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Ear to the Ground

Global Warming on the Move

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Posted on Dec 26, 2009
Wikimedia Commons / Ansgar Walk

While wildlife in lowland tropics areas, such as mangroves and deserts, are at greater risk due to global warming’s creep, polar bears are much more aesthetically appealing.

A new study says that global warming is on the move at the pace of a quarter of a mile each year, a seemingly minor shift that could have major consequences for plant and animal species that cannot easily adapt to rising temperatures.  —JCL

The Guardian:

Species that can tolerate only a narrow range of temperatures will need to move as quickly [as global warming’s move] if they are to survive. Wildlife in lowland tropics, mangroves and desert areas are at greater risk than species in mountainous areas, the study suggests.

“These are the conditions that will set the stage, whether species move or cope in place,” said Chris Field, director of the department of global ecology at the Carnegie Institution in the US, who worked on the project. “Expressed as velocities, climate change projections connect directly to survival prospects for plants and animals.”

The study, by scientists at the Carnegie Institution, Stanford University, the California Academy of Sciences, and the University of California, Berkeley, combined information on current and projected future climate to calculate a “temperature velocity” for different parts of the world.

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Night-Gaunt's avatar

By Night-Gaunt, December 27, 2009 at 12:00 pm Link to this comment

Too true Dillion too true. But first you will have to deal with humans moving too faster and in great numbers to places where they can have a more comfortable life, food to eat, clean water to drink (if any) and disease spread too. Also political unrest and civil wars, food wars , water wars will all figure into it. Don’t forget increasing animal attacks as humans push to the ends of habitat for bears and wolves and raccoon etc. While the Know-Nothings like George Will will be sitting pretty in their gated and guarded communities till the scavengers move on to more easy pickings, the survivors that is. [Guarded by the same kind of trigger-happy Section 8’s employed now by Xe or Triple Canopy who have loads of experience in occupied Iraq and Afghanistan.]

I doubt we will have 6 billion in 2050. Not after all that and maybe one or more global plagues will thin out our ranks even more. Think of it this way if you aren’t working for a corporation you are living on your own day to day hand to mouth with a very short Hobbsian life. Inside it will be future earth and great! So getting fired could be a death penalty for you and me if we are so lucky to be wage slaves.

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By C.Curtis.Dillon, December 27, 2009 at 3:20 am Link to this comment

If someone could find a way to make climate change wildly profitable, corporations would work at lightning speed to develop the technologies and strategies that could fix it.  Because the biggest polluters are also the most profitable, there will never be any move to fix the problem and all will suffer.  The corporate bandits who run these monstrosities figure they can always find a way around any issues and continue to thrive.  They will show (as has already been demonstrated in Copenhagen) little compassion for the less fortunate among us who will be sacrificed to whatever disasters are created.  But look on the bright side ... if this actually comes to pass we won’t have to worry about over population anymore!

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Ouroborus's avatar

By Ouroborus, December 27, 2009 at 3:01 am Link to this comment

Oh goody, more good news.
But climate change can’t be too serious can it? I mean,
look at Copenhagen; the biggest (polluters), smartest
(technologically), and richest (greediest) countries in
the world left with no agreement what-so-ever! So, it
must not be too urgent, yes?
Their compassion for the other 173 nations is
overwhelming.  wink

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By David Scott, December 26, 2009 at 10:03 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

I could be paddling a rowboat down Market Street in San Francisco after the poles have melted, and there will still be conservative fanatics who deny that humans are responsible for Global Warming or that it is even real. I invite you to my web-pages devoted to raising awareness on this urgent issue: http://pltcldscsn.blogspot.com/2009/12/conservatives-still-deny-global-warming.html

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