Spectacular sunset in Hawaii
Photo Credit: Flickr.com

The trade winds will be taking a tumble in strength, becoming lighter as we move into the weekend. Most areas around the state saw light to moderately strong trade winds blowing Thursday…which will become lighter Friday into the weekend. The small craft wind advisory, which was active for the last week or so, has now been dropped across all Hawaiian waters. The computer models are strengthening our local trade winds again by the middle of next week…developing back into the light to moderately strong range then.

We will see at least some increase in showers falling at times now, into the weekend. The majority of whatever passing showers that arrive, will end up along the windward sides for the time being, although if the winds get as light as expected…we may see afternoon convective showers over the leeward sides with time too. This increase in showers won’t come in buckets, but there definitely looks like at least more showers than we’ve seen since last weekend. 

As this looping satellite image shows, we have an area of high cirrus clouds moving over the state. Those cirrus clouds are showing up as bright and white, carried along from west to east in the upper winds aloft. Those high flying clouds arrived during the day Thursday, just in time to provide a nice sunset…which should set the stage for a colorful sunrise again Friday. At the same time, we see lots of clouds marching our way at the lower levels of the atmosphere…carried in on the trade winds.

Pressure patterns in the central Pacific are shifting around some now, with the net result being lighter trade winds for the next several days. We still have a high pressure ridge well established to our north, which is the source of our local winds now. This ridge however will be migrating southward some, which is why our winds will be getting somewhat softer, especially as we get into the weekend time frame. This time of year, when the trade winds falter like this, we find ourselves in an increasingly muggy environment.

As this somewhat more sultry reality settles in over us, we may see the bias for showers breaking away from the windward sides…moving over into the upcountry inland areas. It will depend on just how light the trade winds become. If they get lighter than expected, that would add weight for the interior showers to develop. If on the other hand, the trade winds continue to hold their own, then whatever showers that are around, would occur more so along the windward coasts and slopes.  

~~~ Thursday was another nice day here in the islands! As mentioned one of the paragraphs above, high cirrus clouds have arrived over island skies…along with a few lower level clouds too. The winds stayed a bit stronger than anticipated, but are expected to begin their more pronounced slow down beginning Friday. This unusual softening of the trade winds will extend into the first couple of days of next week. At the same time, as that satellite image, a couple of paragraphs up the page show, we have some added moisture headed our way from the east, which hopefully will bring at least some measure of increasing shower activity. I’m heading home to Kula now, and hope to arrive in time to witness the nice sunset that should occur this evening. I’ll be back very early again on Friday morning however, with your next new weather narrative from paradise. I hope you have a great Thursday night wherever you happen to be spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Interesting: The true impact of an asteroid or comet crashing near the Chesapeake Bay 35 million years ago has been examined in detail for the first time. The analysis reveals the resilience of life in the aftermath of disaster. The impact crater, which is buried under 400 to 1,200 feet (120 to 365 meters) of sand, silt and clay, spans twice the length of Manhattan. The sprawling depression helped create what would eventually become Chesapeake Bay. About 10,000 years ago, ice sheets began to melt and once-dry river valleys filled with water. The rivers of the Chesapeake region converged directly over the buried crater, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Gregory Gohn of the USGS and his colleagues analyzed samples from two deep holes drilled into the crater near its center.  

"I think what we wanted to do is drill into the central part of the crater and get as long of a section as we could and understand the processes that put them in the order we found them," Gohn told SPACE.com. Within seconds of the object’s touchdown, rocks were flung high into the air.  The force of the impact carved a colossal cavity and caused temperatures to skyrocket, turning brittle rocks into taffy. Then, material along the cavity’s rim surged downhill into the bowl-shaped depression like an avalanche.  The extreme heat, the researchers say, killed off most life. However, they found abundant microbes living today in the deepest parts of the crater. Some of the ancient bacteria would have survived the impact, the researchers say, because their little hideouts didn’t feel the brunt of the heat. The rest of the abundant and newly discovered microbial life is thought to have recolonized the zapped area possibly tens of thousands of years following the impact when temperatures dropped to habitable levels.

Interesting2: Some scientists believe that at least one meteorite found in Antarctica preserves evidence of ancient life on Mars. Now, work by a team of English scientists reinforces an earlier suggestion that evidence of life on the early Earth might be found in meteorites on the moon. The original idea was presented in a 2002 paper by University of Washington astronomer John Armstrong, who suggested that material ejected from Earth during the Late Heavy Bombardment (a period about four billion years ago when the Earth was subjected to a rain of asteroids and comets) might be found on the moon. Armstrong’s suggestion was interesting, but whether a meteor ejected from the Earth might arrive intact on the moon remained an open question.

New research by a team under Ian Crawford and Emily Baldwin of the Birkbeck College School of Earth Sciences used more sophisticated means to simulate the pressures any such terrestrial meteorites might have experienced during their arrival on the lunar surface. This confirmed Armstrong’s hypothesis. In many cases, the pressures could be low enough to permit the survival of biological markers, making the lunar surface a good place to look for evidence of early terrestrial life. Any such markers are unlikely to remain on Earth, where they would have been erased long ago by more than three billion years of volcanic activity, later meteor impacts, or simple erosion by wind and rain.

Interesting3: A billion acres of farmland around the world have been abandoned and could now be used to grow biofuel crops, a new study suggests. One of the criticisms of biofuels such as ethanol from corn or rice is that the crops eat into land that could be used to grow food, which is increasingly in short supply globally, causing frustration and hunger that have led to protests and riots. The alternative of clearing forests to grow biofuel crops is unacceptable to many. Yet somewhere between 1 billion and 1.2 billion acres of agricultural land is lying fallow, the study finds. That compares to about 3.8 billion acres that are currently in use. The researchers caution, however, that biofuels will be no magic bullet to resolving possible energy crises in the future.

"Our results showed that if you used all these abandoned agricultural lands, you might obtain up to 8 percent of current energy needs," said Elliott Campbell, a postdoctoral fellow in biology at StanfordUniversity and lead author of the report. "So this result is basically showing us that biofuels could be a meaningful, but a small portion of our total energy future." The study, based on satellite imagery and historical maps, is detailed today in the online edition of the journal Environmental Science &Technology. It was funded by the Carnegie Institution and the Global Climate and Energy Project at Stanford.

  Barking Sands, Kauai
Photo Credit: Flickr.com

As is often the case during the month of June, there is no end in sight to the trade winds here in Hawaii. Most areas around the state will find moderately strong trade winds blowing Wednesday and Thursday. The small craft wind advisory, in those windiest areas around Maui and the Big Island, remains active…although may be dropped soon. There may be some weakening of our local winds Thursday into the weekend, although they will continue to blow right into next week…picking up in strength again after the weekend.

Those trade winds will carry clouds in our direction, although there’s nothing unusual about that this time of year. The majority of whatever passing showers that arrive, will end up along the windward sides. We’re expecting somewhat less that the normal amount of incoming showers Wednesday. There’s a good chance that Thursday and Friday, and perhaps into the weekend…may be a bit more productive in terms of incoming showers. This increase will be most pronounced along the windward sides, although a few lucky leeard spots might see a few showers too.

