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http://google.org/earthengine | Learn more about Google Earth Engine, a new platform that puts an unprecedented amount of satellite imagery and data -- current and historical -- online for the first time and enables global-scale monitoring and measurement of changes in the earth's environment. It aims to show "how the earth is changing under a changing climate, and use that information to drive public policy... We're hoping that it will elevate people's understanding of the planet."
Note: email address for this web site: greenworldclub@gmail.com. Please subscribe (right hand column), add to your bookmarks, refer this web site to others, offer suggestions for improvement, provide links back to this site from your own web site and post comments at the bottom of each article. Direct email address for Stan G. Webb, Author, Editor, Photographer, Publisher: stanwebb@gmail.com
The philanthropic arm of Google is launched a new technology platform on Thursday, December 9, 2010, that will allow worldwide monitoring and measurement of changes in the earth's environment.
Google Earth Engine draws on 25 years of satellite images collected by LANDSAT, the longest continuing orbiting satellite on earth.
This was developed over the past two years and will post online for free, could prove critical in helping developing nations track deforestation rates in real time as well as other key environmental changes. One of the few substantive achievements the United Nations climate talks may produce is an agreement on how to compensate rainforest nations for preserving their forests in order to absorb carbon dioxide, but these efforts need to be validated by tracking data that proves the regions in question face the pressure of deforestation and have been able to resist it.
Google is providing 20 million CPU hours free of charge to the developing world and scientific community in order to help these groups take advantage of the new analytical tool. This could provide a basis for enforcing agreements forged under the United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD), which may be finalized as early as next week in Cancun. Google hopes that the Earth Engine will emerge as a critical tool in the enforcement of land management initiatives such as the UN's REDD programme in which wealthier nations pay developing nations to preserve rainforests.
Usually Google Labs - Explore Google's New Ideas products are cloaked in secrecy.However, you can play around with prototypes of some of Google's wild and crazy ideas and offer feedback directly to the engineers who developed them
Along with Hansen and Conafor- Comisión Nacional Forestal. Información sobre el organismo, sus visiones, misiones y programas para integrar, organizar, actualizar y difundir la- [ Translate this page ], Mexico's national forestry commission, Google has already used the platform to create the finest-scale forest and water map ever made of Mexico. It required 15,000 hours of computation, which normally would have taken three years if run on a single computer, but the group completed it in less than a day on the Google Earth Engine by using 1,000 computers running simultaneous (in parallel) to process more than 53,000 LANDSAT scenes taken between 1984 and 2010. CONAFOR provided data it had collected on the ground to calibrate and validate the algorithm.
Hopefully, and we are all optimistic about this, policymakers can make progress on saving temperate and tropical forests worldwide, in part because of technological advances and the political will in both developed and developing nations.
What Are Greenhouse Gases? You may wish to comment – at the bottom of each page; no email needed to do that. Comments will be moderated before being published. The email address for this web site is in the profile. Your back links and recommendations are appreciated.
Methane – CH4 (1 molecule traps 21 times more heat than CO2)
13%
Nitrous Oxide – N20 (1 molecule traps 270 times more heat than CO2)
6%
Fluorocarbons
5%
Some greenhouse gases occur naturally in the atmosphere, while others result from human activities. Naturally occurring greenhouse gases include water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone. Certain human activities, however, add to the levels of most of these naturally occurring gases:
Carbon dioxideis released to the atmosphere when solid waste, fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, and coal), and wood and wood products are burned.
Methaneis emitted during the production and transport of coal, natural gas, and oil. Methane emissions also result from the decomposition of organic wastes in municipal solid waste landfills, and the raising of livestock. More information on methane.
Nitrous oxideis emitted during agricultural and industrial activities, as well as during combustion of solid waste and fossil fuels.
Very powerful greenhouse gases that are not naturally occurring include fluorocabons such as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), which are generated in a variety of industrial processes.
