Prof Camille Parmesan - Biodiversity and Climate Change

      March 19th, 2014 Professor Camille Parmesan* gave the first Annual Plymouth Lecture, presented jointly by the Plymouth University and the Linnean Society of London, hosted by Dr Malcolm Scoble (Scientific Secretary Linnean Society of London)  Dr Parmesan's talk was titled, "Biodiversity and Climate Change - Connecting the Past to the Future"

The video is followed with short descriptions and time-signatures for easy reference. 

Video is posted at YouTube by Rich Boden - Plymouth Linnean Lecture

"2014 - Prof Camille Parmesan - Biodiversity and Climate Change"

* Texas Academy of Science's  2013 Distinguished Texas Scientist

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMaZMvU40no

The Columbian Exchange - appreciating impacts

In a previous post I shared the video "America Before Columbus" which was based on Charles C. Mann's 2005 non-fiction "1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus" I did it because I believe too many folks are unfamiliar with where we come from and all we have changed and destroyed on this planet we depend on.  

In this post I share a talk Charles Mann gave about his followup book "1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created" I've included some time-marked notes for easy reference.

To me it seems a tragedy that Republican/Libertarian types actually believe nothing significant has changed and that we can blithely go on another few centuries following the same old habits.  Unfortunately that's pure fantasy based on willful ignoring evidence from every corner of the world.

It would be hoped that reflecting on how radically we have altered our life sustaining planet these past 500 years would give some pause about the sanity of continuing to believe the world was there only to be plundered for our comfort.

Thus it seems worth sharing this exploration of the Columbian Exchange and what that meant for the world. 

Charles C. Mann: 1492 Before and After

As CO2 levels rise, some crop nutrients will fall

There's an awful lot of silliness being bandied about trying to convince folks that since CO2 is plant food their can't be anything bad about it.

But, as with most things, in the right dosage it's great stuff, still too much or too little and things start going wrong.  

We've already seen studies indicating that invasive vines and weeds are some of the big winners in a world with increasing atmospheric CO2.  Now here's some evidence that heightened CO2 may actually be counter-productive for some of the grain plants we depend on the most.

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As CO2 Levels Rise, Some Crop Nutrients Will Fall

This story was posted by Diana Yates, Life Sciences Editor for news.illinois.edu, 5/7/2014

http://news.illinois.edu/news/14/0507CO2_AndrewLeakey.html


CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Researchers have some bad news for future farmers and eaters: As carbon dioxide levels rise this century, some grains and legumes will become significantly less nutritious than they are today.

The new findings are reported in the journal Nature. Eight institutions, from Australia, Israel, Japan and the United States, contributed to the analysis.

The researchers looked at multiple varieties of wheat, rice, field peas, soybeans, maize and sorghum grown in fields with atmospheric carbon dioxide levels like those expected in the middle of this century. (Atmospheric CO2 concentrations are currently approaching 400 parts per million, and are expected to rise to 550 ppm by 2050.) …

Effects of Global Warming Thinning Sea Ice on Polar Bears, Other Animals of Arctic

I'm sharing the following because I believe it is an example of scientific inquiry and learning at it's best.  A genuine good faith effort, led by curiosity and a desire to understand by gathering as much information as possible, digesting it and then presenting a rational narrative of the full spectrum of information at hand.  Something I find too rate, when it comes to the internet dialogue.  

It was certainly a refreshing change from Jim Steele's manipulations which I'd been wrestling with - in fact, I stumbled on this paper researching Jim's questionable claims regarding the situation in the Arctic, the juxtaposition between this learning effort and that man's manipulative wordsmithing was quite illuminating and knew that I wanted to reprint it whole.

I contacted the folks at Soldotna High School, NOSB reps, and Kenai Board of Education and have been given kind permission to reprint the full report. Researched and produced by a team of five very smart Soldotna High School students.

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This paper was written as part of the 2010 Alaska Oceans Sciences Bowl high school competition. The conclusions in this report are solely those of the student authors.

