Researchers from the space agency hope to provide the most detailed research yet on how global warming is devastating the ocean’s ecosystem.

Nasa’s said its first “dedicated oceanographic field campaign” on the earth will study the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of seas around the Arctic and its shifting ice conditions.

As part of their unprecedented research, scientists will study everything from the Arctic Ocean’s properties to the physiology of phytoplankton, the tiny creatures that are known as the base for marine food chain.

Scientists hope their vital research, part of a larger £7 million programme, could pave the way for a better understanding of how the ocean’s chemistry and ecosystems have changed due to climate change.

More than 40 scientists will spend just five weeks at sea as part of the “Impacts of Climate on Ecosystems and Chemistry of the Arctic Pacific Environment” mission (Icescape).

Paula Bontempi, Nasa’s ocean biology and biogeochemistry program manager, said the expedition, which will leave from Alaska next week, was the space agency’s first field campaign on the ocean.

“We’re continuing the objective that we have to pioneer scientific discoveries,” she said as she announced the programme on Tuesday.

“We’re trying to understand and protect our home planet.”

The project, funded by Nasa’s Science Mission Directorate, will concentrate on the Chukchi and Beaufort seas off Alaska, which scientists say are particularly vulnerable to global warming.

To read the comments section of this blog and others, and to listen to the bitter vitriol routinely spewed by folks who seem to revel in arguing about global warming, you might think Americans are divided on what to do about it.

Not so, at least according to a new poll of 1,024 adults in the U.S. performed by Yale University’s Yale Project on Climate Change Communication. Even as climate legislation sits gathering dust in Congress, Americans appear to strongly favor moving forward with renewable energy technologies, drastically cutting carbon dioxide emissions, and regulating CO2 as a pollutant.

Some key numbers from two reports issued yesterday, which are up since the last time the poll was performed in January following a significant downturn throughout the previous year (you can find them here and here):

* 87 percent of respondents support funding more research into renewable energy sources
* 83 percent support tax rebates for people who buy fuel-efficient vehicles and solar panels
* 77 percent support regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant
* 65 percent support signing an international treaty that requires the United States to cut its emissions of carbon dioxide 90 percent by the year 2050
* 61 percent support requiring electric utilities to produce at least 20 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources, even if it cost the average household an extra $100 per year

Now, the poll also showed that fully 45 percent of people think “there is a lot of disagreement among scientists about whether or not global warming is happening”. That’s simply not true — regardless of what you may think of scientists in general, they are overwhelmingly convinced that global warming is happening.

In all, 61 percent of the group said they believe global warming is happening. Of them, half believe humans are behind it, while 34 percent said the warming is down to natural processes.

So, while there is still a fair amount of disagreement among Americans about the causes of global warming, there is a surprisingly high level of support to move forward with new energy technologies and policy choices that will drastically cut our carbon emitting ways.

Perhaps lawmakers and pundits alike should dispense with the bickering and give the country what it wants: legislation that will push us towards a low-carbon energy future.

World governments are meeting this week to try to set up a new international body that would put the global destruction of the natural world on an equal footing with the threat of climate change.

The proposed new organisation would be modelled on the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC), which was set up 22 years ago.

Since then, it has launched global warming and climate change to the top of the political and economic agenda.

The meeting, at Busan in South Korea, follows growing evidence in the last few years about the huge rate of destruction of species and the ecosystem services they provide for humans – from regulating local weather and fertilising soil to providing a rich gene pool for medical researchers.

Another major report this summer, commissioned by the United Nations, is expected to say that the economic benefits of policies to protect and restore biodiversity are worth 10 to 100 times the costs

“If the true value of ecosystem services – economic, social and spiritual – were factored into decision-making, wetlands, forests and reefs would be viewed and treated very differently,” said French ecology secretary, Chantal Jouanno, and campaigner Janet Ranganathan in an article for the Guardian.

HOUSTON, June 9 (UPI) — A U.S. study suggests global warming may threaten animal and plant life in hot spots that were once thought to be less likely to suffer from climate change.

Research by Rice University Assistant Professor Amy Dunham is said to detail for the first time a direct correlation between El Nino-caused climate change and a threat to wildlife in Madagascar, a tropical island that acts as a refuge for many species that exist nowhere else in the world.

