In fact it seems that EAST Antarctica has actually been cooling, bringing an impressive 10% increase in the sea ice extent since 1980. That’s the good news.

Unfortunately this is where is gets more complex.  Professor John Turner, from the British Antarctic Study (BAS) says that while we used to have this big blanket of ozone, the world was warming, but as soon as we took it away, or produced a hole in it, that part of the world started to cool.  Effectively the Antarctic has been more sheltered from the effects of global warming than other parts of the world due to the hole in the ozone.

However, this cannot last for ever, as the mending of the hole is expected to take until about the middle of this century and therefore the SCAR team predicts that the greenhouse warming will come to dominate the the temperature changing across the Antarctic as it is currently doing across the rest of the planet.  Doubling of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are predicted to warm Antarctica by 3-4C.

More good news however, as its’ also predicted that the majority of the contintent is so cold that a rise of this temperatures in the air would have little effect on it.  But, warming would increase the speed of the predicted ice loss and melting of the East Antarctic ice sheet is a major concern to scientists studying this.

On the basis of the changes seen on the Antarctic Peninsular, there’s an expectation of significant reductions in the abundance of krill, a key foodsource for not only baleen whales but also other marine life there.  Any  change in  ecology allows  organisims to enter and survive which were previously exclused through climate or simple geography.   For example, the king crap (also known as the stone crab) is found commonly throughout norwegian waters, but there are hinds of it hopping across from South America.  This alone could completely change the eccosystem on the sea floor.

I’m intrigued by these issues and will continue to follow the findings of these new reports coming from SCAR and BAS. 

Watch This Space!

Richard

Here’s what they are collectively saying:

• If the world’s MOUNTAIN GLACIERS and ICECAPS  melt, sea levels will rise by 0.5m
• THERMAL EXPANSION of warming oceans was the main thing contributing to sear levels rising (BY HOW MUCH) in the 20th century, and currently accounts for more than half of the observed sea level increase
• ICE SHEETS contain billions of tonnes of frozen water, and if the largest of them (the East Antarctic ice sheet) melts, the global sea level will rise by an estimated 64m.

Wow – that’s a LOT of water.

You can read about  the recent findings of the SCAR study here

SCAR’s executive director, Dr Colin SUmmerhayes said: “The temperature of the air and the oceans are increasing, sea levels are rising and the sun appears to have very little influence on what we see. We are facing a creeping global catastrophe.”

In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projected that the seas would (only) rise by 28-43cm (11-16in) by 2100, but it has been acknowledged that these predicitions were too low due to it being impossible to accurately measure the acceleration in in ice melting as air and water temperatures rise.

Observations on the ground have changed this picture dramatically, expecially in parts of the West Antarctic ice sheet. John Turner from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) noted that warmer water is getting under the edges of the ice sheet and accelerating the flow of ice into the ocean.   “By the end of the century, the shee will probaly have lost enough ice alone to raise sea levels by ‘tens of centimetres’,” he said.

The Greenland Cap, melting of moutain glaciers adn the expansion of sea water at is warms will also contribute significantly to this rise in sea levels.

Imagine for a moment what it would be like to have the beaches that you are now familiar with be moved back to the roadsides or the houses with current sea views, have the high tide lapping at the door step.  This is the reality of such predications.  How will this effect the current ecology system we are familiar with on the sea shore?

Mmn – makes you think doesn’t it!

Richard

It’s long been thought that the brain keeps the body clock on track by simply firing up more cells during the daytime, but a new study undertaken by a team at the University of Manchester has exposed new evidence that turns this idea upside down.  Instead of the clock and brain communicating to the rest of the brain via the number of electrical impulses produced by the brain, they found that there are in fact at least two types of cells in this part of the brain.  These particular cells contain a key gene – per1- which allows them to sustain unusually high levels of excitability.   These cells have periods of being either very excited or calm, and it is this activity which tells the body when to be awake.

This study is the first time these particular quiet cells have been studied, and heralds hope for not only new ways to combat the issues of jetlag and adjusting body clocks to different time zones or awake times, but also could lead to new ways of treating sleep disorders.  Professor Hugh Piggens, an expert in Neuroscience at the University said this research would allow a new approach to how we can adjust our daily clocks.

