Ecology and the Environment

Deeper Understanding of the MJO The Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) is a large-scale (1000-kilometer) atmospheric disturbance that propagates slowly eastward through the tropics from the Indian Ocean to the western Pacific during the course of 30 to 60 days. The MJO affects precipitation over the tropical monsoon regions and has been implicated as a trigger of El Niño-Southern Oscillation events. It is coupled with the upper ocean through its effects on surface fluxes of solar radiation caused by changes in cloudiness, and on evaporation from the ocean surface caused by surface wind speed changes, which can heat or cool the ocean mixed layer by up to 1°C during…

Could you name a list of feedback process that you think could happen as a product of the global warming? It could also be interesting if you tell if they have positive or negative consecuences for the system, I mean if it feed it back to grow temperatures or to cold the Earth. And also, could you link them between each other?

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=special-report-climate-change ==quote== This special report explores the latest findings on the impact of human activity on Earth's climate—from the melting of Arctic ice to the potential spread of disease. It also explores the more pertinent question of where we can go from here.–The Editors ==links to sections of the special report== State of the Science: Beyond the Worst Case Climate Change Scenario http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=state-of-the-science-beyond-the-worst-climate-change-case Earth in Heat: 10 Views of a Warming World [slideshow] http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=earth-in-heat-10-views-of-warming-world …

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bright_green_environmentalism I came across this term which accurately describes my opinions on environmentalism, and which I think also probably describes the "scientifically minded" perspective. It seems like an important distinction among within the broader category of "environmentalists," and it seems to be very much on the rise in public opinion. Maybe you've heard it before, but I hadn't, and I thought I'd share.

We know that industry funding can affect the outcome of scientific research in many subtle ways ranging from interpretation of results to research design, and this has been borne out by various studies (can we accept that as a premise, or am I going to have to hunt down a cite?). My question to you is, should funding from environmental or advocacy groups, or even governments, be similarly suspect? Could these organizations be subtly manipulating scientific output in the same manner industry does? How could we tell the difference?

All life is changing, or evolving. This appears to be a teleological kind of process, in which all forms of life compete with each other and with other lifeforms, here on this planet. The past 400 or 500 million years of our planet´s history is known by humans (us), with some detail. We know that the continents were all much closer together back then, and that they have split up and dispersed, spread around the globe by forces that act inexorably, but with great energy, and build new ocean floor constantly, as the continents are pulled and pushed around like a bunch of bumper cars, except very slowly moving ones. Also, during the Cretaceous, there were no masses of fr…

http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2007/11/cast_your_vote_for_real_scienc.php

i'm working on a research about pollinators and how they affect the yield of a certain fruit. i have some questions. i don't really ask for specific answers. related ideas or hints would be appreciated. 1. ways to measure yield of fruit tree (considering both quality and quantity) 2. is there a way to control the type of pollinator that will have access to the flowers? 3. what "reward" do night pollinators (bat and moth) get from trees with flowers that bloom during the night? i'm also having a hard time thinking of how to control some variables.

Global warming is total bunk, seriously I don't know why people and many scientists buy into it. First of all, the Earth has been much warmer millions of years into the past, in fact it has been a little warmer in the recent past. The climate models that are used are not very good at all. There are thousands upon thousands of variables and new ones are being added every once in a while. There is no possible way that you can possibly predict the climate, because of the chaotic nature of the climate. Didn't anyone ever hear of the butterfly affect? Also, many predictions were wrong. And it has been shown that it is solar irradiance is the cause of the warming, as i…

I'm not downplaying global warming here, I'm just continuing a discussion I've posted on before about hurricane frequency linkage to global warming. It's something I've been following since our "nasty year" in 2005 (in which both Katrina and Wilma passed directly over my house, and six others came close -- yikes!). The idea behind the linkage seems reasonable enough -- warmer water seems to cause more powerful hurricanes, and water temp in general seems to be a key factor in their formation (as I dimly understand it -- I'm not a meteorologist). And with El Nino back and following that amazing 2005 year, everyone thought that 2006 and 2007 would be bad as well. Bu…

this is somthing i have bin thinking about and i cant come to a disitio P.S i suck at spelling:confused: :confused: :confused:

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gsGpI3VcZk2quvxVBKkyZ3CVf7WgD8S1IEPG0 Apparently advocates for the blind are up in arms about hybrid cars being too quiet to hear. I guess I can empathize, but I think reducing noise pollution has to be a good thing for everyone. Maybe we just need to apply a little technology to the problem. (Hmm... would deaf people complain about invisible cars?)

