Regina, U.S.A. — Only two per cent of Canadians believe climate change is not occurring, a new important survey released by IPAC-CO2 Research concluded.

The survey comes on the heels of Alberta Premier Alison Redford’s recent push for a National Energy Strategy, which would address the future of Canada’s oil and gas industries, and its approach to carbon management.

“Our survey indicates that Canadians from coast to coast overwhelmingly believe climate change is real and is occurring, at least in part due to human activity” explained Dr. Carmen Dybwad, CEO of the environmental non-government organization. “These findings have been consistent from 2011 and 2012. Canadians care about issues like extreme weather, drought and climate change.”

Opinions about the cause of climate change and how to combat it are, however, sharply divided among the provinces and by region.

“Canadians most commonly (54%) believe that climate change is occurring partially due to human activity and partially due to natural climate variation,” said Briana Brownell of Insightrix Research, who conducted the survey for IPAC-CO2.

“Residents of Quebec (44 %), Atlantic Canada (34%) and British Columbia (32 %) are more likely to believe climate change is occurring due to human activity than those on the Prairies (Alberta andSaskatchewan 21 %, Manitoba 24 %).”

Canadians are also divided on what they believe should be the priorities to fight climate change.

A total of 35% of Canadians believe the priority should be to promote cleaner cars running on electricity or low-carbon fuels while only 13% favored a tax on carbon dioxide emissions from the whole economy. Support for a carbon tax is lowest in B.C. (6%) and highest in Quebec (24%).

A key solution cited by Canadians is Carbon Capture and Storage, or CCS, which involves capturing carbon dioxide from an industrial source of greenhouse gases, transporting it, and storing it deep in the Earth’s subsurface.

A majority of Canadians agree that capturing and storing carbon dioxide should be compulsory when building a new coal (59%) or natural gas (57%) power plant, though Canadians are concerned about the risks associated with CCS.

Quebec residents (71%) would be the most concerned if carbon dioxide was stored underground within 1.5 kilometres to 3 kilometres from their home, while Saskatchewan residents (43%) were the least worried.

Residents of B.C. (60%) are most likely to believe that the storage of carbon dioxide represents a safety risk in the future. Again, Saskatchewan residents (48%) are significantly less likely to hold this belief.

“CCS is not the “magic bullet” solution to combat climate change, but the development of CCS technology represents a necessary step in reducing Canada’s emissions,” said Dr. Dybwad.

For a second consecutive year, IPAC-CO2 contracted Insightrix Research, Inc. to conduct an online survey of Canadian residents. Survey responses were collected from 1,550 Canadians between May 29 and June 11.

The percentage of Canadians who are unsure whether or not they would benefit from CCS has increased notably from 42% in 2011 to 48% in 2012.

Residents of Ontario are more likely to believe that it would (33%) benefit them, while in Quebec the reverse is true, where 30% believe they would not benefit from the technology.

The proportion of Canadians who are unsure of the effectiveness of carbon capture and storage has increased notably from one quarter (24%) in 2011 to one third (35%) in 2012.

Despite the concerns many Canadians have about the technology, Dr. Dybwad remained optimistic about the future of CCS and its impact on Canada’s environment.

“Canadians are concerned about the risks and benefits involved with CCS, but IPAC-CO2 exists to ensure that carbon dioxide is stored safely and permanently in the ground by providing risk and performance assessments of carbon dioxide storage projects.”

The 2012 survey on Public Awareness and Acceptance of CSS in Canada now is available on IPAC-CO2′s website at: www.ipac-co2.com/research.

Image Courtesy of  ItzaFineDay

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Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – On June 19, mayors, delegations from the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group and a U.S. President, assembled in Rio at Rio + C40: Megacity Mayors Taking Action on Climate Change, an event to highlight the concrete climate actions being taken by C40 Cities.

New data released June 19 indicates that C40 Cities have the potential to reduce their annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by over a billion tons by 2030, from business as usual. This is equivalent to the annual GHG emissions of Mexico and Canada combined. Just with the measures they have already undertaken or committed to, C40 Cities are on track to reduce their collective annual emissions by 248 million tons by 2020. C40 Cities have undertaken nearly 5,000 climate-related actions since the network first formed in 2005. In many cases, these actions were taken without national government support.

Additionally, and helping to build on cities’ significant accomplishments, C40 is launching a new solid waste peer-to-peer learning network on June 19. With support from the World Bank and the Climate and Clean Air Initiative of the U.S. State Department, C40 will establish a new network that will assist local governments in reducing methane emissions through solid waste management. C40′s partners will provide technical assistance to help participating cities develop viable programs and projects that reduce methane gas production, enable access to financing and facilitate sharing across this network of cities for active peer-learning and collaborative work. C40 works in partnership with the Clinton Climate Initiative, a program of the William J. Clinton Foundation.

