Greek protest in Edinburgh, photo by author

If you’ve been following the global economic crisis and particularly the Greek crisis, you may be wondering just what the hell the Troika (IMF, EMU, European Central Bank) are playing at. The neo-liberal, anti-democratic, anti sovereignty, German-led bailout (loaded with economic and societal killing measures) doesn’t make sense to economists, political analysts or anyone except those who stand to make money from it.

As the Independent reports, suicide rates have jumped 40% due to the crisis and salaries are being slashed from already non-living wage levels. The only Greeks making money are the bottom feeders. It’s nice to know that loan sharks and pawnbrokers can still make some cash in a crisis. Ah, vulture capitalism.

Due to corrupt politicians with no mandate, who made backroom deals with the right wing, anti-welfare economic and political leaders of Europe, financial slavery to foreign lenders is set to dictate a Byzantine and draconian future for Greece in the form of ‘essential’ austerity measures. That’s right, cut an already abysmal minimum wage in order to make amends for the mistakes and crimes of the wealthy and powerful.

What to do? Strike? Protest? Vote? Who will listen?

All of the above are laudable actions, whether you live in Greece, Spain, Scotland, the US or anywhere.

Another action for the resourceful is to use bartering or local currency, like the Bristol Pound or Ovilos as some are doing in Greece. Have a look at this report from Russia Today on how some Greeks are adapting to the crisis by bypassing the monetary system. I’d like to see how this system works for essentials like food and shelter, rather than yoga and painting classes, but the principal is the same.

See also:

We won’t pay for the crisis – strike on 28 March

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard’s blogs on the Greek ‘rescue deal’

Op-Ed: It’s not all bad news from Greece Special

Student of architecture, Andre Ford, has proposed a new system of mass chicken production, in which, according to wired.co.uk, the birds will no longer have the main core of their brains. This means they won’t be able to suffer the atrocity of being packed in vertical yokes in which they are to grow to eventually end up on our plates.

The project, named The Centre for Unconscious Farming, is a response to the increase in chicken meat consumption and the cruelty associated with it that is so prevalent on factory farms.

Unconscious birds, in a manner resembling growing plants, will be connected to a network of tubes, through which food and water will be delivered.

Credits: Andre Ford

The vertical farm is designed to be more efficient than the traditional one. There could be as many as 11.7 chickens grown from one cubic metre in one of these new farms, whilst ‘only’ 3.2 chickens can be produced from a traditional farm.

Credits: Andre Ford

A mini-farm like this could even be installed and set up to work at home.

photo by Konstantinov S.A. (Skonstantinov09 on Wikipedia Commons)

Russian scientists have succeeded in regenerating an ice age plant from fruit tissue found frozen in the Siberian permafrost.

A nest of Arctic squirrels containing fruit and seeds was discovered over 30 meters (100ft) underground, its contents frozen for around 32,000 years.

Scientists managed to germinate an ice-age plant, similar to chickweed, from the ancient seeds.

From the Guardian:

The experiment proves that permafrost serves as a natural depository for ancient life forms, said the Russian researchers, who published their findings in Tuesday’s issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States.

The burrows explored by the Russian scientists are located in layers of permafrost which also contain the remains of wooly mammoths and rhinoceros, as well as ancient bison, horses and deer.

Canadian paleontologist Grant Zazula is quoted in a report by CBC:

The permafrost across the Arctic is this treasure trove of ancient life, and not just extinct ancient life that we think of as fossils, but also viable ancient life that, given the right circumstances, can come back to life.

photo by DianeWorth (Flickr CC)

The oil reserves of the Canadian province of Alberta are second in size only to those of Saudi Arabia. They are also more polluting and expensive to extract.

In response to the European Union’s plans to label oil imports from Alberta’s tar sands as ‘highly polluting’, which they are, Canada has threatened a ‘trade war’ with Europe.

Recent revelations of collusion between the UK and Canadian governments with fossil fuel companies who source their oil from the tar sands show plans to use underhanded tactics to mitigate any damage to the ‘Canadian brand’ of oil. In short, they’d like to muddle things by not singling out tar sands oil and ‘tarring’ all types of fossil fuel with the same brush, if you’ll excuse the pun.

