Southwestern Monsoon brings nearly double normal rain
Standing water can bring mosquitoes
B. POOLE Published: 07.31.2008
It has been a wet, blustery monsoon, and that’s just the way a University of Arizona researcher called it in June.
On June 4 – weeks before the rains came – atmospheric sciences professor Christopher Castro called for an early start to the rainy season with more expected than average in June and July.
To read longer, more detailed versions of the 4 press releases below, go to:
http://www.eurekalert.org/bysubject/atmospheric.php
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Public Release: 1-Aug-2008
Integrative and Comparative Biology
The emerging scientific discipline of aeroecology
Aeroecology is the emerging discipline for
studying how airborne organisms — birds, bats,
arthropods and microbes — depend on the support
of the lower atmosphere that is closest to the
Earth’s surface. Called the aerosphere, it
influences the daily and seasonal movements,
development traits, such as size and shape, and
evolution of behavioral, sensory, metabolic and
respiratory functions of airborne organisms.
Understanding how they respond to altered
landscapes and atmospheric conditions can also
help mitigate adverse effects.
Contact: Ronald Rosenberg
ronrosen@bu.edu
617-358-1240
Boston University
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Public Release: 31-Jul-2008
Climate Change Science Program issues report on climate models
The US Climate Change Science Program today
announced the release of the report “Climate
Models: An Assessment of Strengths and
Limitations,” the 10th in a series of 21
Synthesis and Assessment Products. This report
describes computer models of the Earth’s climate
and their ability to simulate current climate
change.
Contact: Jeff Sherwood
jeff.sherwood@hq.doe.gov
202-586-4826
DOE/US Department of Energy
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Public Release: 31-Jul-2008
Cold and ice, not heat, episodically gripped
tropical regions 300 million years ago
Geoscientists have long presumed that, like
today, the tropics remained warm throughout
Earth’s last major glaciation 300 million years
ago.
Contact: Cheryl Dybas
cdybas@nsf.gov
703-292-7734
National Science Foundation
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Public Release: 31-Jul-2008
Current Biology
More acidic ocean could spell trouble for marine life’s earliest stages
Increasingly acidic conditions in the ocean —
brought on as a direct result of rising carbon
dioxide levels in the atmosphere — could spell
trouble for the earliest stages of marine life,
according to a new report in the Aug. 5 issue of
Current Biology, a publication of Cell Press.
Levels of acidification predicted by the year
2100 could slash the fertilization success of sea
urchins by an estimated 25 percent, the study
shows.
Contact: Cathleen Genova
cgenova@cell.com
617-397-2802
Cell Press
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Published on Monday, July 28, 2008 by The Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin)
Small Farming Is the Future by Jim Goodman
Napoleon wanted France to be bigger. He wanted more land. Nothing stopped him until Waterloo.
Have we, the human race, met our Waterloo? Have we finally hit the wall with our never-ending desire for “bigness”?
I decided years ago that I didn’t want my farming operation to get bigger. I liked milking 45 cows, raising their feed and doing a little direct marketing. I liked being small.
Published on Tuesday, July 29, 2008 by Inter Press Service
Colombian Indigenous Groups in Danger of Disappearing
by Constanza Vieira
BOGOTA – The Permanent People’s Tribunal warned in its final statement on Colombia of “the imminent danger of physical and cultural extinction faced by 28 indigenous groups,” adding that 18 of the communities have less than 10 members, “and are suspended between life and death.”
The 28 groups in question are the Nukak, Shiripu, Wipibi, Amorúa, Guayabero, Taiwano, Macaguaje, Pisamira, Muinane, Judpa, Yauna, Bara, Ocaina, Dujos, Piaroa, Carabayo, Nonuya, Matapí, Cacua, Kawiyarí, Tutuyo, Tariano, Yagua, Carapaná, Chiricoa, Achagua, Carijona and Masiguare, who live in different parts of this civil war-torn country.