Ocean News

ImaginaryNumber · May 2, 2016

Human Extinction Isn't That Unlikely | The Atlantic

ImaginaryNumber · May 2, 2016

Probability we're the only intelligent life ever? Really low, say astronomers | Christian Science Monitor

Astronomers revised the half-century old Drake equation, which attempts to calculate the probability of the existence of advanced alien civilizations, to determine whether such civilizations has existed at any point in the history of the universe.

They found that the chances that a human civilization evolved on Earth and nowhere else in the universe are less than about one in 10 billion trillion.

“To me, this implies that other intelligent, technology-producing species very likely have evolved before us,” said Adam Frank, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Rochester, in a statement. Dr. Frank was a co-author on a paper on the subject published in the journal Astrobiology on April 22.[...]

This still leaves a couple of questions, though. One is how long civilizations can survive (long enough to communicate with us?), which is really hard to answer. So Frank and Dr. Sullivan decided to pose a much broader question: Have other civilizations ever existed?[...]

Another unknown that remained was how likely advanced life is to evolve on habitable planets. Instead of guessing the odds of that, the astronomers decided to calculate its opposite: how low is the probability that humans make up the only civilization ever to exist in the universe? The answer they found for this is one in 10 billion trillion. In our own galaxy Milky Way, the number rises to one chance in 60 billion.[...]
Click to expand...

Mr Efficiency · May 2, 2016

Those probablities are junk science, just guesses.

ImaginaryNumber · May 3, 2016

Food Chain Collapse Predicted in World's Oceans | Seeker

The world’s oceans are teeming with life, but rising carbon dioxide emissions could cause a collapse in the marine food chain from the top down, researchers in Australia said Monday.

The first-of-its-kind global analysis of marine responses to climate change forecasts a grim future for fish.[...]

Their meta-analysis, published in the Oct. 12 edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed that ocean acidification and warming will cut down on the diversity and numbers of various key species.[...]

But the increase in the smallest plankton is not expected to translate into more zooplankton and small fish, meaning bigger fish will struggle to find enough food to eat.

“With higher metabolic rates in the warmer water, and therefore a greater demand for food, there is a mismatch with less food available for carnivores — the bigger fish that fisheries industries are based around,” said Nagelkerken.[...]

Oysters, mussels and corals are also expected to take a hit from global warming, which will further harm the environment for reef fish.
Click to expand...

ImaginaryNumber · May 3, 2016

NASA Is Facing a Climate Change Countdown | New York Times

[...] NASA, which has at least $32 billion worth of structures and facilities around the country, has been considering the possible effects of climate change for nearly a decade, said Kim W. Toufectis, a strategist who leads the master planning program for the space agency.

NASA, after all, is in the business of risk management. By 2007, “we had to acknowledge that we should recognize climate change and extreme weather as a formal risk that we should be actually managing,” Mr. Toufectis said.[...]

In fact, NASA’s climate risk extends far beyond Florida. About two-thirds of the land that NASA manages is within 16 feet of mean sea level, and much of it is near the coasts. “We are tremendously linked to the drink,” Mr. Toufectis said.

Johnson Space Center in Texas sits by Clear Lake, an inlet of Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. The surge from Hurricane Ike in 2008 caused power failures and debris pileup that shut down the center for a week.

The Michoud Assembly Plant, which built the enormous orange tanks used by the space shuttle, sits at the eastern end of New Orleans, and narrowly missed being inundated in Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Ames Research Center is near San Francisco Bay.

The agency’s Climate Adaptation Science Investigators working group, which evaluates risks for all federal agencies, has predicted that sea level rise of five inches to more than two feet by 2050 could cause widespread problems for the five coastal NASA sites.

Coastal floods that might now occur once every 10 years could happen twice as often at Johnson, twice to three times as often at Kennedy and 10 times more often at Ames.

“NASA coastal centers that are already at risk of flooding are virtually certain to become more vulnerable in the future,” the working group wrote in a 2014 report.[...]

Which leads to another obvious question: Why build billions of dollars worth of launch infrastructure on a risky coast in the first place?

Safety and physics tell the tale. Launching over water is safer than over land and people. Also, rockets are best launched from sites closer to the Earth’s fat Equator, where the greater diameter of the planet provides a slingshot effect that gives each rocket more bang for the propulsion buck. The Air Force was already firing missiles from Cape Canaveral when NASA showed up.[...]
Click to expand...

myark · May 3, 2016

ImaginaryNumber said: ↑

Human Extinction Isn't That Unlikely | The Atlantic
Click to expand...