Canadian representatives dispute claims that tar sands oil is more polluting than other fossil fuels, maintaining that they are unscientific. But the European Commission and environmental campaigners maintain that the science is correct.

Colin Baines, the toxic fuels campaign manager from the Co-operative, is quoted in the Guardian:

There is a wealth of independent science stating that tar sands fuels emit significantly more carbon than conventional oil, no matter how many briefings Canada gives claiming otherwise. […] The Canadian government’s aggressive lobbying and attempted intimidation of the EU is making it look increasingly desperate. But its threat of a WTO challenge faces one massive problem: tar sands oil is not a ‘like product’ with crude oil so no unlawful discrimination exists under WTO. The EU must adhere to the science and penalise the higher emissions.

The US recently rejected controversial plans for the Keystone XL pipeline, which would bring tar sands oil from Canada to distribution centers and refineries in the US. Now Canada is planning a different pipeline to its West Coast in order to export oil to China.

Todd Paglia, executive director at ForestEthics, was quoted in the LA times, chiding that Canada is on its way to becoming an ‘authoritarian petro state’ and ‘resource colony for China’.

Read more about these stories in the Guardian and the Los Angeles Times.

Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)

Scientists coloured the photographs they had to show the changes in the height of the surface of the planet.

Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)

Water has carved recesses up to 2000 meters deep,  say the geologists who are from the Freie Universität Berlin and who helped to draft these images.

Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)

On the surface of many of the craters there is no sedimentary rock.

Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)

These craters arose as a result of asteroid activity when there was no water on Mars any more.

Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)

Mars Express snapped the photos during 10 flights across the Martian terrain. The photographed region is approximately 380 km in length.

Image courtesy of ARKive.org media library

Image courtesy of ARKive.org media library

Species: Silky sifaka (Propithecus candidus)

Status: Critically Endangered (CR) 

Interesting Fact: This species is nicknamed ‘angel of the forest’ due to its creamy white fur

The silky sifaka is one of a number of unique primate species found only in Madagascar. Living in tropical, moist forests, this species spends most of the day either feeding on seeds, fruits and leaves, or resting in the forest canopy. The silky sifaka is a social species, living in groups of up to nine individuals which are led by the female. The home range of a group can be up to 44 hectares and they travel around 700 metres a day in search of food. The tiny young are born in June or July and members of the group, not just the mother, have been observed caring for the young, demonstrating the strong bonds that exist within silky sifaka communities.

With an estimated 250 mature individuals remaining in the wild, the silky sifaka is one of the three rarest lemurs in all of Madagascar. Habitat destruction and hunting are thought to be the primary threats to this species. Unfortunately, there is no taboo existing with local people against hunting the silky sifaka as there is against hunting other sifaka species. This species currently exists in a number of protected forests in Madagascar with future conservation recommendations including the protection of more of this unique species habitat.

View images of the silky sifaka on ARKive.

Find out more about the silky sifaka in the stunning documentary, Trouble in Lemur Land, which explores the impact of illegal rosewood logging on the species.

Rebecca Moran,  ARKive Species Text Author

photo by Andre Radke (spicynoodles on Flickr CC)

A French bulldog in Berlin, Germany has stepped up to the plate and adopted 6 wild boar piglets after their mother was killed by a hunter.

The bulldog, named Baby, has previously been a surrogate mother for rabbits, kittens and a raccoon.

The piglets were found alone in a forest. Berlin has ample woodland and is home to an estimated 10,000 wild boar, whose population has made a resurgence in recent years.

From the Guardian:

The piglets were brought into the Lehnitz animal sanctuary outside Berlin on Saturday, three days old and shivering from cold. Baby ran over and snuggled up to them, keeping them warm, even though they were almost her size, said a sanctuary worker, Norbert Damm.

See the following ITN News video report for more:

The cold snap in Europe that has killed more than 600 people and buried communities under record snow cover has had an entirely different impact in the Arctic, which is where you’d normally expect to find frigid weather at this time of year. In parts of the Far North, it has been unusually mild recently, and broad expanses of open water have emerged. This open water has raised questions about whether Arctic sea ice is declining even faster than before.

