The Climate Group, an independent, international operating nonprofit organization hightlights companies, countries, cities and regions in a report (summary) with a success story about reducing carbon emissions and gaining more profit or reducing costs.
Hopefully worldwide more and more companies find out the better profit strategy includes our environment.
All data sourecs used are quoted in the report, go and find out what is applicable for your company.
Demographic data collected by Claritas states that about 250,000 people from New Orleans and the Gulf Coast still have not come back to their domicile. Lester R. Brown from Earth Policy Institute concludes:
The first massive movement of climate refugees has been that of people away from the Gulf Coast of the United States. …
New Orleans population before Katrina struck was 463,000. Claritas, a private demographic data-gathering and analysis firm, reported that after the hurricane New Orleans population shrank to 93,000. By January 2006, it had recovered to 174,000. By July 2006, the city still had only 214,000 residents, less than half of its pre-Katrina population. …
In some Mississippi Gulf Coast towns, Katrina’s powerful 28-foot-high storm surge (8.5 meters) did not leave a single structure standing. There was nothing for evacuees to return to. …
Some evacuees are still returning, but the flow has slowed to a near trickle. We estimate that at least 250,000 of them have established homes elsewhere and will not return. They no longer want to face the personal trauma and financial risks associated with rising seas and more destructive storms. These evacuees are now climate refugees. …
Interestingly, the country to suffer the most damage from a hurricane is also primarily responsible for global warming. …
More destructive storms are an early manifestation of global warming. The longer term risk is that rising temperatures will melt glaciers and polar ice caps, raising sea level and displacing coastal residents worldwide. The flow of climate refugees to date numbers in the thousands, but if we do not quickly reduce CO2 emissions, it could one day number in the millions.
| YouTube video |
Typhoon Saomai made landfall in Zhejiang. (Part 1)
8min, youtube, asukamomoko2006, uploaded August 11, 2006
Read: Typhoon Saomai: strongest to hit Chinese mainland in over 50 years
Greenland is the largest non-continental island in the world. The Greenland Ice Sheet holds about 2.85 million cubic kilometres of ice - 10% of the world’s ice mass. About 81% of the surface is covered by ice and helps to preserve the global energy balance. The ice sheets reflect incoming solar energy and, thus, influence Earth’s temperature.
Greenland is 341,701 sq km large. At the center, 
the ice is anything up to 3 km high. The weight of the massive ice cap has depressed the central land area to form a basin lying more than 300 m below sea level. Highest point is Gunnbjørns Fjeld with 3,693 m.
The most productive glacier is Sermeq Kujalleq (Jakobshavn Glacier) near Ilulissat. It is the fastest glacier on Earth and produces about 10% of all the icebergs in Greenland. Several thousands icebergs are produced from Greenland every year. In 2004 NASA scientists used Radar and Landsat images taken from space and found that the Jakobshavn Glacier has doubled his speed from 1997 to 2003.
Warming increases the rate of ice flow off Greenland, because the meltwater penetrates the ice sheet and forms a thin film between the ice and bedrock, which causes the glaciers to slide off the continent faster. If the greenlandic ice sheet melts completely, it would raise the average sea level about 6.5 metres. To compare: Antarctica’s 30 million cubic kilometers ice volume would rise sea level up to 70 meters.
The seasons are causing different melting behaviour of Greenland’s ice caps. With microwave sensors it is possible to analyse the surface of the ice and to differ between dry snow or ice and melting wet snow. In 2002 the melt started unusually early and the coverage was with 686,350 square kilometers 16% higher than the maximum melt area measured in the past 24 years.
The movement of glaciers towards the coast is not a constant slow journey. 
The speed of blocks of ice big like buildings can reach up to 10 meters per minute and generate seismic waves. Greenland is not a hotspot of seismic activity due to the constellation of the tectonic plates. Researches analyzed more than 100 seismic events between 1993 and 2005 and found one third happend in warm July and August and the amount of events doubled over the period.
NASA’s GRACE satellites measure directly the mass of the ice cap. According to a new analysis by researchers at the University of Arizona at Austin, the loss of ice from Greenlands southeastern region has sped up between 2002 and 2005.
Approximately 239 cubic kilometers is now lost each year and contribute add 0.56 millimeters annually to sea level, mostly from the eastern shorline. Too much fresh water from Greenland will change the circulation of water in the Atlantic Ocean and may alter the direction of the Norwegian Current which keeps Norway’s harbours ice free.
