The Indian meteorological department has said that the Cyclone named Phyan was about 250 km west of Goa at 2.30 a.m. Thursday morning, it is been issued an “orange” alert. That is one step below the red alert given for a severe cyclone. Reportedly the Cyclone will hit Mumbai tomorrow around 5.30 am morning.

According to Met officials  the cyclone with winds up to 75 kms per hour will hit the Indian states of southern Gujarat, Northern Maharashtra, Karnataka and Goa. Watch Live News TV Channel

The Phyan cyclone is said to be  still 400 kms away from Indian state of Goa and it is moving dangerously fast and the next 36 hours are said to pose a large threat to the western coast areas.

Phyan was 420 km south-southwest of Mumbai and 670 km southwest of Surat in south Gujarat.

“The system is likely to intensify further and move north-northeastwards and cross south Gujarat and north Maharashtra coast between Mahuva and Dahanu by early hours of Nov 12,” the IMD website reported. Check out Mumbai Weather Forecast

The weatherman said Wednesday morning that the cyclone will lead to “rainfall at most places with heavy to very heavy falls at a few places and isolated extremely heavy fall (over or equal to 25 cm) over Konkan and Goa and Madhya Maharashtra during next 36 hours”. Check out Goa Weather Forecast

“Rainfall at many places with heavy to very heavy falls at isolated places is likely over coastal Karnataka during next 24 hours. Rainfall at most places with heavy to very heavy falls at a few places and isolated extremely heavy falls (over or equal to 25 cm) is likely to commence over south Gujarat from today (Wednesday) afternoon.

Mount Kilimanjaro is Africa’s highest peak, and used to be covered in snow throughout the year despite its proximity to the equator. The ill-effects of global warming however, have put up a drastic picture of the mountain, whose slopes went ice-free this year; probably for the first time in 12,000 years.

According to a study that is based on terrestrial and satellite photographs, and has been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the mountain is rapidly losing its glaciers. In 95 years of data tracking since 1912, nearly 85% of the glaciers have disappeared, and 26% were lost after year 2000. The 12 square kilometers of ice coverage in 1912 reduced to a mere 1.9 square kilometers in 2007.

The second part of the study showed that extensive melting and refreezing of ice had taken place in the last 40 years, and the present degree of melting did not happen even during three centuries of drought that the region faced around 4,200 years ago. Researchers have pinned the cause on increasing Earth surface temperatures that get affect high altitudes badly.

Via: TimesOnline

As the Copenhagen talks draw near, nations are working to set their goals and agenda for the summit. So far, a major point of contention has been the demand by developing nations that developed countries subsidize, or pay for their environment efforts. The demand is on grounds that developed countries have contributed greatly to pollution with their industries, and should pay developing countries so their efforts at development are not hampered by environmental norms.

The two day EU summit managed to reach an agreement on climate finance. It is expected that developing nations will need 100 billion euros by 2020 to combat climate change, and up to 50 billion of this amount may have to come from the purse of rich nations.

The summit agreed on a formula to split the bill amongst the 27 EU nations. This formula takes into account a country’s “ability to pay” and will foot the bill accordingly. European Union also pledged to cut emissions to 30% below 1990 levels by 2020 if other countries took a similar stance. Clearly though, the success of the Copenhagen talks is dependent on the money and finance aspect.

Source: Reuters

On Saturday, October 24, people in 181 countries are coming together for what many are describing as the most widespread day of environmental action in the planet’s history.They’re gathering to call for strong action and bold leadership on the climate crisis.

Specifically, the web-based campaign called “350.org” is calling on people from around the world to organize an action that in some way incorporates the number “350″ at an iconic place in their community.  Then, 350.org wants people to upload a photo of their event to the 350.org website.

“We’ll collect these images from around the world and, with your help, deliver them to the media and world leaders. Together, we can show our world and its decision-makers just how big, beautiful, and unified the climate movement really is,” the website says.

The number “350” represents 350 parts per million, the level scientists have identified as the safe upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere.

For more information on the 350 International Day of Climate Action and other 350.0rg initiatives, see the 350.org website.

Photo: Flickr

If you remember in Part 1, I set the table and server up the hors d’oeuvres, appetizer plates, and salads of harnessing Herricanes (If you don’t remember, STOP!  Go back and read Part 1 before continuing).  Now I will serve up heaps of real meat and continue the anger management presentation.

