Thursday, September 09, 2010
History of Greed - Vancouver Film School (VFS)
A negative thinker see a difficulty in every opportunity, A positive thinker see an opportunity in every difficulty, Wish u an optimistic life..
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
Dept. of Philosophy
A negative thinker see a difficulty in every opportunity, A positive thinker see an opportunity in every difficulty, Wish u an optimistic life..
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
Sunday, August 01, 2010
Ocean Losing Its Green - IPS ipsnews.net
Ocean Losing Its Green - IPS ipsnews.net
Ocean Losing Its Green
By Stephen Leahy
VIENNA, Jul 31, 2010 (IPS) - The oceans are the lifeblood of our planet and plankton its red blood cells. Those vital "red blood cells" have declined more than 40 percent since 1950 and the rate of decline is increasing due to climate change, scientists reported this week.
"Phytoplankton are a critical part of our planetary life support system. They produce half of the oxygen we breathe, draw down surface CO2, and ultimately support all of our fisheries," said Boris Worm of Canada's Dalhousie University and one of the world's leading experts on the global oceans.
"An ocean with less phytoplankton will function differently," said Worm, the co-author of a new study on plankton published this week in Nature.
Plankton are the equivalent of grass, trees and other plants that make land green, says study co-author Marlon Lewis, an oceanographer at Dalhousie. "It is frightening to realise we have lost nearly half of the ocean's green plants," Lewis told IPS.
"It looks like the rate of decline is increasing," he said.
Climate change is warming the oceans about 0.2C per decade on average. This warmer water tends to stay on top because it is lighter and essentially sits on top of a layer of colder water. This layering, or stratification, is a problem for light-loving plankton because they can only live in the top 100 to 200 meters.
Eventually they run out of nutrients to feed on unless the cold, deeper waters mix with those near the surface. Ocean stratification has been widely observed in the past decade and is occurring in more and larger areas of the world's oceans.
Phytoplankton or plankton are very small algae that live near the surface of oceans and form the basis of the marine food web. The unheralded plankton tribe may be the hardest- working group of organisms on the planet. Not only do they feed nearly everything living in the oceans, they absorb and sequester CO2 from the atmosphere, they also play a key role in cloud formation.
Plankton give off dimethyl sulfide, a chemical which floats to the ocean's surface, evaporates, breaking down into sulfur compounds that become the nuclei around which clouds form.
Without plankton, the Earth would be a very different planet.
The researchers spent three years analysing and synthesising an unprecedented collection of historical and recent oceanographic data involving nearly half a million measurements of the transparency of sea water over the past 120 years. Previously, the "big picture" regarding plankton globally only went as far back as 1997 with the launch of special satellites.
Worm, Lewis and colleague Daniel Boyce found that most phytoplankton declines occurred in polar and tropical regions, and in the open oceans where most phytoplankton production occurs. There was a direct correlation between rising sea surface temperatures and the decline in phytoplankton growth over most of the globe, especially close to the equator, they determined.
"With ocean temperatures increasing we had been wondering what the impacts might be," Worm told IPS in an interview in Potsdam, Germany.
In addition to the declines in plankton, declines in the numbers of species in tropical waters and increases in the number of species in temperate waters have been observed, he said. As on land, some marine species are exquisitely sensitive to temperature and will move if a region becomes too warm.
Another related mega-change in the oceans is the dramatic increase in number and size of dead zones - areas too low in oxygen to support life. Fertiliser and sewage run-off cause huge growth of plankton, which then quickly die and are consumed by bacteria that deplete waters of oxygen. The Gulf of Mexico has a 22,000 square kilometre dead zone every spring due to run-off from the Mississippi River.
Ocean stratification, where warm water sits firmly on top of cold, nutrient-rich water, also creates dead zones and lowers the overall productivity of the oceans, says Worm. Such dead zones were rare 40 years ago but now number several hundred. Without urgent action, climate change will continue to warm oceans, increasing stratification and producing larger and more dead zones with a major impact on future fisheries, a 2009 study in Nature Geoscience warned.
It will take a thousand years for the oceans to cool down, so it is imperative to pull the emergency brake on global warming emissions, the study concluded.
Another pressing reason to pull the emergency brake is the increasing acidification of oceans due to human emissions of CO2. Each day, the oceans absorb 30 million tonnes of CO2, gradually and inevitably increasing their acidity, which in turn reduces the amounts of calcium carbonate available to some plankton and other species that need it to form their shells and skeletons.
