ice is a species?

I found an article today that I just find so, SO fascinating that I felt it was important to share with my readers.  How’s this for an introductory paragraph:

A different kind of ice is replacing ancient Arctic ice. The new stuff is qualitatively different. It’s thinner, darker, wetter. Worse, it may already be changing the local weather and the ability to grow new ice. It could even alter the oceanic circulation that mediates global climate, reports Nature. Oh, it’s bad for polar bears too.

I think it is important to note that while many argue there was more ice created in 2008, therefore the belief in global warming should not be believed and is just rhetoric, it is extremely important to note what kind of ice was formed.  In other words, multiyear ice is the good stuff.  It’s NOT being made.

The original article can be found HERE, via MotherJones

animals and climate change

Round-up of some articles involving animal behavior and climate change

Climate Change Forcing Penguins North?, via IPS

In October of this year, 2,500 penguins found themselves in Brazil, 50% of them dead and the rest of them starving. The Magellan penguin, found in Patagonia, eat anchovies by following their migratory pattern through the cool water, during the winter, to fatten up for their hybernation.

It is thought that the penguins were confused after the anchovies were able to swim deeper into the colder waters. The penguins were not able to get deeper in the water, became disoriented and washed up on the shores dead or starving. Climate change is the suspect due to increase in surface temperature.

More polar bears going hungry, via The New Scientist

Warmer temperatures and earlier melting of sea ice are causing polar bears to go hungry. The number of undernourished bears has tripled in a 20-year period. The increase in fasting bears is explained by warmer temperatures and earlier spring melts. Polar bears use sea ice as a hunting platform, catching seals by sitting next to their breathing holes and waiting to pounce. Spring is usually a time of feasting for polar bears, filling up before summer when the ice retreats. “It is clear that the changes in the sea ice are affecting the hunting opportunities available to the bears,” says co-author Andrew Derocher of the University of Alberta.

The First Full Accounting of Colony Collapse Disorder, via The Daily Green

These discoveries have been extremely beneficial to beekeepers, but the basic act of taking good notes and gathering lots of data over time and from many places has been perhaps even more helpful for understanding CCD, and in helping beekeepers. Over the two years that Colony Collapse Disorder has been a recognized problem, no other researchers that I am aware of have visited as many beeyards suffering CCD, in as many locations, and over as long a time. In a full report prepared by this team to be released in the February issue of Bee Culture magazine, Bee Alert’s Scott Debnam and Jerry Bromenshenk from Missoula Montana, David Westervelt from Florida’s Apiary Inspections Bureau, and Randy Oliver, a commercial beekeeper with real-world honey bee research experience from Grass Valley, California detail the symptoms of CCD with respect to where it hits, and when it hits. This information is critical in making a diagnosis as the symptoms change as seasons progress and knowing what to look for, and when to look for it, is absolutely necessary in making a correct diagnosis. So far, to even answer the simple question: “Is this colony dying from CCD, or something else?” has been difficult to answer.

If you have any interest in Colony Collapse Disorder, this is a fascinating article.

i don’t need to explain

The Bush administration on Thursday eliminated one step in the effort to protect endangered species, as it will now allow federal agencies to bypass consultation with government scientists about whether new rules will harm threatened wildlife.

The U.S. Interior Department issued a rule that allows agencies to avoid consulting with the Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service if Interior concludes that any actions they fund would not harm an endangered species.

this is not good

Click HERE for an article about Polar Bears and what they have turned to with climate change.