From CNN: The U.N.’s leading panel on climate change has apologized for misleading data published in a 2007 report that warned Himalayan glaciers could melt by 2035.

In a statement released Wednesday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said estimates relating to the rate of recession of the Himalayan glaciers in its Fourth Assessment Report were “poorly substantiated” adding that “well-established standards of evidence were not applied properly.”

Despite the admission, the IPCC reiterated its concern about the dangers melting glaciers present in a region that is home to more than one-sixth of the world’s population.

“Widespread mass losses from glaciers and reductions in snow cover over recent decades are projected to accelerate throughout the 21st century, reducing water availability, hydropower potential, and changing seasonality of flows in regions supplied by meltwater from major mountain ranges (e.g. Hindu-Kush, Himalaya, Andes)…”

“The chair, vice-chairs, and co-chairs of the IPCC,” the statement continued, “regrets the poor application of IPCC procedures…”

The apology follows a growing storm of controversy which initially forced the IPCC to concede that data relating to the Himalayan glacier melt included in the 2007 report was not backed up by sufficient scientific data.

Speaking at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi Wednesday, the IPCC chairman, Rajendra Pachauri admitted errors had been made but said it was not an excuse to question the legitimacy of all global warming science.

“Theoretically, let’s say we slipped up on one number, I don’t think it takes anything away from the overwhelming scientific evidence of what’s happening with the climate of this earth,” he said, according to Agence France-Presse.

The controversy centers on a paragraph in Chapter 10 of the 2007 report which states: “Glaciers in the Himalaya are receding faster than in any other part of the world, and if the present rate continues, the likelihood of them disappearing by the year 2035 and perhaps sooner is very high if the Earth keeps warming at the current rate. Its total area will likely shrink from the present 500,000 to 100,000 square kilometers by the year 2035. ”

But is has recently emerged that the IPCC statement on Himalayan glaciers, which was based on information from a 2005 report by the World Wildlife Fund, was in turn gleaned from an article that appeared in the popular UK science journal, The New Scientist in June 1999.

In the article, “Flooded Out,” Indian glaciologist Syed Hasnain speculates that the Himalayan glaciers could vanish within 40 years as a result of global warming.

A glacier expert interviewed by CNN explained that the data published was flawed.

Michael Zemp from the World Glacier Monitoring Service said: “There are simply no observations available to make these sorts of statements.”

Zemp says that the figures quoted in the report are not possible because 500,000 square kilometers is estimated to be the total surface area of all mountain glaciers worldwide.

“The other thing is that the report says the glaciers are receding faster than anywhere else in the world. We simply do not have the glacier change measurements. The Himalayas are among those regions with the fewest available data,” Zemp said.

In defense of the IPCC, Zemp says “you can take any report and find a mistake in it but it’s up to the next IPCC report to correct it.”

Zemp also believes that the errors shouldn’t shake people’s belief in climate science.

“Glaciers are the best proof that climate change is happening. This is happening on a global scale. They can translate very small changes in the climate into a visible signal,” he said.

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I got this in my email box today and had to share, even though it’s sad, it’s important. It’s a message from Defenders of Wildlife:

Maximus the grizzly bear was “a big, beautiful, wild bear,” according to grizzly specialist Mike Madel. “He kept to himself, stayed out of trouble.”

But he was gunned down in the prime of his life. Left to rot in a Montana hayfield, his badly decomposed body was discovered a month after being ruthlessly shot.

His killer is still at large.

It is possible for you can help bring lawless wildlife killers to justice and respond quickly to other wildlife emergencies.

We’ve quickly moved to offer a reward to bring Maximus’s killer to justice. But sadly, this bear’s story is not unique.

Poachers have recently ended the lives of some of our most endangered animals including Florida panthers, southwest gray wolves and California condors. In Idaho, a female wolf pup was illegally gunned down from a roadway. And a thriving black market in bear gallbladders and other parts is fueling a slaughter of bears across the nation.

Help us post rewards for poachers and alert the public as we aid law enforcement in the capture of these heartless people. Please make a donation today.

