Ground (soil or rock and included ice and organic material) that remains at or below 0°C for at least two consecutive years is called permafrost.
Continue »
Burning Permafrost
2010-07-30 by noiv | 1 Comment | Filed in AsiaCologne Cathedral: Lights out for Earth Hour
2010-03-23 by noiv | No Comments | Filed in Campaigns, Environment
The cathedral is a World Heritage Site and one of the best-known architectural monuments in Germany. On Saturday 27th March 2010, 8:30pm Cologne’s most famous landmark will participate Earth Hour and switches off all lights.
You can participate and show your engagement to everybody in your neighbourhood. And remember it is visible to passengers up in the air using a plane.
Picture Credit: mitko using CC
SwitchMe: Think twice before Wasting Energy
2010-03-06 by noiv | No Comments | Filed in Campaigns, Education, Environment
Josselin Zaïgouche, freelance-designer from Paris, created ‘switch me!’. It stands for our society’s over-consumption and wasteful habits. You should think about whether or not you should turn on the light.
Every time you switch on your entropy account is debited, because finally high-value thermal energy is turned into low-value energy at a lower temperature. And there is no possibility to reverse this process.
more: photon mill
via: Ehrensenf
Antarctica: More Grinding
2010-02-26 by noiv | No Comments | Filed in Cryosphere, Environment
About half the length of the tongue broke off as iceberg B-9B touched the Mertz glacier. While moving north both icebergs may have an impact on ocean circulation and therefore weather pattern.
Australian Antarctic Division: Massive iceberg calves from the Mertz Glacier
ESA has a great close-up of the crevassed surface of the Mertz glacier.
Found only a few cloud-free images from this year for animation above.
Iceberg B15-K crashed into Ekstrom Ice Shelf
2010-02-23 by noiv | No Comments | Filed in Cryosphere, Environment, Oceans
March 2000: Iceberg B15 – former part of the Ross Sea Shelf – started its counter-clock-wise journey around Antarctica. Earlier this month subpart B15-K, 54 km long and 5 km wide, collided with Ekstrom Ice Shelf. The german Neumayer Station located nearby recorded the sound of the crash at 11th Februar at 16:42.
Above animation shows a week of truecolor photos from the MODIS satellite. The point of crash is just in the middle. Check out the Antarctica project page.
Winter Games: No Snow – No Show
2010-02-11 by noiv | No Comments | Filed in Consequences, Environment, Weather
Facing a 10°C weekend with isolated showers the Olympics in Vancouver develop a need of snow cannons and other methods of replacing snow. Even the IOC discusses Climate Change as an issue off future games.
“Global warming is definitely a factor that must be taken into account in Olympic preparations,” noted the President of IOC, Jacques Rogge, after a meeting last Monday.
Are Winter Games in Greenland or Siberia an option?
Picture Credit goes to Telstar Logistics@flickr using CC
Extreme Weather: World Record Wind Gust: 408 km/h
2010-02-03 by noiv | 1 Comment | Filed in Environment, Weather
Geneva, 22 January 2010 (WMO) – According to a recent review conducted by a panel of experts in charge of global weather and climate extremes within the WMO Commission for Climatology (CCl) the record of wind gusts not related to tornados registered to date is 408 km/h during Tropical Cyclone Olivia on 10 April 1996 at Barrow Island, Australia.
The previous record was of 372 km/h, registered in April 1934 across the summit of Mount Washington, USA.
more: Global Weather & Climate Extremes, Olivia@digital-typhoon
Costa-Rica: Long term economy-wide transformational effort to enable carbon-neutrality
2010-02-03 by noiv | No Comments | Filed in Emissions, Politics
The Copenhagen Accord asked the Annex I countries to define their emissions reduction goals for 2020 by 31 January 2010. Non-Annex I countries have been invited to send in their mitigation actions. Two major nations — Mexico and Russia – had not submitted plans as of Monday evening.
The feedback of 55 countries – accounting for 78 percent of greenhouse gas emissions globally – is now published on the UNFCCC website. Annex I / Non-Annex.
However, if all pledges become real the 2°C goal will not be met. Here I’d like to highlight the letter from Costa Rica.
Carbon Hack: DEHSt closed by Phishing Attack
2010-02-03 by noiv | No Comments | Filed in Economy, Emissions
Fraudsters used fake emails to steal passwords of the German Emissions Trading Authority (DEHSt). Certificates were then transferred to other participating countries and then sold. Some sources report losses of millions of Euros.
The certificates have unique IDs and the DEHSt is working hard to rollback all transactions. In the meantime the register is closed. A spokesperson of DEHSt describes the attack as highly professional and the German Federal Criminal Office (BKA) started an investigation.
