locus communis

plantedcity:

Photos: Greenland’s Petermann Glacier Before & After the 2010 Ice Break

In addition to the photos, an article in the Huffington Post explains that:

When a 100 square mile chunk — an area four times the size of Manhattan — broke off Greenland’s Petermann Glacier in the summer of 2010, scientists knew that it was a historic event. After all, it was the largest known calving in Greenland’s history, and the largest to occur in the Arctic in nearly 50 years.

…

Jason Box, a scientist with the Byrd Polar Research Center at The Ohio State University and photographer of the 2009 image, told HuffPost that the summer of 2010 was Greenland’s warmest on record, and records have been kept since 1873.

“We’re bearing witness to abrupt climate change,” Box told HuffPost. “This isn’t of in the future. It’s very much now.”

To see more before and after images and to learn about the Petermann Glacier, visit the Byrd Polar Research Center. For more images of Greenland’s glaciers, click here.

Check out the rest of the article here.

plantedcity:

‘NASA Scientist Hansen Arrested at Tar Sands Protest - A Grim Sign of the Times’

From Rolling Stone:

This photo of the world’s best known and most outspoken climate scientist, James Hansen of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, handcuffed and hauled off to jail yesterday may not achieve the iconic stature of the Blue Marble photo, but as a symbol of our times, it’s pretty potent.

Hansen’s arrest was no surprise – in fact, it was deliberate.  Hansen was taking part in a civil disobedience action at the White House organized to halt the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, which will bring dirty oil from the Canadian tar sands down to US refineries in the Gulf.  Hansen is just one of more than nearly 1000 protesters who have been arrested since the action began on August 20 (it continues through September 3 – you can learn more about it at tarsandsaction.org).

Check out the rest of the article here.

Also, for those interested, Hansen has posted a collection of remarks, notes and powerpoints explaining how greenhouse gas emissions associated with the pipeline and the development of unconventional fossil fuels risk breaching tipping points in the global climate system. The collection also includes Hansen’s “conservative climate plan” to avoid such a scenario.  

Michael Pollan answers the question, ‘Why Eat Local’?

 via plantedcity; (Source: Nourish)