some prime polar bear locations to oil exploration.
The Chukchi Sea, home to about a fifth of the world’s polar bears, could be opened to oil and natural gas expeditions next week through the action of one Interior Department division.
Congressional environmentalists, who want to see polar bears be added to the endangered list, claim they were promised that action would happen earlier this month. Now, they claim, the delay is being made to keep the Chukchi open to energy discoveries.
Proponents of global climate change say that melting ice caps in the Arctic are threatening the polar bear population. One study completed this fall predicts that up to two thirds of the polar bear population could be gone by the middle of this century if current warming trends continue.
Interior officials testifying at Congress yesterday said that the delay on adding polar bears to the endangered list is due to a desire to assure that Congress and the public will understand the decision when it is made public.
What do you think of all of this? Share your thoughts here with other Science Buzz readers.
The Big Thaw or just lousy forecasting?
Courtesy Mark RyanJohn Coleman, founder of the Weather Channel has come out with a blog posting that claims Global Warming is “a non-event, a manufactured crisis and a total scam.”
Well, that ought to stir things up. You can read about it and access a pdf of Coleman’s posting via ICECAP the website of the International Climate and Environmental Change Assessment Project , which according to their website, is a privately-funded source for climate-related information for the public, elected officials, scientists, journalists, and educators.
Here's an earlier post from last year about Global Warming skepticism.
Blue cloud skies: This noctilucent cloud was photographed last summer over the United Kingdom. The bluish-glowing clouds are showing up the sky much more often, possibly due to global warming. (Photo by Alex Lloyd-Ribeiro)The reports are coming in more frequently of weird sights in the evening sky. And we’re not talking about people seeing UFOs.
What they’re seeing are noctilucent clouds. The clouds look like your regular cirrus cloud but as the sun has set, they shimmer with a blue, electric glow that can be seen from people on the ground. According to researchers, they form in the summer about 50 miles high in the sky. They’ve been seen as far back in time as the 1800s, but their reports are becoming more frequent, possibly because of global climate change thanks to increasing amounts of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Want to see a variety of photos of noctilucent clouds? Check out this website of such clouds seen in Europe.
In fact, you can’t see the clouds during the daytime. They only begin to appear at dusk when most sunlight is gone, but some sun rays can still illuminate that high clouds that are floating along the edge of space.
A theory for why noctilucent clouds are more regularly appearing is that greenhouse gases are deflecting heat from the highest levels of the atmosphere. That allows more ice crystals to thrive at that level and form into these special clouds. That same principle also may be deflecting more moisture into the upper atmosphere, providing more material for the clouds to form with.
This past spring NASA launched a special satellite to watch and gather data about these growing cloud formations. The project is called AIM – Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere.
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