More facts: Basic facts about Greenland, Greenland in Figures 2005, Volume of Earth’s Polar Ice Caps, Impact of Climate Warming on Polar Ice Sheets Confirmed, Vanishing Ice, Earth Observatory Glacier Hazards From Space
Picture Credits: (1, JSC), (2, bigfoto.com) , (3, Larry Rodrigues), (4, Svante Bj
Above a certain point the CO2 concentration and temperature reduce the yields of seed grain crops. Hartwell Allen , ARS plant physiologist Joseph C. Vu, colleagues associated with the University of Florida-Gainesville and the International Rice Research Institute exposed common field crops like rice, grain sorghum, kidney beans, soybeans, and peanuts in growth chambers different concentrations of CO2.
The results let anticipate that global food supplies could be at risk without changes in production strategies.
via: eurekalert.org
picture credit: (1, Keith Weller)
This is just an announcement and the supporting post for the tutorial describing how to implement labeled permalinks for Google Maps. Read everything about here and use the comment function below for questions and proposals:
Tutorial for labeled permalinks, latest code version (2006-08-14)
Wordpress has no comment function for pages and registered users only can submit comments to avoid spam. Sorry for any inconvenience.
If you are wondering read ‘Maps now with location detector and labeled permalinks’ for your information and find out how this widget helps you on the map.
Typhoon Saomai struck the coast of Zhejiang province in the south-east of China on 10 August. Prior to making landfall, maximum sustained winds within the tropical cyclone were recorded by the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) at 216 km/h, making it the most powerful typhoon to hit the country’s mainland in some 50 years. The CMA estimates that Saomai will move further inland at some 20 km/h.
Some 111 people have died and 149 are missing. Saomai was probably more powerful than the typhoon in August 1956 which triggered a massive storm surge, killing between 3 000 and 4 500 people in Zhejiang province.
Eight hours before the typhoon arrived on the coast and for the first time ever, CMA initiated a Category 1 typhoon response plan and intensified atmospheric and surface observations, ensuring that the latest data were made available to central and local authorities as rapidly as possible. More than 1 300 000 people were evacuated.
In the western North Pacific region, the average number of named storms reaches 8.5 by the end of July with 14 at the end of August. On 10 August 2006, nine storms had been named. However, seven of these have made landfall on Chinese coasts which CMA says is significantly higher than average.
– According to the Lebanese Higher Relief Council, 1,056 Lebanese have been killed and 3,600 wounded.
– The Government of Israel reports that 41 Israeli civilians have been killed.
– The Lebanese Higher Relief Council also reports the following preliminary damage figures: 7,000 private houses/apartments, 900 commercial facilities, 630 roads, 73 bridges, 72 overpasses and 23 fuel stations have been damaged by Israel Defense Forces bombardments, as well as 29 airports, ports, water and sewage treatment facilities and electricity plants.
– Preliminary damage to Lebanese infrastructure is estimated to exceed $2 billion, including: $386 million in damages to transportation infrastructure, $180 million to electricity plants and transmission facilities, $85 million to telecommunications infrastructure and $70 million to water infrastructure.
– The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) reports that, of approximately 40,000 Palestinian refugees in southern Lebanon, perhaps half have fled to northern Lebanon or Syria.
read on: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
Excessive power consumption, high traffic with unfiltered diesel fuel and coal-fired power plants affect the air quality in the 6,8 million city located in south-east China.
Caused by smog Hong Kong has poor visibility 45 per cent of the time, sometimes even the other side of the harbour is unvisible. Researchers concluded the cost in lost productivity and health care was 2.57 billion US dollars a year.
A report by three universities released this year states 1,600 people a year were dying of pollution-related illnesses in Hong Kong. According to EU standards it is ‘very unhealthy’ if there are 50 micrograms of pollutants per cubic meter of air, where Hong Kong’s very unhealthy level is reached at 180 micrograms. Air Pollution Index, Hong Kong
The “Lights Out” protest was the idea of Alastair Robins, a British expatriate, who says he is fed up with what he calls “the government’s failure to clean the air.”
Tuesday, at exactly 8:00 p.m., 2006-08-08, employees in more than 40 branches of Hong Kong’s biggest coffee chain, Pacific Coffee, switched off floor lamps and dimmed other lights for three minutes to join the territory wide campaign against worsening air pollution.
People in homes, offices, bars, restaurants and shops all over the territory joined in, but most lights were not dimmed.
I’m generally disappointed that more lights didn’t go out (downtown) but I’m proud that we at least got our message across, Alastair Robins said after the brief protest.
The city is facing a lost of attractiveness. Business executives are concerned that pollution is driving businesses away from the city, and making it harder to recruit managers from abroad.
While lifestyle was an important factor before, now hedge funds flee Hong Kong and move to Singapore. Managers constitute they don’t want to expose their children any longer to the smog in Hong Kong.
Since a week more than 100 fires were reported in Galicia. Commercial interests and heat are common causes. Satellite picture shows north-east Iberian Peninsula taken by Daily Terra, 2006-08-10. via: ESA
