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This is annual “contest”, but the fascinating part are the stories about these famous or well loved trees.
Major Oak aims for top tree title http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-30344911
01 Thursday Jan 2015
Posted environmental change
inTags
This is annual “contest”, but the fascinating part are the stories about these famous or well loved trees.
Major Oak aims for top tree title http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-30344911
27 Sunday Jul 2014
Hard to believe it has been that long ago [see also camai-start-here] when a new killer emerged among NM and the Pueblos. No one knew at first what it was and how to avoid the mystery illness which seemed to target young Native people. We couldn’t wait for the “outside experts” but needed to rely on the Pueblos’ own experts to begin to combat the disease and rumors. It was frightening.
The Navajo Medicine Men society was an immense help in uncovering the ecology of this disease. [Dr Jim Cheek worked with them. See this paper http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1076&context=zoonoticspub and the People Magazine article at the time,
BTW, before an official name sin nombre was assigned, the CDC did receive suggestions and concerns from the Pueblos about the suggested names which inadvertently used Pueblo sacred site names or other names which were used by folks other than CDC researchers. Sin nombre was a good choice.
Twenty-Year Summary of Surveillance for Human Hantavirus Infections, United States — B. Knust and P. E. Rollin
http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/19/12/13-1217_article
In 1993, an outbreak of severe respiratory illness in the Four Corners region of the United States (defined by the shared borders between the states of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah) made national headlines. The subsequent discovery of a new disease, hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) (1), its etiologic agent, Sin Nombre virus (SNV) (2), and its rodent reservoir, the deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) (3), were among the most prominent findings in a flood of new revelations about hantaviruses in the Americas.
25 Monday May 2009
Posted Alaska, environmental change, preparedness, Updates
inCraig Spacek’s photostream usually has interesting photos from the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.
He’s just posted some of today’s river flooding in Emmonak.
Site Search Tags: Emmonak, erosion, Yukon+River, flooding, preparedness, photos
07 Saturday Feb 2009
2009 Summer WAS*IS (Weather and Society * Integrated Studies) Call for Applications
Approximately 25 people will be selected to participate in the 2009 Summer WAS*IS workshop. We will select a diverse and interactive group that represents a range of experiences, educational environments, career aspirations, and specialties.
The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Societal Impacts Program (SIP) announces the call for applications for the 2009 Summer WAS*IS workshop to be held August 6-14, 2009, in Boulder, CO. PLEASE NOTE that this workshop will be held contingent upon funding.
Please visit http://www.sip.ucar.edu/wasis/summer09/apply.jsp to learn the application details and to read more about WAS*IS! All application materials are due by Friday, [deadline] March 27, 2009.
WAS*IS is a grassroots movement to fully integrate social science into meteorological research and practice. WAS*IS is doing this by:
(1) building an interdisciplinary community of practitioners, researchers, and stakeholders who are dedicated to the integration of meteorology and social science; and
(2) providing this community with opportunities to learn about ideas, methods, and examples related to integrated weather-society work. See our article in the November 2007 issue of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society for more information about WAS*IS (http://ams.allenpress.com/archive/1520-0477/88/11/pdf/i1520-0477-88-11-1729.pdf).
15 Thursday Jan 2009
Posted Alaska, environmental change, help wanted, maps, Updates
inThis is just a brief note for those looking for information about the immediate heat and food problems originally reported in the Alaska Newspapers Emmonak man seeks food airlift to combat economic crisis.
[Mr Nicholas Tucker did a great job of detailing the issues in his letter to the newspaper, another example of grassroots science in action.]
The problems are discussed at Alaska Public Radio Extreme cold forcing Emmonak residents to choose fuel over food, at Alaska Real Another village in trouble and Another Alaskan village in trouble – follow-up, and at Alaska Mudflats among other places, Hope Coming to Emmonak and Beyond?.
All have information on how blog readers can help (see the comments at each site). Celtic Diva has the latest links to where the story is discussed, AK Village of Emmonak in dire need–**UPDATE WITH AUDIO** She reminds me of the earlier, 11 December 2008, story by Ted Land posted at KTUU about Martin Moore’s effort to get help from the state. Fuel shortage, cost have village seeking state assistance
Martin Moore has been coming to a borrowed Anchorage office for the past few months, making phone calls, writing letters, and setting up meetings with state officials advocating help with his village’s high fuel costs.
As mentioned in the comments at Mudflats, there are several communities in the Wade Hampton census area also in dire straits. There was a community meeting yesterday that included these other Villages, too. I hope to have more specifics later.