Dunham said most studies of global warming focus on temperate zones.

“We all know about the polar bears and their melting sea ice,” she said. “But tropical regions are often thought of as refuges during past climate events, so they haven’t been given as much attention until recently. We’re starting to realize that not only are these hot spots of biodiversity facing habitat degradation and other anthropogenic effects, but they’re also being affected by the same changes we feel in the temperate zones.”

Dunham said Madagascar’s biodiversity is an ecological treasure. “But its flora and fauna already face extinction from rapid deforestation and exploitation of natural resources,” she said. “The additional negative effects of climate change make conservation concerns even more urgent.”

The study that included Texas State University-San Marcos Associate Professor Elizabeth Erhart and Stony Brook University Professor Patricia Wright appears online ahead of print in the journal Global Change Biology.

BONN, Germany—While many developed-country governments are scaling back expectations on clinching a comprehensive deal by the end of this year on tackling climate change, leaders of developing countries pressed their appeal for unity and urgent actions to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change to which their nations are most vulnerable.

“Our survival is not negotiable. We need political will, and we should act now,” said Collin Beck of the Solomon Islands and vice chairman of the Alliance of Small Island States. He warned that most of the islands are doomed to disappear from sea-level rise and other climate impacts over the next 50 years.

Beck, in a meeting with the press here, said small islands in the Pacific are calling for legally binding agreements that would serve as a successor to the Kyoto Protocol at the next annual meeting of environment ministers in Cancun, Mexico, from November 29 to December 10.

Countries around the world are still to negotiate a comprehensive global agreement to deal with climate change, a prospective deal that fell apart in the change conference in Copenhagen last December.

“We are on the frontlines of the climate-change crisis. If governments failed to address funding for adaptation, technology transfer, deep emissions cuts, and finally a strong legally binding treaty, we are not ensured of our survival,” said Quamrul Islam Chowdhury of Bangladesh, the main negotiator for the Group of 77 poor nations. Banglades is a so-called estuary nation—a large part of its territory are deltas of rivers highly vulnerable even now to high tides.

The island states and countries like the Solomons, Bangladesh and the Philippines may be thousands of miles from the industrialized countries where most greenhouse gases are emitted, but they are proving to be the first to feel the effects of global warming with the rising sea level, fiercer typhoons, more frequent and deeper flooding, and severe drought.

BONN, Germany — The new U.N. climate chief says nations have no choice but to join forces to stop global warming, even after her predecessor said he doubts sufficient climate goals will be set by 2020.

Christiana Figueres was appointed last month to replace Yvo de Boer as head of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. On Monday, de Boer said the U.N.’s negotiation process was unlikely to deliver “adequate mitigation targets in the next decade.”

Still, Figueres told reporters at a U.N. climate conference Wednesday “there is no other option” but to meet the challenge of cutting greenhouse gas emissions enough to prevent drastic climate change.

She says the Copenhagen climate summit had some positive results even if it was “full of errors from which we can learn.”

A minute’s mobile-to-mobile chatter comes in at 57g, about the same as an apple, most of a banana or a very large gulp of beer. Three minutes has a similar impact to sending a small letter (written on recycled paper) by second-class post.

Mobile phones cause a fairly tiny slice of global emissions, but if you are a chatterbox using your mobile for an hour each day, the total adds up to more than 1 tonne CO2e per year – the equivalent of flying from London to New York, one way, in economy class.

Indeed, the footprint of your mobile phone use is overwhelmingly determined by the simple question of how often you use it. One estimate for the emissions caused by manufacturing the phone itself is just 16kg CO2e, equivalent to nearly 1kg of beef. If you include the power it consumes over two typical years (that’s about how long the average phone remains in use, even though most could probably last for 10 years) that figure rises to 22kg.

But the footprint of the energy required to transmit your calls across the network is about three times all of this put together, taking us to a best estimate of 94kg CO2e over the life of the phone, or 47kg per year. This breaks down as follows:

Base station 23.1kg
Administration 7.1kg
Manufacture 6.3kg
Switchboard 5.6kg
Phone energy 3.2kg
Transport before sale 1.6kg

In 2009 there were 2.7 billion mobiles in use: nearly half the world population has got one. On this basis, mobile calls account for about 125 million tonnes CO2e, which is just over one-quarter of a per cent of global emissions.