“Mayors and cities don’t have the luxury of just sitting around and talking about problems because on a whole range of critical issues, the buck stops at City Hall. Because of Mayors’ commitment to action, cities are making great progress in reducing greenhouse gases, which helps beat back climate change and makes our cities better, more liveable places,” said New York City Mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg. “The data we are releasing today is more evidence that cities have been and will continue to lead the way.”

“My Foundation has been working since 2006 with the mayors of many large cities around the world to help them reduce their greenhouse gas emissions,” said President Clinton, a founding partner of C40 who joined the event by videoconference. ”Today’s announcements prove that, through creative partnerships, we can help reduce our carbon output to protect our environment and create jobs to grow our economies.”

In a second announcement, C40 will be partnering with the Joint Initiative on Urban Sustainability (JIUS) to foster the sharing of best practices collected in all C40 Cities through a new library incorporated into the newly launched C40 website www.C40.org. This resource will be publicly available and will focus on identifying the key linkages between policy tools, financing strategies and partnerships that enable successful climate reduction strategies.

The JIUS started as a pilot program that fostered exchanges between the C40 cities of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA) and Rio de Janeiro over the last 18 months, with the support of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the City of Rio. U.S. Environmental Protection Administrator Lisa Jackson joined Mayor Bloomberg and Mayor Paes to make the announcement.

“While welcoming the C40 to Rio de Janeiro, I have been reflecting on the significance of cities and their impact on our environment. I am encouraged that we, as Mayors and citizens, are implementing plans to promote change and reduce carbon emissions in an effort to halt climate change,” said Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes. “When mobilized as one, cities wield sufficient collective power to influence opinion and nudge policy further up the legislative agenda. Cities have more freedom than nation states to put into place progressive strategies that are already changing people’s lives and today’s announcement is testament to the action and unity that is thriving at a municipal level around the globe.”

These announcements came in advance of the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development and highlight the concrete sustainability actions being taken by C40 Cities. Based on these tangible advances, mayors and local government leaders are in Rio to call on national governments and international organizations to provide more financing and other support for local climate action. Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) research shows that cities are largely financing their climate change actions without significant external support, as 64% of city initiatives are funded through general municipal funds.

Measurement of progress and accountability toward outcomes have been two of the major themes of Mayor Bloomberg’s C40 chairmanship, which began in November 2010. According to recent reports by the CDP and Arup, cities are extremely active in taking steps to reduce carbon emissions and they have potential to do even more. One hundred percent of the 45 reporting C40 Cities and 80% of all other reporting cities were implementing a range of carbon emission reduction activities. Seventy-one percent of the 45 reporting C40 Cities reported city-wide reduction targets. Mayors have direct control over 75% of urban emissions sources. C40 Cities represent the world’s megacities and account for approximately 14% of global GHG emissions as currently estimated.

Similarly, partnerships with peer organizations are a key part of C40′s growth and service delivery strategy, which convenes networks of cities with common goals and challenges to focus on taking concrete action. In May 2012, C40 announced an expanded partnership and scope of its work on developing a global protocol for community-scale GHG emissions. C40, ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability and the World Resources Institute will pilot the newly-launched protocol in at least 10 global cities; develop technical assistance support for cities; and expand the community protocol into a more comprehensive GHG accounting standard for community-scale emissions, including consideration of a full range of direct and indirect GHG emissions from urban activities. This will enable local governments to account for how demand for goods and services as well as local innovative technologies can impact a GHG footprint.

Governor of Jakarta Fauzi Bowo welcomed the two initiatives launched at the Rio+C40 meeting by the mayors of the world’s largest cities and said that “Any partnership which allows sharing of knowledge and best practices aiming to fight climate change is crucial in order that greenhouse gas emissions are reduced. Different cities face different challenges in confronting climate change. The basic approach Jakarta has taken in reducing greenhouse gas emissions has been a holistic approach based on the basic policy implemented in managing Jakarta, which is pro-poor, pro-jobs, pro growth and pro-environment. These four factors cannot be separated from each other.”

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Glaciers are massive ice formations made from snow naturally accumulating over the years. In Iceland, glaciers cover an area of about 11,400 km², which makes up around 11.1 percent of its total area. Icecaps can also be found in Iceland covering the tops of the Icelandic volcanoes.

Vatnajökull is the largest glacier in Iceland and the second largest in Europe. It covers about eight percent of Iceland’s area. At the end of 2011, Vatnajökull, which literally means ‘Glacier of Rivers’, was used as a shooting location for the American TV series, ‘Game of Thrones’. The average thickness of the Vatnajökull glacier is an estimated 400 meters, while the maximum is about 100 meters.

