Planet Earth 2007: Top 10 Science Revelations

[Pale Blue Dot]

http://www.livescience.com/environment/top-10-earth-findings.html

10. Peak Oil- With the price of oil climbing and the world's heavy dependency on this fossil fuel, estimates of just how much oil we have left are critical knowledge for governments and policy makers. A new study this year predicted that global oil production could peak as soon as 2008, and would likely do so before 2018. After this peak, production would decline, causing potential supply problems, though experts disagree on just how much oil might be left in the Earth.

8. Drought - While a severe drought brought parts of the Southeast to its knees for several months this fall, those living in the Southwest (which has been in drought for years, if you buy the new definition of drought) may have a more extended drought to contend with... for the next 90 years. A study in the journal Science found that Earth's warming temperature could shift wind and rain patterns so that dry areas become drier and wet areas become wetter, leaving places like the American Southwest permanently parched.

2. Arctic Meltdown - This was a bad year for polar bears too, as summer ice melt reached a record extent in the Arctic. (Greenland too saw a record level of melt, enough to cover twice the area of the United States.) While the melt was a boon to marine vessels, opening up the fabled Northwest Passage, it could spell trouble for the polar environment, and the globe, if it keeps up each year. Two studies found that winter sea ice has been retreating and growing thinner in recent years, and massive summer melts could start a downward spiral decreasing permanent ice at the North Pole in the coming decades.

1. Climate Change - The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its fourth report this year and its strongest statement yet that human activities are a prime cause of global warming. The scientists who wrote the report warned of the potentially catastrophic and unstoppable changes that could occur if emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide are not curbed, including droughts, sea level rise, more severe weather, melting of glaciers and polar ice and floods. Even if man-made emissions are curtailed, the global warming's effects will likely continue for centuries, the report stated.

I urge everyone to read and forward this article.

[TZ]

1. Thats a pretty depressing list...but don't forget other countries problems...

I have some Aussie friends and Oz is suffering more than most from Climate change and drought at the moment. I understand that eastern Australia is in the middle of an 8 YEAR drought..Its expected to have its average temp rise by anywhere from 8-10 degrees in the next fifty years. And it seems that the water situation is getting so bad in Queensland that they are thinking of using their treated waste water (which is technically clean after processing) as their DRINKING water....:-(

[Echo In Light]

2. As George Carlin says, "The planet is fine; the people are fucked"

The planet will shrug us off like fleas...a surface nuisance. The planet isn't going anywhere. We are.