2.700.000 toneladas de dióxido de carbono.

Ésta es la cantidad estimada de CO2 -el gas con efecto invernadero que más contribuye al calentamiento global- que generará el Mundial de Fútbol Sudáfrica 2010. Ocho veces más CO2 que el mundial de Alemania en 2006.

Las cifras provienen de un estudio presentado en febrero del año pasado, cuyo objetivo era hacer un cálculo estimativo de las emisiones de carbono del Mundial, a fin de buscar la manera más eficiente de contrarrestarlas.

Sin embargo, en vísperas del inicio del evento, los autores del informe -comisionado por los gobiernos de Noruega y Sudáfrica a la consultora internacional Pöyri- consideran que la mayoría de sus recomendaciones cayeron en el vacío.

Aunque las autoridades locales (con ayuda y financiamiento de organismos internacionales y empresas privadas) han logrando implementar una serie de proyectos “verdes”, son pocas las emisiones que se compensarán al final del proceso, dicen los investigadores.

Volar, un mal inevitable

Uno de los principales factores que hace que el campeonato genere esta cantidad de CO2 son los vuelos internacionales de los equipos que vienen a jugar y del público que asiste al evento.

Este dato fue tomado en cuenta por primera vez para hacer esta clase de análisis.

Bonn,  (dpa) – Para los defensores del medio ambiente fue un golpe bajo que el responsable de Naciones Unidas para el Cambio Climático, Yvo de Boer, anunciara sin titubeos la expiración en los próximos años del acuerdo de Kyoto, efectivo sobre la protección del medio ambiente.

La comunidad internacional no conseguirá antes de 2020 entenderse para reducir drásticamente las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero. Así de claro fue de Boer, y él sabe de lo que habla, pues es uno de los diplomáticos con más experiencia en este tema y desde hace años dirige las complicadas negociaciones en la ONU.

También fue uno de los que estuvo en la última reunión a puerta cerrada de jefes de Estado y de gobierno de la cumbre de Copenhague, cuando aún había que salvar de alguna manera un acuerdo.

En la conferencia de Bonn, que se celebra estos días, se observa una tendencia peligrosa: un posible fin del Protocolo de Kyoto de 1997, que es hasta ahora el único acuerdo vinculante internacional sobre la protección del medio ambiente y el cual todavía no ha sido ratificado por Estados Unidos y China, a pesar de que estos países son los mayores contaminantes.

El primer periodo de cumplimiento de las obligaciones del protocolo expira en 2012, por eso desde hace años se está negociando una prórroga de manera paralela a la negociación sobre una solución mundial al problema del clima.

Jaime Plaza. Desde Bonn, Alemania
cumbre | 11:48 – miércoles 09/06/2010
Sin medidas a tiempo para frenar al cambio climático, más de 1 000 millones de habitantes de Bangladesh y de otros países del sudeste asiático sufrirán daños irreparables. Esa dramática advertencia hizo hoy Quamrul Islam Chowdhury, delegado principal de esa nación.

El llamado lo lanzó esta mañana, tras considerar que no hay avances de las negociaciones en la reunión mundial sobre cambio climático. La cita se realiza en el Hotel Maritim de Bonn, Alemania, con alrededor de 4 000 delegados de gobiernos, observadores y ONGs.

El delegado asiático, cuyo país integra el Grupo 77+China (incluye a Ecuador, para las negociaciones), aseguró que si no se logran concreciones en la Cumbre de Cancún, México, en noviembre próximo, será trágico para los países menos desarrollados. Incluso fue drástico al señalar que el planeta pudiera soportar un incremento de temperatura máximo de un 1°C, caso contrario los países insulares no solo perderán sus territorios, sino también su población.

Entre tanto, Ivo de Boer, secretario ejecutivo de la Conferencia de Cambio Climático de Naciones Unidas, emitió esta tarde, a las 15:00 (08:00 de Ecuador), su mensaje final. Conminó a sumar esfuerzos y “no tirar piedras a nuestro propio tejado”. Pidió aportar con soluciones a las organizaciones de observadores que han cuestionado el proceso.