Methane Time Bomb

As the Arctic sea warms up, the Methane hydrates beneath the ocean is melting , releasing millions of tons of Methane [a green house gas 23 times GWP that of CO2] into the atmosphere.

Recently, a Sep report from UK states that a Russian research ship has discovered that methane is bubbling up from thousands of square mile in the Siberian continental shelf.

The methane time bomb:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/exclusive-the-methane-time-bomb-938932.html

This is a phenomenal that the scentist are greatly worried about, because there is huge amounts of Methane hydrates beneath the Arctic oceans. [A Newspaper report shows that there is about 400 gigatons of Methane locked in the Arctic tandra.
Reference : http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1215-24.htm]

If a portion of those were to melt, it would trigger "Run away global warming". :/ :/ :X

The meltdown would lead to more global warming, causing less ice, warmer sea and in turn more meltdown. It is a positive feedback loop that acts upon itself. :(

The situation is urgent now, we have to do all we can to reduce green house gas emissions
now. Including switching to a vegetarian diet which will take away 20% green house gas emission by the livestock industries, reduce deforestation, and reduce environmental destruction.

Let's all make some lifestyle changes, for the planet, for ourselves and for our future generation.

With best wishes,
Low ck

Share an informative web with interviews with Climate Scientist

Hi friends : ) : ) ,

Just discovered a website that has many interviews with leading NASA climate scientist/
IPCC scientist / University lecturers and environmentalist on the various aspects of
Global Warming and how it is affecting the planet.

http://www.suprememastertv.com/bbs/board.php?bo_table=sos_video&sca=sosv_1
You can watch the interviews on line and even download it to your computer : ) : )

I'll recommend the following interviews :

1. Earth's tipping points: Interview with NASA's Director Jame's Hansen
2. The vital role of sea ice : Interview with Ted Scambos [a long-time scientist at the Poles]
3. From CO2 to Climate Change : Interview with Dr David Archer
4. The science and solution to Global Warming.
5. Prof Barry Brook on Livestock Agriculture and Climate Change
You can download them and watch when you have free time : )

They are greatly informative and genuine :)

Pls share with all who are concern about the environment.

Times News Article on Meat and Global Warming

The following link is an excellent article from TIMES Magazine on the link between the Meat industry and Global Warming.

Meat: Making Global Warming Worst:
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1839995,00.html

It has all the facts correct in layman terms.

I am glad that a widely-read and trusted magazine such as TIME Magazine is reporting on this subject. :) It's time for the world to be better informed on this matter : )

………

Extracts from the article :

“The worrisome news is that as the world economy grows, so does global meat consumption. The average person in the industrialized world eats more than 176 lb. of meat annually, compared with around 66 lb. consumed by the average resident of the developing world. As developing nations get richer, one of the first things citizens spend their extra income on is a more meat-rich diet. Whereas pork would once have been a rare luxury in China, today even the relatively poor in the country's cities can afford a little meat at almost every meal — so much so that pork imports to China rose more than 900% through the first four months of the year.

Producing all that meat will do more than just warm the world; it will also raise pressure on land resources. The FAO estimates that about 20% of the planet's pastureland has been degraded by grazing animals, and increased demand for meat means increased demand for animal feed — much of the world's grain production is fed to animals rather than to humans. (The global spike in grain prices over the past year is in large part due to the impact on grain supplies of the growing demand for meat.) The expanded production of meat has been facilitated by industrial feedlots, which bleed antibiotics and other noxious chemicals. And of course, the human health impact of too much meat can be seen in everything from bloated waistlines in America to rising rates of cardiovascular disease in developing nations, where heart attacks were once as rare as a T-bone steak. “

...........


Hopefully, the readers would consider to take less meat to reduce grain price, reduce pressure on land resource and for a better health.

For a start, consider taking 1 to 2 vege meals a day. Look out for vege stalls when eating out : ) : )

Let's work together for a more sustainable world,

Low ck

Are we Short of Water and Food?

Are we Short of Water and Food?:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6LTevuY77o

This short video shows clearly the relationship btw meat industry and world hunger / world water shortage. The world is using most of it water and food resource to feed the animals.
Is it logical to feed 740 million tons of food to the animals [enough food to feed 2 billion people] while leaving 900 million starving people in the world? Nope!
We have to use our resources more wisely. Take care of all the humans first!