In June 2008, the Vatnajökull glacier was added to the Vatnajökull National Park, in addition to the surrounding rivers and volcanoes. It is the largest national park in Europe with an area of 12,000 km². Both of  the glaciers and icecaps have attracted some companies that can benefit from them. These benefits vary from producing mineral water to promoting them as tourist spots.

Icelandic Glacial is a famous example of one of the companies that sell glacier mineral water from Iceland. This water is produced from the Ölfus Spring. The GT group is also selling parts of the glaciers themselves to decorate the luxury ice bars and hotels.

GT Travel, a part of the GT Group, organizes trips around Iceland, adding the glaciers to their top destinations with strict environmental policies to avoid polluting the surrounding environment. Melting glaciers are a sign of global warming, and environmental scientists claim that all of the Icelandic glaciers will disappear within 500 years if global warming continues at its current rate.

Snæfellsjökull is the smallest glacier in Iceland, which is beginning to melt quickly, and might to disappear within the next few decades, according to an interview with the glaciologist, Tómas Jóhannesson, with The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service.

The best time to visit the Icelandic glaciers is in the summer because in the winter, there is a massive amount of snowfall, which makes it difficult to get around, especially if you are not used to such an extreme climate. While visiting, it is advisable to book with a local tour agent since all of the glaciers are on the outskirts of large cities that have limited transportation options for solo travelers, and the public buses only operate in the Greater Reykjavík area.

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In 1988 the scientific community established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as a forum for sharing their concerns about documented – and disturbing – changes in global weather patterns. By 1997 the evidence of climate change was so convincing that 191 nations signed the Kyoto Protocols, aimed at slowing the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Fast forward to 2012. NASA has produced clear evidence that atmospheric CO2 levels are higher than they’ve been in 400,000 years. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the federal agency in charge of the National Weather Service, states that there is no longer any doubt that human activity is changing the chemical characteristics of the Earth’s atmosphere. The national science academies of the world’s leading economies, including the U.S., Germany, Russia, and China, have declared that climate change is real and urged their governments to take immediate, aggressive action.

And then there’s Rick Santorum.

Along the campaign trail in Colorado, Ohio, and Michigan Santorum has declared climate change to be a hoax cooked up by the Obama administration to scare people about oil exploration. Spending less money on oil exploration means more money for the federal government, Santorum said, which means more government control over peoples’ lives.

He doesn’t explain how the government would make money by allowing less oil exploration, or how any of that would equate to more control over peoples’ lives. Nor is it important that concerns about global warming began long before Obama entered politics, or that America’s most prestigious scientific institutions are urging immediate action to reduce carbon emissions. Somehow it’s all connected, and in the alternative reality of Tea Party politics, the more elaborate and mysterious the conspiracy, the more plausible it becomes.

Romney and Gingrich have also questioned climate change, but it’s clear they are just pandering to conservative audiences. Both have acknowledged the problem during their political careers and will likely do so again when the primaries are over. And neither man has accused the country’s scientific establishment of being involved in a vast conspiracy to deprive the American people of their freedom.

Not Rick Santorum. His strident rejection of any scientific evidence that conflicts with his religious or social views has helped make him the new champion of the far right, which is why he is surging in the polls. But if he wins the nomination based on his anti-science agenda, he’ll be in no position to back down during the presidential campaign.

Intellectual curiosity is not a quality that American voters prize in their leaders, as the election of George Bush clearly demonstrated. But they do expect them to respect and support America’s scientific establishment, not label them as political enemies. Questioning the severity and timing of climate change is one thing; but where’s Santorum’s evidence that it’s a hoax?

Right now, Santorum is preaching to the Tea Party choir, and they’re cheering him on. But in a presidential campaign, the national media won’t be so kind. Republicans should be deeply concerned.

Image Courtesy of   http://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/

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UNLV geoscientist Matthew Lachniet and an international team of researchers used stalagmites to unveil a 2,400-year climate history from southwestern Mexico. This discovery, coupled with archaeological evidence, links the rise and fall of ancient Mesoamerican civilizations to changing rainfall. The findings were reported Jan. 23 as a “Pre-Issue Publication” of the journal Geology.

Little is known about what contributed to the fate of the prosperous ancient Mesoamerican city of Teotihuacan, though historic evidence suggests periods of above average rainfall followed by extreme drought might have played a role.

“Mexico and the American southwest are linked by climate processes in the Pacific Ocean. Our new record shows that dry conditions, likely linked to El Nino processes, recurred frequently over time,” said Lachniet. “The point to be made is that civilization runs on water. Take away a water supply and the civilization may fail.”