The Effects of Global Warming and Thinning Sea Ice on Polar Bears (Ursus maritimus) and Other Animals of the Arctic

http://seagrant.uaf.edu/nosb/papers/2010/soldotna-krakens.php

Authors

Erin Twohy
Krissy Barker
Alissa Kress
Hannah Cristiano
Linnea Powers

Krakens

Soldotna High School
425 W. Marydale Ave.
Soldotna, Alaska 99669

Abstract

The effect of global warming has been negative on polar bear populations and other populations of the Arctic region. This is shown by more cubs and young animals dying each year; dying of starvation and in some cases drowning from sheer exhaustion. Ringed seals are more affected by the earlier melting of the sea ice, this causes the ice lairs built for the pups to melt before the pups are mature enough to defend themselves. This opens them up to greater predation from polar bears and other endemic predators to the area. As well as the ice melting earlier, it isn't growing as thick in areas where ringed seals are usually found. To adapt to this change the seals must move farther north, in the latitudes where more polar bears are found. These two species, while separate entities, are linked together by one limiting resource. This resource is the Arctic cod, upon which ringed seals are known to feed off almost primarily. Due to the increasing water temperature the eggs laid by female Arctic cod are unable to mature, causing an ever decreasing population.

To save this delicate food web and cycle of life, we must act quickly. Monitoring the commercial fishing of Arctic cod is only one small step that will help bring the Arctic food web back to equilibrium. To make a larger impact, we as humans must think of what kind of impact we are putting on the earth, and we must consider how we may be able to reverse the rate of declination in these populations. Some ways are to create refuges or sanctuaries for a particular population, to monitor the hunting or commercial fishing of these animals, and to put polar bears on the Endangered Species List.

Causes and Effects of Global Warming

Viewing global changes since 1984

This goes hand in hand with my previous theme of what a long strange trip it's been.  Google Earth and TIME working together with NASA Landsat images created a fantastic resource for visually exploring changes on this planet since 1984.  

A special touch is "Explore The World" where you can type in any location on the Earth and after some computing the time-lapse of your selected area begins.  You can control the speed and zoom in:

TIME and Space | By Jeffrey Kluger 

http://world.time.com/timelapse/

What a long strange trip it's been.

I stumbled upon this excellent documentary, fits right in with my current musing on the latest news from the Antarctic and the woefully predictable reactions from the climate science denialist crowd.   

It's an interesting natural history of sorts, more to the point than most, tracking America's evolution over the past centuries, including some background on the progression of European society, and a look at the roots of the radical differences between Native America and European societies.  

If you are curious about how we got ourselves to this point in history, here's an introduction with plenty of background and food for thought.

National Geographic's

America Before Columbus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYWGuln7-q4

tine holo
Thomas NativeHistory

Upon the arrival of Columbus in 1492 in the Carabean Islands, unknown to Columbus (and majority of the Eastern Hemisphere), he landed on Islands located in the middle of two huge continents now known has North America and South America that was teaming with huge Civilizations (that rivaled any in the world at that time) and thousands of smaller Nations and Tribes. With recent estimations, the population may have been over 100 million people that spanned from Alaska and Green Land, all the to the tip of southern South America. 

The Real History Of The Americas Before Columbus 

1491: Complete Series | Timeline

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42uVYNTXTTI

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Dr. Michael MacCracken's 1982 Climate Change Presentation

Here's an interesting lecture where Dr. MacCracken explains the state of the science, aka consensus, as it was in 1982.  It's an interesting historical document that reveals what we knew and where the uncertainties were.  

Even better it shows a scientist in action, (not perfectly polished like so many on the climate science denialist's talk circuit), but with a deep commitment to arriving at honest, defensible conclusions while never neglecting uncertainties and all they don't yet understand.

Dr. Michael MacCracken received his B.S. in Engineering degree from Princeton University in 1964 and his Ph.D. degree in Applied Science from the University of California Davis/Livermore in 1968.  At the time of this lecture he was deputy division leader of the atmospheric and geoscience division of Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.

Dr. MacCracken sent me a nice note, when I notified him of this new collection, it included the following worth sharing information:

"A the time I was also an adviser to the Department of Energy’s climate change research and climate modeling program, which I had in part prompted with a letter to them way back in 1975, and so, in that capacity, was involved in examining and considering the science across the whole field, and not just in the modeling area where I was personally active. 

I think the lecture tape is pretty complete except towards the end where they actually had to change the tape as I ran a bit long." 

Mike MacCracken"