- What a horrifying thought while we are still reeling from the massive Gulf spill! And I never knew there were “ice control companies”- did you? Creating jobs to manage disasters really doesn’t qualify as green jobs, but green jobs can help prevent the need to manage disasters.  - Editor

Greenland’s giant island of ice could pose threat to offshore platforms, shipping
It’s slowly drifting across Arctic waters, an iceberg four times the size of Manhattan that broke off from a glacier in Greenland over the weekend.
Potentially in the path of this unstoppable giant are oil platforms and shipping lanes- and any collision could do untold damage. “It’s so big that you can’t prevent it from drifting. You can’t stop it,” said Jon-Ove Methlie Hagen, a glaciologist at the University of Oslo. Few images can capture the world’s climate fears like a 100 square mile (260 sq. kilometre) chunk of ice breaking off Greenland’s vast ice sheet. One Massachusetts Congressman has suggested, with presumed sarcasm, that it serve as a home for climate skeptics. Large enough to threaten Canada’s offshore platforms in the Grand Banks off Newfoundland. Wohlleben said “iceberg control companies” can redirect smaller icebergs, by towing them or spraying them with water cannons. “I don’t think they could do with an iceberg that large,” she said. “They would have to physically move the rig.”
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/world/breakingnews/greenlands-giant-island-of-ice-could-pose-threat-to-offshore-platforms-shipping-100369689.html

- Here is just one example of seemingly esoteric natural processes that are, in reality, fundamental to human life on this planet, but despite the seriousness and the total global impact, this destruction of plankton would not make even the top 50 human concerns. - Editor

Plankton, base of ocean food web, in big decline
Despite their tiny size, plant plankton found in the world’s oceans are crucial to much of life on Earth. They are the foundation of the bountiful marine food web, produce half the world’s oxygen and suck up harmful carbon dioxide.
And they are declining sharply. Worldwide phytoplankton levels are down 40 percent since the 1950s, according to a study in the journal Nature. The likely cause is global warming, which makes it hard for the plant plankton to get vital nutrients, researchers say.
The numbers are both staggering and disturbing, say the Canadian scientists who did the study. “It’s concerning because phytoplankton is the basic currency for everything going on in the ocean,” said Dalhousie University biology professor Boris Worm.
For the abstract (full article requires payment)-http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v466/n7306/full/nature09268.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100728/ap_on_sc/us_sci_declining_plankton

- The Gulf devastation going on right now is causing deep anguish in many of us. A speaker on the radio yesterday said that he was seeing people in Florida actually getting sick because they knew they were watching the death of the ecosystem they loved so deeply. It helps your soul to take action. This Saturday, you can visibly support NO offshore drilling and YES to clean energy. - Editor

 

Hands Across the Sands
Hands Across the Sand is a movement made of people of all walks of life and crosses political affiliations. This movement is not about politics; it is about protection of our coastal economies, oceans, marine wildlife, and fishing industry.  Let us share our knowledge, energies and passion for protecting all of the above from the devastating effects of oil drilling.
A Message To The World
Hands Across the Sand is now international. Any person in any country may plan events on this website. This is a peaceful gathering of the people of the world. Planning an event is as simple as this:
 Go to your beach (or city) on June 26 at 11 AM in your time zone.
 Form lines in the sand and at 12:00, join hands.
The image is powerful, the message is simple.  NO to Offshore Oil Drilling, YES to Clean Energy.
http://www.handsacrossthesand.com/

- This BP Gulf disaster has so many ramifications. One not mentioned is that it is a shot across the bow of one of the American major food systems- billions of food dollars a year are on hold, and it is likely that the economic and nutritional impacts could last decades, if not longer. With the diverse causes of weakening major food areas around the globe, it only makes sense to get actively involved in building comprehensive local food systems which inherently allow for greater adaptability in a changing world. This Gulf oil volcano is now said to be two Exxon Valdez spills every week.

When are we going to end this yet another corporate loophole that allows companies to douse our air and water and hide the chemical compositions of the products? Chemicals that can impact our health should not be a secret. - Editor

- This is an interesting twist. Federal pols try to gain support by allowing states to make some decisions, but then the Senator fears the wrong decision! - Editor
 

Florida Senator Nelson threatens to vote against climate bill
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, made it clear today that he will not support the climate change legislation proposed this week because of provisions that Nelson believes could allow additional oil drilling off Florida’s Atlantic Coast. Nelson fears that gives too much power to Florida’s Legislature which last year nearly passed a bill to allow drilling within 3 miles of shore.
http://politicalinsider.blogs.heraldtribune.com/11203/nelson-threatens-to-vote-against-climate-bill/

This Theme Issue builds upon presentations held at University College London in September 2009. The meeting brought together delegates from the UK, Europe, and the USA to address the issue of climate forcing of geological and geomorphological hazards, with a particular focus on examining the possibilities for a geospheric response to anthropogenic climate change. Papers included in this issue are a reflection of new research and critical reviews. Together, this set of papers provides a coherent whole that addresses a wide range of issues relating to how climate change may force geological and geomorphological phenomena capable of acting to increase natural hazard risk in a warmer world. They reflect a field of research that is only now becoming recognized as important. We hope that this Theme Issue will provide a marker that reinforces the idea that anthropogenic climate change does not simply involve the atmosphere and hydrosphere, but can also elicit a response from the Earth’s crust and mantle.
http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/368/1919/2311.full

