DAILY QUICK READ - JUNE 26, 2016

Stunning

Montana is a beautiful place and this part of the state is a dramatic mix of prairie and mountains, cut through by tumbling rivers.  Art and nature combine at Tippet Rise in an almost mystical way.

The Tippet Rise Art Center, on an 11,500-acre working ranch near Yellowstone, Montana, has just opened to the public. It celebrates land and architecture, as well as music during its classical concert season.

Men no longer invoke the love of poetry. And yet never before has there been such a need for men to be transfigured, to be rescued, to be comforted by poetry. - Wallace Stevens

Destroy the World For Profit - Greed Driven Extinction

Oil and gas companies believe that they have the right to pump all the oil and gas from the planet.  Then they will move on to some other line of business.  Of course by then our planet will be a lifeless cinder.

It is often argued by supporters of the oil and gas industry and opponents of renewable energy that the need to ween ourselves off fossil fuels is not as pressing as many claim, since a significant amount of resources remain on the planet. However, a new study from the University of Victoria in Canada may well have put paid to that argument.

The paper has estimated what would happen to the world’s climate if no further action were taken to mitigate the effects of climate change – and found catastrophic results, both in terms of temperature and precipitation, which would render many parts of the planet uninhabitable. As such, the paper provides new impetus to the feeling that the time for change is now when it comes to our energy production and consumption habits. 

Poverty Drives Extinction, Too

It doesn’t take a meteor strike to cause a mass extinction.  Man is perfectly capable.  So we have to work on man if we want to prevent the on-coming mass extinction.

Brent Stirton/National Geographic

Around 480 mountain gorillas live within the confines of Virunga, Africa’s oldest national park. The critically endangered primates are among the most threatened animals in the world, and the population inside the region is the only gorilla species on the rise.

But despite its renowned status, including a designation as a World Heritage Site, Virunga has become a war zone.

National Geographic sent two correspondents into the park to investigate the thorny relationship between people trying to save Virunga and those jockeying to use the park’s resources to survive.

Some 4 million people live along the border of Virunga, a 3,000-square mile expanse of dense jungle on the eastern edge of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Many survive on less than $1.25 day, dependent on an illicit charcoal and bushmeat industry that’s encroached on the park.

…the realities of this conservationist-local relationship present a complex dynamic that can’t be fixed by classifying the region as a national park or protecting its fauna with “endangered” labels.

Zombie Corals

Zombie corals and sunscreen destroying coral reefs.

Zombie corals, which look healthy but cannot reproduce, have been discovered by researchers, dashing hopes that such reefs could repopulate areas destroyed by bleaching.

Scientists have also found that a common ingredient in sunscreen is killing and mutating corals in tourist spots.

The new evidence of harm to corals comes as the most widespread coral bleaching event in recorded history is sweeping the world’s oceans. Water temperatures have been driven up by a run of record-breaking hot years, caused by climate change and the El Niño phenomenon. Very warm water causes corals to lose the algae that normally live inside them and help them feed.

Corals in every major reef region have already experienced severe bleaching. About 93% of the reefs on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef have been affected, and almost a quarter of the reef is now dead. Corals are hotspots of biodiversity and crucial nurseries for fish, upon which 1 billion people rely for nourishment.

Another study Fauth was part of found that oxybenzone, a common UV-filtering compound in sunscreen, is common in Hawaii, Florida and the US Virgin Islands.

The chemical kills coral but also causes DNA damage in adult coral and deforms the larval stage, making normal development unlikely. An earlier study showed that the highest concentrations of oxybenzone were found on the reefs most popular with tourists.

Pink Snow

First it was “don’t eat the yellow snow,” now it’s beware the “pink snow.”

The Arctic conjures up images of white snow, ice, and polar bears. But this month, the Arctic landscape looks like something out of a Dr. Seuss book, with landscapes of pink snow.

What caused this strawberry hue? Was it an Arctic accident? Or polar pranksters? Neither, according to a new study published Wednesday by a team of scientists in England and Germany in the journal Nature Communications. 

Instead, the pink coloring is caused by algae, which creates an effect that can actually worsen climate change.

Water Is the New Oil

When we runout of water, we run out of life.

Of all the ways climate change inflicts harm, drought is the one people worry about most, according to a Pew Research Center survey. And it’s not surprising—droughts have been drier and lasting longer in recent years thanks in part to climate change. In 2012, the central and western U.S. was hit particularly hard when 81 percent of the country was living in abnormally dry conditions, causing $30 billion in damages and putting the health and safety of many Americans at risk.

Of all the ways climate change inflicts harm, drought is the one people worry about most.

While droughts can have different causes depending on the area of the world and other natural factors, the majority of scientists have started to link more intense droughts to climate change. That’s because as more greenhouse gas emissions are released into the air, causing air temperatures to increase, more moisture evaporates from land and lakes, rivers and other bodies of water. Warmer temperatures also increase evaporation in plant soils, which affects plant life and can reduce rainfall even more. And when rainfall does come to drought-stricken areas, the drier soils it hits are less able to absorb the water, increasing the likelihood of flooding—a lose-lose situation.