For more than a decade, Defenders of Wildlife has worked with state and federal agencies, offering more than $245,000 in rewards to bring these ruthless wildlife poachers to justice.

We’re also pressing Congress to pass the Bear Protection Act to end the trade in bear parts that encourages a terrible poaching plague.

None of this work is possible without people like you.

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Are you aware that in the Pacific Ocean there is a massive, well, mass of floating plastic and other debris. It’s located in the northwest part of the Pacific Ocean, approximately a thousand miles off the coast of California.

It’s been dubbed the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and it makes up perhaps thousands of miles of open ocean. Gross right? Researchers are cracking down on it and trying to find out where all this garbage is coming from and why it is gathering there in such quantity.

Now researchers are trying to learn more about the sea-bound trash zone and perhaps find answers to basic questions. The crew on the job is a group of scientists from the University of California’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography and they plan to spend 3 weeks studying the debris field.

“There may be a misapprehension … that if you got out there and stood on the middle of a deck you’d see nothing but plastic litter from horizon to horizon,” said Robert Knox, deputy director for research at the Scripps Institution.

“It’s relatively sparse, and you might or might not see something visible to the human eye at any particular location out there,” Knox says. “Certainly one does encounter pieces of plastic stuff that are big enough to see. But the other side of the puzzle is all the little bits and pieces of plastic that you can’t even see unless you scoop up a sample of seawater and see what’s in there.”

“I think it’s a little misleading to think of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch as a great big island that you could practically get out and walk on, but the point is it’s a big area of ocean. So even a few pieces of plastic per square meter amounts to a lot of plastic when you add it up over this enormous ocean area.”

The information this new group of scientists are looking for are vital to combating the problem and making sure this kind of thing can be avoided in the future. Here are some of the answers they are seeking concerning the garbage patch:

1) How much garbage is there?
2) How big is the debris in the area?
3) What is the majority of the debris made of?
4) How deep does the garbage go, is it just on the surface?
5) How does all of this thrown away plastic and other material affect the food chain?

They are pretty sure that the vast majority of the garbage in the area is made up of different types of plastic and they want to know how that is affecting the marine life as well as birds etc. etc. who feed in the area.

While there are many facts they don’t yet know about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch there are some things they do know:

The size of this zone is massive, perhaps as big as Texas. They are also pretty sure that the plastic began it’s journey in the ocean as bigger pieces but over time has been broken down into small bits like confetti that is most likely sitting just under the surface like so many bits of confetti. Just think, thousands of miles of shredded plastic bits that fish and birds are ingesting as we speak.

While other oceans, rivers and seas have debris fields of their own, at this time it seems as though the Pacific Patch is the largest by far. Rusty Brainard with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration believes that this debris field contains not only plastic but also huge masses of fishing nets, which destroys ecosystems around the Hawaiian Islands.

What makes plastic so deadly is that as it breaks down and degrades it becomes smaller and smaller bits of poison that seabirds mistake it for food. They then dive down and eat it.

Brainard says they’ve found many, many skeletons of seabirds on the Islands and “their gut content is just filled with plastic.” How many other animals are eating plastic? Birds eat it, something else eats the bird which in turn is eaten by something else until these toxins finally find their way into our own diet.

Scary thought.

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When you have left over medications from the doctor, what do you do with them? Do you flush them down the toilet? Dump them in the trash? Millions and millions of people do. This is leading to some pretty serious problems due to the fact that these meds decompose in our soil and water supplies and this affects not just animals but plant life and us humans too.

Oftentimes these chemicals actually destroy vital bacteria in soils and water that help purify those resources. Sure our wastewater systems are able to clean out plenty of things that could make us sick but they are not able to filter out many of the chemicals from common prescriptions from the doctor. These meds filter straight down into the reservoirs and other water sources, which we and animals and fish feed and drink from.

Finally, the National Association of Counties has adopted a resolution called the “Support of a Safe, Convenient Medicine Return Program” and through this they intend to educate people about their responsibility to dispose of their medications the right way.

I know that here where I live, I can take left over medicine to any pharmacy and they will dispose of it the right way. Both Canada and the United States that these take back programs, just ask your pharmacist the next time you get a prescription filled.

