Watch this tornado here or below.

ABC News and Reuters are reporting that “large amounts of a powerful greenhouse gas are bubbling up from a long-frozen seabed north of Siberia, raising fears of far bigger leaks that could stoke global warming, scientists said.

It was unclear, however, if the Arctic emissions of methane gas were new or had been going on unnoticed for centuries — since before the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century led to wide use of fossil fuels that are blamed for climate change.

The study said about 8 million tonnes of methane a year, equivalent to the annual total previously estimated from all of the world’s oceans, were seeping from vast stores long trapped under permafrost below the seabed north of Russia.

“Subsea permafrost is losing its ability to be an impermeable cap,” Natalia Shakhova, a scientist at the University of Fairbanks, Alaska, said in a statement. She co-led the study published in Friday’s edition of the journal Science.

The experts measured levels of methane, a gas that can be released by rotting vegetation, in water and air at 5,000 sites on the East Siberian Arctic Shelf from 2003-08. In some places, methane was bubbling up from the seabed.

Previously, the sea floor had been considered an impermeable barrier sealing methane, Shakhova said. Current methane concentrations in the Arctic are the highest in 400,000 years.

GLOBAL WARMING

“No one can answer this question,” she said of whether the venting was caused by global warming or by natural factors. But a projected rise in temperatures could quicken the thaw.

“It’s good that these emissions are documented. But you cannot say they’re increasing,” Martin Heimann, an expert at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Germany who wrote a separate article on methane in Science, told Reuters.

“These leaks could have been occurring all the time” since the last Ice Age 10,000 years ago, he said. He wrote that the release of 8 million tonnes of methane a year was “negligible” compared to global emissions of about 440 million tonnes.

Shakhova’s study said there was an “urgent need” to monitor the region for possible future changes since permafrost traps vast amounts of methane, the second most common greenhouse gas from human activities after carbon dioxide.

Monitoring could resolve if the venting was “a steadily ongoing phenomenon or signals the start of a more massive release period,” according to the scientists, based at U.S., Russian and Swedish research institutions.

The release of just a “small fraction of the methane held in (the) East Siberian Arctic Shelf sediments could trigger abrupt climate warming,” they wrote.

The shelf has sometimes been above sea level during the earth’s history. When submerged, temperatures rise by 12-17 degrees Celsius (22-31 F) since water is warmer than air. Over thousands of years, that may thaw submerged permafrost.

About 60 percent of methane now comes from human activities such as landfills, cattle rearing or rice paddies. Natural sources such as wetlands make up the rest, along with poorly understood sources such as the oceans, wildfires or termites.

Most studies about methane focus on permafrost on land. But the shelf below the Laptev, East Siberian and Russian part of the Chuckchi sea is three times the size of Siberia’s wetlands. ”

Photo from Planet Earth.

“You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.” Those famous lyrics by Bob Dylan may have been about political radicals but they also ring true for those people whose migraines are triggered by changes in the weather. Temperature, wind and barometric pressure (the overall pressure in the atmosphere) are among the environmental factors that can bring on auras, nausea and debilitating head pain.

Recent studies show that as much as 50% of migraines may be weather-related, which means, unfortunately they cannot be managed as well as those brought on by diet, dehydration and fatigue.

Yet there seems to be a wide margin of error in the way people perceive their triggers. One 2004 study in the journal Headache found that 62.3% of people with migraines thought their episodes were weather-sensitive, but an analysis of headache calendars and weather data suggested that only about 50.6% of the study participants actually had migraines that seemed to be clearly associated with weather patterns.

Researchers are still trying to understand more about the weather patterns or factors that may prompt migraines in susceptible individuals. Some of the factors being studied include:

Temperature

Humidity

Changing weather patterns

Barometric pressure

Wind speed

Air ion concentrations (other kinds of particles bound to the oxygen in the air)

The same study previously mentioned also demonstrated that of those participants whose migraine journals revealed weather triggers, nearly 34% were sensitive to absolute temperature and humidity, about 14% were sensitive to changing weather patterns, and nearly 13% were sensitive to barometric pressure.

A Canadian study explored the response of individuals susceptible to migraines during periods of time in which the so-called “Chinook winds” were blowing. This study showed that these warm air winds, which blow into the province of Alberta from the West, increase the frequency of migraines in a subset of people. The study was unable to determine what specific factors actually influenced the onset of headache, because Chinook winds involve a number of weather characteristics.

Still another factor being investigated is called “sferics.” This term refers to pulses of electromagnetic radiation that travel from distant weather and atmospheric situations. Studies that compared information from sferic recording stations with the study participants’ headache diaries have seen some overlap, suggesting that migraine episodes can be triggered by sferic variability.

The association between weather and migraine episodes underscores the importance of keeping a headache diary to help identify and track potential triggers. Such a diary could make note of the prevailing weather patterns on days when you develop a migraine. Over time, you may be able to predict when you’re especially vulnerable. ”

Photo from MargHamp.com

Wikipedia describes rogue waves as follows. “Rogue waves (also known as freak waves, monster waves, killer waves, and extreme waves) are relatively large and spontaneous ocean surface waves that are a threat even to large ships and ocean liners. In oceanography, they are more precisely defined as waves whose height is more than twice the significant wave height (SWH), which is itself defined as the mean of the largest third of waves in a wave record. Therefore rogue waves are not necessarily the biggest waves found at sea; they are, rather, surprisingly large waves for a given sea state. “Rogue waves are not tsunamis, which are set in motion by earthquakes [and] travel at high speed, building up as they approach the shore. Rogue waves seem to occur in deep water or where a number of physical factors such as strong winds and fast currents converge. This may have a focusing effect, which can cause a number of waves to join together.”

We have rare video of rogue waves here or below.

According to The Australian, “two huge waves have dragged dozens of people from a sea wall to a rocky beach hosting the world’s richest big-wave surf contest, leaving some with broken bones.

A total of 13 spectators at Mavericks Surf Contest in California had significant injuries, including broken legs and hands, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection battalion chief Scott Jalbert said yesterday. At least three were taken to hospital.

Mr Jalbert estimated “a couple (of) hundred” people were on the seawall at the southern tip of Mavericks Beach when the waves struck, upstaging the competition that draws some of the world’s top surfers for a $US150,000 ($169,000) prize.

“Nobody was swept away into the water. They were just swept on to the beach area pretty hard,” he said. “It’s pretty rocky.

“We were very lucky that nobody was swept out to sea.”

The surfing contest is held only when conditions are right. It got the go-ahead when forecasts predicted record-breaking waves, despite warnings that strong winds could make the breakers dangerously unpredictable.