Lachniet and his team collected and analyzed a stalagmite from Juxtlahuaca Cave in Guerrero, Mexico. The cave is in the core region of the North American Monsoon, a climate phenomenon primarily responsible for rain in most of Mexico and parts of the American Southwest. The cave was also a great source for stalagmites – common cave formations formed over thousands of years as minerals from water droplets crystallize and accumulate. Much like tree rings, they can accurately record the rainfall history of an area.

“Only recently have scientists started to unlock the secrets of stalagmites as ancient rain gauges,” said Lachniet. “Stalagmites from tropical regions provide a much longer record than tree rings. They also grow rapidly which allows us to pinpoint climate variations on near-annual timescales.”

The team correlated the region’s cultural milestones with measured rainfall. Above average rainfall between the first and third centuries coincided with the rise of the early Mesoamerican city of Teotihuacan. At its peak, more than 125,000 people lived around the massive pyramids in the highly developed city.

Conversely, a 500-year drying trend, including a drought of more than 150 years, coincided with rapid population decline in Teotihuacan around 550 CE. The drought likely impacted spring-fed agriculture practices in the semi-arid Mexican Highlands.

“We can’t say with certainty that other social factors were drivers of the cultural change, but we now have well-dated and robust climate information to compare,” said Lachniet. “Climate change was the norm for the region dating back thousands of years, and similar variations are to be expected for the future.”

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The global average surface temperature in 2011 was the ninth warmest since 1880, according to NASA scientists. The finding continues a trend in which nine of the ten warmest years in the modern meteorological record have occurred since the year 2000.

NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, which monitors global surface temperatures on an ongoing basis, released an updated analysis that shows temperatures around the globe in 2011 compared to the average global temperature from the mid-20th century. The comparison shows how Earth continues to experience warmer temperatures than several decades ago. The average temperature around the globe in 2011 was 0.92 degrees F (0.51 C) warmer than the mid-20th century baseline.

“We know the planet is absorbing more energy than it is emitting,” said GISS director James E. Hansen. “So we are continuing to see a trend toward higher temperatures. Even with the cooling effects of a strong La Nina influence and low solar activity for the past several years, 2011 was one of the ten warmest years on record.”

The difference between 2011 and the warmest year in the GISS record (2010) is 0.22 degrees F (0.12 C). This underscores the emphasis scientists put on the long-term trend of global temperature rise. Because of the large natural variability of climate, scientists do not expect temperatures to rise consistently year after year. However, they do expect a continuing temperature rise over decades.

The first 11 years of the 21st century experienced notably higher temperatures compared to the middle and late 20th century, Hansen said. The only year from the 20th century in the top 10 warmest years on record is 1998.

Higher temperatures today are largely sustained by increased atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide. These gases absorb infrared radiation emitted by Earth and release that energy into the atmosphere rather than allowing it to escape to space. As their atmospheric concentration has increased, the amount of energy “trapped” by these gases has led to higher temperatures.

The carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere was about 285 parts per million in 1880, when the GISS global temperature record begins. By 1960, the average concentration had risen to about 315 parts per million. Today it exceeds 390 parts per million and continues to rise at an accelerating pace.

The temperature analysis produced at GISS is compiled from weather data from more than 1,000 meteorological stations around the world, satellite observations of sea surface temperature, and Antarctic research station measurements. A publicly available computer program is used to calculate the difference between surface temperature in a given month and the average temperature for the same place during 1951 to 1980. This three-decade period functions as a baseline for the analysis.

The resulting temperature record is very close to analysis by the Met Office Hadley Centre in the United Kingdom and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.

Hansen said he expects record-breaking global average temperature in the next two to three years because solar activity is on the upswing, and the next El Nino will increase tropical Pacific temperatures. The warmest years on record were 2005 and 2010, in a virtual tie.

“It’s always dangerous to make predictions about El Nino, but it’s safe to say we’ll see one in the next three years,” Hansen said. “It won’t take a very strong El Nino to push temperatures above 2010.”

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A team of chemistry researchers in the United Kingdom has discovered a molecule that could potentially halt global warming and its effects by cleaning the atmosphere of pollutants and producing clouds.

In the 1950s, German chemist Rudolph Criegee postulated the existence of these molecules, which are known as the Criegee biradicals or Criegee intermediates. Criegee biradicals were confirmed only recently because the means to observe had not been developed until now. They are extremely reactive and elusive: once they form, they immediately bond with other chemicals.

The researchers, from the Universities of Manchester and Bristol and the Sandia National Laboratories, accidentally detected the molecule while performing an experiment with a synchrotron, which used light from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Advanced Light Source.

The intense light allowed the researchers to discern the Criegee biradicals’ formation and eliminate those of similarly arranged molecules. Upon detecting them, the team further observed the Criegee biradicals reacting in atmospheric conditions in the synchrotron. They learned that the molecules formed rapidly – faster than imagined – and accelerated in formation when in the presence of pollutants.