Consider this: most of us are on some kind of medication or other. Anti depressants and anti anxiety drugs are extremely common as are things like cholesterol controllers, and oral contraceptives. They have done studies and the numbers are pretty scary. In fact, medicine metabolites are found in the drinking supplies of “24 major metropolitan areas affecting 41 million Americans.”

We need to do our part and learn how to dispose of prescription drugs. This means no flushing them or throwing them in the garbage. Ask your pharmacist about the programs of proper disposal of medication in your local area.

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Shop Peapod 24/7 and get $10 in FREE groceries

Some of the staples of our diets are the ones with the highest pesticide contamination levels in the world and we need to be talking about this more. If no one knows it’s a problem they won’t complain to the suppliers and nothing will ever change. We will continue to get sick and have no idea why. I am writing this to spread the word that we should all be switching to organic produce to keep our families healthy and strong.

I mean, healthy food should be good for us right? Is that too much to ask?

By choosing organic foods you will cut out a drastic amount of not just pesticides and related chemicals, but also hormones that are found in meat. The main reason most people haven’t already totally turned to organic fruits, vegetables and meats is because they are often more expensive.

I am not sure what it’s like where you live but in my city, buying organic at the big chain stores costs a lot but when I actually go out to the farms and buy the fruits and meats there it’s a lot more affordable. This way you also get to see just where the food comes from. If you have anything like that around your town or city, check it out.

In the meantime you can at least avoid the 12 dirtiest fruits and vegetables. By doing this alone you can easily lower your pesticide exposure by almost 90%. Shocking! And good to know.

Here are the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables:

* Peaches- 96.7% of samples tested positive for pesticides, 87% for multiple pesticides
* Apples- 94.1% tested positive, 82.3% for multiple pesticides
* Sweet Bell Peppers- 81.5% tested positive, 62.2% for multiple pesticides
* Celery- 94.1% tested positive, 79.8% for multiple pesticides
* Nectarines- 97.3% tested positive, 85.3% for multiple pesticides
* Strawberries
* Cherries
* Kale- 53.1% for multiple pesticides
* Lettuce
* Imported Grapes
* Carrots- 82.3% tested positive
* Pears

That was disheartening, but there is some good news too. While those are contaminated (and are pretty much all my favorite foods!) there are some that are clean.

Clean uncontaminated foods:

* Onions- no detectable residues on 90% or more of samples, zero samples positive for multiple pesticides
* Avocado- less than 10% tested positive, less than 1% for multiple pesticides
* Frozen Sweet Corn- no detectable residues on 90% or more of samples, zero samples positive for multiple pesticides
* Pineapples- less than 10% tested positive, less than 1% for multiple pesticides
* Mango- less than 10% tested positive, less than 1% for multiple pesticides
* Asparagus- no detectable residues on 90% or more of samples
* Frozen Sweet Peas- 77.1% had no detectable pesticides
* Kiwi
* Cabbage- 82.1% had no detectable pesticides
* Eggplant- 75.4% had no detectable pesticides
* Papaya
* Watermelon- 28.1% tested positive, 9.5% for multiple pesticides
* Broccoli- 65.2% had no detectable pesticides
* Tomatoes- 53.1% had no detectable pesticides, 13.5% positive for multiple pesticides
* Sweet Potatoes

How sad is that?! I like some on the clean list but the dirty list has all my favorite fruits :O Oh well, what can we do? Write letters to try and get the laws changed, that’s what, and buy local organic produce whenever possible.

Technorati Tags: highest pesticide contamination levels, contaminated fruits and vegetables, local organic produce

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The gases we have in our atmosphere called greenhouse gases are ever-present and help to keep our planet at a constant and livable temperature. Over the course of history, we have pumped a lot of these gases into the atmosphere in the form of carbon and fossil fuels. This has caused the temperature to rise. Global warming is about a serious a threat as there is.