The waves knocked out barricades, a spectator platform and a large scaffold holding speakers broadcasting the contest, held in the harbour town 40km south of San Francisco. “

“Indolent cows languidly chewing their cud while befuddled motorists honk and maneuver their vehicles around them is an image as stereotypically Indian as saffron-clad holy men and the Taj Mahal. Now, however, India’s ubiquitous cows — of which there are 283 million, more than anywhere else in the world — are assuming a more menacing role as they become part of the climate-change debate.

By burping, belching and excreting copious amounts of methane — a greenhouse gas that traps 20 times more heat than carbon dioxide — India’s livestock of roughly 485 million (including sheep and goats) contributes more to global warming than the vehicles the animals obstruct. With new research suggesting that methane emission by Indian livestock is higher than previously estimated, scientists are furiously working at designing diets to help bovines and other ruminants eat better, stay more energetic and secrete smaller amounts of the offensive gas.

Last month, scientists at the Space Applications Centre in Ahmedabad in western India published a pan-India livestock methane-emission inventory, the first ever, which put the figure at 11.75 million metric tons per year — higher than the 9 million metric tons estimated in 1994. This amount is likely to increase as higher incomes and consumption rates put pressure on the country’s dairy industry to become even more productive.

Already the world’s largest producer of milk, India will have to yank up production from the current 100 million metric tons to 180 million metric tons by 2021-22 to keep pace with growing population and expanding disposable incomes. Livestock such as cows, buffalo, goats, sheep, horses and mules are indispensable to India’s rural economy — whether the animals are yoked to plow land, raised for milk and manure or harnessed to pull carts to move goods and people. The Ministry of Agriculture estimates that livestock contribute 5.3% to total GDP, up from 4.8% during 1980-81. But, says K.K. Singhal, head of dairy cattle nutrition at the National Dairy Research Institute in Karnal in northern India, “while livestock plays a crucial role in the economy, global warming is becoming a huge worry. We’re trying to find indigenous solutions, because our realities are very different from the West.”

For starters, most Indian livestock is underfed and undernourished, unlike its robust counterparts in richer countries. The typical Indian farmer is unable to buy expensive dietary supplements even for livestock of productive age, and dry milch cattle and older farm animals are invariably turned out to fend for themselves. Poor-quality feed equals poor animal health as well as higher methane production. Also, even when Western firms are willing to share technology or when Western products are available, these options are often unaffordable for the majority in India. For instance, Monensin, an antibiotic whose slow-release formula reduces methane emission by cows, proved too expensive for widespread use in India. So the emphasis for Indian scientists is on indigenous solutions. “We know we cannot count on high-quality feed and fodder,” says Singhal. “No one will be able to afford it. What we have done instead is develop cheaper technologies and products.” One example is urea-molasses-mineral blocks that are cheap, reduce methane emission by 20%, and also provide more nutrition, so they’re easier to sell to illiterate farmers who don’t know a thing about global warming but want higher milk yields.

Most dietary interventions work by checking methogens — microbes that thrive in oxygen-free environments like cows’ guts, where they convert the available hydrogen and carbon (by-products of digestion) into methane, a colorless, odorless gas. “We encourage well-to-do farmers to use oilseed cakes, which provide unsaturated fatty acids that get rid of the hydrogen,” Singhal says. Another solution is herbal additives. Some commonly used Indian herbs such as shikakai and reetha, which go into making soap, and many kinds of oilseeds contain saponins and tannins, substances that make for lathery, bitter meals but block hydrogen availability for methogens. Singhal says the herbs are used in small quantities and the cows don’t seem to mind the taste. “Imagine how much potential they’d have in the international market,” he says.

Several other institutions, like the National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology (NIANP) in Bangalore, are also researching herbs. “We’re studying the effect of tannin compounds from various easily-available sources like tea leaves. We’re also studying prebiotic and probiotic feed supplements,” says K.T. Sampath, director of NIANP. Other institutes, like the New Delhi–based Energy Research Institute (TERI), are working on methane-capture strategies. One long-running project has been biogas production — cow dung utilized to make biogas for use in kitchens, and even compressed biogas for use in vehicles. “Biogas plants have been very successful,” says R.K. Rajeshwari, a fellow at TERI. “Farmers are able to use biogas in their kitchens, to light lamps and to even drive vehicles.” Such projects, she says, have been particularly successful at gaushalas, cow shelters supported by donations from the devout and by government grants, of which there are 4,000 across India. Most gaushalas are for abandoned, dry and aged cattle, of which there are many, since killing cows is illegal in all but two states (the communist-ruled West Bengal and Kerala). “This way they are put to some use at least,” says Rajeshwari. “And by replacing conventional sources of energy, they help prevent global warming.” ”

Photo from India Travel Guide.

When the heat in her car stopped working one day in high school, Brooklyn Ramos’ legs began to itch to point that she could no longer focus on the road. She had no idea why.

When Ramos later told her friends that she was diagnosed with an allergy to cold weather, they thought she was kidding.

She wasn’t.

“It’s an allergic reaction, and I get hives,” Ramos said of her allergy to the cold, known as anti-cholinergic urticaria, or cold urticaria.

Winter in Ohio can be an unpleasant time for Ramos, a third-year student at Ohio State. According to the AccuWeather.com,

Columbus, Ohio has an average temperature of 38 degrees between January and February.

“It’s really, really bad when I’m walking in the cold,” Ramos said. “It gets to the point that my face is breaking out because I have hives, and it looks like I have acne.”

While many students begrudge walking to campus through snow and sludge, the consequences are often too serious for Ramos to risk.

“It prevents me from walking to the library because I live off campus, and there’s no way I’m walking all the way over there,” said Ramos, who lives near 13th Avenue and Summit Street.

To prevent hives, Ramos now takes a daily dose of Loratadine, a prescription medication.

The symptoms appeared suddenly during the winter of her junior year of high school.

“When we went to the doctor, we had to find what the common trend that caused the hives was,” she said.

Symptoms include fatigue and headaches, said Maggie Lopacki, a

registered nurse at the OSU Medical Center. But the diagnosis is simple, requiring only an ice cube.

“Cold urticaria can be diagnosed by placing an ice cube on exposed skin for several minutes,” according to the Mayo Clinic Web site. “If you have cold urticaria, a raised red bump will form after the ice cube is removed.”

In addition to cold weather, cold water can cause serious outbreaks, according to Mayo Clinic, and swimming in cold water is the most common cause of severe, widespread reaction.

The allergy is uncommon, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine Web site, with two to three cases per 100 people.

Ramos said she has met only one other person with the allergy.

While in class, Ramos was scratching her legs, which caught her teacher’s attention.

“I had just gotten there and my teacher thought I had something so she asked why I was itching,” Ramos said. “I had to tell the class and there was a kid in the lecture room that was like ‘Oh my God, I have that too!’”

Some treatments for the allergy require a doctor, Ramos said.

“People manage it at home by taking antihistamines, rest and an increased amount of fluids,” Lopacki said. “If you don’t take care of it, you could probably get bronchitis, pneumonia or a severe sinus infection.”

