It was the year of the Copenhagen conference and the "climategate" affair, but there was more to 2009 than these political brouhahas: here are 10 to remember.
1. How to survive the coming century Alligators basking off the English coast; a vast Brazilian desert; the mythical lost cities of Saigon, New Orleans, Venice and Mumbai; and 90 per cent of humanity vanished. Welcome to a world warmed by 4 °C.
2. 1709 : The year that Europe froze One winter in the early 18th century, it was so cold animals died in their barns, travellers froze to death, and even the Mediterranean iced over. It was Europe's coldest spell for the past 500 years.
3. One last chance to save mankind James Lovelock, originator of the Gaia theory, thinks climate change will wipe out most of us this century – but there may be one way to save ourselves.
4. Meet the amphibian only its mother could love A bug-eyed salamander that looks like ET and a see-through frog were among the weirder species discovered by biologists in a far-flung corner of Ecuador.
5. Supervolcano may be brewing beneath Mount St Helens A sneak peek beneath Washington state's simmering volcano suggests it may be connected to an extraordinarily large zone of semi-molten rock, which could feed a giant eruption.
6. Sea level rise: It's worse than we thought In its 2007 report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change forecast a sea-level rise of between 19 and 59 centimetres by 2100. Even before it was released, the report was outdated, and the bad news is that there is a growing consensus that its estimates were wildly optimistic. So just how high will the ocean go?
7. Post-human Earth: How the planet will recover from us If our civilisation collapses, what will happen to the Earth itself? The best way to work that out is to look back at its past.
8. Giant crack in Africa formed in just days A split in the Earth's crust ripped open in a matter of days in 2005, a new study suggested. It could be the forerunner to a new ocean.
9. Ice on fire: The next fossil fuel Methane trapped in ice under the ocean and permafrost on land could fuel the world for hundreds of years – but there's an explosive snag.
10. Earth's coastlines after sea-level rise, 4000 AD Even if we could keep the atmosphere as it is today, sea levels would still rise by 25 metres. The good news is that there's a limit on how fast that rise can take place.
by Michael Marshall
Source : here
It's the Environment, Stupid
It was the year of the Copenhagen conference and the "climategate" affair, but there was more to 2009 than these political brouhahas: here are 10 to remember.
1. How to survive the coming century Alligators basking off the English coast; a vast Brazilian desert; the mythical lost cities of Saigon, New Orleans, Venice and Mumbai; and 90 per cent of humanity vanished. Welcome to a world warmed by 4 °C.
2. 1709 : The year that Europe froze One winter in the early 18th century, it was so cold animals died in their barns, travellers froze to death, and even the Mediterranean iced over. It was Europe's coldest spell for the past 500 years.
3. One last chance to save mankind James Lovelock, originator of the Gaia theory, thinks climate change will wipe out most of us this century – but there may be one way to save ourselves.
4. Meet the amphibian only its mother could love A bug-eyed salamander that looks like ET and a see-through frog were among the weirder species discovered by biologists in a far-flung corner of Ecuador.
5. Supervolcano may be brewing beneath Mount St Helens A sneak peek beneath Washington state's simmering volcano suggests it may be connected to an extraordinarily large zone of semi-molten rock, which could feed a giant eruption.
6. Sea level rise: It's worse than we thought In its 2007 report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change forecast a sea-level rise of between 19 and 59 centimetres by 2100. Even before it was released, the report was outdated, and the bad news is that there is a growing consensus that its estimates were wildly optimistic. So just how high will the ocean go?
7. Post-human Earth: How the planet will recover from us If our civilisation collapses, what will happen to the Earth itself? The best way to work that out is to look back at its past.
8. Giant crack in Africa formed in just days A split in the Earth's crust ripped open in a matter of days in 2005, a new study suggested. It could be the forerunner to a new ocean.
9. Ice on fire: The next fossil fuel Methane trapped in ice under the ocean and permafrost on land could fuel the world for hundreds of years – but there's an explosive snag.
10. Earth's coastlines after sea-level rise, 4000 AD Even if we could keep the atmosphere as it is today, sea levels would still rise by 25 metres. The good news is that there's a limit on how fast that rise can take place.
by Michael Marshall
Source : here
1. How to survive the coming century Alligators basking off the English coast; a vast Brazilian desert; the mythical lost cities of Saigon, New Orleans, Venice and Mumbai; and 90 per cent of humanity vanished. Welcome to a world warmed by 4 °C.
2. 1709 : The year that Europe froze One winter in the early 18th century, it was so cold animals died in their barns, travellers froze to death, and even the Mediterranean iced over. It was Europe's coldest spell for the past 500 years.
3. One last chance to save mankind James Lovelock, originator of the Gaia theory, thinks climate change will wipe out most of us this century – but there may be one way to save ourselves.
4. Meet the amphibian only its mother could love A bug-eyed salamander that looks like ET and a see-through frog were among the weirder species discovered by biologists in a far-flung corner of Ecuador.
5. Supervolcano may be brewing beneath Mount St Helens A sneak peek beneath Washington state's simmering volcano suggests it may be connected to an extraordinarily large zone of semi-molten rock, which could feed a giant eruption.
6. Sea level rise: It's worse than we thought In its 2007 report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change forecast a sea-level rise of between 19 and 59 centimetres by 2100. Even before it was released, the report was outdated, and the bad news is that there is a growing consensus that its estimates were wildly optimistic. So just how high will the ocean go?
7. Post-human Earth: How the planet will recover from us If our civilisation collapses, what will happen to the Earth itself? The best way to work that out is to look back at its past.
8. Giant crack in Africa formed in just days A split in the Earth's crust ripped open in a matter of days in 2005, a new study suggested. It could be the forerunner to a new ocean.
9. Ice on fire: The next fossil fuel Methane trapped in ice under the ocean and permafrost on land could fuel the world for hundreds of years – but there's an explosive snag.
10. Earth's coastlines after sea-level rise, 4000 AD Even if we could keep the atmosphere as it is today, sea levels would still rise by 25 metres. The good news is that there's a limit on how fast that rise can take place.
by Michael Marshall
Source : here
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