Waves, which seemed as big as skyscrapers and actually several times the height of the boats crashing down on the vessels, threatened to squash them all like cockroaches underneath Mother Nature’s shoe. Such power is just begging to be harnessed.

In fact, many companies including Lockheed Martin Corp. are developing utility-scale power-generation plants.  I am not talking about a couple of buoys in the ocean generating a few watts of electricity to power a light bulb of fan, but plants capable of generating power for cities.

A company named Pelamis has prototypes of what I call “Ocean Snakes” that are jointed mechanical snakes that bend in seas and generate electric power by pushing hydraulic fluid past turbines when their joints flex.  Imagine developing larger snakes that can function in 50-foot seas!

I can already hear your next question, gentle readers.  “Fred, hurricanes do not happen often enough to rely on them for power, so how do you address this?”

I have a solution for this also.  I am stealing someone’s science fiction idea:  heat generating sakes (if you remember the book, please let me know).  These mechanical monsters would be much larger than Pelamis’ prototypes and would generate huge amounts of heat when the flexed.

You might ask, so I’ll ask it now “What do heat generating snakes have to do with hurricanes?”  The Global Warming activists used to say rising temperatures feed the hurricanes and rising sea temperatures do this.  Localized changes in the sea temperature happen all the time globally, rising and falling with seasonal and longer periodic rates.  El Nino and La Nina are examples of this climatic change that have been around longer than man’s SUVs.

But, let’s just pretend that more hurricanes will result from Global warming; more hurricanes mean more electricity to meet our needs!          

Now, we just exploit what we know about making lots of hurricanes and activate these heat-generating snakes during hurricane season and use them to localize the hurricanes to places far away from land where possible and also use them to increase their fierceness.  In other words, use these snakes to make the hurricanes MAD!

Now, here is the ingenious part.  Combine all three (windmills, power snakes and heat snakes) and have them reinforce each other and create a synergy that will produce huge amounts of power.

Who knows?  Maybe this article will provide the catalyst for a group of companies to turn some cowboys loose and lasso this energy.

Late last month, the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) announced that it is opening a Center on Climate Change and National Security.

The Center will focus on the national security impact of phenomena such as desertification, rising sea levels, population shifts, and heightened competition for natural resources. It will provide support to American policymakers as they negotiate, implement, and verify international agreements on environmental issues.

According to a press release, the new Center will do more than bring together expertise about the effect environmental factors can have on political, economic, and social stability overseas. It will also be aggressive in outreach to academics and think tanks working on the issue.

“Decision makers need information and analysis on the effects climate change can have on security. The CIA is well positioned to deliver that intelligence,” said Director Leon Panetta.

The Center is a small unit led by senior specialists from the Directorate of Intelligence and the Directorate of Science and Technology.

Source: CIA

Cow gang in the morning

The article mentioned in part one, suggests you not eat meat in an attempt to reduce the greenhouse gas (methane) caused by cows.  I propose that human emissions of methane could eclipse that of the cows raised for meat if we follow that advice and limit our intake to non-meat food.

I agree that cows do emit methane. If you doubt this just hang around with a few and your will be convinced this is true.  For you city dwellers, either believe this cow fact or try the following experiment.

Let me set the table.  Cows are vegetarians.  They eat grasses and grains and do not even have access to hot dogs, Big Macs or even a good, thick juicy steak.  Cows are generally not cannibalistic and will resort to hamburgers only when starving and someone happens to litter a few burgers along the road in reach of said bovines.

Ok, back to the experiment.  You don’t have access to a cow (if you did you would not be doing this experiment) so you can use yourself instead.

Eat good balanced meals including healthy portion of meats (nice red meats, not those tofu or vegan substitutes) for a week or two.  Monitor your methane output by approximating the frequency, quantity and toxicity.  For toxicity note if people ran out of the room, simply glanced at the dog or did not notice.

Now, go on a vegan diet of grasses (sprouts of alfalfa and bean can be substituted), grains a little tofu and beans and other legumes (if you don’t know what a legume is, click here) for week or two plus a day.  Begin monitoring your methane output One day after you begin the diet to allow for the passage of your old diet.

Now go back to the balanced meat diet allowing a day in between and then back again to the vegan diet.  This allows for a scientific sound experiment and the repeatability confirms the validity of the experiment.