There is no controversy about this basic chemistry. The only debate is about the extent and timing of the impacts. Recent research in the Arctic previously reported by IPS suggests that within 10 years, parts of the Arctic Ocean will be too acidic for most species.
Lewis agreed acidification is a major threat to some species of plankton but said their study was not able to specifically identify the impacts.
The only way to reduce ocean acidification is with substantial cuts in emissions of CO2, say experts like Australia's Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, director of the Global Change Institute at the University of Queensland.
Hoegh-Guldberg co-authored a review of dozens of studies on the state of the oceans in Science magazine Jun. 18. It paints a terrifying picture of the global oceans rapidly sliding towards a "fundamental and irreversible ecological transformation" not seen in millions of years.
"We need to cut global emissions by five percent per annum starting right now," he writes along with co-author John Bruno, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina.
Inaction is not an option given the huge consequences, but fortunately we already know what to do, they say. National support for creating competitive renewable energy supplies and halting deforestation in Brazil and Indonesia would result in major reductions of greenhouse gas emissions.
Protecting and restoring coastal vegetation, including mangroves, salt marsh and sea grasses - dubbed "blue carbon" - would maintain or increase the ability of marine ecosystems to capture and permanently store carbon dioxide.
"Furthermore, all of these solutions have huge benefits for people and biodiversity," they conclude.
(END)
Ocean Losing Its Green
By Stephen Leahy
VIENNA, Jul 31, 2010 (IPS) - The oceans are the lifeblood of our planet and plankton its red blood cells. Those vital "red blood cells" have declined more than 40 percent since 1950 and the rate of decline is increasing due to climate change, scientists reported this week.
"Phytoplankton are a critical part of our planetary life support system. They produce half of the oxygen we breathe, draw down surface CO2, and ultimately support all of our fisheries," said Boris Worm of Canada's Dalhousie University and one of the world's leading experts on the global oceans.
"An ocean with less phytoplankton will function differently," said Worm, the co-author of a new study on plankton published this week in Nature.
Plankton are the equivalent of grass, trees and other plants that make land green, says study co-author Marlon Lewis, an oceanographer at Dalhousie. "It is frightening to realise we have lost nearly half of the ocean's green plants," Lewis told IPS.
"It looks like the rate of decline is increasing," he said.
Climate change is warming the oceans about 0.2C per decade on average. This warmer water tends to stay on top because it is lighter and essentially sits on top of a layer of colder water. This layering, or stratification, is a problem for light-loving plankton because they can only live in the top 100 to 200 meters.
Eventually they run out of nutrients to feed on unless the cold, deeper waters mix with those near the surface. Ocean stratification has been widely observed in the past decade and is occurring in more and larger areas of the world's oceans.
Phytoplankton or plankton are very small algae that live near the surface of oceans and form the basis of the marine food web. The unheralded plankton tribe may be the hardest- working group of organisms on the planet. Not only do they feed nearly everything living in the oceans, they absorb and sequester CO2 from the atmosphere, they also play a key role in cloud formation.
Plankton give off dimethyl sulfide, a chemical which floats to the ocean's surface, evaporates, breaking down into sulfur compounds that become the nuclei around which clouds form.
Without plankton, the Earth would be a very different planet.
The researchers spent three years analysing and synthesising an unprecedented collection of historical and recent oceanographic data involving nearly half a million measurements of the transparency of sea water over the past 120 years. Previously, the "big picture" regarding plankton globally only went as far back as 1997 with the launch of special satellites.
Worm, Lewis and colleague Daniel Boyce found that most phytoplankton declines occurred in polar and tropical regions, and in the open oceans where most phytoplankton production occurs. There was a direct correlation between rising sea surface temperatures and the decline in phytoplankton growth over most of the globe, especially close to the equator, they determined.
"With ocean temperatures increasing we had been wondering what the impacts might be," Worm told IPS in an interview in Potsdam, Germany.
In addition to the declines in plankton, declines in the numbers of species in tropical waters and increases in the number of species in temperate waters have been observed, he said. As on land, some marine species are exquisitely sensitive to temperature and will move if a region becomes too warm.
Another related mega-change in the oceans is the dramatic increase in number and size of dead zones - areas too low in oxygen to support life. Fertiliser and sewage run-off cause huge growth of plankton, which then quickly die and are consumed by bacteria that deplete waters of oxygen. The Gulf of Mexico has a 22,000 square kilometre dead zone every spring due to run-off from the Mississippi River.