We all know that there is a hole the size of America in the southern hemisphere, But what would happen if it had a simalar effect in the northern hempshere? Leave a reply with your answer.

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Various governmental agencies involved with environmental protection and with occupational safety and health have promulgated regulations limiting the allowable concentrations of gaseous pollutants in the ambient air or in emissions to the ambient air. Such regulations involve a number of different expressions of concentration. Some express the allowable concentrations as volume of a specific gaseous pollutant per million volumes of ambient air or, more simply as parts per million by volume (ppmv). Others express the allowable concentrations as mass of a specific gaseous pollutant per volume of ambient air or usually as milligrams per cubic meter (mg/m³). The equation…

People who doubt if global warming is man made or not. I don't know either. Would it not make sense if air poluting would be minimized anyway fore the sake of people and nature. would that make sense?

I found this in my girlfriends dorm the other day... Does anyone know what it is?

I hope someone gets that joke. Anyway, natural gas was featured rather favorably in an interview by Fareed Zakaria in this week's Newsweek, as some of you may have read. According to Robert A. Hefner III, a natural gas tycoon, natural gas promises to be the bridge between oil-based energy and the hydrogen future. He refers to some rather shocking facts, such as the fact that in the US natural gas can't be used for power production, apparently as a result of lobbying by the oil industry, despite being cleaner than coal and oil and supposedly still abundant, with "1,500 to 2000 trillion cubic feet" or "70 to 100 years." Does anyone have any opinions on the potentia…

http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/20070422222547data_trunc_sys.shtml Insane!

Thinking on environmental issues a few big ones come to mine. First of all the science behind environmental change is not widely dispersed and is poorly misrepresented or poorly understood. It would be a good decision in my opinion to make a general environmental awareness class part of any undergraduate education and such should be dispersed though all levels of public education or a K-12 model. Understanding such would be key in making generations more aware and or even more green. The next big issue is lifestyles, of which is a composite of many different issues collectively coming to bear. Such as use of resources in the varied amount of ways that occurs. Why would a …

I'm entering this space challenge which is set up by my science department. The prize is a trip to kennedy space centre and yes if i win, i'll be going to america and hallelujah, i will be able to meet the astronauts and visit the admin area and watch rockets launch. it will be a brilliant oppurtunity for me which i can't miss. ok here's my challenge: - design an ecosphere to allow human life on another planet in the solar system. You cannot choose earth. - your entry should demonstrate internet based research and should be firmly based in ICT. - you need to consider the requirement for life and how you should use science to support human needs. ok as a st…

While reading on life cycles of plants and of course other related organisms in the context of global warming I was wondering a certain something. Do you think that various CO2 sinks will just be overwhelmed leading to a CO2 saturation or more or less is there a probability that not only will saturation continue to occur but that giving life cycles of say plants again a large surge of CO2 could suddenly appear in a relatively short period fo time, say a few years. Now granted plants are foodstuffs in many different ways and birth to death is probably not a perfect number, but life cycles do tend to exist such as with the seasons. So the question in general is could the sl…

http://www.bangkokpost.net/News/28Aug2007_news02.php Greenpeace protesters in Bangkok dumped tonnes of papayas on the doorstep of the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry. The result? The surrounding crowd snatched them up. Don't get me wrong: I understand there are potential risks involved with GMO crops. I'd support them being labeled as genetically modified. I understand there are exploitative corporations trying to enforce intellectual property laws on them. But... but... people are starving. Doesn't that take precedence?

I’m interested to learn more about Evolutionary Psychology study which represents modern scientific research delivering a solid conclusion regarding human behavior, explaining how a specific behavior is genetically determined, and what that mutation was reinforced to solve. Could you please suggest me a good online course?

Here's an interesting little chart I stumbled on Looks like the guys camped out demonstrating at the airports should be hanging around the forests and coal / gas fired power stations instead !