A new report out of Cambridge University has determined that the sudden oak death epidemic in California is unstoppable. “Sudden oak death – caused by Phytophthora ramorum, a fungus-like pathogen related to potato blight – has killed millions of trees over hundreds of square kilometres of forest in California. First detected near San Francisco in […]
Category Archives: Environment
Trees: Sudden Oak Death “Unstoppable”
Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Indians Climate Change Refugees
by Daniel Brouse The Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Indians have lived on the Isle de Jean Charles off the coast of Louisiana for generations. The Native Americans were originally forced to flee to the island as refugees from the Indian Removal Act in the 1830’s. Now, these indigenous people are being forced to flee due to human induced […]
Global Drought
by Daniel Brouse EARTH — The world is experiencing one of the worst years of drought ever recorded. The conditions are so bad in India that the state of Bihar has banned daytime cooking. “We call this the fire season in Bihar,” a state-disaster management official said. “Strong, westerly winds stoke fires which spread easily […]
Paris Climate Change Agreement
Nearly 200 countries have signed an agreement to help combat global warming. In December, nations from around the world constructed the UN’s COP21 climate agreement in Paris, France. It has now been signed. The Royal Society of Chemistry summarized the agreement, “The agreement includes a target to limit global temperature rise to ‘well below’ 2°C […]
GMO’s: Throwing the Baby out with the Bathwater
by Daniel Brouse The definition of GMO is the modern version, not selective breeding. (0) GMO’s (genetically modified organism) have been around for thousands of years; however, the irrational fear of GMO’s is a recent phenomenon. Are there risks to GMO’s? Yes. Has there been any evidence of harm to human health? No. The risks […]
Killing Ourselves With Climate Change
WASHINGTON DC — Climate change is maiming and killing humans. “This isn’t just about glaciers and the polar bears; it’s about the health of our family and our kids,” said Gina McCarthy, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, one of eight U.S. agencies that contributed to the report. “To protect ourselves and future generations, we […]
Melting Sea Ice: the Disaster Scenario
According to a new study published in the journal Nature, the disaster scenario of rising sea levels could play out much sooner than expected. Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica may become unstable in the next 30 to 50 years. “We are not saying this is definitely going to happen,” said David Pollard, a researcher at Pennsylvania […]
Humans Set World Pollution Record
by Daniel Brouse Scientists wrote in the journal Nature Geoscience, “Given currently available records, the present anthropogenic carbon release rate is unprecedented during the past 66 million years.” The largest known natural surge is believed to have happened 56 million years ago and was likely caused by a release of frozen methane beneath the seabed. […]
Feedback Loops
Feedback loops accelerate global warming. In the 1990’s, the Membrane Domain started publishing research on human induced climate change. The research team was the first to put forth the hypothesis that global warming is an exponential phenomenon. Up to that point, the scientific community had based their forecasts on a linear event. The Membrane Domain […]