Ocean stratification, where warm water sits firmly on top of cold, nutrient-rich water, also creates dead zones and lowers the overall productivity of the oceans, says Worm. Such dead zones were rare 40 years ago but now number several hundred. Without urgent action, climate change will continue to warm oceans, increasing stratification and producing larger and more dead zones with a major impact on future fisheries, a 2009 study in Nature Geoscience warned.
It will take a thousand years for the oceans to cool down, so it is imperative to pull the emergency brake on global warming emissions, the study concluded.
Another pressing reason to pull the emergency brake is the increasing acidification of oceans due to human emissions of CO2. Each day, the oceans absorb 30 million tonnes of CO2, gradually and inevitably increasing their acidity, which in turn reduces the amounts of calcium carbonate available to some plankton and other species that need it to form their shells and skeletons.
There is no controversy about this basic chemistry. The only debate is about the extent and timing of the impacts. Recent research in the Arctic previously reported by IPS suggests that within 10 years, parts of the Arctic Ocean will be too acidic for most species.
Lewis agreed acidification is a major threat to some species of plankton but said their study was not able to specifically identify the impacts.
The only way to reduce ocean acidification is with substantial cuts in emissions of CO2, say experts like Australia's Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, director of the Global Change Institute at the University of Queensland.
Hoegh-Guldberg co-authored a review of dozens of studies on the state of the oceans in Science magazine Jun. 18. It paints a terrifying picture of the global oceans rapidly sliding towards a "fundamental and irreversible ecological transformation" not seen in millions of years.
"We need to cut global emissions by five percent per annum starting right now," he writes along with co-author John Bruno, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina.
Inaction is not an option given the huge consequences, but fortunately we already know what to do, they say. National support for creating competitive renewable energy supplies and halting deforestation in Brazil and Indonesia would result in major reductions of greenhouse gas emissions.
Protecting and restoring coastal vegetation, including mangroves, salt marsh and sea grasses - dubbed "blue carbon" - would maintain or increase the ability of marine ecosystems to capture and permanently store carbon dioxide.
"Furthermore, all of these solutions have huge benefits for people and biodiversity," they conclude.
(END)
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Friday, July 09, 2010
Tuesday, July 06, 2010
Sunday, July 04, 2010
Magnetic Map
Extraordinary map reveals Earth's gravity field for the first time
It is one of the most fundamental and mysterious forces in the Universe.
But this is the first glimpse of what the gravity field which surrounds the Earth looks like in a unique map created be a sophisticated European satellite.
The map is known as a geoid - an imaginary global ocean dictated by gravity in the absence of tides and currents.
It was first described almost 200 years ago but this is the first time it has been mapped in real-time.
Earth's gravity field as captured by the GOCE satellite gives an unprecedented view of how the force acts on our planet. The differences in gravitational force are represented using colours that show -100 metres up to 100 metres.
Gravity does not exert an equal force everywhere on Earth. Factors such as the rotation of the planet, the effects of mountains and density variations in Earth’s interior mean that this fundamental force is not quite the same all over.
The extraordinary map will be used to measure ocean circulation, sea-level change and ice dynamics.
'GOCE is delivering where it promised: in the fine spatial scales,' GOCE Mission Manager Rune Floberghagen said.
'We have already been able to identify significant improvements in the high-resolution 'geoid', and the gravity model will improve as more data become available.'
ESA launched GOCE in March 2009 to map Earth's gravity with unprecedented accuracy and resolution.
The model, based on only two months of data, from November and December 2009, shows the excellent capability of the satellite to map tiny variations in Earth’s gravity.
GOCE’s final gravity map and geoid will be used in geophysics and surveying to oceanography and sea-level research.
Dr Floberghagen added.' Over continents, and in particular in regions poorly mapped with terrestrial or airborne techniques, we can already conclude that GOCE is changing our understanding of the gravity field.'
'Over major parts of the oceans, the situation is even clearer, as the marine gravity field at high spatial resolution is for the first time independently determined by an instrument of such quality.'
Chairman of the GOCE Mission Advisory Group, Prof. Reiner Rumme said: 'With each two-month cycle of data, the gravity model will become more detailed and accurate. I am convinced that the data will be of great interest to various disciplines of Earth sciences.'
The satellite was designed to orbit at a very low altitude because gravitational variations are stronger closer to Earth.
Since mid-September 2009, GOCE has been in its gravity-mapping orbit at a mean altitude of just 254.9 km – the lowest orbit sustained over a long period by any Earth observation satellite
Air at this low altitude causes the orbit of a standard satellite to decay very rapidly. But GOCE nullifies the drag by firing an ion thruster using xenon gas to boost its orbit.
