Long dormant Indonesian volcano erupts second day in a row

Long dormant Indonesian volcano erupts second day in a row.

Plastic Bags: The Mockumentary

Plastic Bags: The Mockumentary — Sightline Daily – Northwest News that Matters.

The Geography of Unemployment

Where do we live?

via radicalcartography.

Changing Demographics

This is a “fear-mongering” video, but it has some really important statistics. The world as I knew it is almost gone.

Smog may be followed by radiation

via Smog may be followed by radiation | Greenpeace Russia.

The map based on data acquired on August 9th clearly depicts that nuclear contaminated areas suffer from more than 20 fires. At least 3 blazes hit the highly contaminated forests of Bryansk region.

The smoke from fires in the contaminated area could spread radiation across Russia and to other countries.  Because Russia is suffering from a serious drought, the fires are spreading across the country, and there is no likelihood of them being extinguished anytime soon.

Large Ice Sheet in Nares Straight

This is the largest chunk to break off in over 50 years, and could threaten shipping.  It will also allow the Peterman Glacier’s flow to accelerate, increasing the flow of freshwater into the ocean.

Climate Change and Global Warming

via How Adapting to Climate Change Could Make Global Warming Worse – Ecocentric – TIME.com.

Positive feedback cycles—they’re what keeps climatologists up at night. The term describes the way that certain ecological responses to a warming climate can further accelerate warming, creating a feedback cycle that can spiral out of control.

This article details the potentially enormous costs of climate change.  As climate zones shift, people will migrate, stressing new, sometimes ecologically sensitive lands.

As the author points out, with proper regulation this could be ok, but unregulated use of sensitive lands will endanger more species, putting both them and humans at risk.

Mitigation and adaptation policies that couple sustainable natural resource management with human development may offer the best possibility for positive ecological and societal outcomes (Ahmad 2009; World Bank 2009).

How well will we plan?