But the allergic reaction can also be fatal.

Allergy sufferers “can go into anaphylactic shock, which can lead to cardiovascular collapse and death,” said third-year Alainna Ipjian, a student nurse assistant at OSU Medical Center.

Lopacki said the elderly, children and those with weak immune systems should speak with a doctor about treatment if their symptoms last for a long period of time.

“There’s not a way to really protect yourself,” Ramos said. “But I would definitely recommend that people find an alternative form of transportation to walking.”  ”

Photo from SheKnows.com.

The NewYork  Post

A Park Slope pooch was left shivering in the buff after a coldhearted mugger stole his coat just days before a raging winter storm bore down on the city.

Donna McPherson, 42, says she tied up Lexie, her 10-year-old Westie, in front of Ace Supermarket “for two minutes” so she could buy milk.

When she returned, his $25 green wool coat with leather trim and belt was gone.

Fortunately, she said, Lexie wasn’t wearing his pricier Burberry.

“How could anyone steal a coat off someone’s back in the freezing cold?” McPherson railed to The Post. “I asked him, ‘Where’s your coat?’ like he could answer me. I looked all over and could not find it.”

McPherson, an investment banker, canvassed the neighborhood in search of clues. She assumed police would not take her seriously so she wrote about it on the blog Effed in Park Slope.

She normally doesn’t leave Lexie outside stores, but thought it would be a quick stop. As she paid for the milk, she remembers hearing a “funny bark.”

“I stuck my head out and everything was OK — he was just looking at me,” she said. “I was so angry, but in the end I was grateful that it was just the coat and not him.”

McPherson said she knew she had to find a way to make it up to the traumatized Lexie.

“I felt so bad, I bought him two new coats,” she said.

She still hopes to collar the crook.

“I walked around Park Slope sort of to see if I could see anyone with the coat and I didn’t. It’s totally bizarre,” she said.

At Ace Supermarket on Seventh Avenue and Berkeley Place, employees insisted the neighborhood is normally safe for all mutts.

“This is highly unusual for the area,” said one. “

Using three sophisticated instruments that will collect enormous amounts of data over short time scales, scientists hope to improve their ability to predict the onset of major flares and other phenomena that can disrupt communications, satellite navigation, and power grids.

“SDO will observe the sun almost continuously for more than five years, sending back data at an astounding rate of 1.5 terabytes per day,” said Project Manager Elizabeth Citrin at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “That’s almost 500,000 music downloads per day.

“With this wealth of data, we will learn how solar activity is created and how it will affect space weather. And space weather is what affects us humans here on Earth, our satellites, communications, power grids.”

Madhulika Guhathakurta, lead scientist with NASA’s Living with a Star program, said modern society’s increasing dependence on satellite communications means “that any variability caused by the sun has an impact.”

“Solar variability can affect human spaceflight, satellite operations, smart power grids, GPS navigation, emergency radio communications, air travel, financial services,” she said.

SDO “will observe the sun faster, deeper and in greater detail than any previous observatories,” she said, “breaking barriers of space, time and clarity that have long blocked progress in solar physics.”

Running one day late because of high winds at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket blasted off at 10:23 a.m. EST.

After a smooth climb out of the atmosphere, the rocket’s Centaur second stage propelled the 8,800-pound solar-powered satellite toward geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles up.

It will take the spacecraft about three weeks to reach its final parking slot above a ground station in New Mexico, where two 60-foot dish antennas were built to take in the torrent of data from SDO’s instruments–the equivalent of 300 movie downloads per day.

SDO builds on the successes of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, a joint project between the European Space Agency and NASA, and a fleet of more modest satellites that have revolutionized solar physics in recent years.

But the difference between SDO’s output and previous sun-study satellites is a bit like the difference between a movie and a cartoon flip book.

“SDO is the crown jewel of a fleet of NASA satellites that are designed to study the sun,” said Michael Luther, deputy associate administrator for programs. “SDO is the most advanced spacecraft of its type ever designed and flown. It will give higher quality, more comprehensive, and faster data rate than any spacecraft of its kind before.”

One of its instruments, the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly, will snap multi-wavelength full-disk images of the sun every three quarters of a second. It will study on the sun’s corona–the origin of the solar wind, flares, and coronal mass ejections–taking 4096-by-4096 pixel pictures spanning 1.3 solar diameters.

“On the Earth, we have these things called earthquakes,” said Principal Investigator Alan Title. “Earthquakes occur on tectonic plates. That’s where big masses of the Earth move across each other and create shears, and these plates break and release a lot of energy. On the sun, the magnetic fields are the logical equivalent of tectonic plates. And as they move and create shear, they have the potential of releasing huge amounts of energy.”

The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly was built to “develop real physical understanding of what goes on so we can make more sophisticated predictions of what’s happening.”

The Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment will monitor changes in the sun’s ultraviolet output, a critical factor in how the sun heats and energizes Earth’s upper atmosphere. Changes in ultraviolet radiation can cause Earth’s atmosphere to swell slightly, increasing drag on satellites in low-Earth orbit and triggering changes that reduce the accuracy of satellite navigation signals.

SDO’s third instrument, the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager, will measure magnetic fields at the sun’s surface. It also will look into the star’s interior by monitoring low-frequency sound waves, generated by convection, that cause the surface to pulsate, moving up and down several hundred yards every few hours.

By analyzing the vibrations at the surface, researchers can infer details about the sun’s interior.

“The variability of the sun is predominantly caused by magnetic fields,” said Principal Investigator Phil Scherrer. “So if we want to be able to predict that variability, we have to start with predicting the magnetic fields.”

All postal operations — collection, delivery and retail — in the Washington area, including the Northern Virginia suburbs and suburban Maryland, were canceled on Saturday.

“There is a point where we have to think about the safety of our employees and our customers,” said Patrick Murphy, a United States Postal Service spokesman. “It’s very difficult to move the mail between the plants right now.”

Yet the band of snow that traveled up the coast through New Jersey and southern parts of Staten Island had stopped short of New York City by late morning.

The force of the storm swirled around Washington and its environs, the second powerful weather event in six weeks.

While buses and above-ground subways were closed in the city, it appeared that the District of Columbia would not surpass the 1922 record of 28 inches of snowfall.

“We’re calling for 25 inches, which is still high on the rankings,” said Matthew Kramer, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in the Baltimore-Washington region.

Mr. Kramer said that an upper low pressure system would dump another four to eight inches on the region before the day was over.

Elkridge, southwest of Baltimore, reported the highest snowfall totals — 32 inches — and counting. Nearby, at the Baltimore Washington International Airport, virtually all flights were canceled.

That was the scene throughout all the area airports, but Dulles Airport suffered the worst of the snow damage.

