Gulf Oil Spill Pictures: Aerial Views Show Leak’s Size
A boat makes its way through crude oil on the water’s surface on Wednesday, about a week after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig sank into the Gulf of Mexico. Even now authorities can only guess at the size of the spill, because the ongoing leak is deep underwater.
Most large oil spills in history stemmed from tanker accidents, and their sizes could be reckoned based on the holding capacity of the wrecked vessels.
(National Geographic Daily News, April 29, 2010)
Biodiversity: try as we might, things just keep dying
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18842-biodiversity-try-as-we-might-things-just-keep-dying.html
The world is about to miss another deadline. By 2010 there was supposed to be “a significant reduction” in the speed at which varieties of life are disappearing.
Both the 1993 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the United Nations’ 2000 Millennium Development Goals call for it. But the most wide-ranging analysis of global biodiversity ever attempted has found that it’s not happening – despite what seem to be massive government efforts.
(New Scientist, April 29, 2010)
Has Arctic sea ice returned to normal?
at 7:23 am on Saturday, 24 April 2010
http://www.skepticalscience.com/Has-Arctic-sea-ice-returned-to-normal.html
An argument gaining popularity in 2010 is that Arctic sea ice has recovered from its long-term decline. Winter sea-ice extent bounced back strongly in the cold Arctic winter of 2010. Anthony Watts tells us that Arctic sea ice is returning to normal. However, this argument only looks at one piece of the puzzle while neglecting the full picture of the Arctic sea ice. Consequently, I’ve added a new rebuttal to the argument ‘Arctic sea ice has recovered‘ (the 108th skeptic argument). This is basically a simplified version of Peter Hogarth’s comprehensive review of peer-reviewed research into Arctic sea ice (and also includes useful information from the comments).
(Skeptical Science, April 24, 2010)
Bill McKibben on Cochabamba, Congress and Eaarth
Twenty years ago, environmentalist Bill McKibben wrote The End of Nature, but his warnings went largely unheeded.
Now, as people are grappling with the unavoidable effects of climate change and confronting an earth that’s suddenly melting, drying, acidifying, flooding and burning in unprecedented ways, Bill McKibben is out with a new book about what we have to do to survive this brave new world.
(Solve Climate, April 18, 2010)
The science of climate change: The clouds of unknowing
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15719298
FOR anyone who thinks that climate science must be unimpeachable to be useful, the past few months have been a depressing time. A large stash of e-mails from and to investigators at the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia provided more than enough evidence for concern about the way some climate science is done. That the picture they painted, when seen in the round—or as much of the round as the incomplete selection available allows—was not as alarming as the most damning quotes taken out of context is little comfort. They offered plenty of grounds for both shame and blame….
(The Economist, March 18, 2010)
The Economist does not disappoint
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2010/04/the-economist-does-not-disappoint/
The March 20th -26th cover story of The Economist, “Spin, science and climate change,” deftly bypasses the politics surrounding ‘climategate’, to tackle the more important issue: whether any of this has any bearing on climate change science and policy. This is a refreshing bit of journalism that everyone should read.
It is no secret that we have been unimpressed by the quality of reporting of climate science or late. From the insinuation that data were manipulated (for which there remains no evidence,primae facie or otherwise), to the suggestion that “climate skeptics” had somehow been kept from publishing in peer reviewed literature (how, we wonder, does Lindzen keep getting published?), to the blind repetition of false claims of major errors in the IPCC (when only a couple of actual errors– and none of them in the primary (Working Group 1) report – have been found), to the falsehood that climate data have not been readily available (yes, they have), the reporting has been more akin to the populist fearmongering of the McCarthy era than to the celebrated investigative journalism of Watergate.
(Real Climate, April 13, 2010)
Climate Crock takes on Lord Monckton, Part 2
http://climateprogress.org/2010/04/16/climate-crock-takes-on-lord-monckton-part-2/
Climate Crock Takes on Lord MonctonHere’s Part 2 of Peter Sinclair, our favorite climate de-crocker, taking on The Viscount Monckton of Brenchley (TVMOB):
View Video
(Climate Progress, April 16, 2010)
How to Preserve the Breadth of Life on the Planet
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-to-preserve-the-breadth-of-life
A barometer measures atmospheric pressure. Now a coalition of biologists is calling for a similar scientific tool to measure extinction pressure on Earth’sbiodiversity—a so-called “barometer of life“.