The open water, located in the Barents and Kara Seas, led one blogger to claim that the developments are “unprecedented” in the satellite era (since 1979), and that the winter buildup of Arctic sea ice had ground to a halt this year — possibly leading to a record low maximum sea ice extent for the winter season.

Neven Acropolis, who writes the Arctic Sea Ice blog, wrote in a guest post for Climate Progress, “I think it’s safe to say that this is unprecedented ever since satellites started monitoring Arctic sea ice in 1979 . . . It’s almost as if the melting season has already started in the Barents and Kara Seas, more than two months earlier than normal.”

That’s not the case, though, according to sea ice expert Walt Meier of the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colo. “I can’t say it’s unprecedented, but it’s certainly not something that we see regularly” during the winter, Meier said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s happened before.”

According to Meier, sea ice tends to be present in most areas of the Arctic Ocean during winter unless warm water gets transported into the region, or winds push ice away from the coastline. In this case, persistent southwesterly winds associated with the unusual weather pattern are the prime suspect in causing the area of nearly ice-free waters near Novaya Zemlya, a Russian island at the border between the Barents and Kara Seas. (For more background on what’s been driving the cold snap, see my post from last week.)

Monthly average surface temperatures in Europe and the Arctic during February (left); and average monthly sea level pressure (right). Note the cold air and high pressure in Europe, and mild air and lower pressure in much of the Arctic. Click on image for a larger version. Credit: NCEP/NCAR.

“I think it’s mainly a wind effect due to the pressure system,” Meier said. “. . . It’s quite unusual that it’s such a large area and that it’s been there for at least a week right now, almost two weeks.” Areas of wind-driven open water are typically referred to as polynyas, Meier said, although it’s not clear if the current situation meets the technical definition since the area of open water is so large.

The lack of sea ice in the Barents and Kara Seas may lead to a greater summertime loss of sea ice there, Meier said, because whatever ice manages to form before the melt season will be thin and therefore more susceptible to melting.

Meanwhile, on the Arctic’s Pacific side, there has been much more sea ice than average in the Bering Sea, associated with persistent northerly winds there. According to the most recent sea ice analysis from NSIDC, the Arctic-wide sea ice extent was much below average during January, despite the second-highest sea ice extent since 1979 in the Bering Sea. In fact, the drawdown of sea ice in the Barents and Kara Seas held January sea ice growth to the lower level in the satellite record, NSIDC researchers stated.

The bottom line, according to Meier, is that this is not a normal winter in the Arctic, but what’s going on in the Barents and Kara Seas isn’t the direct result of climate change. “I wouldn’t read too much into it climate-wise, but it’s definitely a pretty unusual winter for sea ice.”

Original post by ClimateCentral.org

photo by MillyNeT (Flickr CC)

A court in Lyon, France found American biotech firm Monsanto guilty of poisoning a farmer who inhaled fumes from its Lasso weed killer back in 2004.

Monsanto was made famous in the 1970s for being sued by American Vietnam War veterans who were poisoned by the defoliant Agent Orange. They are also being sued by some 300,000 plaintiffs because they patent genetically modified seeds that don’t proliferate, forcing farmers to buy more every year.

Lasso has been banned in Canada and the UK since the 80s and is now banned in France. One year after cereal farmer Paul François accidentally inhaled the toxic weed killer, significant traces of a poisonous chemical called monochlorobenzene were found in his system. What’s more is that Monsanto didn’t even mention that Lasso contains monochlorobenzene on the herbicide’s main labels.

From the Independent:

Mr François accidentally inhaled fumes from a Lasso sprayer in April 2004 and was forced to give up his farm in Charente, western France, after suffering neurological and muscular problems, including fainting fits, memory-loss, headaches and stammering.

Monsanto of course denies that there is sufficient evidence that Lasso caused François’ problems and will appeal the verdict.

The decision was a landmark ruling for France, a country with some of the worst chemical herbicide, fertilizer and pesticide pollution in Europe. France is currently in the middle of a 10-year process with the aim of cutting its pesticide use by 50%.

Working on a farm is no picnic. And farmers who are poisoned by agricultural chemicals are usually left in the cold.