Each greenhouse gas differs in its ability to absorb heat in the atmosphere. HFCs and PFCs are the most heat-absorbent. Methane traps over 21 times more heat per molecule than carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide absorbs 270 times more heat per molecule than carbon dioxide. Often, estimates of greenhouse gas emissions are presented in units of millions of metric tons of carbon equivalents (MMTCE), which weights each gas by its GWP value, or Global Warming Potential.”
“Greenhouse effect:A popular term used to describe the roles of water vapor, carbon dioxide, and other gases in keeping the Earth's surface warmer than it would otherwise be. These radioactively active gases are relatively transparent to incoming shortwave radiation, but are relatively opaque to outgoing long wave radiation. The latter radiation, which would otherwise escape to space, is trapped by greenhouse gases within the lower levels of the atmosphere. The subsequent reradiation of some of the energy back to the Earth maintains higher surface temperatures than would occur if the gases were absent. There is concern that increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, methane, and chlorofluorocarbons, may enhance the greenhouse effect and cause global warming.
The reverse effect is cause by “Sinks”
“What Are Sinks?
A sink is a reservoir that uptakes a chemical element or compound from another part of its cycle. For example, soil and trees tend to act as natural sinks for carbon – each year hundreds of billions of tons of carbon in the form of CO2 are absorbed by oceans, soils, and trees.
“The worst effects of climate change will not be experienced by you, personally. It will be the generations after us who will suffer, particularly from rising sea levels. Consider a recent study on Antarctica by the University of Texas.
East Antarctica has lost ice mass at an average rate of five to 109 gigatons a year from April 2002 to January 2009, according to the study. The rate increased from 2006. The increased rate could cause sea levels to rise sooner than expected. The entire Antarctic region could be losing ice at the rate of 113 to 267 gigatons a year, with 106 to 158 gigatons from West Antarctica.
"The key result is that we appear to be seeing a large amount of ice loss in East Antarctica, mostly in the long coastal regions (in Wilkes Land and Victoria Land), since 2006," said University of Texas scientist Jianli Chen. "This, if confirmed, could indicate a state change of East Antarctica, which could pose a large impact on global sea levels in the future," Chen said.
Another study found Greenland and Antarctica melting ice will cause a higher sea level rise. Scientific data by the environmental group, Clean Air-Cool Planet said climate change will cause at least a one meter rise in sea levels by the end of this century.
Next month representatives from countries will meet in Copenhagen to hammer out the details of a new climate change treaty. The United States' Congress has not yet passed a climate change bill. A Reuters article stated that the majority of nations have abandoned the hope of agreeing to a binding legal treaty, “partly because of uncertainty about what the United States will be able to offer.”
This is an update of that post, and an encouragement for others to take similar actions.
Encourage government to adopt clean cars laws. New requirements can significantly reduce vehicle emissions.
How to do it
Use your voice to encourage our lawmakers to adopt California's Clean Car standard. Write letters to the Prime Minister and speak to your local government representatives. This is the time to speak up: Canada's outdated vehicle emissions regulations are under review, and voluntary agreements with the auto sector will soon expire. A personal note from you will have greater impact than many form letters or emails. For best effect, make your request for action clear encouraging, and address only one issue. Here are some suggested points you can make:
The government's promise to update the fuel efficiency requirements for Canadian cars is welcome and long overdue (some praise and encouragement always helps!).
I urge you to adopt the California Clean Car Standard (the request should be clear and emphatic).
The rules put in place by Governor Schwarzenegger are achievable and widely accepted; almost 20 states are adopting them, and nine provinces have endorsed them (provides evidence that it is technically and politically feasible).
Please resist pegging Canada's standards to the less efficient US national average; that would put Canada behind the pack in the North American market, damage our ability to fight climate change, burden consumers with higher-than-necessary fuel bills (tell them what you don't want, as well as what you do want).
The federal government has the ability and the responsibility to regulate pollution and fuel economy in cars. I urge you to demonstrate strong leadership by passing the California-level emission standards as soon as possible (re-state your request).