~~~  As this looping satellite image shows, we’re in between periods of high cirrus clouds. The bright white clouds, moving along generally from left to right, are the icy cirrus clouds. Looking further to the west (to the left) of the islands, we see what may be our next batch of high cloudiness approaching. It will likely take another day or two before they arrive. We like these clouds, as they don’t bring rain, they’re too high up in the atmosphere for that…and they provide often vividly colorful sunrise and sunset colors.

~~~ Our local weather is gliding along nicely, providing good weather conditions for us now. Just about all outdoor activities that I can think of, including tennis, golf, beaching, hiking, badminton, among others, will find the weather cooperating. The morning hours as usual will have the least wind, while the afternoons will find windier conditions. Personally, I enjoy the mornings for my beach outings, as the wind makes the ocean choppy later in the days. Air temperatures will be warm to very warm during the days, and seasonably warm at night…cooler of course in the upcountry areas.

~~~ It’s early Wednesday evening here in Kihei, Maui, as I begin writing this last paragraph of today’s narrative. As was the case Tuesday at this same time, glancing out the window, there’s hardly a cloud in the sky in any direction. Craning my neck to see all the way over the windward side, I don’t see even one cloud out in the direction…which is unusual with the trade winds blowing. Those blue skies don’t give up much rain obviously, so that most rain gauges around the state have remained dry as a bone. I’m about ready to take the drive upcountry, to Kula, where it is even nearly cloud free too…which is even more unusual. The winds remain up in strength today, with the strongest gust at just past 5pm, tied at 32 mph at both the Kahului airport, and Maalaea Bay, both of course here on Maui. I expect the favorably inclined weather conditions to remain in place through the night, with that possible increase in showers along the windward sides sliding into place at some point Thurdsay. I’ll be back very early Thursday to discuss that, and everything else about the weather here in the Hawaiian Islands then. I hope you have a great Wednesday night wherever you happen to be spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Interesting:

A major review by University of Adelaide researchers shows that the world is losing the battle over tropical habitat loss with potentially disastrous implications for biodiversity and human well-being. Published online today in the Ecological Society of America’s journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, the review concludes we are "on a trajectory towards disaster" and calls for an immediate global, multi-pronged conservation approach to avert the worst outcomes. Lead author Associate Professor Corey Bradshaw, from the University of Adelaide‘s School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, says tropical forests support more than 60% of all known species. But up to 15 million hectares of tropical rainforest are being lost every year and species are being lost at a rate of up to 10,000 times higher than would happen randomly without humans present. "This is not just a tragedy for tropical biodiversity, this is a crisis that will directly affect human livelihoods," says Associate Professor Bradshaw.

"This is not just about losing tiny species found at the base of big trees in a rain forest few people will ever see, this is about a complete change in ecosystem services that directly benefit human life. "The majority of the world’s population live in the tropics and what is at stake is the survival of species that pollinate most of the world’s food crops, purify our water systems, attenuate severe flood risk, sequester carbon (taking carbon dioxide out of the air) and modify climate." Associate Professor Bradshaw says recent technical debate about likely extinction rates in the tropics could be used by governments to justify destructive policies. "We must not accept belief that all is well in the tropics, or that the situation will improve with economic development, nor use this as an excuse for inaction on the vexing conservation challenges of this century," he says. "We need to start valuing forests for all the services they provide, and richer nations should be investing in the maintenance of tropical habitats."

Interesting2:

Major technological progress needed to make renewable energy affordable says a study by the RAND corporation.  Dramatic progress in renewable energy technology is needed if the United States desires to produce 25 percent of its electricity and motor vehicle fuel from renewable sources by 2025 without significantly increasing consumer costs, according to a RAND Corporation study issued today.  Produced by the RAND Environment, Energy and Economic Development program, the study provides a "snapshot" of the nation’s potential energy expenditures if a requirement was imposed that 25 percent of electricity and motor vehicle fuels used in the United States by 2025 would come from renewable resources (a goal activists have described as "25 x ’25"). The study finds that biomass resources and wind power have the greatest potential to contribute toward reaching the 25 x ’25 goal.

The study replaces a report withdrawn by RAND in 2006 because of errors RAND identified in the computer model and numerical assumptions on which the findings were based. The new report finds that meeting the 25 x ’25 goals would be more challenging than outlined in the earlier version of the report. RAND is a nonprofit research organization. The Energy Future Coalition, a nonprofit environmental organization, asked RAND to assess the economic and other impacts of meeting the 25 x ’25 goal. The RAND study considered technological and economic factors that would affect the costs of renewable energy as well as non-renewable fossil fuels.

