Author: postMigrator

By 1990, there was evidence that rising CO2
levels reduce nutrients in plants. So, even while
elevated CO2 levels can speed growth of plants,
the plant-eaters have had to eat more plant
tissue to gain the same nutrition.

This effect is independent of CO2’s capacity to
retain heat that would have escaped into space,
but the combined two effects will plausibly be
greater than either one alone.

The research on CO2 and nutritional content of
plants has continued for these past 18 years, and
now includes implications for domestic livestock,
humans, and wildlife. Evidence based on koala
research is just the latest finding in a
longstanding topic of interest.
Lance

—————————————–
“This change will mean eucalypt species with high protein content will become
unbeneficial to the koala as the so-called
“anti-nutrients” such as tannins bind
the protein making it unusable.”
—————————————–

The Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, Australia)
  May 6, 2008 – 11:49PM

climate change threatens koalas: expert
The koala is under threat from climate change,
according to new research which shows rising
carbon dioxide levels are killing nutrients in
the plants they eat.

Continue reading

Climate Wire www.eenews.net 5/5/08
 
WATER: Climate-related water concerns heat up (05/05/2008)
Christa Marshall, ClimateWire reporter

Eighteen million Southern Californians may be rationing water this summer for the first time in years. The region’s water distributor is preparing to ask customers to stop using water supplies outdoors one day a week for activities such as washing the car and running sprinklers.

Meanwhile, the impact of carbon capture and sequestration of CO2 from coal-fired power plants on water supplies soon will be studied by a leading drinking water research foundation. It wants to determine whether storing the gas in underground geological formations could unleash dangerous runoff by dissolving rock.

“We have to be careful we don’t create a problem by trying to solve a problem,” said Robert Renner, executive director of the Awwa Research Foundation, the study’s instigator and sponsor of a Friday briefing on Capitol Hill on the global impact of climate change on drinking water.

Appearing with Renner were three Australian, British and American experts who described how rising temperatures have dried up rivers and reservoirs, increased costs and raised the likelihood of pathogens and salt water creeping into drinking water sources.

Continue reading

Published on Monday, May 5, 2008 by The Independent/UK
Sinking Without Trace: Australia’s Climate Change Victims

Like Kiribati and Tuvalu, the islands of the Torres Strait are slowly being submerged. But unlike their Pacific neighbours, the plight of their inhabitants is being overlooked.

Ron and Maria Passi, who operate Murray Island’s only taxi, were out driving the night the king tide struck. Neighbours flagged them down, asking for help, and so it was not until some time later that they saw their own grandchildren standing in the road. “They were shouting ‘Granddad, stop the car, the water is coming in the house’,” says Ron. “I just slammed on the brakes.”

The couple’s son, Sonny, was outside his fibro shack with his five children, watching the monster surf, lashed by north-west winds, rise ever higher. In the commotion, everyone had forgotten that Sedoi, the baby, was still inside. They heard her crying and found her in her cot, covered in sand. Water had surged in after a wave picked up a big wooden pallet and flung it through the front wall.

Continue reading