Climate Change | Page 2 | World Tech Today

Nearly 6-foot of New York City will be under sea water by the year 2100 due to Climate Change

Feb 21, 2015 by Charles Omedo Leave a Comment

The New York City Panel on Climate Change has released a report that suggests that parts of New York City might witness rising sea levels in coming centuries as a result of increasing climate change.

According to the report, climate change will bring very unpleasant weather conditions that will impact on temperature, precipitation, and rising sea levels among others.

New York City is almost surrounded by water, and the report indicates that by 2100, climate change may induce heat waves and extreme weather temperatures that will cause ice in the Polar region to melt, contributing to rising sea levels that might result to flooding incidents in parts of New York like Staten Island, Queens, and Brooklyn among other beaches and low-lying coastlines.

The rising sea level expected for New York might be as much as 6 feet, and heat waves related to the expected 8.8 degree Fahrenheit temperature would also result from the feared climate change. New York’s flood zone is expected to double, taking in 99 square miles. Precipitation is projected to increase 4% to 11% by 2050, and to 13% by the 2080s.

“Even if storms don’t change at all –just by raising that sea level baseline by five feet, you turn what’s currently a sort of one-in-100-year flood event into something that happens, on average, roughly once every eight years or so,” said Radley Horton of the New York Panel.

However, New York Mayor Bill Blassio is planning to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% from 2005 levels by 2050, and he is also quoted to provide additional sands for beaches in order to manage potential climate crisis. He is also said to plan a budget of $335 million for flood protection in Lower East Side, as well as upgrade shorelines in Coney Island and Staten Island, inclusive of other coastal regions.

Infectious Parasites and viruses spreading rapidly due to climate change

Feb 18, 2015 by Karla Fetrow Leave a Comment

Climatic changes have been causing invasive species to spread rapidly, seeking new hosts in search of a favorable climate for themselves. A recent study shows that the threat of infectious viruses, like the West Nile virus or Ebola is increasing as the temperatures of the water, and land continues to rise. Scientists have studied the patterns of spread of new pathogens from one host to other both in the tropical, and the Arctic areas. The results prove that the threat is increasing in proportion to the change of climate.

The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B has published an article recently that produces the work of two researchers. They are the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Daniel Brooks and the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service’s zoologist, Eric Hoberg. While Brooks is engaged with the University’s Laboratory of Parasitological department, Hoberg is a zoologist with the U.S. National Parasite Collection.

Brooks and Hoberg have spent the last three decades studying the Arctic and the tropical areas that have been affected by global warming. They claim that the assumption that parasites do not change hosts easily is false and needs rectification. They suggest that pathogens are genetically equipped to acquire new hosts quickly and easily. This has left the world at an increased potential threat of unknown and new pathogen attacks. Since the new hosts are unable to fight the new pathogens, they are at an increased danger as compared to their previous hosts.

Brooks explained that in Costa Rica, the parasites that infected the capuchin and spider monkeys earlier are now attacking howler monkeys. The shift of host was easy and quick for the parasites. He also cited the infections of the muskoxen, which are found in the north. The attacking lungworms were earlier known to attack caribou further south.

Brooks and Hoberg have raised the alarm to call together veterinary health communities, public health officials, and museum biologists to work collaboratively.

Source: University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Rare ray of hope in UN climate talks ahead of Paris meet next December

Feb 14, 2015 by Karla Fetrow Leave a Comment

The six-day UN climate talks session in Geneva generated a degree of optimism which many hope will bolster negotiators over the coming months. UN negotiators also produced an early draft of what should become a landmark climate agreement in Paris in December 2015.

Reuters reported that the member countries adopted an 86-page draft, which is expected to be finished later this year. The initial draft provides for a number of varying pitches, what is thought to be best path possible toward mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.

The “Like-Minded Developing Countries” group, including India, China, Saudi Arabia and several other Asian, African and South American countries, expressed the talks had been transparent, open and party-driven, and also welcomed the result.

Christiana Figueres, the head of the U.N. climate change secretariat, noted that countries are becoming fully aware about each other’s positions.