After all, scientists have conclusively identified only a fraction of the species that exist on Earth; the roughly 1.9 million species catalogued to date may represent only 20 percent of the total biodiversity on the planet. . .
(ScientificAmerican.com, April 9, 2010)
McLean, de Freitas and Carter rebutted… by McLean, de Freitas and Carter
at 9:21 am on Friday, 16 April 2010
http://www.skepticalscience.com/news.php?n=171
Stephan Lewandowsky has written a thorough critique of the McLean 2010 paper on El Nino. Lead author John McLean subsequently published an illuminating reply. The key contention surrounding McLean’s paper is the assertion that the El Nino Southern Oscillation is responsible for the long-term warming trend over the last few decades. How do they come to this conclusion? McLean clarifies how they prove that “there is no detectable sign of any global warming driven by carbon dioxide” - by eyeballing Figure 7 from their paper: . . .
(Skeptical Science, April 4, 2010)
Fossil Shell Preserves Signs of a Prehistoric Tug-of-War
at 8:58 am on Friday, 16 April 2010
http://scienceblogs.com/laelaps/2010/04/fossil_shell_preserves_signs_o.php
Back in the early days of paleontology, when the meaning and origin of fossils was still in doubt, some naturalists believed that the shells, shark teeth, and other petrified curiosities were attempts by the rock to imitate life. Fossils were not true vestiges of history, it was believed, but instead the product of some “plastic virtue” suffused throughout the non-living Creation. As naturalists began to study fossils more closely, however, they realized that the ancient shells showed signs of growth just like their counterparts along the seashore. Fossils were not crude imitations of life. Instead they were the traces of long-deceased organisms which had been transformed, and while it is easy to take this fact for granted today there are quite a few stunning specimens which beautifully reaffirm that paleontology is the study of ancient life.
As explained by paleontologists James Sprinkle and Jeri Rodgers in the Journal of Paleontology, between about 300-315 million years ago what is now Brown County in north-central Texas was covered by a shallow bay or tidal channel. . . .
(Laelaps, April 15, 2010) (more…)
A database of peer-reviewed papers on climate change
at 3:07 pm on Thursday, 15 April 2010
http://www.skepticalscience.com/news.php?n=168
I’m already finding the Global Warming Links page a useful resource with many links to webpages on specific skeptic arguments. Thanks to all those who’ve beensubmitting links. However, I received an email from Mark this morning making the worthy point that links should be about quality, not quantity. And the best indication of quality is the amount of peer-reviewed literature. As it so happens, the directory is set up so when you submit a new link, you can flag it as peer-reviewed. So it was quite straightforward to set up a page that displays all peer-reviewed papers for each skeptic argument.
Of course, laying out the usual disclaimers, I haven’t spent that much time populating this list. . . .
(Skeptical Science, March 31, 2010)
Melting of Canadian Arctic ice sheet accelerating, study finds
at 2:50 pm on Thursday, 15 April 2010
The Devon Island ice cap, which sprawls over more than 5,500 square miles in the Arctic latitudes of Canada, has been shrinking at an increasing rate since 1985, an analysis of nearly 50 years of data concludes.
The melting, believed to have been caused by warmer summers, could affect shipping and overall sea levels, as more icebergs calf into the sea, according to the paper published in the March edition of Arctic, published by the University of Calgary’s Arctic Institute of North America. Previous studieshave noted a similar shrinking.
(Los Angeles Times, April 14, 1020)
Washington Sues to Revive Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Plan
at 2:44 pm on Thursday, 15 April 2010
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=asjDMpsF50qc
April 14 (Bloomberg) — Washington state, home to a former U.S. nuclear-weapons plant undergoing cleanup, sued the Obama administration to stop it from abandoning plans for the Yucca Mountain radioactive waste repository in Nevada.
The government’s decision to withdraw its license application for Yucca Mountain will frustrate Washington’s plans to clean up the Hanford Nuclear Weapons Reservation, a site located in southeastern Washington that was created in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project, state Attorney General Rob McKenna said in a statement.
(Bloomburg.com, April 14, 2010)
Climate Scientists Cleared of Malpractice Accusations in Hacked Email Case
The scientists at the center of the row over the hacked climate emails have been cleared of any deliberate malpractice by the second of three inquiries into their conduct.