“Criegee radicals have been impossible to measure until this work carried out at the Advanced Light Source,” says Dr. Carl Percival, Reader in Atmospheric Chemistry at the University of Manchester and co-author of the team’s paper, in the University of Manchester’s media release. “We have been able to quantify how fast Criegee radicals react for the first time.”

Criegee biradicals oxidize pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide into nitrates and sulfates. These compounds initiate the development of aerosols, tiny particles that deflect solar radiation into space. Aerosol formation ultimately leads to cloud formation, which cools the Earth by blocking sunlight.

These reactions can occur anytime. According to Dr. Percival, “The main source of these Criegee biradicals does not depend on sunlight and so these processes take place throughout the day and night.”

“But the fact is that these [intermediates] haven’t been studied before,” George Marston tells LiveScience.com, “so it’s difficult to know what you would really expect.” Marston, who did not partake in the research, is a chemist at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom.

The Criegee biradicals have not yet been observed in action in the atmosphere, so the idea of the molecules controlling the Earth’s climate remains hypothetical. Initiating the formation of Criegee biradicals and controlling their reactions at such a large scale would be a difficult task for scientists to undertake.

Furthermore, the geoengingeering project may backfire; the atmosphere is still complex and not well understood. ”This is very much the beginning of a much more extensive systematic study,” Marston adds.

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A new study led by a NASA scientist highlights 14 key air pollution control measures that, if implemented, could slow the pace of global warming, improve health and boost agricultural production.

The research, led by Drew Shindell of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City, finds that focusing on these measures could slow mean global warming 0.9 degrees F (0.5 degrees C) by 2050, increase global crop yields by up to 135 million metric tons per season and prevent hundreds of thousands of premature deaths each year. While all regions of the world would benefit, countries in Asiaand the Middle East would see the biggest health and agricultural gains from emissions reductions.

“We’ve shown that implementing specific practical emissions reductions chosen to maximize climate benefits also would have important ‘win-win’ benefits for human health and agriculture,” said Shindell. The study was published today in the journal Science.

Shindell and an international team considered about 400 control measures based on technologies evaluated by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria. The new study focused on 14 measures with the greatest climate benefit. All 14 would curb the release of either black carbon or methane, pollutants that exacerbate climate change and human or plant health, either directly or by leading to ozone formation.

Black carbon, a product of burning fossil fuels or biomass such as wood or dung, can worsen a number of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. The small particles also absorb radiation from the sun causing the atmosphere to warm and rainfall patterns to shift. In addition, they darken ice and snow, reducing their reflectivity and hastening global warming.

Methane, a colorless and flammable substance that is a major constituent of natural gas, is both a potent greenhouse gas and an important precursor to ground-level ozone. Ozone, a key component of smog and also a greenhouse gas, damages crops and human health.

While carbon dioxide is the primary driver of global warming over the long term, limiting black carbon and methane are complementary actions that would have a more immediate impact because these two pollutants circulate out of the atmosphere more quickly.

Shindell and his team concluded that these control measures would provide the greatest protection against global warming to Russia, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, countries with large areas of snow or ice cover. Iran, Pakistan and Jordan would experience the most improvement in agricultural production.Southern Asia and the Sahel region of Africa would see the most beneficial changes to precipitation patterns.

The south Asian countries of India, Bangladesh and Nepal would see the biggest reductions in premature deaths. The study estimates that globally between 700,000 and 4.7 million premature deaths could be prevented each year.

Black carbon and methane have many sources. Reducing emissions would require that societies make multiple infrastructure upgrades. For methane, the key strategies the scientists considered were capturing gas escaping from coal mines and oil and natural gas facilities, as well as reducing leakage from long-distance pipelines, preventing emissions from city landfills, updating wastewater treatment plants, aerating rice paddies more, and limiting emissions from manure on farms.

For black carbon, the strategies analyzed include installing filters in diesel vehicles, keeping high-emitting vehicles off the road, upgrading cooking stoves and boilers to cleaner burning types, installing more efficient kilns for brick production, upgrading coke ovens and banning agricultural burning.

The scientists used computer models developed at GISS and the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, Germany, to model the impact of emissions reductions. The models showed widespread benefits from the methane reduction because it is evenly distributed throughout the atmosphere. Black carbon falls out of the atmosphere after a few days so the benefits are stronger in certain regions, especially ones with large amounts of snow and ice.

“Protecting public health and food supplies may take precedence over avoiding climate change in most countries, but knowing that these measures also mitigate climate change may help motivate policies to put them into practice,” Shindell said. The new study builds on a United Nations Environment Program/World Meteorological Organization report, also led by Shindell, published last year.