I look forward to hearing from you (always ask for a response). A letter to the Prime Minister needs no postage, and should be addressed to: The Right Honourable Stephen Harper Prime Minister of Canada Langevin Block House of Commons Ottawa, Canada
A typical car a late-model mid-sized sedan - driven for 20,000 kilometres a year emits four tones of CO2. Right now, transportation contributes to more than 30 per cent of total greenhouse gas emissions. The potential for fuel efficiency has improved by 50 per cent since the 1970s, the height of the gas-guzzling era. But because there are more cars on the road today than ever before, and many people are driving larger vehicles that are not fuel-efficient, emissions keep rising. California's Clean Cars law will drive a 30 per cent reduction in carbon emissions from cars by 2016, using only existing and available technology. Canada must proceed in lock-step with California and other progressive states, especially since the Canadian car market is so tightly linked to the US market. Not only will this help our planet, but having access to more fuel-efficient cars can save you a lot of money, especially as gas prices are continually on the rise.
World’s Statistics [including Population – and other statistics; US bias – Google advertiser supported: http://www.worldometers.info/
Could the growth in the human population (and the resultant increased pollution?) have something to do with the Ecology, Environment and Global Warming?
The Population Reference Bureaupredicts continuing population growth. Their charts indicate that the rate of growth will be less in about 50 years. In reality, other than statistics for the last 25 years only, there are no facts to support the assumption that trends in population growth will remain low for the next 50 years in the future. The rate of growth in the previous (26 years) was much higher.
Of course there are food and other natural capacity and resource limits. They may eliminate or reverse growth trends, as might a global pandemic. Even though the annual rate of population growth has decreased in the past 25 years, the population continues to grow. If none of that happens there is no reason to assume the rate of growth will actually continue to decrease. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population
Although there is still much discussion and controversy within religious organizations some still maintain that birth control should not be used. They maintain that it is in the “natural”, or in “God’s Order”, not to use artificial means to minimize the number of births:
“The Church, nevertheless, in urging men to the observance of the precepts of the natural law, which it interprets by its constant doctrine, teaches that each and every marital act must of necessity retain its intrinsic relationship to the procreation of human life. (12) “ The Vatican; The Holy See
Tuvalu[population 11,636 est.] is anisland nationconsists of 8 small islands (in reality, there are nine islands in total. 5 of the islands areatolls) located in thePacific Oceanmidway betweenHawaiiandAustralia. Its name means "Eight Standing Together" in Tuvaluan. With the exception of tinyVatican City, it has the smallest number of inhabitants among independent nations and a total land area of only 26 sq. km. (less than 10 sq. mi.) -photos
Due to their low elevation (5 meters, or 16 feet maximum), the islands that make up this nation are threatened by any futuresea level rise. The population may evacuate during the next decades toNew Zealand, orNiue, a small Pacific island(autonomous but associated with New Zealand) that isn't threatened by sea level rise, but does have decreasing population. TheFijianisland ofKioa, already leased by people from Tuvalu, is another possible destination.
A former British colony, the Commonwealth Nation of Tuvalu was granted independence in1978. Tuvalu Independence Day is celebrated on the 1st of October.
Tuvalu became the 187th member of the United Nations on September 5, 2000. The Prime Minister at the time of entry was the Hon. Ionatana Ionatana, who died in office shortly after, on December 8, 2000. Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Tuvalu to the United Nations is His Excellency Mr. Afelee F. Pita (appointed Dec 19, 2006)
United Nations Chronicle Online Edition - a few years ago ... "today we see these magnificent animals stranded on melting ice floes, struggling to stay afloat. They have no time to adapt and could be extinct in a few decades."
In early 2001, three global organizations came together in an integrated promotional partnership to generate awareness for conservation and biodiversity worldwide: the United Nations; the Earth Communications Office (ECO), a non-profit organization that uses the power of communication to improve the global environment; and Animal Planet, a global television brand of Discovery Communications, Inc.
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