It's all about the bugs ...

... so says this report.

"Our paper presents measurements from all the major regions of the world where we have experimentally determined the effect of this enzyme, produced by many microorganisms, on carbon dioxide released from the soil," said Dr. Behzad Mortazavi, an assistant professor of biological sciences at The University of Alabama, and a co-author of the article.

So what effect did that have?

Revising the computer model predictions to take the soil enzymes' impact on CO2 into account reduces the discrepancies between the model and atmospheric observations, according to the paper whose lead authors are Lisa Wingate and Jérôme Ogée, representing the University of Edinburg and the French National Institute for Agricultural Research, respectively.

Sounds like it's time to look into what molecular probes exist for this enzyme (carbonic anhydrase) ...

Can we really expect ...

... emerging countries to give a crud about global stewardship?

If this is any indication, the answer is a resounding: No.

"If you look at it, it's a really bad idea. It uses as much electricity as an entire city. And every time the toilet is flushed they've got to pump water half a mile into the sky," he said.

The telescopic shape is also presents problems of a more practical nature Krane says.

"The upper 30 or 40 floors are so tiny that they're useless, so they can't use them for anything else apart from storage. They've built a small, not so useful storage warehouse half a mile in the sky," he said.

Of course, having built their country on the back of oil (with the industrialized worlds help, of course) I doubt they want to see a push towards greener industry.

Why is it ...

... what we cannot reasonably discuss anthropogenic climate change, but we can make the climate anthropomorphous? See the picture below, lifted from the front page of FOXNews this morning.

Ok, now what?

According to this CNN article, we've finally come to the consensus that global warming is real.

Human-induced global warming is real, according to a recent U.S. survey based on the opinions of 3,146 scientists.

The study was produced by the University of Illinois and according to the article asked two major quesitons.

Two questions were key: Have mean global temperatures risen compared to pre-1800s levels, and has human activity been a significant factor in changing mean global temperatures?

About 90 percent of the scientists agreed with the first question and 82 percent the second.

A little late in the game if you ask me. We needed to be working on solutions years ago. It's also interesting to take note of who were the biggest doubters of global warming. Petroleum geologists and *drum roll* meteorologists.

Petroleum geologists and meteorologists were among the biggest doubters, with only 47 percent and 64 percent, respectively, believing in human involvement.

Heh. Meteorologists can't even get the short term weather correct, what makes anyone think they're reliable in the long term?

So ... now what? This really is an issue that needs to be addressed NOW. Enough with these questionnaires, and onto some solid, workable solutions.

For my part, I work on greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural waste, so attempting to understand the microbial involvement (which is rather large) and how we can curb it, will hopefully be my contribution.

First Casualty of Global Warming?

Rare breed of possum may be extinct due to global warming.

Experts fear climate change is to blame for the disappearance of the highly vulnerable strain thanks to a temperature rise of up to 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit.

An interesting read ...

From Time magazine, entitled The Bright Side of the End of the World. I especially like the following quote ...

Even the worst-case scenarios say that climate change will happen gradually, at least on a human scale. (For climate history, it will occur in the blink of an eye.) Climate crusaders risk being seen as crying wolf should they forecast Armageddon, only to be met instead with a world that remains mostly the same in the short term, especially for the rich — but one that gets inexorably worse, especially for the poor.

How true.

Koalas affected by climate change ...

Read the Science Daily article here.

From the article:

Professor Hume's group have shown in the laboratory that increases in CO2 affect the level of nutrients and 'anti-nutrients' (things that are either toxic or interfere with the digestion of nutrients) in eucalypt leaves. Anti-nutrients in eucalypts are built from carbon and an increase in carbon dioxide levels will favour the production of anti-nutrients over nutrients.

Biology is sometimes very finicky. Just because humans are capable of adapting to wide changes in environmental conditions doesn't mean other species can as well. I think a lot of people don't contemplate that reality.