You will discover the meatless diet will be far less offensive to your family and friends, hence more environmentally friendly.  Less methane is good, so you do not need to feel guilty about global warming when you have that nice, rare, juicy steak.  Just bring your own bag when you go to the store to pick up your meat and groceries.

After you finish the experiments and then tell your friends, you may get great offers to buy you meat products and if you have some hunters as friends, might get some free, tasty venison.  If you get an insatiable appetite for meat after this experiment, get your own by taking a hunter safety class and partake in the plentiful harvest.

Image courtesy of James

Cows and wind turbines

I came across an interesting article on combating global warming.  Aside from a picture of a cow with a gas-mask device to capture cow belches, another picture (see after the jump) shows another methane capture device.  Intended to capture cow farts, I can just feel sorry for the cow.  That hose feeding the pink plastic methane storage balloon has to be uncomfortable for the cow.

The article goes on to say that the methane emitted by the cows is contributing to the greenhouse gas problem.  It is true that methane could keep heat trapped in the atmosphere.  Note that I said could.  There would have to be a lot of other conditions that would have to be met for this to actually happen in the world.

In the laboratory, you can take methane (also works with carbon dioxide) and put it in a closed jar or box and get it to reflect heat.  Add all the other components of air and through Brownian movement the reflective properties are reduced and eventually eliminated.

Let’s take a room and fill it with air.  Since oxygen is 21% of the air, what would be the chances of the oxygen falling to the lower ¼ of the room and the lighter nitrogen blocking us from getting any oxygen into our lungs?  Heavier gasses will fall.  Every once in a while you hear of someone dying in a tank because it was filled with carbon dioxide.

I tried to argue that in physics as part of a class discussion and was proven wrong.  Another classmate presented the fact that we were in a closed classroom and were still alive despite us using up some of the oxygen.  Movement in the room keeps the gasses mixed.  Add that to the laws of Brownian motion precludes all the oxygen from gathering on the floor or in a corner of the room and suffocating us.

Now let’s go outside on the earth’s surface.  Lighting a match should result in an explosive firestorm that completely destroys everything on the surface of the earth if the gasses in the atmosphere separated out.  Since I am writing this article, that is proof enough that the gasses on earth have not separated.

Therefore, how can the greenhouse effect happen?  If the carbon dioxide separated out, it would be on the surface of the earth and not in the stratosphere.

In Part 2, I will cover another inaccuracy or misrepresentation about methane.

Image courtesy of vlastik

Sea Caves in Cyprus

As climate change forces temperatures up, tourism in the Mediterranean may be deeply affected. The Mediterranean basin attracts nearly 20% of the world’s tourists every year, but with increasing temperatures, visitors may begin to avoid the region during summers.

Cyprus, which receives about 2 million tourists every year, and has the tourism sector represent 11% of its economy, may have to rethink its strategy as a result of the upcoming situation.

Research has shown that the average temperature of the Mediterranean region has increased by 1 degree Celsius in the last two decades, and is expected to increase by another four degrees by the end of the century, with rainfall going down by 20-40%.

As it already is a warm country, temperature increase is not good news for the tourism industry in Cyprus as tourists may avoid visiting the country in summer. To combat the inevitable problem, countries like Cyprus will have to diversify into different seasons, and also into different products.

Image courtesy of beatfactor

[via Reuters]

The Nature Conservancy wants to equip you with facts like this so you can start thinking about the solutions that nature holds for slowing carbon emissions and dealing with the effects of climate change.

In fact, last week, the Nature Conservancy launched a web-based campaign that aims to inspire a movement to respond—and offer solutions— to the threat of climate change.

The campaign, called “Planet Change,” educates site visitors about:

• the implications of climate change for both people and nature
• the massive emissions caused by deforestation
• the powerful solutions nature holds for slowing carbon emissions and dealing with the effects of climate change

Planet Change uses innovative technology to spur users to action, enabling them to:

• tell world leaders what they want to protect from climate change
• use their personal Twitter account to share messages about the threats of climate change
• spread the word about natural solutions to climate change
• offset their own emissions through The Nature Conservancy’s carbon offset program

“We can do nothing and let climate change happen, or we can stand up and make change happen. Nature offers us real solutions for slowing carbon emissions and dealing with the effects of climate change,” says Mark Tercek, The Nature Conservancy’s President and CEO. “Planet Change gives people the opportunity to be a part of the solution, show that they care and let others know that they care.”

For more information, watch this short –but powerful –video clip. It sums up the Planet Change message in less than two minutes.