The company behind Iceland’s fin whaling industry is planning a huge export of whalemeat to Japan. This summer, Hvalur hf caught 125 fins – a huge expansion on previous years. The company’s owner says he will export as much as 1,500 tonnes to Japan. This would substantially increase the amount of whalemeat in the Japanese market. The export would be legal because these nations are exempt from the global ban on trading whalemeat, but conservation groups doubt its commercial viability. Last year, Hvalur hf exported about 65 tonnes of whalemeat to Japan, a consignment that owner Kristjan Loftsson described as a ‘loss-leader’. But following this year’s huge catch, he believes the next one can make money. ‘ This is our best year yet – we’re very happy about that Gunnar Bergmann Jonsson Icelandic minke whaler ‘We’ll get a good price – we’re intending to make a profit, that’s for sure,’ he told BBC News. Mr Loftsson said he had now suspended fin whaling for this season, having caught 125 from a quota of 150. The remaining 25 can be carried over into next year’s hunting season. This compares with a […]
On October 13, 1992, the United States became the world’s first industrialized nation to ratify a treaty on climate change. The treaty committed its parties to the important, if awkwardly worded goal of preventing ‘dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. In acknowledgment of the fact that America and its allies were largely responsible for the problem, the pact set a different standard for them; Europe, Japan, Australia, and the United States were supposed to ‘take the lead in combating climate change and the adverse effects thereof.’ Signing the instrument of ratification for the treaty, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, President George H. W. Bush noted the special responsibilities that the developed nations were taking on; they ‘must go further’ than the others, he said, and offer detailed ‘programs and measures they will undertake to limit greenhouse emissions.’ The convention remains in effect, and for the past seventeen years the United States has insisted that it is living up to its terms. Under Bill Clinton, this claim was implausible; the U.S. took no meaningful action to reduce its emissions. Under George W. Bush, it became a bad joke. (When the Bush Administration wasn’t handing out tax […]
HELHEIM GLACIER, Greenland — Suddenly and without warning, the gigantic river of ice sped up, causing it to spit icebergs ever faster into the ocean off southeastern Greenland. The Helheim Glacier nearly doubled its speed in just a few years, flowing through a rift in the barren coastal mountains at a stunning 100 feet per day. Alarm bells rang as the pattern was repeated by glaciers across Greenland: Was the island’s vast ice sheet, a frozen water reservoir that could raise the sea level 20 feet if disgorged, in danger of collapse? Half a decade later, there’s a little bit of good news - and a lot of uncertainty. ‘It does seem that the very rapid speeds were only sustained for a short period of time, although none of these glaciers have returned to the ‘normal’ flow speeds yet, says Gordon Hamilton, a glaciologist from the University of Maine who’s clocked Helheim’s rapid advance using GPS receivers on site since 2005. Understanding why Greenland’s glaciers accelerated so abruptly in the first half of the decade - and whether they are now slowing down - is crucial to the larger question of how fast sea levels […]
It is almost exactly 400 years since Galileo turned his telescope on the sun and saw it to be an imperfect orb covered in spots, quite unlike the teachings of Greek cosmology. If his observations had been made four centuries later, he would have drawn a different conclusion. The sun has recently shed its spots, prompting sceptics to renew their claims that climate change is not anthropogenic but rather heliogenic. Sunspots are a bit of a mystery. They appear as dark patches in the photosphere-the surface layer of the sun-that come and go. Normally the number of sunspots peaks every 11 years, coinciding with times when the sun’s magnetic field is at its strongest. As the field wanes, the number of sunspots falls to a trough at which point the sun’s magnetic field reverses direction and starts to regain its strength. As early as 1801 William Herschel, a British astronomer, suggested that when sunspots were plentiful the Earth would be warmer. He supported his hypothesis by reference to variations in the price of wheat published in Adam Smith’s ‘Wealth of Nations. More recently, solar scientists and climatologists have played down the role that sunspots might play in […]
After decades of debate and four years of investigation an international body of earth scientists has formally agreed to move the boundary dates for the prehistoric Quaternary age by 800,000 years, reports the Journal of Quaternary Science. The decision has been made by the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), the authority for geological science which has acted to end decades of controversy by formally declaring when the Quaternary Period, which covers both the ice age and moment early man first started to use tools, began. In the 18th Century the earth’s history was split into four epochs, Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, and Quaternary. Although the first two have been renamed Palaeozoic and Mesozoic respectively, the second two have remained in use by scientists for more than 150 years. There has been a protracted debate over the position and status of Quaternary in the geological time scale and the intervals of time it represents. ‘It has long been agreed that the boundary of the Quaternary Period should be placed at the first sign of global climate cooling,’ said Professor Philip Gibbard. ‘What we have achieved is the definition of the boundary of the Quaternary to an internationally recognised and […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
