Exploring Humanity’s Place In the Journey of the Universe by : Yale Environment 360

• …There’s starting to be a sense now that  there’s a moral issue about degradation of the environment, that there is something here that’s larger than us, something that’s given birth to all life forms and sustains us. And if we degrade that, it’s to the degradation of future generations. So there’s an inter-generational ethic here. And there’s a new emerging ethic of responsibility to people in other parts of the world who are suffering from our actions with things like climate change, which is affecting people along coastal waters.So where is the moral force going to come from for inter-generational ethics or ethical responsibility for people in other parts of the world? It’s going to come from longer-range thinking, and that’s what the religions can contribute.

• YALE e360

The Age of Man Is Not a Disaster – NYTimes.com

• Yes, we live in the Anthropocene — but that does not mean we inhabit an ecological hell. Our management and care of natural places and the millions of other species with which we share the planet could and should be improved.

Fearing Climate Change’s Effects on the Adirondacks – NYTimes.com

By LISA W. FODERARO

• Mr. Jenkins, who is the author of the book “Climate Change in the Adirondacks: The Path to Sustainability,” spends much of his time on the water and in the woods, documenting the ecosystem with a notebook and a camera. He thus brings an unusual perspective to the scene. Where a casual observer might behold diversity and continuity, he projects decades into the future and finds absence and loss.

Yale Environment 360: Younger Americans Disengaged On Global Warming, Survey Finds

• young Americans are just as divided as older Americans about whether global warming is real

• 54 percent of Americans aged 18 to 34 said they were not at all worried or not very worried about global warming

   

• young Americans are just as divided as older Americans about whether global warming is real

   

• Adults under 35 are significantly less likely than older Americans to say they have thought about global warming

   

• nearly two-thirds of younger Americans are unsure whether global warming is real

   

As Climate Warms, Species May Need to Migrate or Perish by Carl Zimmer: Yale Environment 360

With global warming pushing some animals and plants to the brink of extinction, conservation biologists are now saying that the only way to save some species may be to move them.

• This strategy — which goes by various names including assisted migration, assisted colonization, and, most recently, managed relocation — only emerged in the scientific literature in 2007. Over the past two years it has attracted widespread interest. A number of scientists are now investigating how they can pick new homes for endangered species and move them safely.

Giant Underground Fossil Forests Show Record of Warming

• James Owen
  for National Geographic News

• Huge tracts of prehistoric rain forest ravaged by global warming more than 300 million years ago have been found preserved underneath the U.S. Midwest, according to scientists.

  The fossilized forests, including one covering 39 square miles (100 square kilometers), were discovered in coal mines in eastern Illinois by a team of international researchers.

Climate change threatens two-thirds of California’s unique plants, study says – Los Angeles Times

• The state’s plants are at risk of collapse unless they migrate or are moved to refuges, scientists say. Animals may also be separated from plants on which they depend, according to researchers.

  By Margot Roosevelt, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
  June 25, 2008

• Two-thirds of California’s unique plants, some 2,300 species that grow nowhere else in the world, could be wiped out across much of their current geographic ranges by the end of the century because of rising temperatures and changing rainfall patterns, according to a new study.

  The species that cannot migrate fast enough to higher altitudes or cooler coastal areas could face extinction because of greenhouse gas emissions that are heating the planet, according to researchers.

• Half of the plant species that are unique to the continental United States grow only in the Golden State, from towering redwoods to slender fire poppies. And under likely climate scenarios, many would have to shift 100 miles or more from their current range — a difficult task given slow natural migration rates and obstacles presented by suburban sprawl.
• The study, which was based on more than 80,000 specimens, was hailed as groundbreaking by leading scientists in the field. "It is a timely analysis of the likely fate of the plants of California in the face of climate change," Peter Raven, president of the Missouri Botanical Garden and coauthor of seminal texts on California flora, said in an e-mail.

  And in Southern California, given water shortages and habitat disruption, he added, "lots of the populations are right on the edge. . . . The balance could easily be tipped so we could lose many of them in a very short period of time."

  As California’s unique species migrate, they could be separated from the creatures that pollinate them. Animals could be divided from the plants on which they depend, the researchers noted.

• The state may also have to set aside new refuges and corridors, and prepare to move some plants if necessary. "Planning for plant refugees will become a new but important concept for natural reserves to think about," said biologist Brent Mishler, director of the University and Jepson Herbaria at UC Berkeley, the state’s most important flora collection.
• Native plants often support 10 to 50 times as many species of native wildlife as nonnative plants, and biologist Philip Rundel, a California plant specialist at UCLA, noted that the effects measured by the study "will surely be paralleled by what we can expect to occur with animal species."

  "This article is a wake-up call for all Californians that global change impacts on our environment are more than just a theoretical issue."

  margot.roosevelt@

  latimes.com

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Tropics insects ‘face extinction’

•  

  Many tropical insects face extinction by the end of this century unless they adapt to the rising global temperatures predicted, US scientists have said.

  Researchers led by the University of Washington said insects in the tropics were much more sensitive to temperature changes than those elsewhere.

• Unlike warm-blooded animals, cold-blooded organisms cannot regulate their body temperatures by growing a coat of fur or shedding it when it gets warm. They are instead limited to either seek shade when hot or sun themselves when cool.

Warming threat worse in tropics – Los Angeles Times

•  

  Scientists say many species can’t tolerate small temperature rises.

  From the Associated Press
  11:47 AM PDT, May 5, 2008

  WASHINGTON — While global warming is expected to be strongest at the poles, it may be an even greater threat to species living in the tropics, scientists say. Tropical species are accustomed to living in a small temperature range and thus may be unable to cope with changes of even a few degrees, according to an analysis in Tuesday’s edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

• The tropical species in our data were mostly thermal specialists, meaning that their current climate is nearly ideal and any temperature increases will spell trouble for them.” PNAS: http://www.pnas.org

Native Seeds Fight Food Shortage and Global Warming : TreeHugger

• 

• a solution to food production and global warming. The key ideas are:

  1. Biodiversity increases the ability of an ecosystem to capture carbon, says Brown University.
  2. There are 100′s of economically important native seeds according to Lee and Maggie Arbuckle.
  3. Native perennial grasses can be used as food, according to The Land Institute.
  4. Harvesting perennial grasses is getting easier, with the Arbuckle Native Seedster.

  Together these innovations change the framework for how we can turn sunlight and water into food. Incorporating these ideas could sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, provide economic growth, improve soil health, reduce fossil fuel use, and provide sustainable and resilient food production.

  The journal Nature had an editorial today that called for an increase in spending on agricultural research and development, particularly agricultural systems adapted to place.

• Studies, like the one completed at Brown, are emerging that show a diverse habitat captures more energy, and sequesters more carbon than a simple, less diverse habitat (like a monoculture).

  One of the great unexplored opportunities is the cultivation of native seeds for use as food. Over 80% of native North American seeds are perennial, with roots up to six feet deep. These deep roots hold moisture through a dry spell, and allow for a rich habitat that builds priceless topsoil. The Land Institute has begun cultivating varieties for human agriculture that moves us away from planting a monoculture of annuals, to a polyculture (more diverse) of perennials.