Alden Meyer, analyst at Union of Concerned Scientists, said this was possibly a very important meeting from a process point of view as well as from a psychological point of view. He pointed to significant consultations held with country representatives by the joint chairmen of the talks, ahead of Geneva meeting. Geneva session was one of four official meetings this year aimed at deriving consensus for adopting a universal climate pace ahead of the December conference in Paris.

Meyer said the Geneva session has paid off, as the people felt listened to, felt consulted and understood the process.

The U.S. is attempting to take a lead role in negotiations, but officials want the pact to be flexibly, and more importantly, not legally binding. The Geneva blueprint, at this point of time, represents the first-ever proposal with buy-in from all member nations.

Jennifer Morgan, climate director at the World Resources Institute think-tank, also expressed that the Geneva blueprint represents a much better measure of progress.

Scientists discover how to use Baking Soda to scrub CO2 caused global warming away

Feb 7, 2015 by Karla Fetrow Leave a Comment

Harvard University collaborated with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to come up with a innovative and creative way to reduce carbon emissions for industrial facilities. The group is utilizing micro capsules to create an industrial scrubber that will remove carbon emissions and help protect the environment.

The new discovery was recently published in the journal of nature communications and is a major breakthrough in fighting global warming.

Slowing Emissions

The new system consumes little power and uses environmentally friendly products so even it is earth friendly. Micro capsules are used in many applications that include food flavoring, prescription drugs, cosmetics and agricultural methods. They are used for controlled delivery and release but is set is unique and utilizes controlled capture.

The system also uses a lot of baking soda along with the micro capsulated carbon sorbents to absorb the CO2 emissions. This allows for large scale scrubbing of carbon emissions which is critical to controlling global warming.

Global Initiative

Global warming is a worldwide debate and proponents like former Vice President Al Gore remain adamant that it is causing unusual weather patterns and other environmental phenomenon that are destroying the planet and threading man. Many reports are advocating a global effort to lower carbon emissions and many countries have joined the coalition to achieve the goal. If this new technique is successful it could be a huge part of the effort to remove carbon emissions from large industrial plants.

The emissions these plants release are responsible for creating a effect on the atmosphere that raises global temperatures. This results in fluctuations of ocean temperatures and causes effects like El Niño that crate excessive hurricanes and storms. Every year leaders of many countries gather in Japan to discuss the effects of global warming and seek to institute efforts to lower carbon emissions among other things.

Sea Slugs migrate to north California as climate change intensifies

Feb 2, 2015 by Charles Omedo Leave a Comment

Millions of people don’t believe in any climate change or believe man’s activities have any impact on our world, but sea creatures amidst other land and air creatures are reacting to the onset of rising temperatures in our planet, and sending messages that global warming might indeed be real. This is played out when hundreds of sea slugs start to migrate to the cooler regions of northern California because their southern waters is getting unbearably warmer.

Humpback whales and dolphins amongst other sensitive creatures are already leaving the coastal waters of southern California and drifting in large numbers to Monterey Bay and other regions of northern California. Also known by scientists as nudibranchs, sea slugs have been confirmed by Terry Gosliner of the California Academy of Sciences as undergoing “population explosion” in the northern Californian waters.

“We haven’t seen anything like it in years,” said John Pearse, an emeritus professor of evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz.

The Hopkins’ Rosea is one of the popular species of sea slugs known in southern California, and its scientific name is Okenia rosacea. It has a bright pink body and commonly seen tide pool areas close to San Diego and Los Angeles, but they are starting to migrate as far away as San Luis Obispo, the Bay Area, and the Humboldt County.

“It’s the same weather pattern that’s kept the rain from coming and…causing the drought we’re seeing on land,” said Nate Mantua, a climate scientist at the NOAA Southwest Fisheries Research Center in Santa Cruz.

According to him, the sea surface temperatures this winter are averaging about 57 and 58 degrees from the Farallones to Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay, compared with a normal winter range of 52 to 53 degrees. According to the expert, the north winds in the winter strengthen the California current and the upwelling water brings cold water to the surface from deep below. But this winter, he said, those winds have weakened, the upwelling has slowed and the water has warmed.

“We haven’t seen this much warming along the coast since the last El Niño,” Gosliner said. “While we’re thrilled to see this beautiful bloom of normally rare nudibranchs, we’re concerned about the long-term consequences of our changing coastal environment,” he added.