Exploring my local river: The River Mole in Surrey
Sunlight falling on the earth’s surface is declining: this is called global dimming. This presentation on global dimming by Jessye and Maddie covers the discovery of global dimming, the research into it, impacts and solutions. It’s a Catch22: reducing global dimming may increase global warming, at least in the short term.
Stephen Hawking: “Our population and our use of the finite resources of planet Earth, are growing exponentially, along with our technical ability to change the environment for good or ill.”
Climate change is likely to be the cause of more extreme weather events as the world warms up. Climate scientists are getting closer to connecting recent floods with global warming, something which was difficult to pin down in the past.
For every degree increase in global average temperature, the atmospheric can contain 7% more moisture. This is not spread evenly, so some places will get wetter, others drier.
Yes, remarkably … see this beautifully clear astronaut photo taken of a perfectly formed shield volcano in the Sahara.
Half the world’s population—3 billion people—cook with wood, charcoal, dung, coal or agricultural residues on simple traditional stoves or open fires. The smoke causes significant health damage like chronic pneumonia, cancer and bronchitis, mostly in women and children. New cleaner stoves use less fuel, burn with less smoke and contribute less to climate change than fires: a truly sustainable technology.
An amazing archive of videos taken on the same day around the world: 10/10/10.
China has just overtaken Japan as the world’s second largest economy. It’s due to overtake the USA for pole position by 2020. Whilst lifting so many out of poverty is a good thing, many (mostly western!) commentators argue that China’s massive increases in house and land prices may overheat the economy. It’s also worth noting that the GDP per head is still streets behind HICs because China is so populous. Many of those people are still poor and being left behind in the race for growth.
A town in Northumberland shows how river management can reduce flooding by land management techniques.
Sediments washed off the land by recent floods in Australia have been dumped on the reef. This stress has now been coupled with physical damage from the recent cyclone. Throw in climate change and ocean acidification and the GBR has had a bad start to 2011. All is not lost, however, and scientists are confident of some recovery.
Geogy's 