Interesting3:

The world’s poorest nations are unable to manage the mountains of toxic waste flowing in for disposal from rich countries because of a lack of resources and political will, officials said Wednesday. Katharina Kummer Peiry, the executive secretary of a UN convention on hazardous waste disposal, said the dumping of everything from hazardous chemicals to electronic waste from televisions and computers in poor countries is a growing problem. She blamed it mostly on the inability of poor nations to finance better enforcement and monitoring of waste coming into their ports. "The problem lies in the lack of interest and lack of resources on the issue at all levels," Peiry said.

The warning comes as delegates from as many as 170 countries meet on the Indonesian island of Bali to discuss how they can strengthen the U.N.-administered Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, adopted in 1989. The meeting ends Friday. The extent of the problem was illustrated in 2006, when hundreds of tons of toxic waste were dumped around Ivory Coast‘s main city of Abidjan, killing at least 10 people and sickening tens of thousands more. The waste came from a tanker chartered by the Dutch commodities trading company Trafigura Beheer BV, which turned to Africa after disposal costs in Amsterdam were deemed too expensive.

Interesting4: The argument that increasing whale populations are behind declining fish stocks is completely without scientific foundation, leading researchers and conservation organizations said today as the International Whaling Commission opened its 60th meeting in Santiago, Chile.  The Humane Society International, WWF and the Lenfest Ocean Program today presented three new reports debunking the science behind the ”˜whales-eat-fish’ claims emanating from whaling nations Japan, Norway and Iceland. The argument has been used to bolster support for whaling, particularly from developing nations.

“It is not the whales, it is over-fishing and excess fishing capacity that are responsible for diminishing supplies of fish in developing countries,” said fisheries biologist Dr. Daniel Pauly, director of the University of British Columbia Fisheries Centre. “Making whales into scapegoats serves only to benefit wealthy whaling nations while harming developing nations by distracting any debate on the real causes of the declines of their fisheries.” Who’s eating all the fish? The food security rationale for culling cetaceans, the report co-authored by Dr Pauly for the Humane Society International contrasts “the widely different impacts of fisheries and marine mammals” with fisheries targeting larger fish where available and marine mammals consuming mainly smaller fish and organisms.

Interesting5: Coiled up in a tornado is as much energy as an entire power plant. So a Canadian engineer has a plans to spin up his own twister and extract energy from its tethered tail. It all depends on heating the air near the surface so that it is much warmer than the air above. "You can generate energy whenever you have a temperature gradient," said Louis Michaud. "The source of the energy here is the natural movement of warm and cold air currents." These so-called convective air currents are only useful if they can be channeled in some way. That is why Michaud proposes using a tornado as a kind of drinking straw between the warm ground below and the cold sky above. Wind turbines placed at the bottom could generate electricity from the sucked-up air. Tornadoes and hurricanes form when sun-heated air near the surface rises and displaces cooler air above.

As outside air rushes in to replace the rising air, the whole mass begins to rotate. Michaud got the notion of a man-made tornado — what he calls the Atmospheric Vortex Engine (AVE) — while working as an engineer on gas turbines. "When I looked further into it, I didn’t run into anything that was impossible," Michaud told LiveScience. The AVE structure is a 200-meter-wide arena with 100-meter-high walls. Warm humid air enters at the sides, directed to flow in a circular fashion. As the air whirls around at speeds up to 200 mph, a vacuum forms in the center, which holds the vortex together as it extends several miles into the sky. The concept is similar to a solar chimney with the swirling walls of the vortex replacing the brick walls of the tower. But the AVE can reach much higher into the sky where the air is colder.

  The beautiful Kona coast on the Big Island
Photo Credit: Flickr.com

The locally gusty trade winds will remain active, although become a bit lighter as we move towards the weekend. Most areas around the state will find moderately strong trade winds blowing Wednesday and Thursday. The small craft wind advisory, in those windiest areas around Maui and the Big Island, remains active. A storm in the Gulf of Alaska by Friday into the weekend, will cause some weakening of our local winds, although they will continue to blow right into next week.