In the meantime, use the site search tags below for background information.
Site Search Tags: Emmonak, Wade+Hampton
06 Thursday Nov 2008
Posted environmental change, info sources, measures (scientific)
inThis is a continuing bibliography of sources of information, compiled by Dr. Krista Harper, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology and the Center for Public Policy and Administration, University of Massachusetts Amherst from suggestions by the list-serv E-Anth [A forum for discussing ecology and the environment in anthropology and related social sciences. For more information visit http://www.eanth.org
It is reproduced here with her permission.
This is not a definitive bibliography so please add references in the comments. Let me know if I need to make corrections of typos, etc.
For those of you without a background, I would suggest you look first at
We often forget about prehistoric adaptations to climate change. “Nuclear Winter” is another key term for finding information and data about climate change and human effects.
Bumsted, M Pamela, ed. 1986 NUCLEAR WINTER: THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF HUMAN SURVIVAL
Proceedings of a session at the 84th annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, December 6, 1985, Washington, DC The Anthropology of Human Survival
There is also an earlier discussion about the human effects of global climate change, including anthropology and climate physics. Kellogg, William W., and Margaret Mead. 1977. The Atmosphere: endangered and endangering. Fogarty International Center proceedings, no. 39. [Bethesda]: U.S. Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare, Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health. http://13c4.wordpress.com/2007/11/29/anthropology-climate-change-war-environment-2/
Batterbury, S.P.J. 2008. Anthropology and global warming: the need for environmental engagement. The Australian Journal of Anthropology. 19 (1): 62-68 (AND WHOLE ISSUE).
Broad, K. 2000. El Nino and the Anthropological Opportunity. Practicing Anthropology 22(4): 20-3.
Broad, K., Orlove, B. 2007 Channeling globality: The 1997-98 El Ni? climate event in Peru. American Ethnologist 34(2):283-300
Crate, Susan A., and Mark Nuttall, eds. Anthropology and Climate Change: From Encounters to Actions. Left Coast Press, 2008.
Crate, Susan A. “Gone the Bull of Winter? Grappling with the Cultural Implications of and Anthropology’s Role(s) in Global Climate Change.” Current Anthropology 49.4 (2008): 569.
Cruikshank, Julie. Do Glaciers Listen?: Local Knowledge, Colonial Encounters, and Social Imagination. Vancouver: UBC Press; 2005.
Dietz, T., R. Ruben and A. Verhagen, eds. “The Impact of Climate Change on Drylands: With a Focus on West Africa”
Firth, Raymond. 1959. Critical Pressures on Food Supply and their Economic Effects. Chapter 3 from Social Change in Tikopia, pp. 51-76. London: Allen and Unwin.
Gutierrez, Maria. All that is Air Turns Solid: The Creation of a Market for Carbon Sequestration by Trees Under the Kyoto Protocol. Ph.D. Graduate Center, CUNY, 2007
Hovelsrud, Grete K., et al. CAVIAR – Community Adaptation and Vulnerability in the Arctic Regions – CICERO. http://www.cicero.uio.no/projects/detail.aspx?id=30170&lang=EN. Accessed 2008.
“IPY: International Polar Year.” 03/25/08 2008. Accessed10/28/2008 http://classic.ipy.org/development/eoi/details.php?id=513.
Lahsen, Myanna. Comment on Susan A. Crate’s “Gone the Bull of Winter? Grappling with the Cultural Implications of and Anthropology’s Role(s) in Global Climate Change,” Current Anthropology 49, 4, August 2008, pp. 587-588
—– “Knowledge, Democracy and Uneven Playing Fields: Insights from Climate Politics in and between the U.S. and Brazil.” Book chapter in Knowledge and Democracy: A 21st-Century Perspective, ed. Nico Stehr. London: Transaction Publishers, 2008.
—– “Experiences of Modernity in the Greenhouse: A Cultural Analysis of a Physicist ‘Trio’ Supporting the Conservative Backlash Against Global Warming.” Global Environmental Change 18(1), 2008, pp. 205-219.