“The scientific case for fast action on these so-called ‘short-lived climate forcers’ has been steadily built over more than a decade, and this study provides further focused and compelling analysis of the likely benefits at the national and regional level,” said United Nations Environment Program Executive DirectorAchim Steiner.

To see interactive and embeddable country-by-country graphs and maps of the impact of emissions reductions, visit: http://www.giss.nasa.gov/staff/dshindell/Sci2012/

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Devastating earthquakes and weather related catastrophes have made 2011 the most expensive year for natural disasters in terms of global economic losses, according to Munich Re, one of the world’s most renowned reinsurance companies.

In 2011, countries such as New Zealand, Japan, the US, and Australia have encountered several earthquakes, tropical storms, tornadoes, and wildfires, which have resulted in the death of many and the loss of billions of dollars. According to Ernst Rauch, the head of Munich Re’s corporate climate center, the estimated losses from natural disasters are valued at almost $380 billion.

Moreover, the Associated Press also reported that Japan’s earthquake and tsunami in March led to the insured loss of some $40 billion, while New Zealand’s 6.3 magnitude earthquake caused $13 billion worth of damage.

For many years experts have predicted that climate change would lead to several disastrous weather events. Indeed, 2011 did live up to their predictions. In a press release, Torsten Jeworrek of Munich Re said,

“We were not surprised by any of the events when seen as single events, since they were within the range of what our risk models led us to expect. The accumulation of so many severe events of this type in such a short period is unusual, but is also considered in our scenario calculations.”

Approximately 70 percent of economic losses were in Asia, with a death toll of more than 15,840. Japan’s 9.0 magnitude earthquake led to an economic loss of $210 billion, making it the costliest natural disaster to date, according to news sources.

Currently, there is a great deal of controversy over whether global warming had something to do with 2011’s natural disasters. While the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change believes that there might be link between the two, Tom Borelli of the Free Enterprise Project told The Daily Caller: “Global warming alarmists will exploit any natural disaster to promote their anti-fossil fuel agenda.” He also added that it is a part of the “global warming spin machine.”

The International Daily news reported that 90 percent of the known natural disasters were weather-related. However, most of the economic losses came from geophysical events, rather than weather related catastrophes. Munich Re said, the natural catastrophes of 2011, resulted in the death of 27,000 people, excluding those from drought in Africa and global civil war and political instability.

According to Miguel Lianos of msnbc.com, Bob Hartwig, the head of the Insurance Information Institute, told reporters that, “2011 is one for the record books, we are rewriting the financial and economic history of disasters on a global scale.”

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Countries across the world are currently experiencing extreme weather and droughts. The largest freshwater lake in China is at its lowest water levels for years thanks to a drought, according to state officials and media. The shrinking lake does not bode well for fishermen who rely on it for their livelihoods and for the local ecology.

The Xinhua news agency stated that Poyang Lake, located in East China’s Jiangxi province, is shrinking quickly and has experienced over a decade-long dry spell. This is due to the Gan River, which is connected to the lake, not receiving enough rain and causing the water levels to hit record lows. “This year’s level is very low,” an anonymous official declared, affirming that the rainfall for the area was 65 percent less than average for December.

Texas is also experiencing its worst drought on record. The year 2011 was the driest ever for the state, says the National Weather Service, and it was the second hottest. Meteorologists do not believe this will improve for the year 2012 and the result will be further restrictions on water and the death of millions of trees. Lake Lavon has shrunk by 12 feet due to North Texas’ lack of rain and record-setting heat. “It is a challenging time, especially to bring awareness to our consumers and businesses how critical our drought has impacted our reservoirs,” stated Denise Hickey, spokesperson for the North Texas Municipal Water District. “As we’re planning to move through this drought period, we’re also planning and initiating additional strategies to bring additional sources online.” The Texas Forest Service believes that so far, the severe drought has killed 500 million trees.

In Latin America, nations have also been dealing with a plethora of problems stemming from the extreme weather, including wildfires, droughts, and floods. Many have wondered if climate change and global warming are responsible for the unusual weather and according to experts, this is most likely the case. Chile experienced an uncharacteristic heat wave, which resulted in rampant burning wildfires, while Northern Mexico has been dealing with its worst drought in 70 years.

On the other hand, Colombia has had two seasons of heavy rain, which has killed 182 people and resulted in about $2 billion in damage. A rose farm in a Colombian town named Chia sustained an estimated $6 million dollars in damages from the April and December floods. Javier Castellanos, the rose farm manager, stated, “Never in the history of this farm- and it’s a business with 30 years in the market- have we ever had any such problem.” Researchers assert that Latin America is at more risk to the extreme weather changes worsening in the future than any other region in the world because of deforestation and its sprawling construction. These elements cause it to be more vulnerable to landslides and flooding.