There will be a few showers, although nothing too impressive for the time being. The majority of whatever passing showers that arrive, will end up along the windward sides. We’re expected a more or less normal amount of incoming showers during this work week, or perhaps slightly less than that through Thursday. There’s a chance that later Friday into this weekend might be more productive in terms of incoming showers…caused by a trough of low pressure moving into our area.

~~~ The trade wind weather pattern remains well established here in the islands. High pressure centers are located to our north, with an elongated trough of low pressure well to our south. This sets up a pressure gradient, as air moves from high pressure to low pressure. This is what causes our local trade winds…those winds that ancient sea mariners used to carry their trading goods from one port to another.

Interesting:

Exactly 20 years have passed since Dr. James E. Hansen of NASA first testified to Congress on June 23, 1988 that global temperatures had risen beyond the range of natural variability. Waiting another 20 years before taking decisive action is not an option. Since 1988, mainstream scientific thinking has caught up with Dr. Hansen’s declaration that our climate is being adversely affected by human activities, primarily the burning of fossil fuels-and the forecasts of climate change in the coming decades are increasingly dire. But political action has fallen well behind the pace of scientific progress, and despite growing public support to limit greenhouse gas emissions, the U.S. Senate failed early this month to approve landmark legislation that would have begun to do so.

Dr. Hansen’s latest research indicates that greenhouse gas concentrations have already reached damaging levels and the climate is nearing a dangerous tipping point that will unleash far-reaching changes in the atmosphere and oceans that could take millennia to reverse. In his latest paper, Dr. Hansen calls for deep reductions in carbon dioxide emissions, beginning almost immediately, with a focus on phasing out the uncontrolled combustion of coal by 2030.  As the world moves toward a new climate agreement in 2009, decision makers must understand the tremendous risks we face and the urgency of action in the year ahead. Although many still argue that such a transition to a low-carbon energy system will be enormously expensive and difficult, our research has shown that it would open up vast economic opportunities, spur innovation and job creation, assist efforts to reduce poverty, and increase energy security.

Interesting2: Biofuels can be a sustainable part of the world’s energy future, especially if bio-energy agriculture is developed on currently abandoned or degraded agricultural lands, report scientists from the Carnegie Institution and Stanford University. Using these lands for energy crops, instead of converting existing croplands or clearing new land, avoids competition with food production and preserves carbon-storing forests needed to mitigate climate change. Sustainable bioenergy is likely to satisfy no more than 10% of the demand in the energy-intensive economies of North America, Europe, and Asia. But for some developing countries, notably in Sub-Saharan Africa, the potential exists to supply many times their current energy needs without compromising food supply or destroying forests.

Elliot Campbell, Robert Genova, and Christopher Field of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology, with David Lobell of StanfordUniversity, estimated the global extent of abandoned crop and pastureland and calculated their potential for sustainable bioenergy production from historical land-use data, satellite imaging, and ecosystem models. Agricultural areas that have been converted to urban areas or have reverted to forests were not included in the assessment. The results of the study are published in the June 25 online edition of Environmental Science and Technology.

Interesting3: There are more species of bees buzzing around the globe than there are species of mammals and birds combined, a new census shows. This new count of bee species, conducted by John S. Ascher of the AmericanMuseum of Natural History in New York, comes from a list he compiled of more than 19,200 described bee species. "Most people know of honey bees and a few bumble bees, but we have documented that there are actually more species of bees than of birds and mammals put together," Ascher said. Ascher’s census documents 2,000 more described species than the most recent definitive list published eight years ago.

Cataloguing the world’s species, especially small insects, is an enormous challenge; scientists don’t even know how many total species live on the planet — estimates run from 5 million to 100 million total species, though only 2 million have been identified. Taking a head count of the world’s bees is important though because the busy insects are critical to pollinating crops. Honey bees, such as Apis mellifera, are the most economically important pollinators. But while honey bees are the most well-known bee faces, most bees don’t make honey or live in hives like this social species.

Interesting4: By 2015, 17 percent of the residents of the United States will be getting cosmetic procedures, the body enhancement industry predicts. A new study published by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) predicts there will be more than 55 million cosmetic surgery procedures performed in 2015. That’s nearly one procedure for every five Americans, including children, based on U.S. Census Bureau population projections. Of course, the bulk of procedures are done on adults, and some people might get more than one body part fixed in a year. The industry is well aware of what is driving all this: "Pushing this growth is increasing consumer awareness, direct-to-consumer marketing and advertising, as well as technological advances in non-surgical options," the group said in a statement today.

In 2007, Americans spent more than $13 billion for nearly 11.7 million cosmetic procedures. That’s up from nearly 8.5 million procedures in 2001. Thanks to the bad economy, times are tough in human body shops right now, however. "While today’s economy reflects a slow-down in plastic surgery procedures, the specialty will weather the current decline in economic growth just as it has previous declines, such as the stock market correction after the 2001 Internet bubble," said ASPS President Richard D’Amico, MD. "This prediction for 2015 is exciting." Some caution

Interesting5: Substantially improving the accuracy of hurricane intensity predictions could take years and tens of millions of dollars, the NationalHurricaneCenter‘s director said Tuesday. In an interview with The Associated Press, Bill Read said reducing by half the errors made in tasks such as determining whether a storm would remain a Category 1 or grow stronger would be a costly and long-term effort. Predicting a storm’s intensity is much harder for meteorologists than estimating where it will go. Since 1990, forecasters have reduced by more than half their errors in predicting a storm’s path, but over the same time the accuracy of their intensity forecasts has remained virtually unchanged. "To really get after that you’re talking tens of millions of dollars, if not more, to reach an ambitious goal," Read said. "We’ve made a steady gain in the improvement of the track forecasts, and we haven’t figured out how to do that yet for rapid intensification." That could take between five and 10 years, he said. Read said he’s satisfied for now with the $3 million the government is spending this year for research into improving intensity forecasts.

Long-term improvement, however, would require a sustained investment. Read took the helm of the NationalHurricaneCenter in January. The six-month Atlantic hurricane season which officially began June 1 is his first as director. The center monitors the movement and strength of tropical weather systems and issues storm watches and warnings for the U.S. and surrounding areas. Read said he expects to spend a lot of time talking about preparing for storms, as other directors have. He said it’s denial, not complacency, that keeps many people from being prepared. They just don’t think a storm will hit, and that’s what emergency managers and others have to overcome, he said. Read also talked about the sensitive issue of a suggested link between global warming and hurricanes, acknowledging it carries "so much emotional baggage" it can be "really hard to sift out the science."

  Beautiful Island Orchids
Photo Credit: Flickr.com

The trade winds will continue blowing across the tropical latitudes of Hawaii, bringing their cooling and refreshing relief from the early summer heat. Most areas around the state will find moderately strong trade winds blowing. The small craft wind advisory, in those windiest areas around Maui and the Big Island, remains active Monday. There doesn’t appear to be any end in sight for this extended period of trades, which is normal for the summer season. Winds will be locally very gusty, topping the 40 mph mark at times.

There have been more than the normal amount of showers here in the Aloha state the last couple of days. The bulk of those passing showers have arrived along the windward sides, where the largest precipitation totals have occurred. We’re expected a more or less normal amount of incoming showers this week, or perhaps slightly less than that. There’s a chance that later in the week, towards Friday into the weekend, we might see another increase…but that’s still too far out into the future for much certainty at this point.