The inquiry panel, led by the former chair of the House of Lords science and technology select committee Lord Oxburgh, was commissioned by the University of East Anglia with investigating the research produced by the scientists at its Climatic Research Unit (CRU).
The work of the unit has come under intense scrutiny since November when thousands of private emails between the researchers were released onto the Internet. At a press conference today Lord Oxburgh said:
(Solve Climate, April 14, 2010)
Can we refute creationism in evolution class?
http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2010/04/15/can-we-refute-creationism-in-evolution-class/
Over at the Center for Inquiry, Michael De Dora has published a controversial piece arguing that while we can teach the evidence for evolution in public school biology class, we should not at the same time overtly refute the claims of creationism. While it’s okay to teach that the earth is 4.5 billion years old, says De Dora, and to outline the evidence for that age, it’s wrong to add that the earth is not 6,000-10,000 years old, for that is a religious idea, not a scientific one. And, says De Dora, that violates the Constitution’s provision of church-state separation: . . .
(Why Evolution Is True, April 15, 2010)
Every (Wild) Dog Has Its Day
at 11:29 am on Thursday, 15 April 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/opinion/15kristof.html?th&emc=th
We humans are suckers for certain kinds of wildlife, from lions to elephants. I hadn’t known I was a zebra fan until I drove my rented car into a traffic jam of zebras here. My heart fluttered.
As for rhinos, they’re so magnificent that they attract foreign aid. Women here in rural Zimbabwe routinely die in childbirth for lack of ambulances or other transport to hospitals, and they get no help. But rhinos in this park get a helicopter to track their movements.
(New York Times, April 15 , 2010)
Gaps (missing links)
http://scienceblogs.com/tfk/2010/04/gaps.php
James Kidder is doing yeoman work. You see, Casey Luskin of the Disco[very] [Insti]‘Tute took a look at the new Smithsonian Institute exhibit on human origins, and wrote:
Did you get that? Ignoring the fact that transitional fossils are often missing even among taxa whose records are very complete, now Darwin’s defenders argue that their theory “predicts gaps in the fossil record.” How convenient!
Kidder then points out that this is a dumb argument by pointing to specific transitional fossils that we know about and that really do help us understand transitions in human evolution. Huzzah!
(Thoughts from Kansas, April 15, 2010)
The first metazoa living in permanently anoxic conditions.
http://f1000biology.com/article/qnhnys9vmmkcjt7/id/2844956
Anoxic environments are very harsh for the metazoa, and animals can survive in them for limited periods. The deep bottoms of some seas (e.g. the Black Sea) are anoxic and are deprived of metazoan life. Also some parts of the Mediterranean Sea bottom are anoxic, but there are some metazoa that can live there. They are Loricifera with special adaptations to such particularly severe environments. The exploration of biodiversity still provides stunning surprises, and this is surely one!
(Faculty of 1000:Biology, April 14, 2010)
Coal Barons Urge Capitol Hill: No Carbon Regulation Until CCS Is in Place
at 10:19 am on Thursday, 15 April 2010
The coal industry is headed down the same path as U.S. automakers, and its future will become just as troubled and expensive for the American people if it continues pouring money into fighting the science rather than investing in cleaner technology, Congressman Ed Markey warned industry leaders Wednesday.
In a tense hearing held in the wake of last week’s deadly coal mine explosion in West Virginia, Markey questioned the business sense of the coal industry’s opposition to climate legislation — legislation that he says goes out of its way to help coal users adjust to what he considers inevitable carbon emissions reductions and to help coal itself remain a central part of the U.S. economy.
(Solve Climate, April 14, 2010)
When Pigeons Flock, Who’s in Command?
at 11:44 am on Tuesday, 13 April 2010
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/04/when-pigeons-flock-whos-in-comma.html?etoc
That flock of pigeons flying overhead may look like a chaotic cloud of birds, but it’s more like an airborne hierarchy. By strapping tiny global positioning system (GPS) backpacks onto the birds, researchers have found that a flock follows several leaders at any given time in flight. But the flock’s leadership can change so that even low-ranking birds sometimes get a chance to command. The findings could shed light on how other groups of animals behave en masse, such as herds of wildebeest, schools of fish, and even crowds of humans.