In a hangar separate from the main terminal at Dulles Airport, one portion of a roof collapsed at 8:15 Saturday morning. “As of this morning, the structural integrity was still in question,” said Courtney Mickalonis, a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, who added that fire crews were on the scene.

She said that some planes were damaged, but there were no injuries to employees,

Some commercial, international flights were still scheduled to leave later Saturday afternoon, but crews were struggling to clear the runways faster than the snow could accumulate, Ms. Mickalonis said. All flights Saturday were canceled at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, and because they had been canceled by Friday, hardly anyone was in the terminal, Ms. Mickalonis said.

Latest reports have more than 196,000 without power in the region. Pepco, the primary power company in the Washington area, as well as Montgomery and Prince George’s County reported there were 92,000 customers without power, roughly 11 percent. Dominion, another power company, reported 73,827 outages in northern Virginia, (9 percent of all customers). BG&E in Anne Arundel and Howard County in Maryland reported 34,587 customers without power. About 28,484 other customers were out earlier in the storm but have been restored.

The snow storm was so powerful that it sounded more like summer time for some people in its wake. Periodically after midnight in Baltimore, residents trying to sleep were astonished to hear rare winter thunder, as lightning accompanying the blizzard illuminated a landscape already transformed by snow.

Residents awoke Saturday morning to find the heavy snow had bent bushes and small trees low, with some 10-foot evergreens transformed into six-foot mounds of white. Some people plunged into thigh-deep drifts to try to shake the snow off and save the trees before they were permanently distorted or broken.

“There’s plenty of time to dig out this weekend, so take it slow,” Frank Roylance, a science reporter for The Baltimore Sun who blogs on the weather, advised readers Saturday morning. “This is very dense, very heavy snow.“

With big flakes still falling steadily after 9 a.m., Mr. Roylance predicted that the could be the second or third biggest in Baltimore history.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was sworn in as mayor Friday as the first snow flakes began falling. She succeeded fellow Democrat Sheila Dixon, who resigned last week after a plea deal on corruption charges.

Ms. Rawlings-Blake presides over a city with a $100 million deficit that has already been hammered with heavy snowstorms this winter. She said dealing with the snow would be her first priority.

“I am committed to ensuring that Baltimore’s streets are safe and accessible no matter how much snow falls over the weekend,” she told The Baltimore Sun.

Amtrak had canceled many trains in its Northeast corridor from Richmond to New York.

Kirby Barnes was in Union Station, returning from a visit to Connecticut, and trying to get home to Newport News. But trains from Washington to Newport News had been canceled since the storm began on Friday.

“They are telling me might have to go back up to Connecticut,” he said. “There is nothing going south, nothing.”

Dennis Hakemain of Virginia Beach who caught a Greyhound Bus up to Washington on Thursday said he had been stranded for two days after the bus and then his train was canceled.

“I was planning to stay one night, but ended up having to pay another night for a hotel,” Mr. Hakemain said. “I’m hoping to get out today, but they are telling me that It might be late today or Sunday before I can get home.” ”

 Full story in The New York Times.

Here is a video from CNN, showing how bad it is:

Reuters

“It’s not that the ice keeps melting, it’s just not growing very fast,” said Mark Serreze, director of the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center.

In January, Arctic sea ice grew by about 13,000 square miles (34,000 sq km) a day, which is a bit more than one-third the pace of ice growth during the 1980s, and less than the average for the first decade of the 21st century.

Arctic ice cover is important to the rest of the world because the Arctic is the globe’s biggest weather-maker, sometimes dubbed Earth’s air-conditioner for its ability to cool down the planet.

More melting Arctic sea ice could affect this weather-making process; it is unlikely to lead to rising sea levels, any more than an ice cube melting in a glass of water would make the glass overflow.

If Arctic ice fails to build up sufficiently during the dark, cold winter months, it is likely to melt faster and earlier when spring comes, Serreze said by telephone from Colorado.

“We’ve grown back ice in the winter, but that ice tends to be thin and that’s the problem,” he said. “You set yourself up for a world of hurt in summer. The ice that is there is also thinner than it was before and thinner ice simply takes less energy to melt out the next summer.”

With less of the Arctic sea covered in ice in winter, and with the existing ice thinner and more fragile than before, “you’ve got a double whammy going on,” Serreze said.

This more perishable thin ice is prone to early melting, and when it does, the heat-reflecting light-colored sea ice is replaced by heat-absorbing dark-colored ocean water, which accelerates spring and summer melting in the Arctic.

This winter, there were unusually warm December temperatures in the Arctic due to a weather pattern known as the Arctic oscillation, so ice grew more slowly than normal.

In January, that pattern shifted to produce cooler Arctic temperatures. The ice extent — the area the ice covers — was below normal over much of the Atlantic sector, including the Barents Sea, part of the East Greenland Sea and in the Davis Strait.

There was above-average ice extent on the Pacific side of the Bering Sea, the National Snow and Ice Data Center reported.

The last three years — 2007, 2008 and 2009 — had the lowest level of ice extent since satellite records began in 1979. ”

Photo from The Guardian.

“Here is a timeline of some of the worst natural disasters to batter Haiti:

1770: Strong earthquake devastates Port-au-Prince in then French colony.

1842: Earthquake destroys Cap-Haitien and other cities in northern Haiti and Dominican Republic.

1935: Unnamed storm kills more than 2,000 in Haiti before moving on to Florida as hurricane, where 400 die.

1946: Magnitude-8.1 quake strikes Dominican Republic and Haiti, causing tsunami that kills 1,790 people.

1954: Hurricane Hazel kills hundreds in Haiti.

1963: Hurricane Flora leaves more than 6,000 dead in Haiti and Cuba.

1994: Hurricane Gordon blamed for hundreds of deaths in Haiti.

1998: Hurricane Georges destroys 80 percent of Haiti’s crops while killing more than 400.

May 2004: Three days of heavy rains cause floods that kill more than 2,600.

September 2004: Tropical Storm Jeanne causes flooding and landslides that kill 1,900 and leave 200,000 homeless in Gonaives, Haiti’s third-largest city.

October 2007: Tropical Storm Noel triggers mudslides and floods, killing at least 57 Haitians.

August and September 2008: Three hurricanes and tropical storm kill some 800 in Haiti, devastate crops and cause $1 billion in damage.

Jan. 12, 2010: Magnitude-7.0 quake levels buildings in Port-Au-Prince, raising fears of tens of thousands of deaths. ”

Photo from The Register-Guard.

The U.S. space agency also found that 2009 was the second-warmest year on record since modern temperature measurements began in 1880. Last year was only a small fraction of a degree cooler than 2005, the warmest yet, putting 2009 in a virtual tie with the other hottest years, which have all occurred since 1998.

According to James Hansen, who heads NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, global temperatures change due to variations in ocean heating and cooling. “When we average temperature over five or 10 years to minimize that variability, we find global warming is continuing unabated,” Hansen said in a statement.