I always take Murphy's law into account when there are odds something could go wrong, eventually does go wrong especially a nuclear war set of by many numerous reasons such as computer male function or some one hacking into that computer control system or a container smuggled by North Korea with a nuke into new York harbor then triggering it causing a reaction nuclear war when it levels new York to the ground and killing the entire city's population.

With Climate change it can not be stopped for many many generations, all we can do is try and slow it down a bit as the damage is done and as they say CO2 is the amplifier that kicks global warming into top gear.

myark · May 3, 2016

Quote
The only chart you need to see to know that the US spends more on its military than the next 11 countries combined
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/only-chart-see-know-us-133554620.html

That's 11 X more chances of a Murphy's law

myark · May 4, 2016

Quote
First US climate refugees get $48 million to move

http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2016/0503/First-US-climate-refugees-get-48-million-to-move

The residents of Isle de Jean Charles, La., will soon become America's first climate refugees.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development in January set aside $1 billion in grants in 13 states to build stronger dams, levees, and drainage systems to help communities struggling with the effects of rising seas.

Among those grants, $48 million, which must be spent by 2022, is the first of its kind, allocated to pick up and move the entire community of the sinking, salty Isle de Jean Charles to a drier place.

As the Arctic continues to heat up (twice as quickly as the rest of the world), the Obama administration has already joined Canada in a discussion on the issue of climate refugees. "We have to figure out how to deal with potentially relocating villages. There's real tangible support we need to do from a government basis, working alongside indigenous communities as they make very difficult choices about what is right for them," said US Interior Secretary Sally Jewell during a visit to Canada.

Climate change could displace up to 200 million people by 2050, according to the United Nations Institute for Environment and Human Security and the International Organization for Migration. Most of those of people will likely be farmers and fishermen whose livelihoods depend on their environments.

myark · May 4, 2016

quote
Acidic Seawater From Climate Change

Scientists are now seeing the first bits of a Florida Keys reef starting to dissolve from seawater

http://www.usnews.com/news/science/...water-now-dissolving-bit-of-florida-keys-reef

WASHINGTON (AP) — Seawater — increasingly acidic due to global warming — is eating away a tiny part of the limestone framework for coral reef in the upper Florida Keys, according to a new study. It's something that scientists had expected, but not so soon.

This is one of the first times scientists have documented long-term effects of ocean acidification on the foundation of the reefs, said study author Chris Langdon, a biological oceanographer at the University of Miami.
as ocean acidification increases, scientists expect more reefs to dissolve and become flatter, and that fish will leave, Langdon said. Also, increasing acidity eats away at the shells of the shellfish, making them easier prey for other fish and harder for humans to harvest.

Acidification occurs when oceans absorb more carbon dioxide from the air, altering seawater chemistry. Scientists expected limestone to dissolve, but not until the second half of this century. It's about 40 years early, Langdon said.

"to actually see a negative was a big surprise," Langdon said. Extra, man-made carbon dioxide is being absorbed by the water and adding to its acidity. And it's worse in the northern parts of the Keys, because the colder the water, the more carbon dioxide dissolves into it, Langdon said.

Reefs provide $2.8 billion a year to the Florida economy, mostly from tourists who come to dive and fish but also from commercial fishing, Langdon said.

ImaginaryNumber · May 4, 2016

China Curbs Plans for More Coal-Fired Power Plants| New York Times

Coal-fired power plants have propelled much of China’s economic rise for decades, helping make the nation the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases. Even with economic growth slackening, and other energy sources taking hold, new coal plants have been added.

In guidelines released on Monday, China halted plans for new coal-fired power stations in many parts of the country, and construction of some approved plants will be postponed until at least 2018.

The announcement, by the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration, means that about 200 planned coal-fired power generators — those seeking approval and those approved but not yet under construction — may not be completed, said Lauri Myllyvirta, who analyzes China’s energy production for Greenpeace.[...]

Electricity generated from fossil fuels like coal is the biggest single contributor globally to the rise in carbon emissions, which scientists say is causing the earth’s temperature to rise. Leaders from 175 countries, including China, gathered in New York on Friday to sign the Paris climate accord, which aims to halt and eventually reverse the rise in carbon emissions, keeping the increase in global temperatures below 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit.[...]

