The world knows the kind of destruction that Hurricane Katrina brought to New Orleans and other cities and towns on the Gulf Coast. But destruction of a different sort is the subject of a study in the journal Science by Jeffrey Q. Chambers of Tulane University and colleagues. They report that the storm uprooted or severely damaged roughly 320 million trees, making an impact on the carbon balance in the region. The researchers analyzed satellite imagery from before and after the hurricane to determine the net change in ‘nonphotosynthesizing vegetation’ - in other words, the increase in dead wood and ground litter. Then they went to sample plots in the region’s forests, corresponding to data points from the images, and counted downed or damaged trees. ‘A lot of material moved from being a living tree to being litter,’ Dr. Chambers said. The findings have implications for the carbon footprint of the region’s forests. Through photosynthesis, living trees store carbon, but when they die they begin to decompose, and the action of those decomposing organisms releases carbon. While trees eventually grow back in a heavily damaged forest, Dr. Chambers said, ‘it takes a lot longer to recover […]
When central bankers in the Middle East say they have no plans to end their fixed exchange rates to the dollar, the currency market hears the opposite. Merrill Lynch & Co. predicts either the United Arab Emirates or Qatar will cut their dollar peg within half a year. Standard Chartered Plc says the six Gulf Cooperation Council nations need to raise the value of their currencies 20 percent. The difference between the price of the Saudi Arabian riyal and the cost of buying it in a year using forward contracts has widened 10-fold since October as traders bet the kingdom will sever its 21-year-old link to the dollar, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. ‘The dollar peg is doomed,” said Jim Rogers, chairman of New York-based Rogers Holdings and a former partner of hedge fund manager George Soros. The gulf countries, which supply 22.2 percent of the world’s oil, according to BP Plc, are under pressure to abandon their fixed exchange rates after the dollar tumbled 10 percent against the euro in 2007. OPEC members Venezuela and Iran want to price more crude in other currencies. Inflation in the region is accelerating at the fastest pace in […]
China on Monday expressed concern at the decline in the dollar, joining a growing chorus of global policymakers alarmed by the weakness in the world’s main reserve currency. Premier Wen Jiabao told a business audience in Singapore it was becoming difficult to manage China’s $1,430bn foreign exchange reserves, saying that their value was under unprecedented pressure. ‘We have never been experiencing such big pressure,’ Mr Wen said, according to Reuters. ‘We are worried about how to preserve the value of our reserves.’ China keeps the currency composition of its reserves a state secret, but some analysts believe that more than two-thirds are probably still held in dollars. Mr Wen’s comments came as top international economic officials spoke out in support of a strong dollar in the aftermath of the weekend’s Group of 20 summit in South Africa and Opec meeting in Riyadh. Hank Paulson, US Treasury secretary, told reporters in Ghana: ‘A strong dollar is in our nation’s interest.’ He said the US economy had its ‘ups and downs’ but he believed that ‘our long-term economic strength will be reflected in currency Âmarkets’. Mr Paulson and other top US officials, including President George […]
As old as I am, I still learn new things every day, even about common mundane household problems. This is one such. Take a moment to look at this short video.
SHIMONOSEKI, Japan — A Japanese whaling fleet sailing toward waters off Antarctica to kill protected humpback whales was itself the target of a hunt Monday by environmental activists who vowed to disrupt the expedition. Greenpeace said its protest ship Esperanza was searching for the fleet south of Japanese territorial waters and would shadow the ships to the South Pacific to try to reduce their catch. ‘It’s a large ocean, but we’re going to track them down,’ expedition member Dave Walsh told The Associated Press by telephone Monday. The Japanese fleet was embarking on the country’s largest whaling expedition, targeting protected humpbacks for the first time since the 1960s. In a farewell ceremony Sunday for the four-ship expedition, officials told a crowd at the southern Japanese port of Shimonoseki that Japan should preserve its whale-eating culture. ‘They’re violent environmental terrorists,’ mission leader Hajime Ishikawa said. ‘Their violence is unforgivable … We must fight against their hypocrisy and lies.’ Families waved little flags emblazoned with smiling whales and the crew raised a toast with cans of beer, while a brass band played ‘Popeye the Sailor Man.’ The whalers plan to kill up to 50 humpbacks in […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