A strong La Niña effect that cooled the tropical Pacific Ocean made 2008 the coolest year of the decade, according to the New York-based institute.

In analyzing the data, NASA scientists found a clear warming trend, although a leveling off took place in the 1940s and 1970s. The records showed that temperatures trended upward by about 0.36 degrees F per decade over the past 30 years. Average global temperatures have increased a total of about 1.5 degrees F since 1880.

“That’s the important number to keep in mind,” said Gavin Schmidt, a climatologist with the institute. “The difference between the second and sixth warmest years is trivial because the known uncertainty in the temperature measurement is larger than some of the differences between the warmest years.”

Last year’s near-record temperatures took place despite an unseasonably cool December in much of North America and a warmer-than-normal Arctic, with frigid air from the Arctic rushing into the region while warmer mid-latitude air shifted northward, the institute said.

The analysis was based on weather data from more than a thousand meteorological stations worldwide, satellite observations of sea surface temperatures, and Antarctic research station measurements.

“There’s a contradiction between the results shown here and popular perceptions about climate trends,” Hansen said. “In the last decade, global warming has not stopped.” ”

Photo from CarbonSimplicity.

Cliff Bryant, 52, had placed two 5-pound accumulator bets that snow would fall on 24 towns and cities across the north of England on Christmas Day.

“We have apologized to the customer for any confusion and for mistakenly accepting an accumulator bet when our own rules state that only single bets are available on a market of this nature,” said a Ladbrokes spokesman.

“We are happy to void the bets and to pay the customer his winnings on the relevant singles.”

They however amount to just 31.78 pounds, rather than the 7.1 million Bryant was expecting.

The graphic designer from Southampton, who told the local Southern Daily Echo newspaper he was “gutted” and would seek legal advice, claims the first accumulator would have won him 4.9 million pounds, with the second adding 2.2 million.

“If I make a mistake in my work like that it costs me dearly and I think the offer should be a lot more generous than they have made,” he told the paper.

Ladbrokes should have made their rules clearer, he added.

“They are one of the leading bookmakers in the country and I think they ought to do their homework a bit better in future.”

Ladbrokes gave Bryant details of the Independent Betting Adjudication Service (IBAS), an impartial adjudicator on disputes that arise between gambling operators and their customers.

Danny Cracknell, a manager of the IBAS, told Reuters that Bryant had been in contact and they would be investigating the issue once he had completed the relevant forms. ”

More on Reuters.

Kenya’s Daliy Nation

The rains came in November; farmers were happy and sowed, based on the quantitative forecast. But within no time, the rains subsided, throwing the whole nation into a quagmire of confusion.

Politicians saw a window of opportunity to gain some mileage by threatening to collaborate with wheat farmers in suing the weatherman for issuing a false forecast. But while the dust was still in the air, the skies yielded. So huge was the deluge that it swept away a bus, drowned livestock and claimed several lives in the very town where complaints were loudest.

Uncertainty is an uncomfortable aspect of life, but one that pushes humanity to act. To overcome it, man has sought various interventions from soothsayers, astrologers, prophets, magicians and scientists to forecast what the future holds.

Science remains the most credible way of predicting the occurrence of phenomena. It is based on empirical study of phenomena, using laws and principles that have stood the test of time. Meteorology is an example of a scientific discipline, which attempts to explain atmospheric conditions and has found a useful application in forecasting weather.

In developed countries, extreme weather conditions are accurately predicted to the day, hour, and in magnitude. The advance in computer technology and its convergence with the weather satellites have played an immense role in this. But in developing countries, this has remained a big challenge due to a number of problems that are worsened by public ignorance on what weather forecast is and is not.

Our Meteorological Department can attest to this judging by the chronic harsh verdicts from the public despite its dedicated team that gives daily weather forecasts. But why is this so?

FORECASTING SEVERE WEATHER and extreme climatic events is one of the major challenges facing meteorological services worldwide, more so in the tropics. This is worsened by ignorance, technological challenges, complex physical features and lack of appropriate data.

Weather forecasting basically uses atmospheric properties deemed conducive for the occurrence of a given phenomenon using collated data, computer models, satellite images and observations. The predictions only give probability of possibilities of occurrence, intensity and areas likely to be affected.

Like any other scientific method, weather prediction is nowhere near 100 per cent in direction and depth. Unfortunately, weather predictions are normally taken by the public as the gospel truth, and used as the rope to hang the weatherman when these predictions fail. We don’t consider that the predicted conditions are still subject to myriad other factors that are out of control of scientists.

A major objective of forecasting is to unmask fate and inform the current on timely strategic interventions that will mitigate the adverse events of the predicted phenomenon, by informing policies and supporting the end user of such information to adopt accordingly.

When the weatherman announced that El Niño rains were in the offing, the government swung into action with ministries likely to be affected putting in place measures to alleviate its severity.

It is important for all to understand what weather forecast is all about. A forecast that doesn’t translate into light but heat is useless. An accurate forecast that induces no action is worse than an inaccurate forecast with action.”

Photo from Paths To Knowledge (Dot NET).

The Express reports that “the Naga Saints – who smear themselves in ashes and share visions with marijuana pipes – are gathering in northern India’s spiritual centre Haridwar before beginning a world tour.

The sect – which shuns clothes and sex – says more than 250,000 followers will join the global crusade in London, Paris, Munich, New York, Beijing and Tokyo, according to the Austrian Times.

“We have decided to do our bit to save the planet from global warming,” said leader Shri Soham Baba. ”

According to the New York Daily News, the campaign will start during Kumbh Mela: “When thousands of naked Hindus speak, will the world listen?

That’s what the Naga Sadhus hope will happen starting later this month, when they spread their anti-global warming message during Kumbh Mela, the largest gathering of Hindus in the world.

The massive religious event in India is being used by the order, famous for their lack of clothing and coating their bodies in a layer of ash, in order to promote living green.

“Since the Kumbh Mela is the largest spiritual gathering, we have decided to do our bit to save the planet from global warming,” said Shri Soham Baba, Mahamandalesvara of Juna Akhara, said to be the commander-in-chief of the Naga saints, according to reports.

“There will be a huge presence of international communities and press during the fair,” he added. “We’ll utilize the occasion to generate a ’save the planet’ campaign worldwide.”

Their anti-global warming campaign will reportedly include signs with statements such as ‘Stop Global Warming, Save the Himalayas’ written in diferent languages. There will also be a photo exhibition created by the Naga that they believe illustrate the effects of climate change.

Thousands of Hindus are expected to attend the pilgramage, which attracts faithful from all over India, as well as the world. It takes place four times every 12 years, each time at a different location in India.”

Watch this CBS video on Florida farmers’ struggle with the freezing weather in this frigid start for 2010. Watch here or below.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Watch this little wonder here, or below.

December 2009 Snow Storm Time Lapse from John Huntington on Vimeo.