You can easily avoid these attacks by checking the sender of emails, not using links inside emails instead trust your bookmarks and in this case by not publishing your email address in the register.
dw-world.de: Hackers steal emissions trading certificates
DEHSt: Preventive Measures of the German Registry
Severn Suzuki speaking at UN Earth Summit 1992
2010-01-26 by noiv | No Comments | Filed in Kids, Politics, Videos| UN Earth Summit 1992 |
If you don’t know how to fix it, stop breaking it!
more: Michael Archer interviews Severn Suzuki, April 2009
Wikipedia: Earth Summit 1992
Wearables: Pollution Dress indicates CO2 Concentration
2009-12-23 by noiv | No Comments | Filed in Campaigns, Emissions
Danish design company Diffus has come up with an LED-equipped Climate Dress that responds to the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by glowing accordingly. The dress is powered by an Arduino Lilypad microprocessor and a carbon dioxide detector.
The Dress was made by a Danish cooperation consisting of design studio Diffus, Danish designer Tine M. Jensen, Swiss embroidery company Forster-Rohner, the Danish research-company Alexandra Institute and finally the Danish School of Design.
You know Global Warming is over, when the Niagara Falls are …
2009-11-27 by noiv | No Comments | Filed in Cryosphere, Environment
completely frozen again.
time machine to 1900@nowthatsnifty.blogspot.com
via Ehrensenf
Update: some replies urge not to mix up a cold winter with climate. This winter intensified by a negative phase of the arctic oscillation and a snow albedo feedback is pretty cold, but not a sign of slower Global Warming.
Of course this is true, but the agent provocateur is nevertheless not wrong. 
please read James Hanson’s If It’s That Warm, How Come It’s So Darned Cold, with more pictures of frozen Niagara Falls.
Munich Re: Climate Change is too expensive
2009-11-26 by noiv | No Comments | Filed in Consequences, Economy
“Our statistics clearly show that the loss burden from weather-related natural catastrophes is increasing.
A year like 2009, with relatively low losses to date, in no way contradicts this”,
said Torsten Jeworrek, member of Munich Re’s Board of Management responsible for reinsurance business.
“Something must be done. Even if an all-embracing agreement does not seem feasible in Copenhagen, at the very least fundamental framework conditions should be established.
We cannot afford a delay at the expense of future generations.”
more: press release
Polar Bears and Aviation Emissions
2009-11-26 by noiv | No Comments | Filed in Campaigns, VideosYour flight has an impact. Plane Stupid’s new cinema ad, written and commissioned by London’s coolest agency Mother and made by production company Rattling Stick. Director Daniel Kleinman.
via: Ehrensenf
E-PRTR – European CO2 Emitting Facilities
2009-11-18 by noiv | No Comments | Filed in Emissions, Environment, Pollution
Earlier this month the European Environment Agency (EEA) gave access to information on emissions from European industrial facilities. Included are annual data for 91 substances and more than 24 000 facilities in 65 economic activities.
The around 3600 greenhouse gas emitting facilities are now searchable here at ExploreOurPla.net. The initial view lists the 100 top emitter of carbon dioxyde. In 2007 most CO2 has been relased in 50129 Bergheim, Germany by the RWE Power AG – 31300 megatons.
Details about the reporting process are described in the guidance document.
more: EEA Press release, E-PRTR
Picture Credit: freefotouk@flickr using CC
Rosetta pictures Antarctica during Gravitational Slingshot
2009-11-17 by noiv | No Comments | Filed in Earthviews, Space
This image was acquired by the Rosetta Orbiter Imaging System OSIRIS from a distance of 350 000 km at 22:28 UTC 12th November. The resolution is 6.5 km/pixel.
The mission is named after the famous ‘Rosetta Stone‘ and refers to an important discovery helped to understand hieroglyphics.
Picture Credits: ESA ©2009 MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
More Antarctica same day at ice-map.appspot.com.
Tokyo and Manhattan flooded
2009-11-14 by noiv | No Comments | Filed in Consequences, Environment
Some when in the future – maybe this century – a apocalyptic event flooded both megacities, water level is around 10m higher, fish is cheap and cellphone still operate. See the full set of pictures released by Studio Lindfors at flickr.
via: BLDGBLOG
Bedtime Story Controversy in United Kingdom
2009-11-07 by noiv | No Comments | Filed in Campaigns, Kids| C02 Bedtime Story |
UK based Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) launched this commercial as part of its Act on CO2 campaign.
The Advertising Standards Authority received already hundreds of complains and the placement in TV and cinema will continue a further month.
What kind of discussion would a similar broadcasting raise in your country? Would you like to give the story a happy end?
Kilimanjaro
2009-11-04 by noiv | No Comments | Filed in Consequences, Cryosphere, Environment
1938 Ernest Hemingway eternalised Africa’s white peak with “The Snows of Kilimanjaro“. Now researchers led by paleoclimatologist Lonnie Thompson estimate the thousands years old glaciers will disappear this century.
PNAS: Glacier loss on Kilimanjaro continues unabated
LIFE Photo (1930)
Photo Credit: paulshaffner using CC