~~~ It’s early Monday evening here in Kihei, Maui, as I begin writing this last section of today’s narrative. As this satellite image shows, we have some high clouds situated to the east and south of the islands. Some of this high cloudiness, which shows up in the satellite picture as whiter and brighter clouds, may move northward into the island chain overnight or Tuesday. Those types of clouds can provide great sunrise and sunset colors! Monday was characterized by windy trade wind weather, with little in the way of showers anywhere. At the height of the days winds, there was one gust that went all the way up the wind scale to 42 mph at Maalaea Bay, Maui. As a matter of fact, late this afternoon, the winds were gusting to 35 mph at Kahului, and still at 42 mph at Maalaea Bay. If you liked the weather here in Hawaii today, you will like it again Tuesday…as I see very little change in store. The one thing though, may be the intrusion of those high clouds to our south, which could end up dimming and filtering our famous Hawaiian sunshine. I’ll be back very early Tuesday morning with your next new weather narrative from paradise, I hope you have a great Monday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Interesting: Information gleaned from a Greenland ice core by an international science team shows that two huge Northern Hemisphere temperature spikes prior to the close of the last ice age some 11,500 years ago were tied to fundamental shifts in atmospheric circulation. The ice core showed the Northern Hemisphere briefly emerged from the last ice age some 14,700 years ago with a 22-degree-Fahrenheit spike in just 50 years, then plunged back into icy conditions before abruptly warming again about 11,700 years ago. Startlingly, the Greenland ice core evidence showed that a massive "reorganization" of atmospheric circulation in the Northern Hemisphere coincided with each temperature spurt, with each reorganization taking just one or two years, said the study authors. 

The new findings are expected to help scientists improve existing computer models for predicting future climate change as increasing anthropogenic greenhouse gases in the atmosphere drive up Earth’s temperatures globally. The team used changes in dust levels and stable water isotopes in the annual ice layers of the two-mile-long Greenland ice core, which was hauled from the massive ice sheet between 1998 to 2004, to chart past temperature and precipitation swings. Their paper was published in the June 19 issue of Science Express, the online version of Science.

Interesting2: It’s a battle that’s been raging in this country for more than 15 years, with skirmishes fought in town council rooms, the House of Commons, the Supreme Court of Canada and on the letters pages of this newspaper. But the use of pesticides for purely esthetic purposes — such as killing dandelions — has likely never been a hotter topic than it is today.  The push for a cosmetic pesticide ban in Calgary comes at a time when citizens have started questioning the safety of the food they eat, the toys they buy and the chemicals they’re exposed to. That public awareness has seen the movement for a pesticide ban pick up speed in Calgary, says Robin McLeod, spokeswoman for the Coalition for a Healthy Calgary. A Canadian Cancer Society survey released in May found 87 per cent of Albertans support community bylaws banning the cosmetic use of pesticides.

"Environmental concerns are becoming a bigger issue for Canadians as a whole," McLeod says. If passed, Calgary would be the first major municipality west of Ontario to implement a pesticide ban. In February, three aldermen brought forward a proposal for Calgary to phase out the use of pesticides — including herbicides, insecticides and fungicides — for cosmetic purposes by the end of 2010. The proposal called for city crews to stop using the chemicals by December 2009, with the ban to include private property by December 2010. After two hours of debate, the issue was referred to an environmental advisory board to study and come back with recommendations.

Interesting3: California’s air board, for years an obscure state agency, will take center stage this week when it unveils a blueprint for the nation’s most aggressive fight against global warming, a newspaper report said on Sunday.  The plan is expected to affect every resident, industry and government agency in the state in the coming decade, the San Francisco Chronicle said. The far-reaching plan, which comes 18 months after Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed landmark legislation to curb greenhouse emissions by one-third by 2020, is likely to encourage consumers to use energy-efficient light bulbs and replace gas-guzzling cars with fuel-sipping hybrids.  The plan could require industry to reduce pollution or pay fees based on the amount of carbon they release, according to the report.

Mary Nichols, chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board, said the draft of the "scoping plan," which the agency’s staff will present next Thursday to the 11-member board, will be a work in progress until the final version is adopted by the end of the year. "We’ve been clear up until now that the draft plan will lay out our background information on where the state’s emissions come from, how much they need to be reduced, and lay out a strategy on how to address them sector by sector," Nichols said. About 60 percent of the needed reductions can be obtained by implementing existing regulations or new rules that are in the regulatory pipeline, Nichols said.

Interesting4: The climate of early Earth was no day at the beach, with stinging acid rains and an intensely warm surface, a new study suggests. These harsh conditions could explain why geologists today have found no rocks more than 4 billion years old: They were all weathered away. The fate of all those rocks from the first 500 million years after Earth formed has been a longstanding question in geology. Scientists have floated various explanations for the missing rocks, including destruction by barrages of meteorites and the possibility that the early Earth was a sea of red-hot magma in which no rocks could form. The analysis in the new study suggests a different scenario. Geologists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison examined zircon crystals, the oldest known materials on Earth, to shed light on the fate of rocks from the early Earth. Zircons, which are smaller than a speck of sand, can offer a window back in time to about 4.4 billion years ago, when the Earth was a mere 150 million years old because they are extremely resistant to chemical changes.

The research team analyzed the ratios of different isotopes of lithium (which have different atomic weights and number of neutrons per atom) in zircons from the JackHills in Western Australia. They compared the lithium fingerprints of those zircons to those from continental crust and rocks similar to those found in Earth’s mantle, the molten layer sandwiched between the crust and core. The results of the analysis, detailed in a recent online issue of the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, provide evidence that the young Earth already had the beginnings of continents, relatively cool temperatures and liquid water by the time the Australian zircons formed.