In the face of the slowest economic growth in a quarter-century, electricity demand has fallen so sharply in China that some coal-burning power plants are operating only 40 or 50 percent of the time. Construction of wind turbines and solar panels has also eaten slightly into the market share of the coal plants.[...]
Click to expand...

myark · May 4, 2016

Quote

Man Consoling an Endangered, Orphaned Gorilla Will Inspire You to Fight for Our Planet’s Survival

http://www.onegreenplanet.org/envir...nspire-you-to-fight-for-our-planets-survival/

One of the many animal species at risk of going extinct because of human actions is the Grauer’s gorilla – also known as the eastern lowland gorilla – primarily found in the Congo Basin of Africa. Years of civil unrest in this region have taken their toll on the area’s wildlife; both the Grauer’s gorilla and the closely related mountain gorilla have seen their population plummet as a result. Sadly, a recent report by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) revealed that Grauer’s gorillas now number less than 3,800 individuals: a 77 percent decrease in the last twenty years alone.

This touching photo – which shows a man comforting a young Grauer’s gorilla who has just lost his mother – demonstrates that in many ways, the people and the animals of this troubled region are united by their shared grief.

We are often bombarded with heartbreaking stories about humans committing terrible cruelty against animals. However, this poignant picture reveals that when we open our hearts enough to empathize with the pain of another living being (and understand that their grief is not so different from our own), the results can be truly beautiful. If only we all treated members of other species in this way!

It is certain that Grauer’s gorillas – and all of the other animals we have placed at risk of extinction over the past few decades – need us to empathize with their plight now more than ever.

ImaginaryNumber · May 5, 2016

Science lovers enthralled by crazy glowing jellyfish | CNN

Look at that thing: It has long tentacles that can extend straight out from the center bell, making it look at times like an alien beacon or a missing part to a spaceship from another galaxy.

Scientists on NOAA's Okeanos Explorer Vessel caught video of this creature in April near the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the ocean. It was hanging out about 12,000 feet (3700 m) below the water's surface. (That's far above the 13,000 - 20,000 feet abyssal zone where no light reaches and even more wild and terrifying creatures lurk.)

NOAA has identified it as a hydromedusa, which is an excellent classification. It does look very "Medusal," if the mythological villain also glowed from the inside.
Click to expand...

see also http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okean...dia/video/0424-jelly/0424-jelly-1920x1080.mp4

ImaginaryNumber · May 5, 2016

Volcanoes And Climate Change: How Continental Volcanic Eruptions Drove Historic Climate Shifts | Headlines and Global News

...The team examined plate-tectonic movement of continents that might underlie the climate shift from hot to cold that Earth experienced over the course of its million-year history. In particular, the researchers made sure to focus on the long-terms shifts in Earth's baseline climate instead of short-term or man-made changes.

The results reveal that over the past 720 million years, periods of time when volcanoes were more active along continental arcs correlate with warmer conditions. Conversely, less active continental arc volcanoes are associated with colder conditions.

When volcanoes along continental arcs are active, the oceanic plate descends under the continental plate, stimulating the mixing of magma with carbon from Earth's crust, leading to the release of CO2 into the atmosphere during the eruption.

"Continental arc systems are plumbed through the Earth's crust and they tend to interact with carbon reservoir rock preserved beneath the surface," said Ryan McKenzie of Yale University and lead researcher of the study.
Click to expand...

ImaginaryNumber · May 6, 2016

Can game theory help solve the problem of climate change? | The Guardian

Can’t we all just get along. Play nicely? Share? Such laments could be applied to many economic, political and social problems today. Perhaps the thorniest of them all is, climate change. Despite the relative success of the Paris COP21 in November, we are still far from effectively controlling greenhouse gas emissions. Could game theory help us rein in our impacts on the climate?

Game theory is the mathematical study of conflict and cooperation between actors or groups: animals, people, businesses, countries or even computer algorithms. It became a formal topic of study in the 1950s and has since made significant impact on economics, political science and evolutionary biology and ecology.

The fundamentals of the climate change are simple: the Earth’s finite capacity to absorb additional CO2 produced by burning fossil fuels, and the self-centred motivations of governments, businesses, and people which leads them to try and use as much of this capacity as possible. Simply put, more CO2 produces more wealth. Consequently, what is best for the individual is not best for the group. Somehow these two incentives need to align. One way would be for all 197 nations to cooperate in working out how to allocate carbon emissions. Presumably they would then move onto world peace.