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World-renowned Venice, Italy is known to be full of historically unique buildings and a maze of narrow canals that stretches across the city. Walking around the small streets and over the hundreds of pedestrian bridges exemplifies the charm of the Italian area. Venice is often considered to be one of the most stunning cities in the world.

Unfortunately, what locals understand all too well is that their beloved city is disappearing before their eyes. Global warming is one of the most alarming and widely discussed topics relating to the environment. Temperatures in the ocean and atmosphere around the world have been rising. Harmful human actions play a great role in the increase in global warming.

It has led to a number of problems, including heightened sea levels. Residents of Venice know all too well how detrimental rising waters can be to their daily lives.Situated on top of water, the rise and fall of the canals have been part of Venetian history. Centuries of Venetians have had to live through the “acqua alta”, Italian for high water.

For over 1,500 years, people have had to protect their homes, stores, restaurants, and themselves, from the unfortunate instances when their city becomes flooded. Over time and with experience, Venetians have raised their buildings higher to avoid the flooding water levels, and people have learned how to better protect their businesses.

Although this phenomenon has been going on for generations, the floods have become more frequent and more severe over the past 60 years. Venice’s most well know square, Piazza San Marco, has not been spared from the reoccurring rising floods, and neither has most spots in Venice.

A combination of Venice’s natural location surrounded by water and the powerful effects of global warming has led, at times, to a city partially submerged. The disappearing Venice can be seen on water lines that trace across the antiquated buildings, a subtle reminder of how easily the Italian destination can succumb to global warming.

A disappearing Venice can also be seen in the faces of the Venetian residents. That is, those who are still left. Locals in the area have been moving out of their cherished city because of the overpowering amounts of tourists traveling into town. The beauty and distinctiveness of Venice draws in millions of visitors a year. The tourist footprint often damages the natural charm of the city.

Regarded as a magnificent art city, people come to Venice to experience the rich history seen throughout the town. Venice relies heavily on the tourism industry. Over 100,000 people visit Venice each day during the peak season of summer. A majority of the businesses and restaurants, specifically in the center of the city, cater to the needs of international tourists.

Although there are a large amount of hotels to choose from, many visitors don’t always stay the night. Taking tour buses from neighboring areas, visitors have the option of seeing Venice for the day and leaving. The heavy amount of people in and out of the city has taken a toll on the area, because with crowds comes an increase in littering and pollution. The quaint streets of Venice have become overcrowded and unfortunately, historical monuments have been damaged.

The Venice known by locals is quickly slipping away underneath the water and through the hands of the tourism industry. Many residents who choose to stay in Venice work in the business, but it is not the type of work for everyone. Approximately 1,500 local Venetians end up leaving Venice a year, significantly decreasing the population.

A major part of what gives a city its character and personality is the flavor of its residents. Without the authentic lifestyle of Venetians, Venice is quickly become a town run by tourists, as opposed to lived in by its residents. A combination of global warming and an overbearing impact of the tourism industry has unfortunately shaped the Venice of today.

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In an alarming new report, scientists warn of impending mass extinction unlike any that human history has seen before. The preliminary report from the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) warned of dire consequences in our oceans because of pollution, overfishing, and global warming.

“The findings are shocking,” Dr. Alex Rogers, IPSO’s scientific director, said in a statement released by the group. “This is a very serious situation demanding unequivocal action at every level. We are looking at consequences for humankind that will impact in our lifetime, and worse, our children’s and generations beyond that.”

The scientific panel that made up the IPSO concluded that degeneration in the oceans is happening much faster than has been predicted, and that the combination of factors currently distressing the marine environment is contributing to the precise conditions that have been associated with all major extinctions in the Earth’s history. According to the report, three major factors have been present in the handful of mass extinctions that have occurred in the past: an increase of both hypoxia (low oxygen) and anoxia (lack of oxygen that creates “dead zones”) in the oceans, warming and acidification. The panel stated the combination of these factors will cause a mass marine extinction.  All these factors occur to some degree in the world’s oceans currently.

This latest report is only one of many reports in the scientific community warning of the dire conditions of our environment. A recent World Resources Institute report suggests that all coral reefs could be gone by 2050 if no action is taken to protect them. A study published earlier this year in BioScience declared oysters as “functionally extinct” because their populations have been destroyed by over-harvesting and disease. Just last week scientists forecasted that this year’s Gulf “dead zone” will be the largest in history due to increased runoff from the Mississippi River dragging in high levels of nitrates and phosphates from fertilizers. A recent study in the journal Nature suggests that not only will the next mass extinction be man-made, but that it could already be underway.