Interesting5: Exactly 20 years after warning America about global warming, a top NASA scientist said the situation has gotten so bad that the world’s only hope is drastic action. James Hansen told Congress on Monday that the world has long passed the "dangerous level" for greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and needs to get back to 1988 levels. He said Earth’s atmosphere can only stay this loaded with man-made carbon dioxide for a couple more decades without changes such as mass extinction, ecosystem collapse and dramatic sea level rises. "We’re toast if we don’t get on a very different path," Hansen, director of the Goddard Institute of Space Sciences who is sometimes called the godfather of global warming science, told The Associated Press. "This is the last chance." Hansen brought global warming home to the public in June 1988 during a Washington heat wave, telling a Senate hearing that global warming was already here. To mark the anniversary, he testified before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming where he was called a prophet, and addressed a luncheon at the National Press Club where he was called a hero by former Sen. Tim Wirth, D-Colo., who headed the 1988 hearing.

To cut emissions, Hansen said coal-fired power plants that don’t capture carbon dioxide emissions shouldn’t be used in the United States after 2025, and should be eliminated in the rest of the world by 2030. That carbon capture technology is still being developed and not yet cost efficient for power plants. Burning fossil fuels like coal is the chief cause of man-made greenhouse gases. Hansen said the Earth’s atmosphere has got to get back to a level of 350 parts of carbon dioxide per million. Last month, it was 10 percent higher: 386.7 parts per million. Hansen said he’ll testify on behalf of British protesters against new coal-fired power plants. Protesters have chained themselves to gates and equipment at sites of several proposed coal plants in England. "The thing that I think is most important is to block coal-fired power plants," Hansen told the luncheon. "I’m not yet at the point of chaining myself but we somehow have to draw attention to this.

  The east coast of Kauai
Photo Credit: Flickr.com

The gusty trade winds of the last week, will begin to mellow-out some as we move into the new week. The trade winds were moderately strong and gusty Sunday, becoming generally light to moderately strong Monday onward. The small craft wind advisory has been scaled back some now, and may be gone by Monday. There doesn’t appear to be any end in sight for this extended period of trades however, which is normal for this time of year. 

The Hawaiian Islands have been happy to see an increase in showers the last day or two. The bulk of these passing showers have arrived along the windward sides, where the largest precipitation totals have occurred. The weather may stay a bit more showery for the time being, at least off and on into the new week. The leeward sides will be immune from these passing showers, although even there, there will be a few showers sneaking over the mountains.

~~~ It’s Sunday evening here in Kula, Maui, as I begin writing this last paragraph of today’s narrative. It’s cloudy up here on the mountain, and glancing over towards the windward side, it looks showery. There’s a virtual wall of gray shower bearing clouds banked up against that side of the mountain…towards Makawao and Haiku. As this satellite image shows, there a fair amount of clouds to the east of the islands, which will keep some wet clouds heading our way on the trade wind flow. This is such good news, as we have been in dire need of rainfall, to offset the dry weather we had through much of the spring months! I think enough folks who live here in Hawaii did some rain dances, that it finally had the desired effect! At any rate, I’ll be back very early Monday morning with you next new narrative, I hope you have a great Sunday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.
 

A  billion seconds ago it was 1959.

A  billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.

A  billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.

A  billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.

A  billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.

  Inside the Haleakala Crater on Maui
Photo Credit: Flickr.com

Summer is here, and right on schedule we find the gentle weather conditions that characterize the season. The trade winds will be moderately strong and gusty through the rest of the weekend. Small craft wind advisories flags are still flapping in the breeze in those windiest locations in the southern part of the state. There doesn’t appear to be any end in sight for this extended period of trades, which is normal for this time of year. The leeward beaches will see somewhat less wind in general, although even there…it will become breezy, to locally windy during the afternoon hours.

As is very typical, with such an early summer trade wind weather pattern, it will be generally dry. The bulk of whatever few passing showers that do manage to fall, will land along the windward sides. As is often the case, the leeward Kona area could see a few showers as well. Looking into the area upstream, in terms of the trade wind flow, doesn’t show a very impressive array of showery clouds…unfortunately. I use the that somewhat negative word, due to the dry conditions that prevail here in the islands at the moment. Fortunately, the windward sides have had a some small drop precipitation during the day Saturday.

~~~ I went to see The Incredible Hulk (2008)…starring Ed Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, William Hurt, among others last night after work. This is the explosive, action-packed adventure in one of the all-time most popular superhero sagas, which unfolds with a cure in reach for the world’s most primal force of fury: THE INCREDIBLE HULK. We find scientist Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) living in shadows, scouring the planet for an antidote. But the warmongers who dream of abusing his powers won’t leave him alone, nor will his need to be with the only woman he has ever loved, Betty Ross (Liv Tyler). Upon returning to civilization, our brilliant doctor is ruthlessly pursued by The Abomination (Tim Roth)–a nightmarish beast of pure adrenaline and aggression whose powers match The Hulk’s own. A fight of comic-book proportions ensues as Banner must call upon the hero within to rescue New York City from total destruction. The film turned out to meet my expectations, bringing to bear excitement and plenty of entertainment value to the big screen. There were lots of small kids in the theater, but that didn’t keep me from being swept along with them, in this solid B film…with the occasional burst up into the B+ category! I know you are anxious to see this film yourself…yeah right Glenn. Although at least you might be interested enough to check out the trailer…then again maybe not!

~~~ It’s Saturday afternoon here in Kula, Maui. I tweaked my lower back earlier this week, which had me in pretty rough shape for several days there, although it is much improved now…thanks to ice applications. At any rate, so rather than surfing in Lahaina today, I went for a more gentle activity, hoping for a long walk down at Baldwin Beach on the north shore, along with a jump in the warm ocean. As it turned out, it was raining in that area, and I had to sit in my car for quite a while talking on my cell phone, before the showers backed off enough to hit the putting green in Spreckelsville. I then went down to the beach, and was all ready to take my nice walk, but in came the showers again. I couldn’t just leave, being that close to the ocean, so I just went swimming in the rain. It actually felt really nice, and no one else was around for the most part. I came home, and ended up just lazing around most of the day for a change. I’m about to head over to Haiku, as I’ve been invited for dinner. This person has a pool and a hot tub, so am hoping to get into the water again! I hope you have a great Saturday night yourself, and will meet me here again early Sunday morning, when I’ll be back with your next new weather narrative. Aloha for now…Glenn.

 

A  billion seconds ago it was 1959.

A  billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.

A  billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.

A  billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.

A  billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.

  Incredibly colorful plumeria flowers…they smell good too!
Photo Credit: Flickr.com

High pressure stretched out to the north of Hawaii, with low pressure to our south…is the reason we’re finding steady trade winds blowing. These trade winds will be moderately strong and gusty through the rest of the week. Small craft wind advisories flags are still flapping in the breeze in those windiest locations in the southern part of the state. There doesn’t appear to be any end in sight for this extended period of trades, which is normal for this time of year. The leeward beaches will see somewhat less wind in general, although even there…it will become breezy, to locally windy during the afternoon hours.

Satellite imagery shows clouds, some of which are showery in nature, being carried our way in the trade wind flow. The vast majority of these passing showers will fall along the windward sides. As is often the case, the leeward Kona area could see a few showers as well. Looking into the area upstream, in terms of the trade winds, shows not a very impressive amount of showery clouds…unfortunately. The last 24 hours was quite productive in terms of showers along the windward sides, which was very helpful in pushing back the dry condition of late.

