Study: Phytoplankton, Plants at Base of Ocean Food Chain, in Decline Due to Warming Seas

by Janet Ritz

A study has found that phytoplanktons, the base of the ocean food chain upon which everything from whales to humans depend, have declined by as much as forty percent due to the increase in the temperature of the seas.

The comprehensive report, released by Dalhousie University, has determined phytoplanktons are impacted by warming.

Microscopic phytoplankton that form the foundation of the marine food chain are declining, according to a new Canadian study that indicates that the ocean’s ecosystem and fisheries could be changing.

Researchers at Dalhousie University conducted the first global study of the populations of these microscopic organisms in the past century and found the declines – averaging about 1 per cent a year, and approximately 40 per cent since 1950 – are correlated with increases in sea surface temperatures.

Phytoplankton feed the organisms that, in turn, feed everything from whales to humans.  The potential impact on the climate is as troubling. Phytoplankton, which live (and are dying) on the surface of the seas, produce oxygen.  Continued...

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NOAA: Past Decade Warmest on Record According to Scientists in 48 Countries

The 2009 State of the Climate report released today draws on data for 10 key climate indicators that all point to the same finding: the scientific evidence that our world is warming is unmistakable. More than 300 scientists from 160 research groups in 48 countries contributed to the report, which confirms that the past decade was the warmest on record and that the Earth has been growing warmer over the last 50 years.

Based on comprehensive data from multiple sources, the report defines 10 measurable planet-wide features used to gauge global temperature changes. The relative movement of each of these indicators proves consistent with a warming world. Seven indicators are rising: air temperature over land, sea-surface temperature, air temperature over oceans, sea level, ocean heat, humidity and tropospheric temperature in the “active-weather” layer of the atmosphere closest to the Earth’s surface. Three indicators are declining: Arctic sea ice, glaciers and spring snow cover in the Northern hemisphere.

“For the first time, and in a single compelling comparison, the analysis brings together multiple observational records from the top of the atmosphere to the depths of the ocean,” said Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. “The records come from many institutions worldwide. They use data collected from diverse sources, including satellites, weather balloons, weather stations, ships, buoys and field surveys. These independently produced lines of evidence all point to the same conclusion: our planet is warming,”  Continued...

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A Top Investment Fund Chairman Weighs In on Climate Change: Jeremy Grantham Says Buy It

by Janet Ritz

Jeremy Grantham, Chairman of the Board of Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo (GMO), a Boston-based asset management firm, one of the largest managers of such funds in the world, has written in his quarterly letter:

Conspiracy theorists claim to believe that global warming is a carefully constructed hoax driven by scientists desperate for … what? Being needled by nonscientific newspaper reports, by blogs, and by right-wing politicians and think tanks? Most hard scientists hate themselves or their colleagues for being in the news. Being a climate scientist spokesman has already become a hindrance to an academic career, including tenure. I have a much simpler but plausible “conspiracy theory”: that fossil energy companies, driven by the need to protect hundreds of billions of dollars of profits, encourage obfuscation of the inconvenient scientific results.

Grantham's asset management fund controls over 170 billion dollars. He is the investor and fund manager who predicted the failure of the bubble style of economics, postulating that economies had a tendency to "return to the mean."  The quarterly report by Grantham gives his view on the direction of the economy and the trends therein. He has included a section (on page seven), entitled: Everything You Need to Know About Global Warming in 5 Minutes and recommends investment in industries that will reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. Continued...

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The Planet Has a Fever

Have you felt it? The sweltering summer that has strained the grid? The floods and tornadoes and the hail? The increased humidity where it was a dry heat? The dry heat where it was moist?

The planet has a fever. That's not supposition. The National Climactic Data Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has recorded year-to-date combined global and and surface temperatures that are the warmest on record.

• The combined global land and ocean surface temperature for April-June 2010 was 1.26°F (0.70°C) above the 20th century average—the warmest April-June period on record.

• For the year-to-date, the global combined land and ocean surface temperature of 57.5°F (14.2°C) was the warmest January-June period. This value is 1.22°F (0.68°C) above the 20th century average.

