science

Near-Term Human Extincton: Making the Case

Let me ask you: Do you have days when you feel we are doomed as a species? That's every day, for our next guest.

When a successful Professor of Natural Resources, Ecology, and Evolutionary Biology left the University of Arizona, for his mud hut retreat, he probably didn't intend to stir up the world. But that's just what Guy McPherson has done. He's becoming a voice for the worst fears of many people. In fact, McPherson says climate change has gone so far, so fast, humans will become extinct before 2050.

Bindi Irwin stars in controversial indy activist film!

Some in the mainstream media have begun sharpening their knives ahead of the release of, Surviving Earth featuring Bindi Irwin (daughter of the late Steve Irwin - crocodile hunter) as the voice of youth among a scholarly cast including, Prof. Tim Flannery, Ian Dunlop, Prof. Ian Lowe and Uncle Bob Randall. Directed by Peter Charles Downey and made in Melbourne, Australia by United Natures Media and Peter Erb Media the independent movie style documentary brings environmental and humanitarian activism to mainstream.

Biodiversity decline from climate change affects huge range of common species

While much scientific and public attention has focussed on the many species endangered or on the brink of extinction like Carnaby's cockatoo, the impacts of climate change on species biodiversity are much larger. A landmark study looking at nearly 50,000 common species with widespread ranges has determined that half of these animals and two thirds of the examined plant species will lose more than half their range in the next 70 years, by 2080, if nothing is done to slow down the rate of global warming through cutting carbon emissions. We are truly in the middle of a biodiversity crisis with habitat loss and climate change causing the 6th mass extinction

Burying the future: Pipelines, Arctic melt, southern hemisphere weather

Canadian scientist Paul Beckwith explains how the Arctic warming emergency is changing your weather. First, story of anti-pipeline media warrior, John Bolenbaugh. The leaks, scandals and deaths behind Tar Sands pipelines.

Download/listen to Radio Ecoshock 130424 here: http://www.ecoshock.net/eshock13/ES_130424_Show_LoFi.mp3

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says an ice-free Arctic is no longer a matter of "if" but "when".

Greens propose boost to funding for Antarctic and Southern Ocean marine research

Hobart as an important scientific hub and gateway for Antarctic and southern ocean marine research, not only for Australia but for other national scientific expeditions. That is the vision of a new policy initiative launched by the Greens today to boost the research and logistics capacity of Australian Antarctic, climate and marine scientists based in Hobart.

Tasmanian bush fires sign of world to come

The image of kids in the water clinging to a dock, under a fire-red sky, captured the situation. The great Australian heat wave of 2013 also struck the southern-most part of the country, the island of Tasmania. Maybe this is the future anywhere trees grow, as global warming heats the planet.

Professor David Bowman is at the University of Tasmania in Hobart, teaching and researching Forest Ecology. He's a published expert on fire in the earth system.

Geography: 

United Natures - a United Nations of all species

United Natures - a United Nations of all species

Documentary movie on the Rights of Mother Earth and permaculture of the inner landscape. Featuring a stellar international cast of top environmental thinkers and activists including Vandana Shiva, Dr Helen Caldicott, Polly Higgins (ecocide), Starhawk (permaculture), Father Bob Maguire, Cormac Cullinan (Wild Law), David Holmgren (co-originator of permaculture) and Michael Reynolds (earthships) amongst others. A homemade grassroots independent film self-funded by the director, Peter Charles Downey.

Website
www.unitednaturesmovie.com

Electric vehicles powering in Australia - Canberra fest this weekend

Media Release - 30.11.2012 - please circulate widely.

ELECTRIC VEHICLES ARE POWERING ON

International Electric Vehicle Festival comes to Canberra CBD
http://www.electricvehiclefestival.com.au/

The International Electric Vehicle Festival will be held in downtown Canberra in City Walk (Civic) next to the merry-go-round on December 1st 2012, demonstrating the potential for these vehicles to be sustainable transport options.

Geography: 

Climate change implications of new study on methane emissions in coal seam gas field

Coal seam gas has been touted as a green transitional fuel, far less polluting than coal, but a new study implies it may not be as green or climate friendly as the industry makes out. It hinges on the level of fugitive emissions produced in development and production of a gas field. A study by two scientists from Southern Cross University based in Lismore, northern NSW, detected much higher levels of the strong greenhouse gas methane around the Tara gas field on the Darling Downs of Queensland west of Brisbane.

Action: Getup! have started a Dirtier than Coal? campaign calling on Federal Climate Change Minister Greg Combet to commission urgent research into the climate impacts of coal seam gas, and to make sure that CSG companies start accounting, and paying, for fugitive emissions.

Promotion: 

Global warming intensifying global water cycle by double current climate model projections

New research into ocean salinity levels has revealed a strong global water cycle intensification during the period of 1950 to 2000. The researchers report the rate of change in the global water cycle is double the rate projected by current-generation climate models. The study found "robust evidence of an intensified global water cycle at a rate of about eight per cent per degree of surface warming," said study co-author Dr Durack, a post-doctoral fellow at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the US.