Scientists will warn this week that rising sea levels, triggered by global warming, pose a far greater danger to the planet than previously estimated. There is now a major risk that many coastal areas around the world will be inundated by the end of the century because Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets are melting faster than previously estimated. Low-lying areas including Bangladesh, Florida, the Maldives and the Netherlands face catastrophic flooding, while, in Britain, large areas of the Norfolk Broads and the Thames estuary are likely to disappear by 2100. In addition, cities including London, Hull and Portsmouth will need new flood defences. ‘It is now clear that there are going to be massive flooding disasters around the globe,’ said Dr David Vaughan, of the British Antarctic Survey. ‘Populations are shifting to the coast, which means that more and more people are going to be threatened by sea-level rises.’ The issue is set to dominate the opening sessions of the international climate change conference in Copenhagen this week, when scientists will outline their latest findings on a host of issues concerning global warming. The meeting has been organised to set the agenda for this December’s international climate […]
If you’ve read anything about the global water crisis, you’ve likely read a quote from Dr. Peter Gleick, founder and president of the Pacific Institute, and one of the world’s leading water experts. His name has become as ubiquitous as drought itself, which is suddenly making major headlines. A report from the World Economic Forum warned that in only twenty years our civilization may be facing ‘water bankruptcy’–shortfalls of fresh water so large and pervasive that global food production could crater, meaning that we’d lose the equivalent of the entire grain production of the US and India combined. But we don’t have to wait twenty years to see what this would look like. Australia, reeling from twelve years of drought in the Murray-Darling River Basin, has seen agriculture grind to a halt, with tens of billions of dollars in losses. The region has been rendered a tinderbox, with the deadliest fires in the country’s history claiming over 160 lives so far. And all this may begin to hit closer to home soon. California’s water manager said that the state is bracing for its worst drought in modern history. Stephen Chu, the new US secretary of energy, warns that the […]
An international team of archaeologists has uncovered the earliest known evidence of horses being domesticated by humans. The discovery suggests that horses were both ridden and milked. The findings could point to the very beginnings of horse domestication and the origins of the horse breeds we know today. Led by the Universities of Exeter and Bristol (UK), the research is published on Friday 6 March 2009 in leading academic journal Science. The researchers have traced the origins of horse domestication back to the Botai Culture of Kazakhstan circa 5,500 years ago. This is about 1,000 years earlier than thought and about 2,000 years earlier than domestic horses are known to have been in Europe. Their findings strongly suggest that horses were originally domesticated, not just for riding, but also to provide food, including milk. Through extensive archaeological fieldwork and subsequent analysis, using new techniques, the team developed three independent lines of evidence for early horse domestication. Their findings show that in the fourth millennium BC horses in Kazakhstan were being selectively bred for domestic use. They also show horses were being harnessed, possibly for riding, and that people were consuming horse milk. Analysis of ancient bone remains […]
Senator John F. Kerry, who has added global warming atop the Foreign Relations Committee’s to-do list, told industry officials and others today that a clean energy revolution is coming — and they need to get on board. ‘We are in the midst of a fundamental shift in our national and governmental priorities that could one day be remembered-alongside the presidencies of Roosevelt, Johnson, and Reagan-as truly transformational,’ Kerry said at a forum sponsored by Hitachi and featuring panels organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Brookings Institution. Kerry noted that the economic stimulus package includes $80 billion for alternative energy. He also pointed out that President Obama, in his address to a joint session of Congress last week and in his proposed budget, called for capping carbon emissions and creating a market for the sale of pollution credits. ‘Cap-and-trade is no longer an academic question,’ Kerry said, according to prepared remarks. ‘The President and leadership in both houses of Congress are on board to make it a reality, and you need to start preparing to take advantage of it.’ ‘If passed, this will constitute the most significant realignment of our energy […]
NASA’s Kepler spacecraft blasted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday on a three-year mission to find Earth’s twin, a Goldilocks planet where it’s neither too hot nor too cold, but just right for life to take hold. The Delta II rocket, carrying the widest-field telescope ever put in space, lifted off the launch pad at Cape Canaveral at 10:49 p.m. Eastern time. The launch vehicle headed downrange, gathering speed as its three stages ignited, one after the other, passing over the Caribbean island of Antigua and tracking stations in Australia before climbing into orbit. Kepler will eventually settle down to scan tens of thousands of stars near the constellations Cygnus and Lyra in search of planets where water could exist on the surface in liquid form, a key condition for life as we know it. ‘We have a feeling like we’re about to set sail across an ocean to discover a new world,’ said project manager Jim Fanson of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge. ‘It’s sort of the same feeling Columbus or Magellan must have had.’ The $590-million Kepler mission is jointly managed by JPL and NASA’s Ames Research […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
