Seven Generational Ruminations

A new USGS study shows that the Gulf of Mexico’s dead zone is caused mainly from corn and soy fertilizers and animal wastes running off of the seven states abutting the Mississippi, and also Indiana and Ohio along the Ohio River, which drains into the Mississippi. Ocean dead zones are caused by extremely low oxygen levels in the water – a condition known as hypoxia. Hypoxic conditions develop where there is an excess of agricultural run-off, because of the high levels of nitrogen and phosphorous in fertilizer and manure.

Melting glacier uncovers island contains a series of pictures showing one effect of melting glaciers in Greenland. There are beginning to be islands freed from the ice who have been buried by ice for millennia.

I've now flown over Greenland four times (on two trips) and from 35,000 feet in the airplane all I can say is there is a massive amount of ice covering that continent.

U.N. climate panel says warming is man-made is about the most dire of all possible climate change and global warming warnings. ..."The world's top climate scientists said on Friday global warming was man-made, spurring calls for urgent government action to prevent severe and irreversible damage from rising temperatures."...

The report comes from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). They publish a series of assessments on various subjects. Their 2001 estimate of global warming deemed it 66 percent likely to be human-caused (hey, Mr. Bush, isn't that a pretty strong indicator?) and the current study deems it 90 percent likely.

Army blamed for Siachen meltdown ... India's water resources may dwindle ... ‘Today Siachen is weeping, tomorrow the world will cry’ ... Glaciers are dying ... Melting glaciers have become a threat to major rivers

Researchers: Warming May Change Amazon describes a model put together by scientists saying the temperature will rise 5-10 degrees by 2010 while rainfall in the Amazon area will drop dramatically. With those two changes the rainforest would be unable to continue living. The area would become a grassland instead, and that's ignoring the over-foresting done by the timber and ranching companies.

Gore urges scientists to warn public about global warming discusses a speech given by Al Gore to the American Geophysical Union in which he repeats his call for more awareness and urgency to solve the problems of Global Warming. He described television as the cause for the apathy over global warming in this way: "The well-informed citizenry has become the well-entertained audience ... The age of print that began with Gutenberg essentially ended."

'Only 50 years left' for sea fish tells that at the current rate of decline for wild fish stocks, that we have 50 years left of enjoying seafood. That means our grandchildren won't understand the joke "I'm a seafood lover, I see food and I eat it". But seriously can we continue with the current management policy?