In game theory speak, man-made climate change can be cast as an iterated game over a common-pool resource that no one owns and everyone has access to. For example, fish in a fishery, trees in a wood, or pasture land grazed by cattle. They regenerate and if sustainably managed, can provide valuable resources for many. Take too much however, and they can collapse...

It is possible to avoid a tragedy of the commons if the incentives are setup right – reward cooperation, and limit the benefits of temptation to free ride on others’ contributions. Such temptations can be reduced by punishing free riders. But how can you administer such rules within the largely lawless landscape of international relations? There is no single government that can demand inspections and impose fines. Climate change seems to require a game to facilitate cooperation, but there is nothing to stop any individual nation picking up the board and scattering all the pieces if things aren’t going their way.

One approach is a bootstrapping process. Thinking global while acting local recognises that local interactions are important. It has been shown that cooperation can be enhanced if people repeatedly play the same game with the same set of people. When they do, systems of reciprocity and trust can evolve. This will also allow effective punishment of defection. People trying to free ride either get penalised or thrown out of the group. A classic example of the emergence of such cooperation is the live-and-let-live system that operated in the British and German trenches during the first world war. This involved a number of behaviours that sought to minimise casualties on the opposing side. Soldiers would deliberately shoot high to miss the enemy, or shell the same spot with artillery at the same time of day...

If cooperation can emerge in the midst of the horrors of war, then surely we can find the right incentives to combat climate change. Unfortunately, there appears to be a crucial difference. What drove cooperation in the trenches was a realisation that while the uniforms may differ, all the soldiers were in it together. We are not all in this together with respect to climate change. The impacts on the climate and vulnerabilities to climate change vary considerably.

In fact, the rules of the game appear to operate exactly in opposition to what’s required. Those that have the greatest impacts on the climate – the most industrialised nations – are those nations that will be least affected. It’s some of the poorest people living in some of the least developed nations that are going to bear the brunt of climate change...
Click to expand...

ImaginaryNumber · May 6, 2016

Massive network of robotic ocean probes gets smart upgrade | Nature

Oceanographers are already using data from the more than 3,900 floats in the international Argo array. These automated probes periodically dive to depths of 2,000 metres, measuring temperature and salinity before resurfacing to transmit their observations to a satellite (see ‘Diving deeper’). The US$21-million Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observations and Modeling Project (SOCCOM) is going a step further, deploying around 200 advanced probes to monitor several indicators of seawater chemistry and biological activity in the waters around Antarctica. A primary aim is to track the prodigious amount of carbon dioxide that flows into the Southern Ocean...

Meanwhile, another set of researchers hopes to extend the existing Argo array beyond its current 2,000-metre limit. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admini*stration (NOAA) is spending about $1 million annually on a Deep Argo project to monitor ocean temperature and salinity down to 6,000 metres. The agency deployed nine Deep Argo floats south of New Zealand in January, and is planning similar pilot arrays in the Indian Ocean and the North Atlantic...

Click to expand...

Log in or Sign up

Ocean News

ImaginaryNumber Imaginary Member

ImaginaryNumber Imaginary Member

Mr Efficiency Senior Member

ImaginaryNumber Imaginary Member

ImaginaryNumber Imaginary Member

myark Senior Member

myark Senior Member

Attached Files:

zThe_only_chart_you_need-5746608dec96e007fb4a4ad280b4c1e0.png

myark Senior Member

myark Senior Member

Attached Files:

z85.jpg

ImaginaryNumber Imaginary Member

myark Senior Member

Attached Files:

zgrauers.jpg

ImaginaryNumber Imaginary Member

ImaginaryNumber Imaginary Member

ImaginaryNumber Imaginary Member

ImaginaryNumber Imaginary Member

Real Ocean News

Design of an Autonomous Surface Craft for Oceanographic Survey

"live in the ocean" meme suffers setback

Volvo Ocean Race - John Fisher

Man rescued from floating bubble (tries to go across ocean to Bermuda 1000 miles)

Cement/Concrete Saves Vessel Mid Ocean

Is the ocean broken?

Kids facing the Oceans Plastic Cleanup Problem

Free ride across the pacific ocean

Books for ocean passages etc..