Tim Lang, a professor of Food Policy at London’s City University, is quoted in a France 24 report:

Illnesses are frequently blamed on the farmer or worker for not following regulations. Agriculture is consistently one of the most dangerous fields to work in.

And I bet you thought it was a cushy, glamorous profession like a coctail waitress or professional blogger.

photo by StephSupr (Flickr CC)

American monologist Mike Daisey visited a factory in Shenzhen, China where Apple products are manufactured and then wrote a monologue about his experiences there, combined with details on the life of Apple’s late founder, Steve Jobs.

Now, many Apple fans – and there are many, many Apple fans – speak of Steve Jobs as if he is a great philosopher, superman or even god, rather than a creative businessman who made a hell of a lot of money in the usual ways people make a hell of a lot of money. I mean he made products that people like, but he also withheld technology, manufactured overseas at very low cost, and charged a lot for his designer gadgets.

When Jobs died there was a huge public outpouring, with zillions of Facebook posts and Tweets eulogizing this silicon messiah.

But was he such a great guy? Was he even a good one? And can’t we like products without thinking the CEO of the company that makes the products we like is a wonderful person and role model, especially if those products are made with what is tantamount to slave labor?

Well, I’m not going to harp on about this much more, but I would encourage you all to watch these video interviews of Mike Daisey’s visit to China. I also encourage you to visit Daisey’s website and check out this article in the Guardian about his open source approach to his script, ‘The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs’.

Here is Mike Daisey being interviewd on MSNBC’s The EdShow:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

And on Real Time with Bill Maher:

E.ON Innovation is an online innovation community, focused on encouraging the UK public to come up with the next big energy idea. Together with the new Channel 4 show Home of the Future E.ON is launching a new crowd sourcing project called E.ON Innovation.

I love social challenges like this. Just recently I bumped into another cool crowd sourcing project that helped out a lot of people, just by using the power of the crowd. Here again, with the E.ON Innovation project, I feel there are some amazing ideas waiting to be born. Many heads think well… better than one, at least that’s my opinion J

Using the power of the crowd, the E.ON Innovation project will feature five challenges (that will coincide with the episodes of the Channel 4 Show) to find the next generation energy products and services.

The first innovation challenge is centered around the concept of rest by asking participants to answer the following question: “how could the home “learn” about your energy use in order to create a more restful environment?”. I don’t know about you, but that’s a question that gets my creativity going! Future homes might for instance “learn” to know us better and help us relax by clever use of temperature, air quality, lighting etc. Our homes might recognize us being there and adapt according to who is in a room. Even music might be controlled based on certain personal criteria… the possibilities are really endless. So if you have a good idea, and you are a resident of the UK (except from the Channel Islands, sorry) I’d say give it a go and enter the challenge!

Over the coming weeks 5 different challenges will be launched, based on the themes of rest, work, play, food and wellbeing. The best submission per challenge will win a home energy makeover of £2.000. One lucky winner amongst the five challenge winners will receive the “Shining Star” award and a home energy makeover worth £10.000!

Check out this video for an introduction of the project

So how can you put your mind to work for this project?

You must be 18 years or older and be a resident of the UK (excluding the Channel Islands).

You have until April, 9^th 2012 to go to www.eon-innovation.com and submit your ideas for new products and services.

For inspiration you can check out the story of a Sheffield family as featured in the Channel 4 series Home of the Future, visit www.homeofthefuture.tv or join the conversation on twitter @talkingenergy using the hashtag #eoninnov.

Good luck! And keep us in the loop about your great energy saving ideas!

Sponsored Post

photo by Jason Pier in DC (Flickr CC)

I grew up in the suburbs of Washington DC in the 70s and 80s, when deer sightings in the area were not common, though not exactly rare occurrences.

By my mid 20s, however, they were everywhere – munching on my mother’s daffodils or dashing into the street to get hit by an SUV.

The reason for this is two-fold. First of all, suburban sprawl means the deer’s forest habitats shrink and keep shrinking in the face of unstoppable, endless developments of McMansions. The other reason is a nationwide population explosion in deer, whose predators (bobcats, coyotes and wolves) have been largely wiped out. Americans also hunt less than they used to, probably because playing Farmville or watching Jersey Shore takes up all their free time.