Shot in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn from 12/19-12/20, 2009

“Your monthly horoscope may point to astral elements as indicators of your sex life (or lack thereof), but what about seasonal influences? Here, a look at how weather changes can play a role in whether you feel like going on the prowl—or making a date with Ben & Jerry.

Spring and Summer

Summer lovin’ made a name for itself in Grease, and “spring fling” is in our vocabulary for the long-term. But in addition to its colloquial interpretations, hot-weather lust may have a scientific basis, too. Melanocyte Stimulating Hormone (MSH) has been linked to increased sex drive in women, and exposure to sunlight elevates the production and secretion of this substance. The reason: MSH regulates the synthesis of melanin, protective pigment that turns your skin a darker shade to protect it from harmful UV rays.

Serotonin, a feel-good neurotransmitter produced by the brain, may also be responsible for heightened mood and sex drive during spring and summer. Multiple studies have suggested that the production of serotonin is directly related to sunlight and that with increased luminosity comes increased serotonin levels.

But despite these hot-weather helpers, it’s possible that you may still get spring and summer blues (and the resulting lack of libido). Though rare, Reverse Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is when warmer temperatures make a person feel cooped up instead of carefree. Characterized by anxiety, decreased appetite, insomnia, and irritability, the condition is triggered by longer days and too much heat and/or light. Those who experience Reverse SAD report feeling attacked by the sun and tend to go into Twilight mode—avoiding sunlight at all costs, taking frequent cold showers, and scampering from one air-conditioned environment to the next. To help patients escape from this ghostlike existence, doctors often prescribe therapy or medication.

Fall and Winter

Once fall hits, it’s no wonder your mojo goes into hiding—with less intense sunlight (and fewer hours of daytime), the sex-fueling serotonin from summer is present at lower levels. Replacing it is melatonin, serotonin’s Debbie Downer of a sister, which is produced in greater quantities when you’re in a dark environment.

This change in weather—and neurotransmitters—has a greater impact on some than others. But if you experience symptoms such as daytime fatigue and lethargy, excessive sleep, weight gain, sugar cravings, depression, and—oh, yeah—decreased interest in sex, you might have Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). To get your biological clock (and your sex life) back in order, make an appointment with a qualified mental health professional. As the first order of treatment, light therapy will likely be prescribed: According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), this method has a 50 to 80 percent success rate among patients. If you don’t respond to treatment, however, your doctor can suggest alternative options such as antidepressants or counseling. That said, expect your mood—and sex drive—to improve around March or April.”

Geologists have long known that the Mediterranean became isolated from the world’s oceans around 5.6 million years ago, evaporating almost completely in the hundreds of thousands of years that followed.

Scientists also largely agree that the Mediterranean basin was refilled when the movements of Earth’s crustal plates caused the ground around the Gibraltar Strait to subside, allowing the ocean waters of the Atlantic to cut through the rock separating the two basins and refill the sea.

But exactly how the waters cut their way through and how long it took them to do so wasn’t known.

A new study that used seismic data and holes drilled into the rock at the strait revealed that the ocean water cut a 124-mile- (200-kilometer-) long channel across the strait over the course of several thousand years.

The team that conducted the study estimates that the water flowed across slowly at first, over a period of several thousand years. (Though slow in this case is still three times the rate of discharge of the Amazon River today.) But 90 percent of the water likely came over in a rush over the course of several months to two years. Peak rates of water level rise in the basin may have been as high as 33 feet (10 meters) per day, the study authors report.

But rather than rushing over in a giant version of Niagara Falls, the flood likely took the shape of a huge water ramp several miles wide, descending from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, the study, led by Daniel Garcia-Castellanos of the Institut de Ciencies de la Terra Jaume Almera, CSIC in Barcelona, Spain.

The study’s findings are detailed in the Dec. 9 issue of the journal Nature.”

Photo from The Institute for Creation Research.

I began storm chasing May 16, 1999 but had always filmed and watched storms from town. Watching storms from town and actually heading out to chase are two very different things. If one ever wants to see amazing storms you’re going to have to drive a lot and often for nothing. Each year I would increase my chases. I’m now to around 40 chases a year, which is more than enough. In 2005 I had just over 18,000 miles dedicated just to chasing storms. In 2006 it was around 22,000 miles which ranged from TX to ND and CO to IN.

One can become so addicted to something that they lose all ability to view it from an outside angle. It’s hard for me to step back and see how crazy doing this kind of is. I’ve woke up early in the morning and driven to Texas from near Omaha Nebraska, all for nothing, hoping to see cool clouds. To a chaser this does not seem at all crazy. If I try hard I can sort of see how crazy it really might be. The odds are very stacked against you seeing something very crazy, but we go anyway, often affraid of missing something. It can’t be a very healthy hobby if you do it hard year after year. It is a bit depressing being so far from home and seeing crap storms, or nothing at all, then having to start that long drive back, often while extremely tired…and repeating this often.”

Here is a small sample of his work.

More at Extreme Instability.

Leonardo DiCaprio

The Prius-driving Hollywood star is the leading climate change celebrity.

DiCaprio has received praise from environmental groups for opting to fly on commercial flights instead of chartering private jets. His actions have inspired other celebrities, such as Orlando Bloom and Penelope Cruz. Co-wrote, co-produced and narrated the film 11th Hour and cites global warming as “the number one environmental challenge.”

Thom Yorke

Lead singer of critically acclaimed rock outfit Radiohead, is outspoken on various contemporary political and social issues. Yorke made headlines for refusing former prime minister Tony Blair’s request to meet him to discuss climate change, declaring Blair had “no environmental credentials.”

Yorke has subsequently been critical of his own energy use. He has said the music industry’s use of air transport is dangerous and unsustainable, and that he would consider not touring if new carbon emissions standards do not force the situation to improve.

Radiohead commissioned a study by the group Best Foot Forward which the band claims helped them choose venues and transport methods that will greatly reduce the carbon expended on their 2008 tour. The band also made use of a new low-energy LED lighting system and encouraged festivals to offer reusable plastics.

Cate Blanchett

Australian actress Blanchett has been involved in promoting tough environmental policies down under in Australia for many years now, through lobby group whoonearthcares.

Most recently, the actress appeared in Copenhagen in May of this year at the World Business Summit on Climate Change. The actress addressed business leaders, urging them to decrease their carbon emissions and increase sustainable practices.

“Political failure at Copenhagen in December is quite simply unacceptable and this powerful room must play a major role in preventing this failure,” she said.

Sting

An early convert to the environmentalist cause, particularly the Save the Rainforest movement. A species of Colombian tree frog, Dendropsophus stingi, was named after him in recognition.

Though Sting’s personal carbon footprint regularly comes under scrutiny, the famous singer is backing Prince Charles’ Rainforests Project — which seeks to limit deforestation and buy the world time to move to a low-carbon economy.