(Science NOW, April 8, 2010)
Arctic Sea Ice (Part 1): Is the Arctic Sea Ice recovering? A reality check
at 11:24 am on Tuesday, 13 April 2010
http://www.skepticalscience.com/Arctic-Sea-Ice-Part-1-Is-Arctic-Sea-Ice-recovering.html
The dramatic downwards trend in the annual summer extent of Arctic sea ice – and marginal increase in Antarctic sea ice have both sparked intense debate and commentary. Viewed in a global context, the amounts of polar sea ice are relatively small compared with the massive total volumes of ice in the land based ice caps of Antarctica, Greenland, and the Himalayas. If we take into account the observations of recent accelerating ice mass loss from these areas, plus the mean length, thickness and mass loss from the worlds glaciers (and we consider that the often cited Antarctic sea ice is significantly thinner on average than the Arctic sea ice, and much smaller in extent during the melt season), it is evident that the global reservoir of perennial ice is diminishing.. . .
(Skeptical Science, April 12, 2010)
Flowers blooming earlier now than any time in last 250 years
at 11:01 am on Tuesday, 13 April 2010
http://www.skepticalscience.com/Flowers-blooming-earlier-now-than-any-time-in-last-250-years.html
Climate change is being recognized as one of the most influential drivers of changes in biodiversity. This is particularly evident in the field of phenology, which looks at how climatic changes affecting timing of events in the natural world. Changes in the timing of one part of the ecosystem can have a ripple effect, disrupting other areas. For example, a change in timing of plant flowering can disrupt the creatures that pollinate them. Similarly, changes in timing of plant or insect behaviour can affect the birds that use them as food supplies. New research has been published stitching together nearly 400,000 first flowering records covering 405 species across the UK (Amano et al 2010). They’ve found that British plants are flowering earlier now than at any time in the last 250 years.
There’s a strong correlation between temperature and the date when flowers first open each year. . .
(Skeptical Science, April 12, 2010)
Europe Finds Clean Energy in Trash, but U.S. Lags
at 10:29 am on Tuesday, 13 April 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/science/earth/13trash.html?pagewanted=1&th&emc=th
HORSHOLM, Denmark — The lawyers and engineers who dwell in an elegant enclave here are at peace with the hulking neighbor just over the back fence: a vast energy plant that burns thousands of tons of household garbage and industrial waste, round the clock.
Far cleaner than conventional incinerators, this new type of plant converts local trash into heat and electricity. Dozens of filters catch pollutants, from mercury to dioxin, that would have emerged from its smokestack only a decade ago.
(New York Times, April 12, 2010)
Fossil Turtle Had Extra-Thick Shell to Fend Off World’s Largest Snake
at 9:05 am on Tuesday, 13 April 2010
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/04/thick-shelled-fossil-turtle/#ixzz0koJKsVF5
A new fossil turtle species discovered in a Colombian coal mine had a shell as thick as a 400-page book, which may have protected it from crocodiles and the world’s biggest known snake.
Scientists from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the Florida Museum of Natural History uncovered the Cerrejón coal mine. The 60-million-year-old fossilized shell found there was almost 1.5 inches thick and over 3 feet across. The scientists named the species Cerrejonemys wayuunaiki after the language of the local Wayuu people.
The giant snake that lived alongside this is called the Titanoboa cerrejonensis. . .
(Wired Science, April 6, 2010)
Fossil dog may be ancestor of Africa’s “painted” canids
at 8:57 am on Tuesday, 13 April 2010
It never fails. Whenever I visit a zoo’s African wild dog exhibit someone inevitably asks “Are those hyenas?”, and when I visit spotted hyena enclosures I often hear the question “Are those dogs?” These carnivores, known to scientists as Lycaon pictus andCrocuta crocuta (respectively), are only distant cousins, but the vague similarities shared between them often cause people to confuse one with the other.
There are a few quick and dirty ways to tell them apart. Spotted hyenas, as their name indicates, have a coat flecked with solid spots while the fur of each African wild dog carries a distinctive pattern of caramel, white, black, and dark brown. They are also shaped a little bit differently; hyenas are stockier, with relatively shorter midsections, while African wild dogs have a longer, more lanky appearance. And, if you are really an astute observer, you might notice that African wild dogs lack something your more familiar domestic dogs have; a fifth toe, or dewclaw, on the forelimb. It is thought that this loss might be an adaptation which allows African wild dogs to more efficiently run after prey over long distances, but when did this happen, and how do these canids relate to other dogs?
(Laelaps, April 12, 2010)