Parody magazine

This is from Finnish online parody magazine Lehti

Scientists: Climate change might not be connected to climate change
(BUENOS AIRES)

According to scientists the recent exceptionally strong and frequent storms and the changed climage in general might not have anything to do with the climate change. Climate scientist Carindustry Edom agrees.

"It's true that climate has changed, but it doesn't mean that the climate change is reality. Climate change is more like an impending abstraction, that might happen in future or not. But one shouldn't consider it as an excisting fact" Edom reminds.

UN report on nature desctruction

Finnish YLE: UN report: Destruction of nature accelerating

Man caused descruction of nature has never been as fierce as now and it's just getting worse, says Millennium Ecosystem Assessment report made by UN.

The last 50 years have changed the world's ecosystems more than any period in man's history. Big part of the changes made cannot be annuled. The worst threat is the warming of climate caused by fossil fuel. In near future there will more dramatic and fast changes in local environments, such as forest fires, death of sea beds and disease epidemics.

Scientists give advice what to do in future to change the way of destructive progress. People should consume differently, use natural resources should be limited, new nature friendly technology should be taken into use and there should be education how to do all this.


(Reuters, STT)

Forest aerosols to slow down climate warming

Finnish news about forests

The aerosols produced by forests might slow down the climate warming. Also the forests work as carbon eaters that will tie up carbon dioxide from air. Aerosols reflect sun light back to space by forming clouds and thus making climate cooler.
Warmer climate in Finland might lead to increase of growing forests, which would also mean more aerosols.

(STT)

Artic ice melting faster

Finnish broadcasting company is pretty much the best news agency for climate change news, I've noticed. Almost everyday there's an interesting article of environment, but as everything is in Finnish, I'm going to do little summaries here for people interested in climate change. Here's link to the news.

Arctic ice melting faster and faster
Artic ice has melted to its smallest size since hundred years. The melting of ice is nowadays faster and starts earlier than before, which was witnessed already in 2002 in Siberia and Alaska. Now the same is happening also at arctic seas. The ice cover is five times as lighter than it usually has been during last 30 years.

Arctic area specialists say the phenomenon is partly cased by climate change. Also the greenhouse effect will get worse because snow and ice reflect sunshine back to space better than water does.

Prediciton for temperature rise at artic areas is thought to be from 4 to 7 Celsius degrees before 2100. Siberia's permafrost has started melting, and iceage old frozen swamps are now lakes and mud. In hundred years the metan coming from swamps would make climate change effect 10 to 25 procent faster. In Alaska there's huge insect groups, the forest fires have increased and even some buildings have started sinking into the melting ground.

There's no way to stop the melting anymore and northern areas will get warmer faster than other parts on earth in average. Scientists say that Siberia has gotten 3 degrees warmer in 40 years. In 2001 IPCC specialists predicted that earth will warm up 6 degrees, but now they have to recalculate with the news from Siberia in mind.

So far the climate has gotten 0,7 degrees warmer since 1750. 2 degrees rise would mean dangerous changes to the climate, meaning more floods, storms and droughts. When polar ice starts melting summer time it will mean death to artic species, such as polar bears and some seal species. It would also change the lifestyle of inuits and sami people. The forests would start growing further north and tundra ecosystem would need to move from its way. Also the life of birds that nest in artic areas would be different, which would affect on the whole biodiversity of the planet.

(YLE24, AP, AFP, BBC)

Famines will get worse

More news from Finnish site.

Climate change will make famines worse

UN's new report tells that the amount of people in hunger will grow by the climate change. The worst off will be the Africa in south of Sahara.

Climate change will weaken the harves in 40 third world country, with population in total of 2 billion. Of those 450 million people are already suffering of malnutrition. Situation will just go worse as the growing season will get shorter in Africa as well as in India, but for exampe in China the climate change will increase the crops by 15 procent. Climate change will also bring plant and animal diseases and pests.

(YLE)

Population growth accelerating climate change

From Finnish broadcasting company again

Population growth increasing greenhouse pollution.

As the population grows, the poor countries get richer and wealthy countries don't cut down their pollutions the increasing of greenhouse effect will continue says scientist Tim Dyson. He also believes that increase of carbon dioxide and other pollution gas will also make the climate get warmer faster.

Dyson mentions that even if the pollution per person stayed at the levels of year 2000 the pollution still would increase by 27% as the population grows by year 2050. By then the world's population will be 9 billion. Also, even if the average pollution per person decreased by 40 % in industrial countries, the effects would be nullified by the population growth in other countries. If pollution in third world countries doubled and stayed the same in industrial countries, the pollution would still be 90% more in year 2050 than in 2000.

The pollution gas amount per person are the worst in USA and Canada, being 20 times as much as in the south of Sahara in Africa. USA is responsible for 25% of the world's pollution gases, and has refused to take much action on it because economics. In third world countries the economical growth will make pollution emissions even worse.

Climate change has been predicted to increase the extreme weather like floods, droughts and storms. At the same time the population growth leads to situation where more and more people live on low, tightly populated coast areas that are the most sensitive to the extreme conditions.

(AFP)

Global warming strenghtens storms

From Finnish broadcasting company

The climate change might increase the power of storms

Warming of the climate can add to the power of tropical storms. The warmer the sea, the stronger the storm.

When water temperature rises over 27,2 celsius degrees the lightning storms can progress into tropical storms. But the most important thing that will affect the power of the strom is the difference between the temperatures of water surface and air. Even a small difference can have big impact. Researches Kerry Emanuel shows in his work that the power of destruction of North Atlantic storms has doubled when then sea surface temperatures has increased half of Celsius degree.

The temperature rise of sea water also adds to the moistness of air, which makes storm clouds bigger.

(AFP, STT)

Lake Malawi

Finnish news tell:

The global conservation organisation WWF worried about lake Malawi

WWF is worried about the drillings at the lake Malawi in order to see if the lake contains any oil or other minerals.

WWF says oil drilling would endanger one of the world's most unique lake ecosystems. In Malawi lives about thousand fish species, which is more than in any other lake.

The research of the lake floor started in March 2005 and they are paid by American US Scientific Foundation. Officially they aren't looking for oil or gas, but WWF is afraid that this is the real reason. If there's oil, it will be most likely that Malawi will want to drill.

Diseases

Here's one about diseases.

Climate change can increase the spread of cholera, as drought and floods can increase the spread of the virus Vibrio cholerae. Floods can infect drinking water and droughts give the virus a nice environment to live in.