GAIA ON THE ROCKS

Minerals have evolved too, reports ScienceDaily.

Two-thirds of the over 4000 minerals on Earth owe their existence, directly or indirectly, to living organisms--which of course owe their existence to them, and so on.

COATING A HUGE BOOST FOR SOLAR-CELLS

A new nano coating for silicon solar cells boosts their absorption of sunlight from a maximum of 67.4% to a massive 96.21%, thus giving near-perfect absorption, right across the entire spectrum of sunlight. Even better, they function at that high level no matter what angle the light is coming from. That means static panels will no longer be less efficient than the ones that track the sun. Details in ScienceDaily.

CLIMATE-CHANGE SEEPS INTO THE SEA

And life seeps out...

MACHINE TO TAKE CO2 OUT OF AIR?

This article in ScienceDaily and this link describe 'a simple machine' being developed at university that could, if multiplied across the planet, remove billions of tonnes of carbon-dioxide from the atmosphere.

Richard Branson, head of the Virgin Group, has offered a $25 million prize to anyone who can devise a system to remove a billion tonnes of CO2 per year from the atmosphere for at least ten years.

The Calgary device consumes 100kWh for every tonne of carbon-dioxide it removes. The prototype removes 20 tonnes a year. So 50,000 devices of the same capacity would be needed to win the Virgin prize, and would consume 5GWh/year of electricity.

2005 LEVELS MAKE WARMING UNSTOPPABLE

ScienceDaily reports a study by the authoritative Scripps Oceanographic Institute, showing that the planet will warm about 2.4 degrees Celsius (4.3F) above pre-industrial levels, even under extremely conservative greenhouse-gas emission scenarios.

Even if we held to the 2005 levels, irreversible warming will lead to a significant loss of biodiversity and the substantial melting of glaciers.

GREENLAND HEADING BACK TO GREEN

Modelling of why Greenland stopped being green and became covered with ice indicates that it was the drop three million years ago in the global concentration of carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere from high to pre-industrial levels, reports ScienceDaily.

The present level is now approaching those ancient levels.

No wonder Arctic ice-coverage is on the verge of another all-time low.

This BBC News report says the Arctic is passing through a tipping-point.

OCEAN ACIDIFICATION HAMPERS REPRODUCTION

As this ScienceDaily article warns, the rising acidification of the ocean looks likely to have a major impact on the ability of marine animals to reproduce.

The oceans are already 25% more acid than they were at the start of the industrial revolution and look to be heading towards 300% by 2100. Sperm do not function as well in a more acid environment.

ARTIFICIAL PHOTOSYNTHESIS BREAKTHROUGH FOR HYDROGEN

A breakthrough in creating artificial photosynthesis by mimicking nature looks as if it has the potential to usher in a low-cost hydrogen age, reports ScienceDaily.

SLIME ARISING TO KILL THE OCEANS

ScienceDaily reports that human activities are cumulatively driving the health of the world's oceans down a death spiral that only prompt action can reverse.

CHANGE IN SEA-CHEMISTRY A HUGE THREAT

ScienceDaily reports a dire warning about the changing chemistry of the oceans due to the amount of carbon-dioxide they have been forced to absorb through human activity.

They have absorbed about 40% of the CO2 that we have emitted over the past two centuries. That has slowed global warming but at a serious cost: the extra carbon dioxide has caused the ocean's average surface pH (a measure of water's acidity) to shift by about 0.1 unit from pre-industrial levels. Depending on the rate and magnitude of future emissions, their pH could drop as much as 0.35 units by the middle of this century.

That acidification can damage marine organisms. Experiments have shown that changes of as little as 0.2-0.3 units can hamper the ability of key marine organisms such as corals and some plankton to calcify their skeletons, which are built from pH-sensitive carbonate minerals. Large areas of the ocean are in danger of exceeding those changes in pH by the middle of the century, including reef habitats such as Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

Most marine organisms live in the sunlit surface waters, which are also those most vulnerable to CO2-induced acidification. To stop their pH from declining more than 0.2 units, which is the current limit set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1976, CO2 emissions would have to be reduced immediately.

PENGUINS ARE CANARIES SCREAMING ALARM

Like canaries dying in a coal-mine, the declining populations of the world's penguins are sounding the alarm at the deteriorating state of the oceans and Antarctica, reports ScienceDaily.

ARCTIC ICE MELTING FASTER THAN IN 2007

As this BBC report details, the Arctic ice is already melting faster than it did in 2007, the year in which it shrank to a record minimum, which is leading scientists to predict that Arctic summers will be ice-free within 5-10 years.

That prediction used to be for 2080, then it was moved forward to 2050, then to 2030 (now one leading scientist has been reported elsewhere as saying that it might even happen this year).

ANTARCTIC ICE BREAKING UP IN WINTER

Even winter is not protecting the inexorable breakup of Antarctic ice. The Wilkins iceshelf, off the southern tip of South America, has just lost another 160 square kilometres. Now a strip only 2.7 kilometres wide is left to protect thousands of square kilometres, reports
ScienceDaily.

DEADLY EFFECT OF RISE IN OCEAN ACIDITY

Scientists studying life round natural CO2 vents in the Mediterranean have found exactly the effect predicted--a significant drop in biodiversity--reports the BBC.