It ensures the gravity sensors are flying as though they are in pure freefall, so they pick up only gravity readings and not the disturbing effects from other forces.
To obtain clean gravity readings, there can be no disturbances from moving parts, so the entire satellite is a single extremely sensitive measuring device.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1290808/Earths-gravity-field-revealed-extraordinary-map-time.html#ixzz0sjPJjJpM
Largest Jaws
Monster of the Deep: Scientists find fossil skull of 43ft long whale which had 14in teeth
A new species of 'killer' sperm whale with fearsome teeth that roamed the seas more than 12 million years ago has been discovered by scientists.
The fossilised skull and jaw of the gigantic creature, which was 43ft long with a 10ft head, were found off the coast of Peru.
It is believed the creature would have preyed on other whales as it boasted 14in teeth.
Predator: The Leviathan melvillei would have attacked and killed other large whales, according to scientists
Dubbed Leviathan Melvillei –after Herman Melville the author of the fictional Moby Dick – it has been described in the journal Nature as the largest fossil sperm whale ever found.
In terms of size and appearance, it would have been much like a modern whale – however, Leviathan would have been an aggressive predator, unlike today’s creatures.
While now the whales they have a big bite, their teeth are relatively small and are restricted to the lower jaw - and they feed by suction.
But Dr Olivier Lambert, of the Natural History Museum, in Paris, said the fossil’s jaw had huge teeth on both sides, giving it the biggest bite ever to kill prey up to 26ft long.
'Sea monster': Three lower teeth (a,b,c) of Leviathan melvillei compared to teeth of the modern sperm whale
Dr Lambert said: ‘This sperm whale could firmly hold large prey with its interlocking teeth, inflict deep wounds and tear large pieces from the body of the victim.
‘With their large size and robust jaws, Leviathan adults were surely free from predation.
‘It was a kind of sea monster.
‘And it’s interesting to note that at the same time in the same waters was another monster, which was a giant shark about 15 metres long. It’s possible they may have fought each other.’
Anthony Friscia, a paleontologist at the University of California, Los Angeles said scattered finds of huge fossilised teeth had long hinted at the ancient whale's existence.
But without a skull to fit them in, the creature's shape, size and feeding habits remained a mystery.
'The fact that they have found the entire jaw - well, almost the entire skull - is what's pretty unprecedented,' he said.
The ancient beasts 'were the killer whales of their time, although on a much grander scale,' Friscia said. 'They were close to the biggest things around.'
The Natural History Museum in Rotterdam will exhibit reconstructions of the sea monster later this year.
Discovery: The fossil was found by researchers in the Pisco-Ica desert, Peru
Casts of the three largest teeth are on display now.
The three-metre fossilised skull was discovered by researchers in southern Peru in 2008.
The unique fossil will remain in Peru, in the collection of the Natural History Museum in Lima.
Dr Lambert and colleagues said: 'This sperm whale could firmly hold large prey with its interlocking teeth, inflict deep wounds and tear large pieces from the body of the victim, as performed on a smaller scale by the delphinid Orcinus, the main modern meat-eating cetacean.'
'The killer whale (Orcinus orca), commonly referred to as the orca - and, less commonly, blackfish - is the largest species of the oceanic dolphin family.
'It has been reported occasionally to cooperatively attack and kill most of the large baleen whale species and sperm whales, as well as smaller fish and seabirds.'
The researchers, whose findings are published in Nature, added: 'With their large size and robust jaws, Leviathan adults were surely free from predation.'
The sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) that now roams our oceans has a totally different choice of food and way of feeding.
It feeds on squid that are taken by suction feeding at great depths. This modern sperm whale has smaller teeth in the lower jaw with the upper jaws being practically toothless.
Sperm whales have huge brains that weigh about 20 pounds, the largest of any animal.
It is estimated there are about 200,000 world-wide and they are now considered an endangered species.
These whales, and many other large whales, were over-hunted for many years, since their meat, oil, and other body parts are very valuable.
Since whale hunting has decreased in the last few decades, their populations are starting to recover
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1290945/Leviathan-Fossil-sea-monster-whale-14in-teeth-scientists.html#ixzz0sjNedIvD
Man's impact on world's water supply
Revealed: Shocking satellite images of lakes show extent of man's impact on world's water supply
These dramatic before-and-after satellite photos show the terrifying effect man is having on the world's resources.
Taken over nearly 40 years, photographs show the drying up of several bodies of water around the world - receding as mankind's demand for water grows.
