EcoLocalizer

When you’re a paleontologist seeking to solve an ancient mystery–in this case, the demise of Ice Age ‘megafauna’ like Woolly Mammoths and Giant Sloths–you sometimes have to get down and dirty. Specifically, you have to collect and analyze fossilized poop.

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The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) recently teamed up with good50×70 to create a great collection of graphics depicting the climate change situation we are in today.

They are so great that I decided to share the news with you here.

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Earlier this month (Dec. 7, 2009), two Op-Ed columns appeared in the New York Times–one, by Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman, supporting ‘cap and trade’ strategies for reducing carbon emissions, and the other, authored by NASA’s James Hansen advocating a new approach that he calls ‘fee and dividend’. So, which is the most effective policy to pursue and implement?

The following is a break down of the two carbon-cutting strategies:

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To all of the people who had the goals and made the effort to bring positive change to the world in Copenhagen, here is one humungous thank you.

Everybody who worked on addressing this critical issue of human-accelerated and potentially catastrophic climate change deserves a hand of support right now, especially since what was agreed on in the final hour is quite a disappointment. Of course, some important movement was made, but some important targets and objectives were also completely missed, at least for now.

Everybody who made a sincere effort to protect the whole of humanity, countless species (perhaps 50% of those currently living), and a stable and supportive ecosystem, deserves a big thank you.

The results, some of which are summarized on the next page, may not match the great effort millions of people put in to bring positive climate change to the world (to reverse the current trends in greenhouse gas emissions and climate change). But for those who were struggling to bring a meaningful international agreement to the world, thank you.

For now, what have negotiators and world leaders achieved?
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A new report published in the journal Global Change Biology shows that 45 species of the Galapagos Islands have become extinct or are facing extinction largely due to human activities.

The main causes are the 1982 El Nino and overfishing. The results show the great vulnerability of this diverse area to significant climate change and human activities.

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An international team of scientists has determined that the Atlantic Ocean rose faster in the 20th century than at any time in the last 4,000 years, but not uniformly along the coast.

One of the researchers, assistant professor Benjamin Horton in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania, says: “There is universal agreement that sea level will rise as a result of global warming but by how much, when and where it will have the most effect is unclear.” He and other researchers have now started to tackle this issue.

Interestingly, the rate of sea level rise in recent years varies according to how far north or south you are on the coast.
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Sea level may actually rise much faster than previously expected, a new scientific study shows.

The study shows that by 2100, sea level could rise between 75 and 190 centimeters (about 2′6″ to 6′3″). The study uses very up-to-date data collected from satellites and builds on previous work by one of the authors. It is now published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The findings continue the scientific warnings that if we do not do something, climate change will take us on a snowball’s path to widespread and incomparable destruction.

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There is so much complexity in the politics of climate change right now, but as the Copenhagen climate negotiations heat up, I think there are a few simple childhood lessons to review or keep in mind.

Of course, action to stop climate change is not only about the politicians and international treaties. It is also largely about the individual actions, needs and demands of each person these politicians represent.

So, given that you are not likely to be directly involved in the discussions in Copenhagen, these are also for you on an individual level, in all of your individual decisions and purchases. Of course, you can send messages to your politicians asking them to stop climate change, too!
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The largest mass-extinction in the world is considered to have happened about 252 million years ago due to quick global warming or climate change. A new study shows how some ancestors of mammals are believed to have survived this mass-extinction.

Jörg Fröbisch and Kenneth Angielczyk from The Field Museum along with Christian Sidor from the University of Washington have recently identified the fossil remains of such a species in Antarctica.
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Fear. It is a simple emotion. It is a feeling. But it can also create something complicated — in what it makes us think and do. Fear drives many decisions in the world, and may often cause us to make the wrong decision.

The important thing is realizing the difference between thoughtful awareness of negative ramifications and the actual feeling of fear.

On the following pages, I delve into the relationship between fear and the climate change decisions we are making everyday on individual and larger systematic levels. Additionally, I delve a little more into the issue of fear itself.
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