Saturday, August 07, 2010

Nature watch

So, in the news right now we have;

  • a giant ice sheet has broken away from Greenland and is drifting south. It is the largest such since 1962, and is thought to have come away due to the hottest summer on record. Apparently the technical term for when an ice sheet breaks away is 'calving'.

  • fires are out of control in Moscow creating all kinds of health problems and smog. The fires, caused by an unprecedented heatwave are having all sorts of unexpected problems. For example "The fires have raised concerns about the security of Russia's main nuclear research centre in the still closed city of Sarov, one of the areas worst hit by the blazes and where the emergencies ministry has sent thousands of workers."

  • record floods in Pakistan are effecting something like thirteen million people, a disaster whose scale is difficult to comprehend (You can give to the DEC Appeal)
Meanwhile, in an unrelated story, climate change talks in Bonn are moving backwards. You can also now get a climate denial app for your i-phone.

ps jinx! I've simultaneously written almost exactly the same post, in the same formatting, as Rupert Read. Oh well.

4 comments:

DocRichard said...

Look on the bright side. Russia's PM Medvedev now thinks something must be done about AGW. http://bit.ly/bUEqB3

I suppose it will take a Great Flood of London to get the UK Govt to stop talking and start acting.

Rupert said...

Yep, great minds think alike, I guess, Jim! ;-)
We may have our vigorous disagreements, but we are at one on this one...

Kaihsu Tai said...

Add to these “China experiences worst floods in a decade”.

Kaihsu Tai said...

Peter Stott (Met Office) offers this scientific analysis in the Guardian today.