It’s already started to affect many regions and ecosystems on our planet, and will affect a lot more in our own lifetime. The ice caps have already begun to melt, causing water levels to heat and rise through thermal expansion. The amount of carbon in our atmosphere is killing the coral reefs, wiping out entire ecosystems and biodiversity. And this is just the start; what we’re already seeing today.

Global warming brings on a complete climate change. No matter if it’s in the long-term or short-term, this is also affecting the earth’s desert regions. Deserts rose in temperature between 1978 and 2000, at an average rate of 0.2-0.8 degrees Celsius. This rate is much higher than what could have ever occurred naturally. This meteoric rise has been attributed to the increase in the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases. The ensuing global warming is expected to cause an overall increase in rainfall. High latitudes are projected to warm more than mid to low-latitudes, resulting in more rainfall in higher, less rainfall in the subtropics.

While the anthropogenic warming of the global atmosphere is already sufficiently warming and drying deserts; deserts cool the neighboring global atmosphere. This is a state that is also projected to further intensify due to the global warming phenomenon.

The warming takes place due to the direct reflection of solar radiation by the earth’s surface from the desert. In contrast to the direct cause of enhanced warming, the actual effect of deserts is that they’re cooling the atmosphere. Though this is quite the paradox, it is actually simple to comprehend. Desert regions and their surrounding geographical locations all have ecosystems which thrive in their own environment. Any degree change, plus or minus, grossly upsets the balance of nature.

Deserts make up one quarter of the earth’s land surface, so it is a situation that much be assessed. To do this, scientists look at the carbon storage which is sequestered in organic and inorganic compounds within the desert soil. It is the organic carbon that is most sequestered when the rainfall permits. Studies are being done that are returning the same results in every desert region. Deserts and hot and bare places, no one seems surprised that they’re slightly rising in temperature. But just as a few degrees melts the ice caps and changes the world, so will a few degrees in the desert region.

There is a lot more at stake than just some dried up land which is, for the most part, uninhabited. Millions of peoples’ lives are ultimately controlled by the temperature of the desert. If they change at all, the surrounding areas will indeed suffer. Deserts are the home to vast ecosystems. Underneath the dry sand and clay, life is thriving there and needs the climate that it evolved in to survive in.

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Most consumers do not realize that in their every day lives they actually create or contribute to the creation of a lot of green house gases, specifically carbon dioxide, so understanding your carbon footprint is an excellent way to begin making more environmentally sound decisions that in the long run when combined with other peoples efforts will make real change.

Understanding your carbon footprint is a pretty complex issue, one best left to the academics. However thanks to the wonders of the Internet we can use various websites and on line tools to get a pretty good approximation of our carbon footprint, both on the individual and household levels. The best place to start research on your carbon footprint is a good Google search when you have a little extra time on your hands.

Depending on the website or tool that you use for determining your carbon foot print you will need to input information like what make and model of car do you drive, how far do you drive, do you own or rent your home, what are your recreational activities like, and sometimes websites can get as detailed as evaluating your eating choices. After all eating locally grown food contributes a lot less towards your carbon footprint then eating food shipped cross country in refrigerator trucks.

Evaluating your carbon footprint will not only make you more eco friendly, but it will also make you a much more informed consumer. A person capable of thinking about their purchasing power on a whole new level.

Technorati Tags: green house gases, carbon footprint, locally grown food, eco friendly

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Sarah Palin has gone too far, way to far! Not only is she still a staunch supporter of aerial hunting of wolves she now wants to be able to poison and gas the wolves and their pups. WTF?? She is nuts, how can anyone think hunting wolves to extinction is a good thing?

This week alone there have been 66 wolves killed in Alaska.

There’s more too. They want to go full boar with the traps now as well. These are inhumane and cruel, I find it stunning that in this day in age we still are so barbaric. Sarah Palin must be stopped, I dunno how political circles go but they better put a lid on her and her anti wolves status.

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They handed me the drink, I put it in the holder and then…wait for it…they handed me the bag of food and instead of the white bag I’m used to, it was brown. MacDonald’s is brown bagging it now! Cool!

I guess they are going for a more green approach and kudos to them for that. I look forward to seeing what else they can come up with. Go Mickey D’s GO!

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