Breaking News: What do VIPs say about Global Warming?

This video shows what the world leaders are saying on Global warming and it's urgency. It also recommends a vege solution. Very strong message for these urgent times : )

HRH The Prince of Wales introduces his rainforests project

This is the complete version. : )
The previous one is an extract : ) :)
Save the rainforest, save the planet.

The Prince of Wales speaks about the world's rainforests

Prince of Wales SOS Rainforest message:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS7XXzoUtpI

Prince Charles has done a lot of work on protecting the environment. He has been an environmentalist for a long time. :)
This video shows his dedication to protect the rainforest on Earth.
He urges the world to curb or stop deforestation altogether.
The world really need to see the rainforests as what they are, giant global utilities providing essential service to humanity on a vast scale. Amazon Rainforest helps stores the largest body of fresh water on the planet. Trees in Amazon Rainforest release 20 billion tons of water into the atmosphere everyday. Rain from the forest, waters half of Africa.

A climate scientist once said that if we lost the Amazon, we lost the fight against climate change.

And yet destruction of the Amazon rainforest goes on [according to an article I've read, deforestation of the Amazon is at the rate of 7 football fields a minute!!! 2000 trees are cut down a min]

Much of it was to provide land for cattle grazing and to produce crops to feed the cattles. :( :(

So pls have a heart, stop taking beef.
Save the rainforest for the continual survival of all in the planet.

Yes, be veg be green and save our planet!

Hopeful message:
Many governments are encouraging people to eat more vegetable and less meat. :):) If the media can join in to broadcast: Go Veg, Be Green to Save the Planet, it would help tremendously.
Let's hope everyone joins in to save the planet. Together we can make it!!! : )

2 recent reports on Global Warming

Recent reports on Global Warming:

Methane Gas release from Oceans:
A Storehouse of Greenhouse gases is opening up in Siberia:http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,547976,00.html

extracts:The report shows that Russian polar scientists have strong evidence that the first stages of Methane Hydrates melting are underway.In the permafrost bottom of the 200-meter-deep sea, enormous stores of gas hydrates lie dormant in mighty frozen layers of sediment. The carbon content of the ice-and-methane mixture here is estimated at 540 billion tons.

"This submarine hydrate was considered stable until now," says the Russian biogeochemist Natalia Shakhova.The permafrost has grown porous, says Shakhova, and already the shelf sea has become "a source of methane passing into the atmosphere."

The Russian scientists have estimated what might happen when this Siberian permafrost-seal thaws completely and all the stored gas escapes. They believe the methane content of the planet's atmosphere would increase twelvefold. "The result would be catastrophic global warming," say the scientists.

Animal Farming and Global warming:
Report on Global farm animal production and Global Warming: http://www.ehponline.org/members/2008/11034/11034.html

The report is a comprehensive study on how animal farming contributes to Global Warming.

Canadian Geneticist Part 1

Interview with David Suzuki. Human has forgot that we are part of nature. We also depend on clean air, clean water, clean soil for survival.
Human has the faculty to look to the future, look at the opportunities and the pitfalls and act accordingly.
Leading scientist are warning about climate issues and telling us about the catastrophies
that is ahead, but world leaders are not acting fast on it. [Because of economics etc,etc]:(
Log on to www.davidsuzuki.org for some solutions. Solution includes taking more vegetarian meals / taking public transport/ conserve electricity etc.

Canadian Geneticist Part 2

Part 2 of Interview. David talks about the people in the developed nations using too much resources of the planet. [Big house, huge spendings, lots of waste.] Developed nations have to reduce consumption. Humans have thought that consumption will lead to happiness. But actually it's harmonous human relationship that leads to happiness. Endless consumption has lead to huge environmental destruction.
Human have to put a value to everything. A CEO of a tree cutting company says that 'A tree has no economic value if it stays in a forest. It only has economic value if it is being cut down.' But we forget that when the tree is in the forest, it is a tremendous help to the environment. It absorbs CO2 from the air and place O2 into the atmosphere, it's roots hold the soil and prevent erosion, it provides shade and is a home to many animals. But all that has no economic value and so they cut the trees down. :( We really have to relook at our economic sense and put a priceless value on the trees, forests, clean water, coral reefs so that we will conserve these natural resources for the balance of the Ecosystems on Earth. : /

Canadian Geneticist Part 3

Interview with David Suzuki, scientist and environmentalist. Informative. He talks about the reverance for nature. The UN report: Lost of 55 thousand animal spieces per year. The analogy of we are like a car heading towards a brick wall at 100 miles/hr and yet no one is putting the brakes on. [The ones who knows are locked in the back of the car :( ] The interconnection of all life.

