Ocean acidification rate may be unprecedented
..."What we're doing today really stands out," said lead author Barbel Honisch, a paleoceanographer at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. "We know that life during past ocean acidification events was not wiped out-new species evolved to replace those that died off. But if industrial carbon emissions continue at the current pace, we may lose organisms we care about-coral reefs, oysters, salmon."
The oceans act like a sponge to draw down excess carbon dioxide from the air; the gas reacts with seawater to form carbonic acid, which over time is neutralized by fossil carbonate shells on the seafloor. But if CO2 goes into the oceans too quickly, it can deplete the carbonate ions that corals, mollusks and some plankton need for reef and
shell-building.
That is what is happening now. In a review of hundreds of paleoceanographic studies, a team of researchers from five countries found evidence for only one period in the last 300 million years when the oceans changed even remotely as fast as today: the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, or PETM, some 56 million years ago...
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Ocean_acidification_rate_may_be_unprecedented_999.html
Evolution of Earliest Horses Driven by Climate Change
When Sifrhippus sandae, the earliest known horse, first appeared in the forests of North America more than 50 million years ago, it would not have been mistaken for a Clydesdale. It weighed in at around 12 pounds--and it was destined to get much smaller over the ensuing millennia.
Sifrhippus lived during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), a 175,000-year interval of time some 56 million
years ago in which average global temperatures rose by about 10 degrees Fahrenheit.
The change was caused by the release of vast amounts of carbon into the atmosphere and oceans.
About a third of mammal species responded with a significant reduction in size during the PETM, some by as much as one-half.
Sifrhippus shrank by about 30 percent, to the size of a small house cat--about 8.5 pounds--in the PETM's first 130,000 years, then rebounded to about 15 pounds in the final 45,000 years of the PETM.
Scientists have assumed that rising temperatures or high concentrations of carbon dioxide primarily caused the "dwarfing" phenomenon in mammals during this period.
New research led by Ross Secord of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Jonathan Bloch of the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida offers evidence of the cause-and-effect relationship between temperature and body size.
Their findings also provide clues to what might happen to animals in the near future from global warming.
In a paper published in this week's issue of the journal Science, Secord, Bloch and colleagues used measurements and geochemical composition of fossil mammal teeth to document a progressive decrease in Sifrhippus' body size that correlates very closely to temperature change over a 130,000-year span.
"It is little realized that with the increased warmth associated with the modern increased CO2 greenhouse effect,
it is known that in deep time the concomitant reduction in available oxygen ~50 million years ago led to a reduction in body size of animal life," says H. Richard Lane, program director in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Earth Sciences, which funded the research. "What does that say about the future for Earth's animals?"...
Fukushima refugees still in limbo one year on
...Some of those who fled the clouds of radiation that spewed from the plant after it was swamped by last March's tsunami could be allowed home over the next few years as areas are decontaminated.
But others may be unable to return for decades. Some towns will effectively pass into history, little more than names on a map where no one lives because it is too dangerous.
Twelve months on from the disaster, few have received the compensation payouts they expected from plant operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), an enormous utility whose tentacles reach far into Japan's political
machine.
Pitted against the sometimes fearsome power of the company, refugees say they feel helpless, with one describing the battle for compensation as akin to "ants trying to tackle an elephant".
"We are still alive. We are not dead yet," said a 70-year-old rice farmer, whose now worthless paddies lie four kilometres (2.5 miles) from the plant.
"Some say we can go home after 30 or 40 years, but what are we going to live on until then?" said the man, who asked not to be named when he met AFP at the evacuation shelter where he still lives.
The government-backed alternative dispute resolution centre said that as of late February, only 13 cases out of the 1,000 filed with it since September have been settled.
The centre's head, Hiroshi Noyama, said he thought progress would have been faster...
Access all areas: new rules for miners
...Farming and environment groups accused the government of falling well short of what it had promised before the election last year - to fence off some key food-producing zones from miners.
The NSW Minerals Council and the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association said the new rules would greatly add to their costs.
Mr Hazzard agreed that the guidelines, which are on public exhibition for two months, would mean projects would be more expensive and take longer to gain approvals...
The president of the NSW Farmers' Association, Fiona Simson, accused the government of breaking its election promise to protect parts of NSW from mining and coal seam gas exploration and extraction.
She said the government's draft policy could allow hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and trial production for coal seam gas to continue on agricultural land.
''Nowhere is sacred, nowhere is safe,'' she said. ''The government is clearly on the coal seam gas bandwagon.''
A NSW Greens MP, Jeremy Buckingham, said the policy was a ''fizzer''.
''This means the people of NSW will face a rampant coal seam gas industry and ever expanding coal mines,'' he said. ''NSW is set to become one massive gasfield and coalmine.''...
High schools join the fight against depression
THE symptoms of depression can "read like the job description of being a teenager" says Michael Sluis, who manages community education programs for the Black Dog Institute.
There is the low self-esteem, anxiety, indecisiveness, irritability and anger; the social withdrawal, disturbed sleep patterns and feelings of hopelessness about the future.
Distinguishing between mood disorders and the normal difficulties of adolescence is not always easy, but a new program has been developed by the institute to give teachers and students a better understanding of mental health issues...