—– “Trust Through Participation? Problems of Knowledge in Climate Decision Making.” Chapter in The Social Construction of Climate Change: Power, Knowledge, Norms, Discourses, ed. Mary Pettinger. Ashgate Publishing, 2007, pp. 173-196. Electronically available at: http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/our_science_their_science/pubs/lahsen_2007_pettenger1.pdf
—– “Seductive Simulations: Uncertainty Distribution Around Climate Models.” Social Studies of Science 2005 35, 895-922. Electronically available at: http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/resource-1891-2005.49.pdf
—– “Technocracy, Democracy and U.S. Climate Science Politics: The Need for Demarcations.” Science, Technology, and Human Values, 30(1), 137-169 (2005). Electronically available at: http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/resource-1892-2005.50.pdf
—– “Transnational Locals: Brazilian Scientists in the Climate Regime.” Book chapter in Earthly Politics: Local and Global in Environmental Politics, edited by Sheila Jasanoff and Marybeth Long-Martello (MIT Press, 2004).
—–“Brazilian Climate Epistemers’ Multiple Epistemes: An Exploration of Shared Meaning, Diverse Identities and Geopolitics in Global Change Science.” Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs (BCSIA). Discussion Paper 2002-01. Cambridge, MA: Environment and Natural Resources Program, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 2002. Available at: http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/gea/pubs/2002-01.htm
—– “The Detection and Attribution of Conspiracies: The Controversy Over Chapter 8” in George E. Marcus (ed.), Paranoia Within Reason: A Casebook on Conspiracy as Explanation, U. of Chicago Press, 1999. Available at: http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/resource-1893-1999.21.pdf
—– “Anthropology and the Trouble of Risk Society,” Anthropology News, Vol. 48, No. 9, December 2007, pp. 9-10. Accessible at: http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/resource-2584-2007.31.pdf
—– Climate Rhetoric: Constructions of Climate Science in the Age of Environmentalism. PhD Thesis, Rice University, 1998. Published by UMI Dissertation Services, Bell & Howell Company.
—– “Earth System Governance: Research in aid of global environmental sustainability,” International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme Global Change Newsletter, 70, December 2007. Accessible at: http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/resource-2585-2007.32.pdf
Lahsen, Myanna, Carlos A. Nobre and Jean P. Ometto. 2008. “Global Environmental Change Research: Empowering Developing Countries.” Annals of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, vol. 80, no. 3, Sept.
Lahsen, Myanna, Carlos A. Nobre. “The Challenge of Connecting International Science and Local Level Sustainability: The Case of the LBA.” Environmental Science and Policy 10 (1), 2007, pp. 62-74. For electronic copy and web log discussions about this article, see: http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/prometheus/archives/climate_change/001043lahsen_and_nobre_20.html
Lahsen, Myanna, Gunilla ?erg. The Role of Unstated Mistrust and Disparities in Scientific Capacity. Report published by The Swedish Institute for Climate Science and Policy Research, Link?ing University, Sweden, 2006. Second author: Gunilla ?erg. Available
Lazrus, Heather. “Island Vulnerability, Tuvalu.” Accessed 10/28/2008 http://www.islandvulnerability.org/tuvalu.html#lazrusphd. “Many Strong Voices.” 2008. 10/28/2008 http://www.manystrongvoices.org/.
Marx, S., Weber, E., Orlove, B. Leiserowitz, A. Krantz, D., Roncoli, C., Phillips, J. Two Communication and mental processes: Experiential and analytic processing of uncertain climate information. Global Environmental Change 17(1):47-58
May, Shannon. “Ecological Citizenship and a Plan for Sustainable Development.” City 12.2 (2008): 237.
May, Shannon. “Hope and Hazard in Rural China.” Far Eastern Economic Review (2008): 51-5.
McNeeley, Shannon. Climate Change and Variability in Interior Alaska: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Data Integration. http://www.2007amsterdamconference.org 2007 Amsterdam Conference, 2007.
Minnis, P. 1985. Social Adaptation to Food Stress: A prehistoric southwestern example. Univ of Chicago Press. Chapter 2: A Model of economic and organizational response to food stress. Pp. 12-42.
Orlove, B. 2005 Human adaptation to climate change: a review of three historical cases and some general perspectives. Environmental Science and Policy 8(6):589-600.
—–2008 Darkening Peaks: Glacier Retreat, Science and Society. Berkeley: California.
Orlove, B., Broad, K., Petty, A. 2004 Factors that influence the use of climate forecasts: Evidence from the 1997/98 El Nino event in Peru. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 85(11):1735-1743.
Orlove, B., Chiang, J., Cane, M. 2002 Ethnoclimatology in the Andes: A cross-disciplinary study uncovers a scientific basis for the scheme Andean potato farmers traditionally use to predict the coming rains. American Scientist 90(5):428-435.
