Dr. Mark Brandon, a Polar Oceanographer (@icey_mark), discusses how humans impact the Arctic. It’s a high-level talk, meaning it’s easy to follow and not very sciencey. He makes much use of the fact that fire retardants are routinely found in the fat of polar bears and other animals to show how our pollution travels north.
If Hoyoung Lee’s concept printer becomes reality, you’ll never throw away another pencil stub or buy another ink cartridge. The pencil printer separates the wood from pencils and uses the lead to print documents. There’s even a built-in eraser component that allows you to remove text from a page and reuse the paper, so you’ll be saving money and trees.
INNOVATIVE MINDS!!! Blooming and blossoming all around! This is brilliant!
WAIT WHAT
Innovative.
Australia urged to formally recognise climate change refugee status
Refugee Council says new category would protect those fleeing the effects of global warming and warns Australian government to prepare for thousands forced from low-lying Pacific islandsmore at link.
One of the biggest political consequences of climate change: environmental refugees.
From the Chasing Ice website:
In the spring of 2005, acclaimed environmental photographer James Balog headed to the Arctic on a tricky assignment for National Geographic: to capture images to help tell the story of the Earth’s changing climate. Even with a scientific upbringing, Balog had been a skeptic about climate change. But that first trip north opened his eyes to the biggest story in human history and sparked a challenge within him that would put his career and his very well-being at risk.
Chasing Ice is the story of one man’s mission to change the tide of history by gathering undeniable evidence of our changing planet. Within months of that first trip to Iceland, the photographer conceived the boldest expedition of his life: The Extreme Ice Survey. With a band of young adventurers in tow, Balog began deploying revolutionary time-lapse cameras across the brutal Arctic to capture a multi-year record of the world’s changing glaciers.
As the debate polarizes America and the intensity of natural disasters ramps up globally, Balog finds himself at the end of his tether. Battling untested technology in subzero conditions, he comes face to face with his own mortality. It takes years for Balog to see the fruits of his labor. His hauntingly beautiful videos compress years into seconds and capture ancient mountains of ice in motion as they disappear at a breathtaking rate. Chasing Ice depicts a photographer trying to deliver evidence and hope to our carbon-powered planet.
This documentary looks incredible. Has anyone seen it?
It’s kind of terrifying how
a.) Deep this trench is
b.) How little we know about the ocean. We know more about the MOON than we do about the ocean.
(Source: freebiglurch)
Rare Lenticular Clouds
The stunning meteorological phenomena of lenticular clouds (Altocumulus lenticularis) is a rare spectacle. Looking more like UFO’s than clouds, they are created by three conditions: warm and moist air, winds with constant height and something big, like a tall mountain. When a current of air hits an obstacle in its way, it begins to travel upwards and starts to condense forming a lens-shaped cloud with multiple layers.
Both absolutely fascinating and absolutely stunning. Complement with The Cloud Collector’s Handbook.
Photo of the day: Sacred rivers not immune to pollution
Indian men search for coins and gold on April 2 in the polluted waters of the Ganges river near the Triveni Sangam in Allahabad, India following the Kumbh Mela festival. Drawing massive crowds of devotees, ascetics and foreign tourists, the two-month-long Kumbh Mela festival is celebrated every 12 years at the confluence of sacred Ganges and Yamuna rivers. Although the custom for Kumbh Mela is to bathe in these holy waters, about 426 million liters of domestic sewage pollution from the Ganges and its upstream tributaries are pumped into the Sangam every day.
This is ridiculously disgusting.
Summer in the city can be especially hot and sticky, because urban heat islands exacerbate the warm weather. Researchers at Berkeley Lab are testing materials that battle that effect, making pavements cooler and safer.