~~~ It’s early Friday evening, here in Kihei, Maui, as I begin writing this last paragraph of today’s narrative. Today was yet another windy day here on the south coast of Maui. The ocean surface, during my lunch break, was completely frothed-up with choppy white caps! Looking at the wind reports at 5pm, showed the windiest place in the entire state was once again Maalaea Bay…where winds were gusting to 40 mph! I’m about ready to jump in my car for the drive to Kahului. I’m going to see the new film The Incredible Hulk (2008)…starring Ed Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, William Hurt, and Christina Cabot. This is the explosive, action-packed adventure in one of the all-time most popular superhero sagas unfolds with a cure in reach for the world’s most primal force of fury: THE INCREDIBLE HULK. We find scientist Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) living in shadows, scouring the planet for an antidote. But the warmongers who dream of abusing his powers won’t leave him alone, nor will his need to be with the only woman he has ever loved, Betty Ross (Liv Tyler). Upon returning to civilization, our brilliant doctor is ruthlessly pursued by The Abomination (Tim Roth)–a nightmarish beast of pure adrenaline and aggression whose powers match The Hulk’s own. A fight of comic-book proportions ensues as Banner must call upon the hero within to rescue New York City from total destruction. I’m very much looking forward to seeing this now famous film, and will let you know what I thought early Saturday morning. Although if you can’t wait for that review, you can get a sneak preview by clicking here to see the trailer. I hope you have a great Friday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.

An oldie but goodie…Baby Come Back by the Players.

Interesting:

The world’s population will reach 7 billion in 2012, even as the global community struggles to satisfy its appetite for natural resources, according to a new government projection. There are 6.7 billion people in the world today. The United States ranks third, with 304 million, behind China and India, according to projections released Thursday by the Census Bureau. The world’s population surpassed 6 billion in 1999, meaning it will take only 13 years to add a billion people. By comparison, the number of people didn’t reach 1 billion until 1800, said Carl Haub, a demographer at the Population Reference Bureau. It didn’t reach 2 billion until 130 years later.

"You can easily see the effect of rapid population growth in developing countries," Haub said. Haub said that medical and nutritional advances in developing countries led to a population explosion following World War II. Cultural changes are slowly catching up, with more women in developing countries going to school and joining the work force. That is slowing the growth rate, though it is still high in many countries. The global population is growing by about 1.2 percent per year. The Census Bureau projects the growth rate will decline to 0.5 percent by 2050.

Interesting2:

A space mission that will be critical to our understanding of climate change has launched from California. The Jason-2 satellite will become the primary means of measuring the shape of the world’s oceans, taking readings with an accuracy of better than 4cm. Its data will track not only sea level rise but reveal how the great mass of waters are moving around the globe. This information will be fundamental in helping weather and climate agencies make better forecasts. The satellite left Earth at 0746 GMT atop a Delta-2 rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base. The spacecraft, built by Thales Alenia Space, represents the joint efforts of the US and French space agencies (Nasa and CNES), and the US and European organisations dedicated to studying weather and climate from orbit (Noaa and Eumetsat).

Jason-2 will provide a topographic map of 95% of the Earth’s ice-free oceans every 10 days. Although we think of our seas as being flat, they are actually marked by "hills" and "valleys", where the highs and lows may be as much as two metres apart. Elevation is a key parameter for oceanographers. Just as surface air pressure reveals what the atmosphere is doing above, so ocean height will betray details about the behaviour of water down below. The data gives clues to temperature and salinity. When combined with gravity information, it will also indicate current direction and speed. The oceans store vast amounts of heat from the Sun; and how they move that energy around the globe and interact with the atmosphere are what drive our climate system.

Interesting3: China raised prices for fuel by as much as 18 percent on Friday in a move that could cool the nation’s surging energy consumption. International oil prices dropped sharply Thursday after China said it will raise fuel prices, with light, sweet crude for July delivery falling $4.75 to settle at $131.93 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In Asian trading, oil was up slightly at $132.01 a barrel. Growing Chinese demand for oil has underpinned the multiyear rally in oil prices, but higher prices could help crimp that demand. Concerns about spiking Chinese demand for diesel due to cleanup operations in the aftermath of last month’s earthquake contributed to oil’s recent run-up. Lower demand in China "would be a major factor in driving prices down," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago.