Included in the shocking collection is the once mighty Aral Sea in Central Asia.
The expanse of water, like several others across the globe, has been reduced to worryingly sparse levels. In April the situation at the Aral Sea was described as 'one of the planet's worst environmental disasters' by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.
1973: Satellite image of the Aral Sea used to be the fourth largest lake in the world
1999: More than 25 years on the sea has noticeably shrunk to less than half its size
2009: Satellite image taken last year shows a situation described as 'one of the planet's worst'
Shown here in images taken from space between 1973 and 2009, slowly but surely the Aral - in fact a salt water lake - has shrunk from being the size of Ireland to a cluster of contaminated ponds.
An inland lake, the Aral is found between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan and used to be the fourth largest lake in the world. Since the 1960s, it has lost more than half of its volume.
The drying is due to overuse of the lake's feeder rivers. In the 1960s the former Soviet Union diverted the Syr Darya and Amu Darya for the irrigation of cotton and paddy fields.
Now 50 years later the water is at a dismal 10 per cent of its level when the projects first began.
So great was the impact on the region the local climate was thought to have changed and pollution has risen to dangerous levels.
The destruction of the lake has also decimated the local fishing industry, causing severe knock-on unemployment and further economic woe for the people living around it.
Across the globe once rich and fertile lands are facing the same catastrophe.
Arid and desolate Iraq was once a green, lush environment even reputed to be the setting of the Garden of Eden.
Seen from above between 1973 and 2000 the Mesopotamia marshlands straddle the borders between Iraq and Iran near the mighty Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
1990: Satellite image of drained areas (grey) amongst marshland (dark red) around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Iraq. Darker areas show deep water
2000: The same image shows how dramatically the water has receded in just 20 years. The rivers were drained to provide agricultural land
The marshes were systematically drained in the mid- to late 20th century. This was done to provide agricultural land, but also to destroy the habitat of the Shi'a Muslim Marsh Arabs, who were persecuted by the Iraqi ruling Ba'athist Party.
Also included in the before-and-after pictures are the Toshka Lakes, in southern Egypt.
They were formed in the 1990s by diverting water from Lake Nasser, an artificial lake formed behind the Aswan High Dam on the river Nile.
The region was planned to be a major new agricultural and industrial site for Egypt. But as these images show, the region is drying fast.
One image taken in March 2001, shows the lakes near their maximum capacity. A later satellite picture from December 2005 shows how the waters receded due to drought and rising demand for water, leaving a ring of brown wetlands around the edges of the lakes.
Lake Chad, located in the Sahel region near the Sahara, was the fourth largest lake in Africa in the 1960s and had an area of more than 10,000 square miles.
But by the 21st century it had shrunk to less than 600 square miles - around a twentieth of its size. This was caused by increased use of irrigation combined with severe droughts.
The Toshka Lakes in southern Egypt were formed in the 1990s by diverting water from Lake Nasser, an artificial lake that formed behind the Aswan High Dam on the river Nile.
The region was planned to be a major new agricultural and industrial site for Egypt but as these images show - between 2001 and 2005 - the region is drying fast.
The waters have receded, leaving a ring of brown wetlands around the edges of the lakes, because of drought and a rising demand for water in the area.
Dr Benjamin Lloyd-Hughes of the Walker Institute for climate system research, University of Reading, said: 'Ultimately the disaster seen at the Aral Sea and the marshes are the combined effects of man and rising temperatures in those regions.
'There has not been much change in rainfall in those areas but the temperature has risen by over 1 degree Centigrade since 1970, which will have enhanced losses due to evaporation.
'Pollution in the area will have become worse because as the water evaporates, pollutants in the water become more concentrated and less diluted.'
At Lake Chad and the Toshka Lakes the same effect of man in combination with climate change has been observed.
Dr Lloyd-Hughes added: 'There has been a 30% reduction in annual rainfall since 1900 in these regions but not a significant change in temperature.
'Reductions in lake levels here seem to driven by reductions in rainfall rather than increased evaporation.
'The outlook is that there will be no change in rainfall but temperature could increase by another two degrees Centigrade by 2100. This is not good but not so bad as for the Aral Sea and Mesopotamia.
'Global warming is a problem that is happening everywhere but if drought is happening in your region then it is a far greater problem.'
With the growth of mass-agriculture to feed a severely ballooning global population, water demand has begun to perilously outstrip supply, making disasters like the Aral Sea a grim and alarming likelihood for the future.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1291433/Shocking-extent-mans-impact-worlds-water.html#ixzz0sjL7jPmF
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