Orlove, B., Chiang, J., Cane, M. 2000 Forecasting Andean rainfall and crop yield from the influence of El Ni? on Pleiades visibility. Nature 403:68-71.
Orlove, B., Tosteson, J. 1998 The application of seasonal to interannual climate forecasts based on El Ni?-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events: Lessons from Australia, Brazil, Ethiopia, Peru, and Zimbabwe. Working Papers in Environmental Politics 2. University of California, Berkeley, Institute of International Studies.
Orlove, B., Wiegandt, E., Luckman, B. H, 2008 The place of glaciers in natural and cultural landscapes. In Orlove, B., Wiegandt, E., Luckman, B. H, eds. Darkening peaks: glacial retreat, science and society. Berkeley: University of California Press. Pp. 3-19.
Parks, Bradley C., and J. Timmons Roberts. A Climate of Injustice: Global Inequality, North-South Politics, and Climate Policy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006.
Puri, R. 2008. Climate Change as a Driver in Social-Ecological Systems. In Howard et al. 2008. Scientific Framework for GIAHS. FAO: Rome.
—– 2007. Responses to Medium-term Stability in Climate: El Ni?, Droughts and Coping Mechanisms of Foragers and Farmers in Borneo. In Modern Crises and Traditional Strategies: Local Ecological Knowledge and Island Southeast Asia. Edited by Roy Ellen. Pp. 46-83. Oxford: Berghahn Books. (see bibliography here for other ethnographic studies!!)
Pyke, C. R., et al. Climate Change and the Chesapeake Bay: State-of-the-Science Review and Recommendations. Annapolis, MD: A Report from the Chesapeake Bay Program Science and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC), 2008.
Rayner, S. 2003. Domesticating nature: commentary on the anthropological study of weather and climate discourse. In Strauss S and B.S. Orlove (eds). Weather, culture, climate, (pp277-290). Oxford: Berg.
Risbey 2007. The new climate discourse: Alarmist or alarming? Global Environmetal Change.
Roncoli, C. 2006. Ethnographic and participatory approaches to research on farmers’ responses to climate predictions. Climate Research 33: 81-99.
Salick, J. and Byg, A, eds, 2007. Indigneous Peoples and Climate Change. Report of Symposium 12-13 April 2007, Environmental Change Institute, Oxford. A Tyndall Centre Publication, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, Oxford. http://www.tyndall.ac.uk/publications/Indigenouspeoples.pdf
Silberner, Joanne. “In Highland Peru, a Culture Confronts Blight: NPR.” National Public Radio. March 3, 2008 2008. 10/28/2008 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=87811933.
Smith, Daniel Somers. “”Place-Based Environmentalism and Global Warming: Conceptual.” Ethics and International Affairs 15.2 (2001): 117-134.
Smith, Daniel Somers. “The Discipline of Nature: A History of Environmental Discourse in the Northern Forest of New England and New York.” Yale University: New Haven. Ph.D. Yale University, 2003.
Strauss S and B.S. Orlove (eds). Weather, culture, climate. Oxford: Berg. Tabeaud, Martine, de la Soudi?e, Martin, and Esther Katz. “R?eau perception du climat > pr?entation.” 06/20/2006 2006. 10/28/2008 http://www.perceptionclimat.net/index.php.
Vedwan, N. and Rhoades, R.E. 2001. Climate change in the Western Himalayas of India: A study of local perception and response. Climate Research 19: 109-17.
Waddell, E. 1975. How the Enga cope with frost: Responses to Climatic perturbations in the Central Highlands of New Guinea. Human Ecology 3: 249-73.