Ahead of the Copenhagen Talks, Sting has lent his iconic “Message in a Bottle” song to the campaign — sending a different kind of SOS to the world

Global Cool, an environmental charity which has enlisted celebrities such as KT Tunstall to help to make saving energy an “aspirational lifestyle”, gives them all “carbon coaching” to help them to reduce their footprints. It aims to encourage a billion people worldwide to take steps to reduce their carbon emissions by one ton per year.

Hollywood heart-throb Josh Hartnett is a Prius-driving vegetarian; has backed also Global Cool since its inception

Miley Cyrus

The frothy teen-queen might not be immediately associated with the great issues of the day but on her recent album she produced the consciousness-raising track, Wake Up America.

The chorus went: Wake up America/We’re all in this together/It’s our home, so let’s take care of it/You know that you want to You know that you got to/Wake up America/Tomorrow becomes a new day/And everything you do matters/Yeah, everything you do matters in some way.”

Full article and photos in The Telepraph.

In Utah, the National Weather Service has issued a winter weather advisory for parts of northern, central and southern parts of the state.

By Tuesday afternoon, up to 8 inches of snow is expected along the southern Wasatch Front with totals reaching up to 14 inches in the Alpine and Heber areas.

In the central Utah valleys, up to 10 inches of snow is expected with totals of up to 15 inches along the Interstate 15 corridor.

Two to 3 feet of snow is expected in central and southern Utah’s mountains, with local amounts of up to 4 feet in the southern mountains.

The National Weather Service also is forecasting strong winds that may make driving difficult.

Virtually the entire region was suffering, from subzero wind chills in Washington state to heavy snow that closed schools and government offices in Reno, Nev., and left big rigs jackknifed across highways in several states. Blizzard warnings were in effect for northern Arizona and parts of Colorado, with forecasters predicting up to 2 feet of snow around Flagstaff.

The National Weather Service said the upper elevations of the Sierra mountains could get up to 3 feet of snow. Even the hills east of San Francisco Bay received a rare dusting overnight, and snow was predicted

for Fresno and other communities in California’s Central Valley.

Bad weather stretched far to the east as well. The first snow of the season for much of Indiana snarled traffic and delayed schools. Crashes left one person dead.

Reno schools closed and all nonessential state government workers, except public safety personnel, were told to stay home. Chains or snow tires were required across the region. Several flights into and out of Reno-Tahoe International were delayed or canceled.

“Motorists are going to have to chain up,” Trooper Chuck Allen with the Nevada Highway Patrol said. “Otherwise, we end up with a parking lot.”

Deputy City Manager Jim Wine said snowfall is pretty routine for Flagstaff, which sits at an elevation of nearly 7,000 feet. But winds of 30 mph with gusts of up to 50 mph are a concern because they could cause power outages and whiteout driving conditions, he said.

Arizona Department of Transportation spokesman Rod Wigman vowed to keep northern Arizona roads plowed despite a $100 million budget deficit, but advised people to stay home if possible as the brunt of the storm sweeps through in the afternoon and evening.

“When the sun goes down, people need to go home,” Wigman said.

Southern California was largely escaping the snow, but heavy rain — up to 4 inches was forecast in some areas — sparked concerns of mudslides. The foothill areas below the wildfire-scarred Angeles National Forest were barricaded with sandbags and concrete barriers, some decorated with Christmas garlands. Several roads in the San Gabriel Mountains, a few miles northeast of Los Angeles, were closed.

Residents of foothill towns such as La Canada Flintridge were urged to be ready to evacuate at a moment’s notice. Bob Spencer of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works warned people to keep an eye on the weather and be prepared to flee.”

More in The Salt Lake Tribune.

Photo from moblog.net .

From the Examiner: “Gore won an Oscar for his climate change documentary in 2007 which in light of leaked emails from 2,500 political hacks posing as scientists, criticism is rapidly growing against Gore and his qualifications for earning the award. One must remember he went on to win a Nobel Prize shortly thereafter as a leading authority in the area.

As a result of the information leaking, Gore canceled a speaking engagement to a newspaper group of more than 3,000.

This focus now alerts all to to the next summit at Copenhagen. How many jets will be flown there (including Air Force One) and how will the carbon footprint affect the global warming they are intent on eliminating?

The documentary was made and in turn fore fed to student audiences. I bet it did not include any Air Force One scenes.

We are not far from the summit and the news media has yet to reveal the hacked emails.’

Photo from Missourah.com .

From Jocelyn Rice, Discover Magazine, 20 things you didn’t know about hurricanes:

1  Our word for these storms comes from Hurakán, a one-legged Mayan deity who summoned the Great Flood from his perch in the windy mists.

2  The Mayans built their major cities inland away from flooding, showing a better understanding of Hurakán’s rages than the engineers who designed the New Orleans waterfront.

3  In 1609 a group of English settlers en route to Virginia were struck by a hurricane and washed ashore at Bermuda—an event that reportedly helped inspire Shakespeare’s Tempest.

4 Hurricanes laid waste to so many powerful armadas that, during the Spanish-American War, President McKinley declared that he feared the storms more than the Spanish navy. In response he established a network of storm-warning stations, the forerunner of today’s National Hurricane Center.

5  During World War II, a British flying instructor, Colonel Joe Duckworth, bet his pilots he could fly straight into a hurricane. Amazingly, he succeeded.

6  Hurricane forecasts today rely on Air Force pilots who zig­zag through the eye, releasing dropsondes—parachute-equipped tubes containing instruments that measure pressure, temperature, humidity, and wind speed.

7  In North America we call them hurricanes, but in the western Pacific the same storms are known as typhoons. To avoid a tedious argument, meteorologists call them all tropical cyclones.

8  Due to the earth’s rotation, hurricanes spin counterclockwise north of the equator and clockwise south of it.

9  And once and for all: No, your flushing toilet does not do the same thing.

10  Most Atlantic hurricanes are born off the western coast of Africa, where warm water and a cool, windy upper atmosphere conspire to create a spiraling storm.

11  Activity peaks this month, when ocean-surface waters are warmest. Nearly half of all tropical cyclones occur in September.

12  We’re going to need a bigger windmill: A typical hurricane releases some 600 trillion watts of heat energy, equivalent to 200 times the world’s total electrical generating capacity.

13  Hurricanes unleash torrential rains, violent thunderstorms, and even tornadoes. But their deadliest component by far is the storm surge, the chunk of ocean pushed ashore by winds that can gust up to 200 miles per hour.

14  In 1970 a 30-foot storm surge claimed at least 300,000 lives in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).

15  The horrific event inspired the Concert for Bangladesh, the first major rock benefit concert. But most of the proceeds were impounded by the IRS until years later.

16  The largest known tropical cyclone was 1979’s typhoon Tip, which stretched 1,400 miles across the northwestern Pacific—the distance from Dallas to Washington, D.C.