Furthermore, humans have allowed old farms to ‘go wild’ again, which provides space and tasty young seedlings, which the white-tailed deer love. Eating all the seedlings also means forests cannot regenerate.

Read more about the US deer population explosion in this AP article.

DC’s main bit of greenery, Rock Creek Park, is being ‘overrun’ by deer, which are eating it into oblivion and posing a danger to motorists, not to mention the deer themselves. The park is home to a busy thoroughfare, meaning that cars kill around 40 deer every year ­– that’s about 10% of the entire park’s deer population.

Authorities in Washington are now debating an 80% cull in Rock Creek Park to deal with the problem.

From the Guardian:

Under the plan, the national park service, which runs Rock Creek, would deploy snipers from the US Department of Agriculture to take out the majority of the deer population. They would operate at night and in the winter months, when fewer people are using the park. Park police would step in to seal off access roads.

And then the homeless of DC would dine on venison. I’m not kidding – that’s part of the plan.

Many DC residents are not fond of hearing (additional) gunfire at night or the prospect of coming across mortally wounded deer during their morning jog. Plus many have seen Bambi when they were kids.

Nonetheless, what to do when packs of wild deer invade your city or, like the deer in the video below, smash through the door of your city library?

Can’t we co-exist with our white-tailed friends?

image credit: CaliforniaDFG California Department of Fish and Game ( CaliforniaDFG on Flickr CC)

The Tejon Ranch, a massive, high-priced private hunting park located to the north of Los Angeles, California, will suspend its hunting operations after authorities found that mountain lions have been illegally killed on its grounds.

Tejon Ranch sounds a bit like something out of an old African hunting safari, where rich trophy hunters pay to be driven close to exotic animals so they can shoot them, mount the heads on the walls of their mansions and brag about how macho they are over cigars and glasses of sherry.

A former Tejon hunting guide, Bron Sanders, claims he was fired for complaining about the mountain lion killings. Sanders suit for wrongful termination prompted a 10-month investigation into the killings by the California Department of Fish and Game.

From the Associated Press:

Tejon Ranch managers gave hunting guides perks for shooting mountain lions and even asked customers to shoot them, Sanders’ claim said. Guides who killed mountain lions were instructed to say that they feared for their lives, the lawsuit said.

Apparently the ruthless rich of Los Angeles need only travel a few miles to pay up to $10,000-20,000 (€7,500-15,000) to shoot elk, bears, wild turkeys, antelope and deer. Hunters were even allowed to kill mountain lions, a ‘specially protected species’ in California. Pretending you’re Earnest Hemmingway is pretty expensive it turns out, even with domestic prices.

The hunting ranch has agreed to pay $136,500 in fines for killing 11 mountain lions, though Sanders alone claims to have witnessed the killings of 20 lions between 2004 and 2010.

Read more on the story in the Los Angeles Times.

Image courtesy of ARKive.org media library

Image courtesy of ARKive.org

Species: Asian buffalo (Bubalus bubalis)

Status: Endangered (EN)

Interesting Fact: The horn span of the Asian buffalo is wider than that of any other bovid!

At up to more than a tonne in weight, the Asian buffalo is a massive, powerful animal with long, crescent-shaped, ribbed horns. Native to Southeast Asia, the Asian buffalo spends much of its time wallowing in rivers or mud holes, and it has large, splayed hooves which are advantageous when walking on the muddy, marshy ground. A gregarious but not territorial animal, the Asian buffalo lives in stable clans of females and their young, led by a dominant matriarch. Young males leave this clan at the age of three, normally to join bachelor groups of around ten individuals. Asian buffalo graze in the morning and evening, and occasionally at night, on lush grass and leafy aquatic vegetation.

Although domestic buffalo are widespread and thriving, there is a very real possibility that true wild Asian buffalo will become extinct in the near future, if they have not already done so. They are currently threatened by hunting, habitat loss and hybridisation with domestic and/or feral buffalo. This species is legally protected across its range in Bhutan, Nepal, India and Thailand, and it is thought that pure-bred populations may occur in several protected areas.

Find out more about the conservation of the Asian buffalo with the Asian Wild Cattle Specialist Group.