- An easier to understand article. - Editor

Ice cap thaw may awaken Icelandic volcanoes
A thaw of Iceland’s ice caps in coming decades caused by climate change may trigger more volcanic eruptions by removing a vast weight and freeing magma from deep below ground, scientists said on Friday. They said there was no sign that the current eruption from below the Eyjafjallajokull glacier that has paralysed flights over northern Europe was linked to global warming. The glacier is too small and light to affect local geology. “Our work suggests that eventually there will be either somewhat larger eruptions or more frequent eruptions in Iceland in coming decades,” said Freysteinn Sigmundsson, a vulcanologist at the University of Iceland. “Global warming melts ice and this can influence magmatic systems,” he told Reuters. The end of the Ice Age 10,000 years ago coincided with a surge in volcanic activity in Iceland, apparently because huge ice caps thinned and the land rose.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100416/wl_nm/us_iceland_volcano_climate
and
Iceland’s biggest ice cap has lost 10 percent of its volume since 1890 and the surrounding land is rising by almost an inch a year. Sigmundsson and Pagli estimate those changes have created a 1.4km3 sea of magma under the ground. 
http://www.undispatch.com/node/9788

QUOTE
“Our models may be dramatically underestimating how much worse it’s going to get.
We’re seeing ice retreat faster and more dramatically than any model predicts.”
Dr. Robert DeConto, Modeler and geologist, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Geologists Drill into Antarctica and Find Troubling Signs for Ice Sheets
Emerging evidence from an Antarctic geological research drilling program known as ANDRILL suggests that the southernmost continent has had a much more dynamic history than previously suspected—one that could signal an abrupt shrinkage of its ice sheets at some unknown greenhouse gas threshold, possibly starting in this century. David Harwood, the program’s co-chief scientist, says there is already evidence enough for policymakers to take action against global warming in hopes of preventing a dramatic Antarctic meltdown. “This core is going to be studied for the next 20 to 30 years,” he notes, but already, he adds, the Miocene-age evidence it contains strongly suggests that it would be a mistake to count on ice-sheet stability in the Antarctic. “We see two or three periods of ice-sheet collapse, including one that looks abrupt, with very rapid deglaciation.”
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=antarctica-andrill-ice-sheets

- This article didn’t have a picture, so we searched- egad! Gravity makes our little blue ball lumpy! The implications are quite significant, especially when this appears to mean that the eastern shores of the U.S. will suffer higher sea rises than elsewhere on the planet. Fascinating! Don’t you wish you were at Harvard for that course? - Editor

The Secret of Sea Level Rise: It Will Vary Greatly by Region
As the world warms, sea levels could easily rise three to six feet this century. But increases will vary widely by region, with prevailing winds, powerful ocean currents, and even the gravitational pull of the polar ice sheets determining whether some coastal areas will be inundated while others stay dry. There’s this great big gorilla in the room- an effect so large that it overwhelms the others- is something called the geoid. It’s an imaginary surface that maps the strength of Earth’s gravitational field, and it’s as bumpy as the surface of the actual planet. “When I give talks about this, people don’t believe me,” says Jerry Mitrovica, a geophysicist who teaches an entire course on sea level at Harvard. He doesn’t blame them, either. “It’s just wacky when you think about it, completely counterintuitive,” he says. “But it’s true.” It’s even measurable, despite the fact that the melting of the ice sheets has barely begun. “It’s profoundly puzzling,” he says, “until you realize you’re seeing the gravitational signal of Greenland melting.”
http://www.e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2255

- “Oh, well, it doesn’t impact me” can too easily soothe any disturbing thoughts about climate change. And the folks that put even life itself into dollars and cents for major decision-making typically mislead the public. Now, the global meaning of our planet being covered with reflective ice at its caps has been put into dollars- an intriguing and potentially useful process. - Editor
Putting a Price Tag on the Melting Ice Caps
Reports about the melting ice caps are distressing, but for the most part climate change remains abstract. The poor polar bear has been trotted out as the tangible face of global warming so often that we’re beginning to see “polar bear fatigue.” How about bringing the effects of Arctic melt close to home, as in what it will cost? A new study does just that, and the results are alarming, not just for Arctic dwellers but for all of us. According to lead author Eban Goodstein, Ph.D., over the next 40 years Arctic ice melt will take an economic toll of between $2.4 trillion and $24 trillion. Unless we change course- and fast. The “Cost of a Warming Arctic” study, funded by the Pew Environment Group, assessed trends in the Arctic’s cooling mechanisms and examined the financial consequences. “The idea is that if we have a number, we can compare the costs and benefits of efforts to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere,”
For the study- http://www.pewtrusts.org/uploadedFiles/wwwpewtrustsorg/Reports/Protecting_ocean_life/Cost%20of%20Warming%20Arctic-FINAL%202%205%2010.pdf
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1977563,00.html#ixzz0kKAyXy32