Vardaman Virtual Forestry Company
FRIDAY REPORT OF 01/12/07
The Most Direct, Frequent Link to Knowledge Workers in the Eastern Forest Economy
“2007 TO BE WARMEST YEAR ON RECORD, FORECASTERS SAY”
Portions of an article from National Geographic News of 01/04/07
“An El Nino weather phenomenon combined with high levels of greenhouse gases are likely to make 2007 the warmest year ever recorded, British climate scientists said today. U.S. government scientists agree with the assessment.
“According to the British forecasters, 2007 will probably be 0.97 degree Fahrenheit (0.554 degree Celsius) above the long-term average of 57 degrees Fahrenheit (14 degrees Celsius)…
“David Parker is a climate-variability scientist with the Hadley Centre who helped prepare the forecast. The new calculations add to the ‘ongoing evidence that global warming is real and is sort of getting worse,’ he said. According to Parker, ‘2007’s record-breaking warmth will result from an El Nino weather pattern that is riding on top of warmer global temperatures caused by greenhouse gas emissions…puts more heat into the air, and that gets carried around the world by the wind,’ Parker said. This warm El Nino air adds to global temperatures boosted by increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, he added…There was a strong El Nino in 1998, the current warmest-year record holder…
“Thomas Karl is the director of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, North Carolina. He said the British forecast makes sense given the moderate El Nino already in place…
“Karl added that with each succeeding El Nino event, new warmest-year records are likely to be set. ‘This does not imply that it is only during El Ninos we could see new record highs. But in general temperatures will continue to rise as greenhouse gases increase,’ he said. But, he added, a major volcanic eruption could throw thick clouds of light-blocking chemicals into the air and ‘upset such a prediction.’”
To read the complete article, click on http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/01/070104-warmest-year.html
“GREEDY GUTS?”
Portions of an article from The Economist of 01/04/07:
“Although most people prefer not to think about it, human guts are full of bacteria. And a good thing, too. These intestinal bugs help digestion, and also stop their disease-causing counterparts from invading. In return, their human hosts provide them with a warm place to live and a share of their meals. It is a symbiotic relationship that has worked well for millions of years.
“Now it is working rather too well. A group of researchers led by Jeffrey Gordon, of the Washington University School of Medicine, in St. Louis, has found that some types of microbes are a lot better than others at providing usable food to their hosts. In the past, when food was scarce, those who harboured such microbes would have been blessed. These days, paradoxically, they are cursed, for the extra food seems to contribute to obesity. Worse still, these once-benign microbes have even subtler effects, regulating the functioning of human genes and inducing the bodies of their hosts to lay down more fat than would otherwise be the case…
“He and his team reported that obese people have a different mix of gut microbes from that found in lean people – a mix that is more efficient at unlocking energy from the food they consume. Although individuals can harbour up to a thousand different types of microbes, more than 90% of these belong to one or other of two groups, called Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes. The researchers sequenced bacterial DNA from faecal samples taken from volunteers and discovered that those who were obese had a higher proportion of Firmicutes than lean people did…”
To read the complete article, click on http://www.economist.com/science/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=8486096
“HOSTAGES TO FORTUNE
The editor of The World in 2007 sticks his neck out”
Portions of an article from The Economist of 01/05/07
“Senator John McCain, front-runner for the Republican nomination for the 2008 presidential election, writes that ‘global warming is a reality and portends a dire future for all, should insufficient action be taken.’
‘Without action on the environment,’ echoes David Cameron, the leader of Britain’s Conservative Party, ‘conflicts between nations and ideologies, however profound, are mere self-indulgence.’ Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, cites climate change as a reason for greater energy co-operation in Europe.
“It is not only politicians – and their voters – who have climate change on their minds. Companies and investors are increasingly interested too. Money is pouring into funds ready to invest in ‘cleantech’, a category which embraces alternative energy. Even Texas, a state usually associated with Big Oil, is getting big on renewables. Three huge ethanol plants are under construction in the Panhandle. President George Bush could even surprise those who know him as the Toxic Texan, by going green in 2007.
“Certainly, in 2007 the matter of global warming will be impossible to ignore. The UN-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will make sure of that when it publishes its weighty fourth report. It will make gloomy reading, drawing together alarming developments in climate-change science…”
To read the complete article, click on http://www.economist.com/daily/diary/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8468597
“SOUTH LOUISIANA IS SLIDING INTO THE SEA, STUDY SAYS”
Portions of an article in National Geographic News on 01/08/07:
“A large part of southeast Louisiana is slowly sliding into the Gulf of Mexico, according to a recent report from the American Geophysical Union. ‘This whole section is moving south-southeast and pulling apart from the rest of the country up in the Lake Ponchartrain region,’ said lead study author Roy Dokka, executive director of the Center for Geoinformatics at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. It’s actually crumpling down at its toe at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.’
“Reporting in the December 2006 issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters, Dokka and colleagues note that the speed at which the region moves is equivalent to that of a glacier – little more than a couple millimeters a year.
“Timothy Dixon, a study co-author and professor of geology and geophysics at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, says there is no need for panic. “Based on current rates, it would take thousands of years for that process to have any serious effects,” Dixon said. “It just means that New Orleans will [have an elevated] risk of flooding…”
To read the complete article, click on
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/01/070108-louisiana-sliding.html
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