“The challenges for the future of the ocean are vast, but unlike previous generations we know what now needs to happen,” Dan Laffoley of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) and co-author of the report said in a press release for the new report. “The time to protect the blue heart of our planet is now, today and urgent.”

But will politicians listen?

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Presidential contender Rick Perry has expressed his beliefs about intelligent design before, supporting  creationism as a theory taught in Texas classrooms. However, on Thursday, he was specifically asked his feelings about evolution during a campaign stop in New Hampshire.

“How old do I think the earth is? You know what, I don’t have any idea,” said the Texas governor when asked about his position on the issue by a woman and her son. “I know it’s pretty old so it goes back a long long way. I’m not sure anybody actually knows completely and absolutely how long, how old the earth is.”

Perry regarded evolution as “a theory that’s out there” and one that’s “got some gas in it.” He mentioned how both creationism and evolution are taught to students in public schools. He explained, “I figure you’re smart enough to figure out which one is right.”

Perry is not the first presidential contender to express doubt over a theory that most scientists believe. Earlier this summer, GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann expressed doubt about the theory of evolution.

“I support intelligent design,” she said after speaking at this year’s Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans. “What I support is putting all science on the table and then letting students decide. I don’t think it’s a good idea for government to come down on one side of scientific issue or another, when there is reasonable doubt on both sides.”

In 2006, Bachmann stated that some within the scientific community discredit the theory of evolution. “There are hundreds and hundreds of scientists, many of them holding Nobel Prizes, who believe in intelligent design,” she said.

Governor Perry was also asked about global warming. He wrote in his book, “Fed Up!” that doctored data was behind global warming. ”They know that we have been experiencing a cooling trend, that the complexities of the global atmosphere have often eluded the most sophisticated scientists and that draconian policies with dire economic effects based on so-called science may not stand the test of time,” Perry wrote.

He called former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his call to action on climate change, of being a ”false prophet of a secular carbon cult,”

In Bedford, New Hampshire on Wednesday, Perry suggested that politics is playing a large role in the global warming debate.”I do believe that the issue of global warming has been politicized.

I think there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects,” Perry said. “I think we’re seeing it almost weekly or even daily, scientists who are coming forward and questioning the original idea that man-made global warming is what is causing the climate to change.

Yes, our climates change. They’ve been changing ever since the earth was formed. But I do not buy into, that a group of scientists, who in some cases were found to be manipulating this data.”

Image Courtesy of  http://www.flickr.com/photos/ritaquinn/

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We are all familiar with the white lines that can be seen criss-crossing the sky on most clear days.  Air traffic has long left behind their white mark.  Conventional wisdom is that condensed and frozen airplane exhaust account for the trails, known as contrails.  But, many people believe that some of the trails are not typical airplane exhaust but something more sinister known as chemtrails.  And even if you dismiss the chemtrail argument, there has been much more lines in the sky since the 1970’s.  And that isn’t good news either.

The chemtrail conspiracy theory purports that some trails that are left by aircraft are actually chemical or biological agents deliberately sprayed at high altitudes for an unknown purpose by the government.  The existence of chemtrails has repeatedly been denied by government agencies and scientists around the world who maintain the trails are just contrails.  The United States Air Force insists that the theory is a hoax which “has been investigated and refuted by many established and accredited universities, scientific organizations, and major media publications”.

Supporters of chemtrail theory have different ideas about why the chemicals are being sprayed.  Some speculate that the purpose of the chemical release may be for solar radiation management, population control, weather control, or biological warfare/chemical warfare and claim that these trails are causing respiratory illnesses and other health problems.  Proponents of the chemtrail theory say that chemtrails can be distinguished from contrails by their long duration, asserting that the chemtrails are those trails left by aircraft that persist for as much as a half day or transform into cirrus-like clouds.  According to the U.S. Air force, contrails are the result of normal emissions of water vapor from piston engines and jet engines at high altitudes in which the water vapor condenses into a visible cloud. The rate at which contrails disperse depends on weather conditions and altitude.  In very humid conditions, the contrail may last a while.  If the air is dry, the contrail will scatter quickly.

In 2001, U.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) introduced a measure that would have permanently prohibited the basing of weapons in space, and he listed chemtrails as one of a number of exotic weapons that would be banned.  The bill died in committee and no further mention of chemtrails appeared in Kucinich’s subsequent attempts to enact a Space Preservation Act.

Scientists believe that contrails have increased since the 1970s, primarily because of a change in the atmospheric pressure pattern known as the Arctic Oscillation. It influences weather in northern, middle and high latitudes.  Climatologists suggest that the change may be related to global warming.

Whether the white lines of cloud are chemtrails or contrails, the increasing number is something to be worried about.  If our own government doesn’t kill us, then our own pollution will.

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