Al Gore: New thinking on the climate crisis

Share Al Gore's latest slideshow presentation [in Feb 08]

Al Gore latest slideshow presentation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUO8bdrXghs

It shows the urgent situation the planet is in.

I salute his sense of urgency and his message for us to adopt sustainable energy.

He argues that we are now in Global crisis.
Yet we are also at a point in history to make historic changes.

Abraham Lincoln's generation is a generation is a generation who make descions to abolish slavery. And hundreds year later, we still applaud that generation for making the right decision.

Let ours be a generation to adopt massive changes to switch to sustainable
green energy. [Solar /wind / wave] And a thousand years from now, the people would look back and say: "That is the generation that make the right choices and steer the world in the correct direction. This is the generation that resolutely resolves the climate issue and introduce the right type of energy resource for all the future generations. "

Let's act NOW , and let's make History.


Cheers and best wishes,
Low ck

Interviews with African delegates

Interviews with African delegates from Mali, Niger and Guinea-Bissau on the effects of climate change on the African continent. [Dry spells, draughts affecting food crops production]

Effects of Climate change on Canada

Recent Apr 08 interview with Dale Marshall, Canada’s climate policy analyst, on the effects of climate change on Canada. Source: http://www.suprememastertv.com/

Share research information about Global Warming

Hi friends,

I have done quite a bit of research into the urgent issue of global warming these few months.
Provide some links to the most updated news:

The following are some youtube documentaries about climate change and it's solutions:
Latest evidence of climate change:
Part I : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IPUttBunmg
Part II: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwXJul6mLug

Climate change : A planetary emergency:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c-UwQ3OF0g

A climate change documentary by Jewish community:
http://www.asacredduty.com/

Global Warming Time to act [A scroll of the latest effects of global warming] http://www.suprememastertv.com/bbs/board.php?bo_table=featured&wr_id=109

...........

The melting of Arctic and Antarctic Ice would speed up the raise in ocean temperature.
If the sea gets warm by a few degrees, it would cause the huge amounts of Methane Hydrates
in the ocean to melt and cause massive release of Methane gas.

The last time in history that this happens is 55 million years ago.
When that happens 94 % of life on Earth is wiped out : ( : ( : (

Problems of methane gas release from oceans:
Gas Releases Helped End Ice Ages:
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/02/26/methane-global-warming.html

Methane Bubbling From Arctic Lakes, Now And At End Of Last Ice Age: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071025174618.htm

Arctic lakes have already started to emit Methane gas. The Earth is in a perilous situation now.
: ( : (

.............

The good news is that we can still revise the effects now but will require the population
in the planet to adopt life style changes.

The way to save the planet lies in 4 steps.

1. Reduce Meat consumption. [Adopt a more plant-based diet]

Meat industry is very very destructive to the environment.
It accounts for :
20 % of green house gas emission.
70% of deforestation of the Amazon forest.
Extensive usage of food, water and land resources.
[In South America, 400 million hectares of soya crops are fed to animals for human consumption, only 25 million hectares would be needed be needed to directly feed
all the humans in the world. ]
Pollution of land and water resources. etc

As long as the demand is there, the meat industry would be there and continue to
cause destruction to the planet.

Only a major reduction in meat consumption can drop the demand and brake the meat
industry so that the land, water would have time to recover.

Government, Vege clubs, religious groups need to join in to help.

The UN knows about this and it's chief is urging the world .
"Don't eat meat, ride a bike and live fugally."

The world leaders [government] are listening, but their action is
really slow on this issue.