• June 2010 was the fourth consecutive warmest month on record (March, April, and May 2010 were also the warmest on record). This was the 304th consecutive month with a global temperature above the 20th century average. The last month with below-average temperature was February 1985.

• It was the warmest June and April–June on record for the Northern Hemisphere as a whole and all land areas of the Northern Hemisphere.

• Arctic sea ice continued its annual decline, typically reaching a September minimum. Similar to May 2010, the Arctic sea ice continued to decline at a record rapid rate—the fastest measured for June (more than 50 percent greater than average).  Continued...

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Online Learning Challenges

by Barbara Bray

Teaching online is fundamentally different than teaching face-to-face. The design of effective online learning environments requires rethinking teaching practices. The rapid advances of educational technology encourages the growth of collaborative online learning experiences unconstrained by time and space. Even so, students may not learn from technology alone; they learn with the support of competent facilitators who design learning strategies that support learning goals and objectives.

Online learning technologies were first used to digitize existing instructional materials for easier distribution, to enhance consistency, and reduce costs. Unfortunately, this use of technology did not actually improve instruction. Now there is a shift to more theory-based online learning strategies that use technology to enhance an instructional sound learning experience that meets the needs of all learners.

“Technology can play an important role in the achievement of learning outcomes but it is not necessary to explain this enhancement with a special account of learning. Rather, the challenge is to describe how the technology allows underlying processes common to all learning to function effectively (Mayes and de Freitas in Beetham and Sharpe, 2007, pg 13).”

With funding cuts, districts are looking at creative ways to provide courses not offered at their site. Students are becoming more proactive along with their parents on what they need to meet their learning goals so they graduate with appropriate credits. The number of K-12 students taking online classes is growing exponentially. University students take it a step further. They not only search for learning opportunities at their school and online, they know a good online class. These students are picky about which classes they sign up for and will drop a class if the teacher is not effective. They are the new, savvy consumers of online education. In response to their higher expectations, designers of online education are incorporating increasingly sophisticated instructional approaches such as animations and simulations that address the challenges of presenting dynamic content to learners. Continued...

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Obama: Oil Capped for Now, Problem Not Still Done

President Obama made a brief statement to the press and took questions about the temporary nature of the new cap (live feed--may load slowly) that seemed to be holding for now, the need to finish the relief wells and about the many lives, livelihoods and wildlife impacted by the disaster.

The President cautioned the media that, while the stoppage of the flow of oil (for now) was moving in the right direction, it was not the end of the story:

"There were a lot of reports coming out in the media that maybe this thing is done. We won't be done until we know that we've actually know that we've killed the well and that we have a permanent solution in place. We're moving in that direction, but I don't want us to get too far ahead of ourselves."

"in the meantime, obviously we’ve still got a big job to do. There’s still a lot of oil out there, and that’s why we’ve got more skimmers out there, there’s better coordination on the ground along the shorelines, there’s still going to be an enormous cleanup job to do, and there’s still going to be the whole set of issues of surrounding making sure people are compensated properly, that the $20 billion fund is set up and is acting expeditiously.

So we’ve got an enormous amount of work to do and people down in the Gulf, particularly businesses, are still suffering as a consequence of this disaster. But we are making steady progress and I think the American people should take some heart in the fact that we’re making progress on this front."

Video and Full Transcript at this link. 

More Gulf News here.

The Case for Informed Citizenship

by Janet Ritz

With reports of the use of child labor in horrific conditions that supply tobacco to Philip Morris cigarettes, the ongoing destruction of the Gulf of Mexico, the denial of unemployment extensions to the millions who've exhausted their benefits, the suicides by technology workers in China, the widespread use of child labor to produce chocolate, the conflict minerals used in cell phones, has the time come for citizens to look in the mirror?

Human Rights Watch, the group best known for documenting governmental abuse and war crimes, plans to release a report on Wednesday showing that child and forced labor is widespread on farms that supply a cigarette factory owned by Philip Morris International in Kazakhstan, in Central Asia.