Personally I’m delighted to know that one day I may be able to travel with less reliance on jet lag down time having to be accommodated in my planning, and I’m sure the pharmacuetical industry will be quick to start developing chemical treatments to enable resetting of our body clocks, but right now, I’ve got some unpacking to finish!

Richard

Go to BBC to read the original article.

You see, once upon a time in Papua New Guinea, it was a regular thing and considered a mark of respect, to consume one’s deceased relatives.  These ‘mortuary feasts’ as they were called, were part of the mourning process and women and children would faithfully consume their loved ones.  Well that certainly would have saved on burial costs, but I digress. Unfortunately, in the mid 20^th century, a major epidemic of Kuru, a prion disease similar to CJD in humans and animals, was found to have been transmitted by this practice, which was legally banned in the 1950s.

More than 3000 survivors were assessed by Medical Research Council experts, and they discovered that a gene variation, G127V found in the people from the Purosa Valley region in the Eastern Highlands offers a high or in some cases, a complete resistance to the disease.

It is understood this genetic evolution occurred in only a matter of decades, according to MRC Prion Unit Director, Professor John Collinge.  He says: “It’s absolutely fascinating to see Darwinian principles at work here”.

University College London’s Institute of Neurology geneticist, Professor John Hardy says: “this is a fantastic demonstration of natural selection.  Because people who have this mutation were protected from this fatal disease, their proportion in society increased massively”.

How this relates to the survival ability of Mad Cow Disease and for more on this study, I recommend a quick visit to the rest of the article at: Go to BBC to read the original article.

Time for a Cuppa -but I’m not very hungry anymore!

This study, published by Professor Graham Mitchell, at the Centre of Wildlife Studies, Oderstepoort, South Africa, has also posed lots of questions about the Giraffe’s relatively high blood pressure.  Most animals have low BP due to their blood only needing to move a short distance around their bodies between head and heart, but surprisingly, Giraffes BP is nearly twice that of other mammals.  It was always assumed that this was due to their having to have quite large hearts in order to get the blood pumping such a great distance.   Not only do they have high blood pressure, it seems that they have specialist mechanisms to help them deal effectively with this.  They have an ability to adjust the capacity of their cardiovascular system and can shrink and expand their blood vessels in order to efficiently change the volume of their cardiovascular system.   Will this lead to new research in how human beings can better internally manage their own blood pressure?

Researchers based their findings from a range of measurements taken from Giraffes culled in SE Zimbabwe from 2006 – 2009.

They established that while the heart is actually quite small, it has developed to have thick muscle walls and a small radius giving it that much needed power. The walls of the blood vessels also thicken further with age as the giraffe’s neck grows longer to avoid rupturing under increasing pressure.

You can read a lot more about at:  Go to BBC to read the original article.

I’ve always thought giraffe’s were extra special – now it’s official, they really are!

Lead scientist and author Corinne Le Quere  believes “We are facing our last chance to stabilise the earth’s temperature at 2c in a smooth and organised way”.   Professor Le Quere holds posts at the UK’s university of East Anglia and the British Antarctic Survey.  She says that if the agreement reached in Copenhagen  (at the Global Summit due there in December 2009) to curb emissions is either too weak or the commitments are not respected by world leaders, that we can add another 2-3 degrees (Celsius) to previous estimates on global warming.

The GCP has been able to build a detailed picture of trends in emissions and carbon sinks from atmospheric observations and business inventories over the past decade and notes that before about 2002, global emissions grew by only around 1% per year, before increasing to 3%.  The change in rates came mainly from China due to increased economic output there, but did fall slightly in 2008 as world economies dipped into recession.

However the proportion of global emissions coming from deforestation has fallen to 12%, which is significantly better than the 20% rate during the 1990s.    The GCP is calling for support avoidance of deforestation in Indonesia and Brazil.  GCP believes that carbon sinks – oceans and plans – are probably absorbing slightly lower proportions of the carbon dioxide from fossil fuel emissions than from 50 years ago but admit that there is still uncertainty about the behaviour of sinks.

I’m sure you’ll agree that the earth’s CO2 emissions rising by more than 25% in only one decade is of concern – but there are many things being talking about and able to be done to halt this and keep our temperatures stable.

If you wish to read this article in its entirety, please Go to BBC to read the original article. For more about the Global Carbon Project, you can visit www.globalcarbonproject.org/