Ziervogel, G. et al. 2006. Adapting to Climate Variability: Pumpkins, People and Policy. Natural Resources Forum 30: 294-305
Table of contents of Anthropology and Climate Change: From Encounters to Actions, Crate and Nuttall, eds. 2008 Left Coast Press
Introduction PART 1: CLIMATE AND CULTURE 1. Human Agency, Climate Change and Culture: An Archaeological Perspective, Fekri A. Hassan, University College London // 2. Climate and Weather Discourse in Anthropology: From Determinism to Uncertain Futures, Nicole Peterson, Columbia University, and Kenneth Broad, University of Miami // 3. Fielding Climate Change: The Role of Anthropology, Carla Roncoli, University of Georgia, Todd Crane, University of Georgia, Ben Orlove, UC-Davis // 4. Disasters and Diasporas: Global Climate Change and Population Displacement in the 21st Century, Anthony Oliver-Smith, University of Florida
PART 2: ANTHROPOLOGICAL ENCOUNTERS 1. Climate Change and Melting Andean Glaciers: Indigenous and Anthropological Knowledge merge in Restoring Water Sources, Inge Bolin, Malaspina University College // 2. Salmon Nation: A Nez Perce Policy in Spite of Global Climate Change, Benedict J. Colombi, University of Arizona // 3. Gone the Bull of Winter?, Susan A. Crate, George Mason University // 4. Storm Warnings: The Role of Anthropology in Adapting to Sea-Level Rise in Southwestern Bangladesh, Timothy Finan, University of Arizona // 5. Opal Waters, Rising Seas: Climate Impacts on Indigenous Australians, Donna Green, University of New South Wales // 6. Sea Ice: The Socio-cultural Dimensions of a Melting Environment, Anne Henshaw, Bowdoin College // 7. From Local to Global: Perceptions of Environmental Change Among Kalahari San, Robert K. Hitchcock, Michigan State University // 8. Climate Change and El Ni?s in the West Central Highlands of Papua New Guinea: Indigenous Perceptions and Responses to Environmental Change and Deforestation, Jerry Jacka, North Carolina State University // 9. Sea Change: Anthropology and Climate Change in Tuvalu, South Pacific, Heather Lazrus, University of Washington // 10. Talking and Not Talking about Climate Change in Northwestern Alaska, Elizabeth Marino and Peter Schweitzer, University of Alaska Fairbanks // 11. Moral Certitude and the Anthropologist’s Outrage (pace Rosaldo), Sarah Strauss, University of Wyoming
PART 3: ANTHROPOLOGICAL ACTIONS 1. Shifting the University: Faculty Engagement and Curriculum Change, Peggy F. Barlett and Benjamin Stewart, Emory University // 2. Global Climate Change: Car Culture & Emissions, Lenora Bohren, Colorado State University // 3. Terms of Engagement: an Arctic perspective on the narratives and politics of global climate change, Noel D. Broadbent, Smithsonian Institute and Patrik Lantto, Ume?University // 4. The Efforts of One Gulf Coast Community to Deal with the Challenges of Climate Change, Gregory V. Button, University of Tennessee at Knoxville and Kristina Peterson, University of New Orleans // 5. Global Change Policymaking from Inside the Beltway: Engaging Anthropology, Shirley J. Fiske, Independent Consultant, Adjunct Professor, University of Maryland // 6. Living In a World of Movement: Human Resilience to Environmental Instability in Greenland, Mark Nuttall, University of Alberta // 7. Global Responsibilities, Local Realities: Negotiating the Cultural Dimensions, P.J. Puntenney, University of Michigan // 8. Anthropology and Climate Change: The Exhibition Thin Ice ラ Inuit Traditions within a Changing Environment, A. Nicole Stuckenberger, Dartmouth College // 9. Consuming Ourselves to Death, Richard Wilk, Indiana University Epilogue: Throwing up our hands or rolling up our sleeves
Site Search Tags: bibliography, anthropology, analytical+anthropology, environment, Dincauze
24 Sunday Aug 2008
This is the extent of any notice I can find. I did contact the Senator through her website about when, where, who, format, etc. There hasn’t been any local notice that I am aware of, but usually these things are not well advertised.
Supposed to be Thursday, the 28th of August 2008.
Energy meeting set for Thursday
The Associated PressPublished: August 24th, 2008 02:02 AM
Last Modified: August 24th, 2008 02:02 AMBETHEL — Sen. Lisa Murkowski has scheduled a hearing in Bethel this week to explore the impact of soaring energy prices in rural Alaska.
The Alaska Republican says the Thursday hearing will be before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.
Murkowski’s office says panel participants will include Native leaders as well as federal and state officials.
Topics to be discussed include the impact of high energy costs on the future of traditional lifestyles and whether the federal government is doing enough to support the development of energy resources in rural parts of the state.
http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/503490.html
Site Search Tags: deadline, energy, Sen+Murkowski, Indian+Affairs, Bethel, Kuskokwim,
17 Thursday Jul 2008
Posted environmental change, info sources, sanitation
inLynn Zender posted a series of valuable resources on solid waste management and dumpsite health risk studies in rural Alaska as a comment here on the other site Biocultural Sciences. Because comments from there don’t get noted here, I’m making a post to bring these resources to your attention.