The oceans are thought to have absorbed about half the extra CO2 put into the atmosphere in the industrial age, which has lowered its pH by 0.1, from 8.2 to 8.1, i.e., made it more acidic (pH is the measure of acidity and alkalinity, with 0 being very acidic, 7 being neutral, and 14 is very alkaline--seawater is mildly alkaline). Adding CO2 to water creates carbonic acid; the more added the more the acid is produced.

Round the vents studied, the pH went as low as 7.4. Even at 7.8 to 7.9 the number of species was down 30%.

The leader of the research said 'It's clear that marine food-webs as we know them are going to alter, and biodiversity will decrease. Those impacts are inevitable because acidification is inevitable--we've started it and we can't stop it.'

WHY DIESEL PARTICLES CAUSE DISEASE

How the particles emmitted by diesel engines increase the risk of cardiovasulcar disease and mortality has now been mapped, reports ScienceDaily.

The dissertation clarifies previously unknown mechanisms that can explain why air-pollution in particulate form causes heart-attacks, stroke, and increased mortality. It shows that diesel exhaust causes a rapid deterioration of the function of blood-vessels that persists for up to 24 hours after exposure.

The EKG findings in heart patients indicate acute heart effects that are consistent with increased risk of heart-attack in connection with exposure to traffic.

WILL AN ANCIENT CLIMATE-CHANGE REPEAT?

A
ScienceDaily report on an international study of the abrupt, runaway climate-change that took place 635 million years ago, due to a massive release of methane, raises the possibility that we may trigger a similar event, and cause a global temperature rise of tens of degrees.

REACTIVE NITROGEN AS SERIOUS AS CO2?

ScienceDaily reports the growing alarm among scientists at the increase in the environment of reactive nitrogen, which may be as serious a problem for the human race as the growing concentration of carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere.

In its inert form, nitrogen is harmless and abundant, making up 78 percent of the Earth's atmosphere. But in the past century, with the mass production of nitrogen-based fertilisers and the large-scale burning of fossil fuels, massive amounts of reactive nitrogen compounds, such as ammonia, have entered the environment.

A nitrogen atom that starts out as part of a smog-forming compound may be deposited in lakes and forests as nitric acid, which can kill fish and insects. Carried out to the coast, the same nitrogen atom may contribute to red tides and dead zones. Finally, the nitrogen will be put back into the atmosphere as part of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide, which destroys atmospheric ozone.

CARBON-DIOXIDE HIGHEST IN 800,000 YEARS

ScienceDaily reports that the study of Antarctic ice-cores has established that the present concentration of carbon-dioxide is higher than it has been at any time during the past 800,000 years. It is now a bit more than 380 parts per million, compared to a range of about 200-300 parts per million during that time. The current concentration of methane is 1,800 parts per billion, compared to a range of about 400-700 parts per billion during that time.

OVER A QUARTER OF WORLD'S WILDLIFE GONE

Between a quarter and a third of the world's wildlife has been lost since 1970, according to data compiled by the Zoological Society of London, reports the BBC.

The Society says populations of land-based species fell by 25%, marine ones by 28% and freshwater ones by 29%, and that humans are wiping out about 1% of all other species every year--that one of the "great extinction episodes" in the Earth's history is under way.

GLOBAL OVERHEATING IS CHANGING NATURE

Major changes in the Earth's natural systems are being driven by global warming, according to a vast analysis, says a BBC report, citing research published in the journal Nature.

WE ARE ADDING CO2 14000 TIMES FASTER

Research on bubbles of ancient atmospheres in Antarctic ice shows that we are adding carbon-dioxide to the atmosphere 14,000 times faster than natural processes, throwing the global system so far out of equilibrium that it will not recover for hundreds of thousands of years.

The full report is in ScienceDaily.

The BBC's report has a simpler presentation of the same information with a slightly different emphasis.

19 BILLION TONS MORE CO2 ADDED IN 2007

Last year saw the third biggest increase in global carbon-dioxide since record-keeping began. Annother 19 billion tons poured into the air. There was also a surge in the amount of methane. 27 million tons were added after nearly a decade with little or no increase.

The concentration of carbon-dioxide reached 385 parts per million at the end of the year.

The full, nasty story is in ScienceDaily

GREENLAND MELTWATER CAN CRACK ICECAP

Scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and the University of Washington have for the first time documented the sudden and complete drainage of meltwater from the surface of the Greenland icecap, and found that it can crack the cap all the way to the bottom. The consequent lubricating effect can increase the horizontal flow 50 to 100 percent.

The full report is in ScienceDaily.

JET-STREAM CHANGES MAY BOOST HURRICANES

The jet-streams are changing in ways that fit global-overheating models. They have risen, and shifted toward the poles. One consequence may be an increase in the frequency and intensity of hurricanes, because jet-streams tend to inhibit their development, so the storms may become more powerful and more frequent as the jet-streams move away from the sub-tropical zones where they are born.

ANOTHER STUDY PREDICTS BIG SEA RISE

A new study presented at a major scientific conference in Vienna predicts that sea-levels could be a metre and a half higher by 2100 says a BBC News report.

That is much more than what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) forecast in its assessment of climate science last year.