Stern report on Global Warming was wrong…

Sir Nicholas Stern has warned that the gloomy predictions of his high-profile review of the future effects of global warming underestimated the risks, and that climate change poses a bigger threat than he realised.

Stern said this week that new scientific findings showed greenhouse gas emissions were causing more damage than was understood in 2006, when he prepared his study for the government. He pointed to last year’s reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and new research which shows that the planet’s oceans and forests are soaking up less carbon dioxide than expected.

He said: “Emissions are growing much faster than we’d thought, the absorptive capacity of the planet is less than we’d thought, the risks of greenhouse gases are potentially bigger than more cautious estimates and the speed of climate change seems to be faster.”

Stern said the new findings vindicated his report, which has been criticised by climate sceptics and some economists as exaggerating the possible damage. “People who said I was scaremongering were profoundly wrong,” he told a conference in London.

From the Guardian: Read more

Corals flourish at Bikini Atoll

Huge colonies of Porites coral growing up to 26 feet (8 meters) high flourish in the Bravo Crater in the Marshall Islands’ Bikini Atoll.

A recent international survey of the 1.2-mile-wide (2-kilometer-wide) crater, created in 1954 by the impact of the most powerful atom bomb ever detonated by the U.S., shows that some coral species have bounced back.

“It was awesome to see coral cover as high as 80 percent and large treelike branching formations with trunks 30 centimeters (11 inches) thick,” Zoe Richards of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies said in a statement.

However, 42 species of corals never recovered from the devastating event, which vaporized nearby islands and raised water temperatures to 55,000 degrees Celsius (99,000 degrees Fahrenheit).

From National Geographic Read more

April 22nd: Dive for Earth Day 2008

April 22 is Dive for Earth Day - a day that is all about making a difference. Our underwater environments face several serious concerns - pollution, overfishing, coral bleaching, and climate change are just some of them.

All over the world divers take part in local programs that aim to raise awareness of the environmental issues that affect our waterways and to do something to make a change. Whether it’s a local clean up, fish survey, or demonstration, there are plenty of way to get involved.

Project AWARE maintains a directory of Dive for Earth Day events that you can get involved in. If there’s no event near you perhaps you could organize one or make an individual effort.

Dive for Earth Day is also a timely reminder that we can all make a difference to our underwater environment every time we dive. Project AWARE have produced a great guide to how we as divers can help protect our underwater environment. Remember - take only photographs, leave only bubbles.

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Freeflow tidal turbines to generate 15,000MW in Canada

Hydro Power Without the Dams: Ontario Invests in Free Flow Underwater Turbines.

The Cornwall Ontario River Energy Project - 15 Megawatts

The province of Ontario is investing C$2.2 million into a project to demonstrate the feasibility and commercial viability of using free flow turbines to harness some of the St. Lawrence River’s kinetic energy and turn it into electricity.

This project is for 15 megawatts, enough to power 11,000 average-sized homes, but Verdant estimates that “there is enough potential power in the water currents of Canada’s tides, rivers and manmade channels to generate 15,000 MW of electricity using its technology”. That would be about the equivalent of 15 big coal power plants.

From Treehugger: Read more

UK Nuclear industry killing billions of fish

The nuclear industry in Britain is killing billions of fish every year and taking a devastating toll of stocks, an Oxford University academic suggests.

The impact can be so severe in the worst-affected regions of the seas around Britain that death rates are equivalent to half the commercial catch for some species.

Coastal power plants that have cooling systems that extract water from the sea are to blame for the destruction, according to Peter Henderson, an environmental researcher.

Figures he has compiled suggest that the damage to fish stocks is much more severe than records have indicated previously. He calculated that had the young fish killed in power stations survived they would have added thousands of tonnes of fish annually to Britain’s stocks.

Dr Henderson is concerned that too little account is taken of the impact on fish stocks of the deaths of many billions of eggs and young caused by coastal power plants, both nuclear and conventional.

From the Times Online:

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