2. Plant trees. Large scale.

[The world is progressing on this one. With Billionaires like Warren Buffett coming in to buy large areas of Amazon forest, just to protect it. Countries like China, Taiwan, US is having many programs ' to plant millions of trees. ]

However, Brazil has announced recently that deforestation of the Amazon Forest would be doubled this year.[2008] The main reason for deforrestation is to create land for cattle grazing, create land for growing feed crops, and to create land to grow crops for Biofuels. This is truely depressing :( : (

3. Switch to clean/green energy.
[Solar power become more efficient, hybrid cars, biofuels, biowaste factory etc. ]


4. the 3 Rs [Reduce, Recycle, Reuse]
Reduce electricity, water usage. Use Energy efficient light bulbs, use less air-con, switch off
appliances when not in use. etc.
Conserve resources.
Recycle paper/plastics. Find ways to Reuse resources.

.....

Pls pass this urgent message to friends who are concern about the environment : )
Encourage them to make lifestyle changes. Everyone has to join in to save the planet
and all that live on the planet.

It's really that urgent.

Sigh. .. : (

Low ck.

NASA Climate Report on Global Warming-Including Interview with Professor Gerald Dickens

NASA Climate Report on Global Warming, highlights the latest findings that the Arctic ice could almost be all melted by 2012. Interview with Professor Gerald Dickens (associate Professor of Earth Sciences, Rice University, USA) on carbon dioxide in the Oceans. Dr Katey Walter report that Methane gas bubbling up from Artic Lakes adds to Global warming. It also contains an urgent message to adopt life style changes to brake global warming.

Climate Change: A Planetary Emergency

Global warming as a planetary Emergency. Ice shrinking at alarming rate. Greenland ice loss. Artic and Antartic ice loss. Premafrost layers melt. Increase ocean temperature etc. Steps to brake Global warming.

Climate Change: A Global Climate Change: A Global Response

Scientist and world leaders responding to climate change.

The Link Between Meat Eating and Climate Change

Jeremy Rifkin, president of the Foundation on Economic Trends, delivers a keynote address on the
devastating role factory farms are playing in the climate change crisis at Animal Legal Defense
Fund's "Future of Animal Law" conference at Harvard Law School in March 2007.

His reasoning is rational and his arguments are unbeatable :)

UN Report on Livestock

Findings from United Nation's 2006 Food and Agriculture Report " Livestock's long shadow"

Climate Change on Public Health

A good documentary on the effects of Global warming on public health

Latest Evidence of Global Warming - Part 1

Interviews with Climate Scientist on Global warming and it's solutions. [Artic ice melting, Oceans getting warmer, sea level rising etc] Very informative and detailed.

National Geographic "Effects of Global temperature rise"

Hi friends,

I came across this series of "Effects of Global Temperature increase - degree by degree "
produced by National Geographic.

Tried to link them in my blog but could only linked the 4/5/6 degrees warmer.

Place the youtube link of 2/3 degrees warmer in this post so that anyone who is
interested could click on the link and watch from youtube.

Attached the 4/5/6 degrees warmer youtube links too :)

National geographic : 2 Degrees Warmer: Ocean life in danger.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-0_gDXqYeQ&NR=1

National geographic : 3 Degrees Warmer: Heat Wave Fatalities: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rdLu7wiZOE&NR=1

National geographic : 4 Degrees Warmer: Great cities washed away:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skFrR3g4BRQ&NR=1

National geographic : 5 Degrees Warmer: Civilization collapse
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nRf2RTqANg&feature=related

National geographic : 6 degrees Warmer: Mass Extinction?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8qmaAMK4cM&feature=related

National Geographics are producing such good films.

They should broadcast it in the media so that the public would understand the urgency
of this issue. : (

4 Degrees Warmer: Great Cities Wash Away

A National Geographic video on the effects of increased temperature on the planet. 4 degrees warmer

5 Degrees Warmer: Civilization Collapses

A National Geographic video on the effects of increased temperature on the planet. 5 degrees warmer

6 Degrees Warmer: Mass Extinction?

A National Geographic video on the effects of increased temperature on the planet. 6 degrees warmer

John Baez - Ecological Damage from Global Warming

This is video of a Celebrated mathematical physicist John Baez.
He looks at global warming from an historical perspective, and details the widespread ecological damage that may result from rapid climate change.

This is in 13 Oct 2006

Girl's Speech @ UN Conference on Environment and Development

This spoken on Earth Summit [one of the first climate change conference held] back in 1992. The 12 year old girl is SUZUKI. She is a brave, beautiful and caring girl.
What she speaks continues to stay valid today.
The girl is already 30 odd years old today and she continues to fight the global warming cause.