Lynn mentions SWAN
I thought I had referred folks to SWAN which is a highly useful discussion site and resource. My apologies because it is very well done. The site is sponsored by CCTHITA (Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska)
Site Search Tags: solid+waste, dumps, trash, 13C4.wordpress.com, Zender, SWMP, Biocultural+Sciences, analytical+anthropology, SWAN, AmeriCorps, IGAP
05 Saturday Jul 2008
Posted environmental change, schoolchildren
inJust heard this project. I wish I heard it last week when I saw a ladybug, maybe in Bethel or it could have been in Anchorage. The bug was somewhat oblong, as I recall, and dark brownish-red, maybe with some black spots. The ladybug/ladybird did not have the color and shape of the (once) familiar red ones back east. I didn’t think to get a picture.
But I found this about Alaska’s ladybugs, including an anatomy diagram. The color is more like what I recall (not the bright red of the eastern ladybugs).
The species ladybug eyespot (fig. 1) eats aphids in Alaska that do significant damage to flowers and vegetables. http://www.alaska.edu/opa/eInfo/index.xml?StoryID=118
2008-07-21 Steve took a picture, here at whatdoino, Bugs, Boleta, Barbecue, and a Tacky Green Russula
Lost Ladybug Project Turns Kids Into Scientists
All Things Considered, July 5, 2008
Calling all kids! Cornell University wants you to find and photograph ladybugs. John Losey, a professor of entomology at Cornell University, hopes children will help document ladybug populations around the
country. Some native species are dwindling, while exotics are on the rise. To participate in the project, go to the Lost Ladybug Project Web site or send an e-mail to ladybug @ cornell . edu
Site Search Tags: bugs, insects, ladybugs, Cornell.edu, science+project, whatdoino-steve
01 Tuesday Jul 2008
Posted environmental change, maps, news sources, preparedness, Updates, where is Bethel
infrom Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society
“Science in the News” is produced daily by Sigma Xi as a service for its members and the public. It highlights science and technology news stories appearing in the mainstream media. The accompanying Web links provide access to the full text of the articles on the Web sites of the individual media outlets from which they are taken. For more about the service, visit American Scientist Online.
If you experience any problems with the URLs (page not found, page expired, etc.), we suggest you proceed to the Science in the News section of American Scientist Online, which mirrors the daily e-mail update.
June 30, 2008
Arctic Could See First Ice-Free Summer This Year
from ABC News
The distinct possibility that the North Pole could be free of sea ice — for the first time in recorded history — may become a cold reality this summer.
The Arctic’s thick, resilient multiyear sea ice (frozen sea surface), which usually accumulates and lasts through the annual melting season, has started to give way to thinner, vulnerable first-year ice.
Satellite data gathered by the … National Snow and Ice Data Center showed that young sea ice, which is no more than about 60 inches deep and much more susceptible to melting away, now makes up only 72 percent of the Arctic ice sheet. Using that estimate, scientists at the center see a 50 percent chance that ice at the highest point in the Arctic will melt by the summer’s end.
http://snipurl.com/2qgra
see previous Where is… Bethel ice pack
Sea of Trash
from the New York Times Magazine
Off Gore Point, where tide rips collide, the rolling swells rear up and steepen into whitecaps. Quiet with concentration, Chris Pallister decelerates from 15 knots to 8, strains to peer through a windshield blurry with spray, tightens his grip on the wheel and, like a skier negotiating moguls, coaxes his home-built boat … through the chaos of waves.
… A 55-year-old lawyer with a … private law practice in Anchorage, Pallister spends most of his time directing a nonprofit group called the Gulf of Alaska Keeper, or GoAK (pronounced GO-ay-kay).
… In practice, the group has, since Pallister and a few like-minded buddies founded it in 2005, done little else besides clean trash from beaches. All along Alaska’s outer coast, Chris Pallister will tell you, there are shores strewn with marine debris, as man-made flotsam and jetsam is officially known. Most of that debris is plastic, and much of it crosses the Gulf of Alaska or even the Pacific Ocean to arrive there.
http://snipurl.com/2nmjt
see previous Where is… duckie invasion
Arctic Volcanoes Found Active at Unprecedented Depths
from National Geographic News
Buried under thick ice and frigid water, volcanic explosions are shaking the Arctic Ocean floor at depths previously thought impossible, according to a new study.
Using robot-operated submarines, researchers have found deposits of glassy rock—evidence of eruptions—scattered over more than 5 square miles of the seabed.
Explosive volcanic eruptions were not thought to be possible at depths below the critical pressure for steam formation, or 2 miles. The deposits, however, were found at seafloor depths greater than 2.5 miles.
http://snipurl.com/2qgu2