Sunday, January 12, 2020

Tipping Point Identified for Deforestation That Leads to Rapid Forest Loss

Global satellite imagery shows transitions occur quickly after blocks of forest are cut in half.

University of Cincinnati geography researchers have identified a tipping point for deforestation that leads to rapid forest loss.
Geography professor Tomasz Stepinski used high-resolution satellite images from the European Space Agency to study landscapes in 9-kilometer-wide blocks across every inch of the planet between 1992 and 2015. He found that deforestation occurs comparatively slowly in these blocks until about half of the forest is gone. Then the remaining forest disappears very quickly.
Deforestation
The study was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Continue reading at: Tipping Point Identified for Deforestation That Leads to Rapid Forest Loss

Why climate models disagree on Earth's worst-case scenarios | Science News

Scientists still aren’t sure what the worst-case scenario for Earth’s future climate looks like

Earth’s climatic future is uncertain, but the world needs to prepare for change.
Enter climate simulations, which re-create the physical interactions between land, sea and sky using well-known physical laws and equations. Such models can look into the past and reconstruct ancient ice ages or hothouse worlds with the help of data gleaned from rocks and ice cores.

Image result for French climate models consistently predict a pronounced global warming"

But climate scientists also use these simulations to envision a range of different possible futures, particularly in response to climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions. These Choose Your Own Adventure–type scenarios aim to predict what’s to come as a result of different emissions levels over the next few decades. That means putting upper and lower boundaries on answers to questions such as: How hot will it get? How high will the seas rise?


Continue reading at: Why climate models disagree on Earth's worst-case scenarios | Science News

Mapping the Coal Ash Contamination | Earthjustice

Do you live near a coal plant? The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to allow companies to delay closing unlined, hazardous coal ash ponds.

President Trump's attempt to weaken coal ash pollution safeguards is nothing more than a total giveaway to the coal industry and must be rejected.

Tell the EPA to reject this harmful rollback.

The Ligurian Bees of Kangaroo Island - Features Journal - Native Food and Wine

The Ligurian Bees of Kangaroo Island - Features Journal - Native Food and Wine

Thursday, January 9, 2020

Australia: Like a Furnace – Incredible Satellite Images Reveal Ferocious Bushfires

More trees lost means faster into the climate catastrophe, more human misery, more wildlife suffering and death, more and faster loss of biodiversity and more of this planet's beauty gone - and who is to blame for all of this?




THE COPERNICUS SENTINEL-2 MISSION HAS BEEN USED TO IMAGE THE FIRES. THE SENTINEL-2 SATELLITES EACH CARRY JUST ONE INSTRUMENT – A HIGH-RESOLUTION MULTISPECTRAL IMAGER WITH 13 SPECTRAL BANDS. THE SMOKE, FLAMES AND BURN SCARS CAN BE SEEN CLEARLY IN THE IMAGE SHOWN HERE, WHICH WAS CAPTURED ON 31 DECEMBER 2019. THE LARGE BROWNISH AREAS DEPICT BURNED VEGETATION AND PROVIDE AN IDEA OF THE SIZE OF THE AREA AFFECTED BY THE FIRES HERE – THE BROWN ‘STRIP’ RUNNING THROUGH THE IMAGE HAS A WIDTH OF APPROXIMATELY 50 KM AND STRETCHES FOR AT LEAST 100 KM ALONG THE AUSTRALIAN EAST COAST. CREDIT: CONTAINS MODIFIED COPERNICUS SENTINEL DATA (2019), PROCESSED BY ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO



Continue reading at: Australia: Like a Furnace – Incredible Satellite Images Reveal Ferocious Bushfires

Michigan PFAS Drinking Water Standard

Please consider posting a citizen comment to demand that everything is done to protect our water from these dangerous pollutants!


Michigan PFAS Drinking Water Standard