View images and videos of the Asian buffalo on ARKive.

Becky Moran, ARKive Species Text Author

image credit: NASA

The aurora borealis, or ‘northern lights’ is an amazing phenomenon that occurs when a solar wind of charged electrical particles enters the Earth’s magnetic field. When these particles hit the Earth’s upper atmosphere above the Arctic region, the atmosphere produces an incredible spectacle of spectral multi-colored lights that ‘dance’ in the night sky.

NASA has recently released a time lapse video composed of some 500 photographs of the aurora borealis taken by digital cameras on the International Space Station.

From BBC News:

By combining hundreds of stills taken from the International Space Station, they have produced the first ‘moving’ images of the spectacle. NASA Earth Scientist Melissa Dawson explains how she happened on the technique almost by accident, when looking over other material from the ISS.

Check out the following video report from ITN News to witness the amazing spectacle of the northern lights from space.

Image courtesy of ClimateCentral.org

The weather pattern responsible for bringing frigid air to Europe, like this heavy snow fall on the Colosseum in Rome, is driven in part by a naturally-occurring pattern known as the Arctic Oscillation.

While the U.S. cruises through winter with a snow drought and above-average temperatures, much of Europe and Eurasia are locked in the grips of a deadly cold air outbreak, with more than 300 people reported dead so far. According to news reports, entire communities in Italy, Bosnia, and Romania have become inaccessible due to heavy snowfall and power outages. According to Sky News, a dam in Bulgaria burst due to the combination of snowmelt and heavy rains, killing four people in a village downstream, and other dams in Southeastern Europe are also being threatened. Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia and Turkey are at risk for heavy snows during the next few days.

According to U.S. News and World Report, the wintry blitz presents a poorly-timed challenge to European economies, which already are struggling to contain a debt crisis:

In more robust economic times, the economic effects of bad weather might be nothing more than bump in the road, but in a place already teetering on the brink of recession, the stakes are higher.

[E]ven relatively limited disruption from snow and freezing conditions could very well be enough to tip the balance towards the economy suffering further contraction in the first quarter of this year, which would put it officially back into recession,

writes Howard Archer, chief European and UK economist of IHS Global Insight, in a commentary on the cold snap.

According to Bloomberg News, 93 stations from the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute reported the lowest-ever temperatures for February 5, with one station bottoming out near -38°F. In Ukraine, the cold has killed at least 131 people, and nearly 2,000 were hospitalized due to hypothermia

Ice has forced Austria to close the Danube river to navigation, shutting down access to part of the second-longest river in Europe. In addition, the iconic canals of Venice were reported to be frozen as well.

What’s Going On?

The departures from average of the height of the 500 mb pressure surface from Jan. 28 to Feb. 3, 2012. The red colors near Norway indicate unusually warm air at the mid-levels of the atmosphere (high heights). Dark blue shading across Europe and Eurasia shows telltale signs of colder than average conditions (low heights). Credit: NOAA/ESRL. .Image courtesy of ClimateCentral.org

The weather pattern responsible for bringing the frigid air to Europe and Eurasia, and locking it in place, is being driven in part by a naturally-occurring pattern of climate variability known as the Arctic Oscillation. The Arctic Oscillation, or AO, is is a climate index that describes the characteristics of the atmospheric circulation over the Arctic, and a related index describes the circulation over the North Atlantic. Depending on whether it’s in a “positive” or “negative” phase, the Arctic Oscillation can bring warmer or cooler than average wintertime conditions to the U.S. and Europe.

Right now the Arctic Oscillation is in a negative phase, which tends to favor colder than average weather in Europe and the U.S. Scientists don’t fully understand what causes the Arctic Oscillation to switch from one phase to the other, which limits their ability to forecast these changes ahead of time beyond a week in advance.

Stu Ostro, a senior meteorologist at The Weather Channel who has been keeping close tabs on trends in weather and climate extremes in recent years, said the frigid weather in Europe is another in a series of weird winters that have been related to the Arctic Oscillation.

It’s interesting that the winter started out the opposite of the previous two, with an exceptionally positive Arctic Oscillation and non-blocking pattern, and then it flipped,

he said via email.