17  That’s still nothing compared with Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, a seemingly eternal 400-mile-per-hour hurricane nearly twice the size of our entire planet.

18  The World Meteorological Organization started naming hurricanes in 1953. Now the organization moves through an alphabetical list of names on a six-year rotation, retiring hall-of-famer storm names like “Katrina” each season.

19  Want a storm to call your own? Bad news: The National Hurricane Center already has “a rather large file folder of nominated names.”

20  And be careful what you wish for. After “Cleo” was retired in 1964, a researcher at the center filled the slot with “Camille,” in honor of the daughter of famed hurricane forecaster John Hope. Five years later, hurricane Camille hit the Mississippi coast, killing 250.

Saudi emergency services said on Sunday the death toll from floods that tore through the port city of Jeddah this week had risen to 103, with another 1,400 rescued, the state news agency reported on Sunday.

Torrents of water inundated the Red Sea port on Wednesday after Saudi Arabia saw some of the heaviest rainfall in years.

Many of the victims were drowned or were killed by collapsing bridges and in car crashes.

Civil defence planes flew over the affected areas searching for missing people, the Jeddah authorities said in a statement to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

No pilgrims attending the annual Muslim haj pilgrimage 80 km (50 miles) away in Mecca were among the dead, officials have said. Jeddah is the main entry point to the kingdom for pilgrims.

Newspapers have repeatedly reported on the poor condition of the sewerage infrastructure of the city, where many people live in unauthorised developments built on dry riverbeds.

About 1.6 million pilgrims have come to Saudi Arabia from abroad for the haj, the world’s largest regular religious gathering.”

Photo from AFP.

CNN

“How it works: The contraption is basically a ring several hundred feet in diameter, with layers of old tires making up the outer wall.

In the middle, a funnel runs down several hundred feet into the ocean. The force of waves breaking over the outer tire ring forces warm water down the funnel. It mixes with the cooler water below before rising to the surface again, colder than before. This would create a constant exchange of warm and cold water.

Why it might succeed: Hurricanes rely on warm water for their strength, this process denies them that and may weaken the storms, said Ken Caldeira, a scientist at the Carnegie Institution who, along with Bill Gates, is one of the scientists who came up with the idea. It may also absorb more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, since cold water dissolves more CO2 than warm water.

Why it might not succeed: Some question how much carbon it can absorb, and also whether it could be deployed on a scale that would weaken a big storm. Others say it will simply make hurricanes go elsewhere.

More weird ways to save the Earth on CNN.

“Why did leaps in human evolution take place? “First Steps” explores a provocative “big idea” that sharp swings of climate were a key factor.”

NOVA provides some answers to these questions in an exceptional one-hour program, aired November 3, 2009 on PBS.

Here are some excerpts from the transcripts:

“NARRATOR: …… The new discoveries about ancient climate upheavals in Africa have led Rick Potts to formulate a bold theory of human evolution.

RICK POTTS:The traditional idea we have had about human evolution is that it was the savannah, the grassy plane with some trees on it that was the driving force. But instead, what we’ve discovered is that climate changed all the time.

And so the idea that we’ve come up with is that variability itself was the driving force of human evolution, and that our ancestors were adapted to change itself.

NARRATOR: It is a simple but revolutionary idea: human evolution is nature’s experiment with versatility. We’re not adapted to any one environment or climate, but to many; we are creatures of climate change.

MARK MASLIN:I think we should actually look to our proud ancestry and how we evolved in East Africa and say, “That’s how we survived that. We can survive the future, because we are that creature, because we are that smart.”

NARRATOR: Today, climate change seems to threaten our survival, but it may have held the keys to the astonishing story of how we became who we are, because it didn’t stop 2,000,000 years ago. These dramatic upheavals would continue for another million and a half years, propelling our ancestors down a road leading, ultimately, to the smartest creature the world has ever known.”

“Where did we come from? What makes us human? An explosion of recent discoveries sheds light on these questions, and NOVA’s comprehensive, three-part special, “Becoming Human,” examines what the latest scientific research reveals about our hominid relatives.

Part 1, “First Steps,” examines the factors that caused us to split from the other great apes. The program explores the fossil of “Selam,” also known as “Lucy’s Child.” Paleoanthropologist Zeray Alemseged spent five years carefully excavating the sandstone-embedded fossil. NOVA’s cameras are there to capture the unveiling of the face, spine, and shoulder blades of this 3.3 million-year-old fossil child. And NOVA takes viewers “inside the skull” to show how our ancestors’ brains had begun to change from those of the apes.”

Go to  NOVA to watch Becoming Human Part 1: First Steps.

From Mathhew Daly, AP, in News from Indian Country: “Call her “the other Sarah” from Alaska.

Like former Gov. Sarah Palin, Sarah James, of tiny Arctic Village, is outspoken about oil and gas development in Alaska.

But while Palin calls drilling an answer to the nation’s energy needs, James calls it an affront.

An elder of the Gwich’in Nation, James won the Goldman Environmental Prize for extraordinary grass roots leadership on environmental issues. She and other Alaska Natives were in Washington this week to lobby against drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and on offshore sites in Alaska.

James said drilling for oil threatens the birth place of the porcupine caribou, a sacred figure to the Gwich’in people.

“We are caribou people. It’s our clothing, our story, our song, our dance and our food. That’s who we are. If you drill for oil here, you are drilling right into the heart of our existence,” James said.

Her village of about 150 people is among the first to be experiencing the devastation of global warming, James said, calling climate change a human rights issue.

James and five other activists – including two from Canada – were in Washington on a trip organized by the Alaska Wilderness League.

The group met with several high-ranking officials from the Obama administration – including Assistant Interior Secretary Tom Strickland and Larry Echohawk, head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs – as well as members of the Alaska delegation and a staffer for the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.

Emilie Surrusco, a spokeswoman for the Alaska Wilderness League, said the women made the 5,000 mile trip “to bring a face to the issues their communities are dealing with on a daily basis.”

Mae Hank, an Inupiat Tribe member from Point Hope, Alaska, said she lives in fear of an oil spill that could devastate her community. “It would annihilate our culture,” she said.

Palin has been critical of climate change legislation.

She has attacked the Obama administration’s so-called cap-and-trade plan that would allow industrial sources to buy and sell pollution permits. Palin called it a threat to jobs that would undermine the economic recovery.

“We are ripe for economic growth and energy independence if we responsibly tap the resources that God created right underfoot on American soil. Just as important, we have more desire and ability to protect the environment than any foreign nation from which we purchase energy today,” she wrote.

James, Hank and others on the trip said they came to the capital in part to show that prominent drilling supporters such as Palin do not speak for Alaska Natives.

To Palin’s famous cry of “Drill, baby, drill,” James said she had a ready reply: “Chill, baby, chill.” ”

Photo from The Houston Chronicle.