While child labor should be condemned in any setting, the report said, employing children on tobacco farms is particularly hazardous because tobacco field laborers are exposed to high levels of nicotine while doing their jobs.

In a society that runs on oil, on gas, on coal, on supermarket produce sections piled high with colorful fruits and vegetables that many around the world would see as equivalent to the gold in Fort Knox, we have distractions from the consequences of our choices. If we stop to think about what went into the production of that phone, that tank of gas, that bar of chocolate, what will we see in ourselves? Are we, by our own obtuseness, responsible for those who toil in unsafe conditions, who find themselves looking out at a destroyed Gulf of Mexico, who mourn for loved ones buried in an unsafe mine?

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Senator Sheldon Whitehouse's Historic Speech on Corporate Influence in Government

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) gave a historic speech on the corporate influence in government as seen through the "regulatory capture" of government regulatory agencies by corporations.

"We must act in defense of the integrity of this great government of ours, which has brought such light to the world, such freedom and equality to our country. We cannot allow this government - that is a model around the world, that inspires people to risk their lives and fortunes to come to our shores - we cannot allow any element of this government to become the tool of corporate power, the avenue of corporate influence, the puppet of corporate tentacles.

This American government of ours should never, never be on its knees before corporate power, no matter how strong. It should never be in the thrall of corporate wealth no matter how vast.
This American government of ours should never give the American citizen reason to question whose interests are being served. Never.

In this complex world of ours, Mr. President, government must protect us in remote and specialized precincts in the economy. In those remote precincts, few people are watching, but big money is made. We must be able to trust our government, both in plain view in front of us, and in corners far from sight, to be serving always the public interest, not doing the secret bidding of special interests; of corporate interests, because that's where the big money is at stake."

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Too Bad to Fail

by Sherman Yellen

During the banking crises, the billion dollars bailout was given to those reckless, behemoth banks that were called too big to fail; the argument was that they would bring down the entire American economy if they were allowed to suffer the consequences of their greed-driven gambles. We learned of that shadow world of devious derivatives, short sales, and swinish swaps, etc. none of which meant a damned thing to me, but meant mega fortunes for Goldman Sachs and their brothers in that high stakes gambling casino called American banking; a casino in which the house always won, because the people would cover the losses. We were essentially held hostage to these banks, not daring to risk their failure which then might spread across the nation and the world and transform a horrible recession into a devastating depression.

Thus we had the Obama policy of bailout before they destroyed the entire world economy; note that both the scheme for bailout and the destruction had been in place before Obama came into office. And still, months later, the jobs situation is critical for millions despite the assurances of Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers. A situation made more critical by the stone-hearted Republicans who refuse to extend the unemployed benefits for the long term unemployed. Lionel Barrymore and Edward Arnold played these guys in the old thirties movies, political friends of the millionaires, and the enemies of the downtrodden, but Jimmy Stewart always saved the day. Where is Jimmy now that we need him? Can Obama find his inner Jimmy Stewart? We can only hope so. If this is class warfare it is unique, because it is a revolution started by the super-rich. 

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Editorial Cartoon: Integrity Testing

Sandy Ritz is an editorial cartoonist, the recipient of the Certificate of  Editorial and Artistic Accomplishment from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, and is a Doctor of Public Health in Hawaii.

BP's Bob Dudley Responds to Viewers' Questions in Online PBS Interview

PBS Newshour's Ray Suarez interviewed BP's chief of Gulf Coast restoration Bob Dudley with questions and video sent in via YouTube from around America. In one piece of news from the interview, Dudley said the company is exploring "at least two options to divert the flow" of oil if the relief wells fail to kill the blown-out well.

Calling the well polluting the Gulf of Mexico "just a very unusual problem," Dudley said the company's first relief well is now being drilled down vertically parallel to the blown-out well and must go another 600 feet before casing is added and another kill attempt is made.

In answer to one submitted question, Dudley referred to the dispersant being deployed as "toxic as dish soap," but then qualified that with the historic volumes of oil mixed with dispersant coming from the blown well they did not know the actual impact. Continued...

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