Map showing sea level pressure departures from average during the last week in January through early February. The bright red area over Russia and parts of Europe indicate the presence of an unusually strong high pressure area. Credit: NOAA/ESRL.. Image courtesy of ClimateCentral.org

Map showing surface wind departures from average during the same period. The circle and arrows show how the frigid air from Russia has flowed westward, into much of Europe. Credit: NOAA/ESRL. Image courtesy of ClimateCentral.org

There has been extreme variability of the Arctic Oscillation in recent years, including a record negative monthly value for December in 2009 (the month of the so-called “Snowpocalypse” in the northeast U.S.), a record negative for any month in February 2010 (“Snowmageddon”), and a record positive one for April in 2011 (coinciding with the extraordinary number of tornadoes in the U.S. that month),

Ostro said. And this has been occurring in the context of the precipitous decline of Arctic sea ice volume.

Also noteworthy is a very strong and persistent high pressure area that has been sprawled across Russia. The airflow around this stubborn high has been transporting Siberian air into Western Europe, as the maps below show. (Jeff Masters of WeatherUnderground discusses this in more detail in a blog post today.)

Jeff Knight of the U.K. Met Office also pointed to the importance of that high pressure area. “The current cold weather across Europe relates to the development of a large ‘blocking’ anticyclone over Scandinavia and north-western Russia. Easterly flow on the southern edge of this system has transported cold continental air westwards, displacing the more usual mild westerly influence from the Atlantic Ocean all the way to the British Isles,” he stated via email.

One factor that may well have contributed to the onset of blocking this time is the weakening of the stratospheric jet. The high altitude (above 20 km) circumpolar winds weakened in early January. Research has shown that such weakening often produces a downward effect that subsequently impacts on the troposphere (the atmospheric layer below approximately 10 km where weather occurs). The result is weaker surface westerly winds (or even easterly winds) on average in the mid-latitude northern hemisphere - in other words a negative Arctic Oscillation.

Knight pointed to a cold snap in 2009 that seems to have had a stratospheric connection as well. Although only some cold European winter spells are the result of these stratospheric upheavals, other recent winters such as 2006 and 2010 have also shown clear examples of the effect.”

As Ostro alluded to, in recent years there have been studies examining how the global warming-related loss of Arctic sea ice might affect winter weather patterns in the northern hemisphere. Some of this research shows that sea ice loss may favor winters with predominately negative phases of the Arctic Oscillation. One potential result of global warming, referred to as the “Arctic Paradox,” is that sea ice loss can help warm the Arctic during the winter, while setting in motion a chain reaction of events that make winters colder than they otherwise would be in Europe and the U.S..

The weather pattern during the past two weeks bears some similarities to conditions last December, when the Arctic Oscillation was in an extremely negative phase, and the jet stream helped drive frigid air and winter storms into both Europe and the U.S. This year, though, only Europe and Eurasia have been unusually cold, as other factors have conspired to protect the Lower 48 from Old Man Winter’s wrath. At least for now, anyway, as there are signs this may change during the next few weeks.

Lead image by oliworx (source: Flickr)

photo by Ingo Wölbern (public domain)

A rare Chioninia lizard from Cape Verde climbed into a tourist’s luggage before she boarded her flight from the African islands to the UK. The lizard survived a 3,000-mile (5,000 km) flight in a cold luggage hold, followed by a machine wash cycle at the tourist’s home in Somerset, UK.

Sue Banwell-Moore found the lizard after removing her washing from the machine. She assumed it was dead until it surprisingly recovered.

From the Guardian:

I was hanging out the washing on the clothes dryer and I looked down and there was this lizard there. I thought he was dead and I’m sure he nearly was – I have absolutely no idea how he was still alive.

The lizard, which has been nicknamed Larry, is now residing at a UK wildlife park.

The park’s director is quoted by BBC News:

It is very rare – Cape Verde islands is one of those places with native species found nowhere else in the world, it’s so remote.

Humans have only inhabited Cape Verde since their discovery in the mid 16^th Century. The islands are home to several rare endemic species of birds and reptiles, some of which are now threatened due to human development. Others, such as the giant skink (also a Chioninia lizard) are now extinct.

