University at Albany climate scientist, Mathias Vuille, will lead the development of a network of local scientists and stakeholders in four South American countries to address the impact on water supplies of shrinking glaciers in the Andes.

A number of studies in recent years have documented the general retreat of glaciers in the Andes. As a result, water managers and decision makers are increasingly asking the scientific community for quantitative projections regarding future water supply.

According to Vuille, an assistant professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences at UAlbany, the four countries – Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile – all rely to a great extent on water released by glaciers. Warming temperatures, however, have resulted in significant glacial retreat, shrinkage and thinning, and the situation suggests the potential for a severe future water crisis in the region. Read more

Marine biologists and ecologists in Panama recommended the adoption of urgent changes in fisheries in the countries of Central America in order to save sharks, more and more scarce in the Pacific.

The Venezuelan researcher Hector Guzman, at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) , revealed that three separate projects confirm a “very intense fishing” of sharks in Panama.

He recalled that aboard industrial ships and artisanal , scientists weighed and measured thousands of sharks. Of 18 species studied, five are in “critical condition” at the global level.

In fact, 96 percent of the catch in Panama of the hammerhead shark (Sphyrna lewini), the most valued by Central Americans fishermen are infants or juveniles. Read more

No one cares about the weather as a conversation starter for the next fortnight: the upcoming Armageddon forecasted by the Mayans is in our hearts and souls. There are dozens of places from where the Horsemen of Apocalypse will approach. We studied five possible scenarios of water doomsday. We do guarantee that they are not to happen on December 21st, but the possibility remains ever after.

1. Global Warming. Delayed greenhouse effect might soon become a reality. Here in Northern Hemisphere, we hope that it will start with the Antarctics, so that we’ll manage to built our arks to survive the flooding. The latter would start with Australia, New Zealand and Oceania. Japan and coastal territories of South-Eastern Asia are the next ones to be washed away. Then go the coastlines of both Americas, and after that – us, Europeans. Twenty-five per cent of solid ground of surface would shrink to 7-10%. No place to live for all seven billion people… Read more

Water resources, energy and land use are so mutually dependent that climate-related disruptions to any one of them could lead to economically devastating ripple effects — especially as a growing population puts increasing strains on all three. That’s one conclusion of a recent report issued by a federal advisory committee charged with assessing how climate change has already affected the U.S., and what the future holds.

The National Climate Assessment draft report, nearly 1,200 pages long, explores how the Earth’s climate is controlled by a complex system of interconnections. And, more specifically, how when the climate changes, those interconnections can make for all sorts of troubles.

Rising temperatures put stress on crops, forcing farmers to irrigate more heavily. At the same time, rising temperatures are leading to reduced water supplies.
Credit: USDA via WikiCommons

“Energy projects, [including] coal-fired power, biofuel, solar farms — require varying amounts of water and land; water projects — water supply, irrigation — require energy and land; and land activities — agriculture, forestry — depend upon energy and water,” write the authors. Read more

Latest bid to count and catalogue the living world is billed as the most accurate yet, but only a tiny proportion is known to science.

Humans share the planet with as many as 8.7 million different forms of life, according to what is being billed as the most accurate estimate yet of life on Earth.

Researchers who have analysed the hierarchical categorisation of life on Earth to estimate how many undiscovered species exist say the diversity of life is not equally divided between land and ocean. Three-quarters of the 8.7m species – the majority of which are insects – are on land; only one-quarter, 2.2m, are in the deep, even though 70% of the Earth’s surface is water. Read more