Why is Peru getting colder while the rest of the world heats up?

Posted on October 4, 2008 by Rashid Faridi

Scientists display a Rossette used to collect water at Callao port on the Pacific Ocean coast October 2, 2008. Scientists are launching a multi-pronged study this week to collect information on the peculiar climate of the Pacific Ocean along the coast of Chile and Peru. For two months, they will be using an unmanned submarine, weather balloons and several airplanes to gather data that they hope will allow them to form a better model on climate change and to understand why temperatures on the Peruvian coast have fallen over the last few decades.

Scientists display a Rossette used to collect water at Callao port on the Pacific Ocean coast October 2, 2008. Scientists are launching a multi-pronged study this week to collect information on the peculiar climate of the Pacific Ocean along the coast of Chile and Peru. For two months, they will be using an unmanned submarine, weather balloons and several airplanes to gather data that they hope will allow them to form a better model on climate change and to understand why temperatures on the Peruvian coast have fallen over the last few decades.

Scientists are using everything from a yellow submarine to weather balloons and special airplanes to solve a climate conundrum: why is Peru getting colder while the rest of the world heats up?

Researchers from Europe, the United States and South America started collecting reams of data this week from clouds, the shoreline and deep underwater to try to figure out the dynamics of the southeastern Pacific.

The area, home to a fifth of the world’s fish stocks, plays a crucial part in global weather patterns and scientists want to discover why temperatures have dropped on the desert coast.

“Peru has a very important role in global climate,” said Alexis Chaigneau, a French scientist leading experiments in Peru. “Over the past 50 years, the Peruvian coast has gotten colder, mainly because of stronger winds that have pulled up the deep cold waters of the ocean current.”

The Humboldt current, which flows north to Peru from the frigid southern waters off Chile, is considered the world’s most productive marine ecosystem, in part because deep cold waters rich in nutrients interact with the sun’s energy to create life.

For the next three months, everything from a small satellite-controlled submarine to cloud-hugging airplanes will feed computers with information on oxygen levels in the water, temperature, salinity, wind speeds and current.

Along the way, they also hope to solve the riddles of the famous El Nino and La Nina weather phenomenon that occur in the southeastern Pacific — the periodic oscillations in surface water temperatures that are linked to floods and droughts.

El Nino has also been blamed for interrupting the upswelling of the current, causing fish stocks to crash in an area where up to 20 percent of the world’s fish are caught.
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Posted in Environment, Global Warming, oceans | 1 Comment

Biggest CO2 Offenders

Posted on October 3, 2008 by Rashid Faridi

The Palace of Westminster and the Bank of England have been exposed as among the country’s least energy efficient public buildings by a new law to measure carbon dioxide emissions from the national estate.

Around 18,000 buildings, including town halls, museums, schools and job centres, are being tested to discover their energy efficiency on a sliding scale where A is the best and G is the worst. Parliament and the Bank both scored a G. Together, they consume enough electricity and gas to pump out 21,356 tonnes of CO2 a year, the equivalent of more than 14,000 people flying from London to New York.

The government estimates that almost a fifth of all carbon dioxide emissions in the UK are caused by non-residential buildings, and environmental campaigners said the findings mean the government must launch an urgent refurbishment programme to slash carbon emissions.

The Natural History Museum spends £1.4m a year on electricity and gas – a figure that is expected to double from this month as a result of rising world energy prices. One of the most energy hungry buildings in the country was the National Media Museum in Bradford, a 1960s structure, which scored a G. One in four of the 3,200 buildings assessed so far scored F or G, and the average was D. Only 22 buildings – under 1% – scored A.

No 10 Downing Street managed a D rating, which is better than average for its building type. But the prime minister’s heating, lighting and air conditioning still create 675 tonnes of CO2 a year, a bigger carbon footprint than a street of 28 families of four living in semi detached homes, each driving 10,000 miles a year and flying to Spain on an annual holiday.

The findings are likely to embarrass the government, which has pledged to make all new public buildings zero carbon by 2018. The Department for the Environment’s head office recorded an E.

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World’s first wave energy farm goes live

Posted on October 2, 2008 by Rashid Faridi

On Tuesday the 23th of September, the deployment of the first commercial wave energy farm in the world started. A Pelamis unit was towed into the sea, connected to an underwater cable and moored to the sea floor, at a site were it will stay for the next 15 years. The Industry was present at the highest level, as so a Minister and even the Navy showed up with a frigate to join the celebration.

Portugal’s Economy Minister visited the Aguçadoura wave farm in a ceremony to officially inaugurate the project. He travelled to the site on the Portuguese Naval Frigate “Corte Real” where a helicopter was launched to film the Pelamis machines and the raising of the Portuguese flag on one of the machines.

But is it all roses? Below the fold are a few thoughts and calculations that show how this is truly a green energy source. Green as in immature, that is.
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pelamis wave power

Posted in Alternative Energy, climate change, Environment, pollution, water | Leave a comment

Scientists to boost Southern Ocean CO2 monitoring

Posted on October 1, 2008 by Rashid Faridi

Oceans absorb vast amounts of carbon dioxide and the Southern Ocean between Australia and Antarctica plays the greatest role of all the world’s oceans, scientists say.

The problem is there is no permanent monitoring of the Southern Ocean because of its wild seas and remoteness and scientists cannot accurately determine how a warming world is affecting the amount of CO2 the ocean is absorbing.

So marine scientists based in the southern Australian state of Tasmania sail on Friday to test two newly designed ocean moorings to see if they can withstand the pounding of 20-meter (70 feet) seas to send back data over many months.

“The oceans are protecting us from climate warming by absorbing our CO2 out of the atmosphere. Most of that is happening in the Southern Ocean,” said Tom Trull, leader of the Ocean Control of CO2 Program at the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Center in Hobart.

“We don’t know if that’ll continue and we’re concerned it might not. This equipment will help us find out,” he said on Wednesday.
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