Image by Alvimann (source: morguefile)

City driving is frustrating to put it simply; stop and go traffic every other block, pedestrians walking in front of cars without regard for safety, even cars weaving in and out of lanes as if they own the road. These annoyances can turn into increased stress for drivers on the road today and a major factor in causing that stress might just be the city they’re driving in.

Part of the issue with added stress while driving is found within the actual design of a city. Picture yourself driving through New York City fighting against traffic and pedestrians at every intersection. It’s an unpleasant thought to say the least, but these urban design aspects have been linked with the amount of stress, or conversely the amount of happiness, that people within cities are dealing with daily.

In a 2007 study, researchers found that drivers with difficult commutes had increased blood pressure, a higher chance of illness, decreased job satisfaction, and overall decreased performance on cognitive tasks. While each of those on their own is cause for alarm, the decreased cognitive performance is what is most concerning as it relates hand in hand with safety on the road. Driving in a city with strip malls instead of vegetation was also shown to keep stress levels high.

On the other hand, some cities are actively looking to make their residents happier and more comfortable where they live. Making cities more walkable has been a major trend in urban planning primarily because it keeps cars off the road and helps to reduce emissions, but now planners are realizing that it also helps keep people healthier and aids in social interaction. On a similar token, cities with easy access to public transportation, another alternative to driving, have been shown to keep citizens happier and quite possibly less stressed as a result.

Perhaps those in power should be focusing not only on what eco friendly cars we’re driving, but also where and how we drive them, to make the world a bit greener for everyone.

Original post by Earthgarage – Greener Car. Fatter Wallet.

photo by eskimo_jo (Flickr CC)

Though the economic recession caused UK greenhouse gas emissions to fall in 2009 (8.7% from 2008 levels), in 2010 they climbed back up by 3.1%, according to a new government report.

This is the first rise in emissions since 2003 and can be attributed to the unusually cold winter of 2010. Power generation used more fossil fuels during the year.

An article in the Guardian associates the rise in emissions with the economic recovery after the recession (has there been an ‘after the recession?’) though it also states that industries such as business, agriculture and transport, stayed ‘static’.

The big difference, besides the cold weather, seems to be a transition away from nuclear power to traditional fossil fuels like coal and natural gas.

From Reuters:

Most of the rest of the increase was due to a greater number of maintenance shutdowns at low-carbon nuclear power plants, which forced utilities to burn more fossils fuels to generate electricity, the report said.

Despite the 2010 rise, the UK is still ahead of its Kyoto target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, (24% since 1990 compared to the goal of 12.5%). The target for 2020 is a reduction of 35% from 1990 levels.

photo by Hector Garcia (Flickr CC)

Europe’s commissioner for climate action, Connie Hedegaard, has stated that the current model for economic growth is not sustainable and could result in a global economic crisis if continued.

Hedegaard equated the current Eurozone crisis with a future one of global scale. She said that economic models based solely on production and consumption are a recipe for failure and only serves to encourage overconsumption. Furthermore, the environment must be taken into account and these issues must be comprehensively addressed at the upcoming summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The summit in Rio this June takes place on the 20-year anniversary of the 1992 summit which launched the global environmental movement to address climate change.

From the Guardian:

The 21st century must have a more intelligent growth model, or else it’s really difficult to see how we feed 7 billion people now and 9 billion people [by 2050]. Resources were cheap before, but it seems we are in for a period where resources become more and more expensive. Oil is coming up in price, so many other commoditiesare coming up in price. Food prices are rising. We need to deal with this.

Hedegaard is far from alone in the opinion that economic growth only based on GDP is no longer adequate and that natural resources like water, clean air and biodiversity can no longer be considered as free commodities which we can exploit heedlessly. Nobel winner Joseph Stiglitz has also been a leading voice for the change from GDP-based model of economic value.

Hedegaard also recently told reporters in New Delhi that the countries meeting in Rio in June should double the world’s energy efficiency.

Read more about that story on Bloomberg.

What is also crucial is the twinning of environmentalism and global inequality. Currently the wealthiest 20% of the planet consumes 80% of its resources, while the poorest 20% can scarcely survive – if even that. So we know who is responsible for the environmental crisis and whose leaders are responsible for the economic one.