The China Daily newspaper reported Friday that the increase was "because of the soaring price of crude in the international market." It said areas in Sichuan province, hit by a massive earthquake last month, were exempt from the increase. The price increase was announced issued late Thursday after China‘s financial markets were disclosed by the National Development and Reform Commission, the government’s main economic planning agency announced. Prices of gasoline and diesel rose by 1,000 yuan ($145) per ton to 6,980 yuan ($1,015) and 6,520 yuan ($949), respectively.  Aviation kerosene rose by 1,500 yuan ($218) per ton to 7,450 yuan ($1,084), the commission said on its Web site.

  Kauai from the air
Artist Credit: James Coleman

The name of the game now, at least in terms of weather in the islands…will be trade winds, trade winds, and more trade winds! These trade winds will be quite strong and gusty through the rest of the week, with small craft wind advisories having gone up in those windiest locations in the southern part of the state in response. There doesn’t appear to be any end in sight for this extended period of trades, which is normal for this time of year.

All this "air in a hurry" will carry clouds in our direction off the ocean to our east. Whatever showers that fall, will generally end up along the windward sides. As is often the case, the leeward Kona area could see a few showers as well. There are no rainfall enhancing weather systems on our horizon at the moment…although later this weekend, into early next week, we may see some modest increase in those windward biased showers.

~~~ It’s early Thursday evening, here in Kihei, Maui, as I begin writing this last paragraph of today’s narrative.  Looking out the window, I see lots of wind blowing out there, gusty stuff! Looking at the wind reports from around the state early this evening, the strongest gust was, which isn’t usual…that 38 mph reading at that windy bay in Maalaea, here on Maui. Lots of dust is being picked up by the winds, off the dirt covered sugar cane fields in the central valley. Other than these brisk trades, there’s nothing too unusual happening out there. Thursday fair, but windy weather, will track right on into Friday…and then on into the upcoming weekend. I’ll be back very early Friday morning with your next new weather narrative from paradise. I hope you have a lovely Thursday night, which will remain awash with full moon energy, I mean light. Aloha for now…Glenn.

Interesting:

New research suggests that ocean temperature and associated sea level increases between 1961 and 2003 were 50 percent larger than estimated in the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report.  The results are reported in the June 19 edition of the journal Nature. An international team of researchers, including Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory climate scientist Peter Gleckler, compared climate models with improved observations that show sea levels rose by 1.5 millimeters per year in the period from 1961-2003. That equates to an approximately 2½-inch increase in ocean levels in a 42-year span.  The ocean warming and thermal expansion rates are more than 50 percent larger than previous estimates for the upper 300 meters of oceans.

The research corrected for small but systematic biases recently discovered in the global ocean observing system, and uses statistical techniques that “infill” information in data-sparse regions. The results increase scientists’ confidence in ocean observations and further demonstrate that climate models simulate ocean temperature variability more realistically than previously thought. “This is important for the climate modeling community because it demonstrates that the climate models used for assessing sea-level rise and ocean warming tie in closely with the observed results,” Gleckler said. Climate model data were analyzed from 13 different modeling groups. All model data were obtained from the WCRP CMIP3 multi-model dataset archived at the LLNL’s Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison (PCMDI).

Interesting2:

In the Midwest floods, there’s a broad threat to the crops. Here, in some of the best soil in the world, the stunted stalks of Dave Timmerman’s newly planted corn are wilting in what sometimes look more like rice paddies than the plains, the sunshine glinting off of pools of collected water. Although time is running out, he has yet to plant his soybean crop because the waterlogged soil cannot support his footsteps, much less heavy machinery.  Mr. Timmerman’s small farm has been flooded four times in the past month by the Wildcat Creek, a tributary of the Cedar River which overflowed its banks at a record 31 feet last week, causing catastrophic damage in nearby Cedar Rapids and other eastern Iowa towns and farmsteads. "In the lean years, we had beautiful crops but they weren’t worth much," Mr. Timmerman said, surveying his farm, which his family has tended since his great-great-grandfather.

"Now, with commodity prices sky high, mother nature is throwing us all these curve balls. I’m 42 years old and these are by far the poorest crops I’ve ever seen."  And he added, "It’s going downhill by the day." As the floodwaters receded in some areas, they rose in others. On Sunday, residents in Iowa City – where the Iowa River was nearing its projected crest and rising downstream – were struggling with the waters, which submerged part of the University of Iowa‘s campus and sent workers scrambling to move books and paintings from the university’s Arts Campus. "Certainly Iowa City has never seen anything like this before," said Linda Kettner, a university spokeswoman. "A lot of people have been displaced. It’s a very poignant time. And at the University of Iowa, we’ve never faced a challenge like this."

Interesting3:

Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain are missing a monumental opportunity to save millions of lives and radically change the course of world history. Global warming, the oil crisis, and HIV/AIDS are finally receiving serious attention, and yet we continue to avoid an issue that perennially threatens the lives of children. The issue could not be more basic, more important, or more ignored: The issue is water.  More than 1 billion people, almost 20 percent of the global population, lack access to clean drinking water. Two billion more lack access to basic sanitation. Nearly 2 million children around the world will die this year from water-related illnesses, and with populations in the poorest regions growing faster than in industrialized areas we can expect this number to increase. Meanwhile, the United States has little to say on global or domestic water policy.

Fortune magazine reports that the global water crisis will be as serious in the twenty-first century as oil crises were in the twentieth century, potentially leading to warfare. So it should come as a shock that water is not on the lips of the presidential candidates. Obama denounced the rising oceans associated with climate change in the speech where he claimed his status as the presumptive Democratic nominee, but he did not mention the lack of taps for people in the developing world to access a decent glass of water. Similarly, while McCain has moved away from the Republican Party’s traditional aversion to the issue of global warming, he mostly discusses the environmental component and not the human effects.

Interesting4:

The Gina cloth-covered car is a prototype vehicle from BMW that is covered with fabric rather than metal. Like a living animal, its skin wrinkles a bit when elements are extended (like opening the doors). The shape of the skin can be altered by the car’s owner; it is stretched across flexible metal wires attached to the frame that can be moved with hydraulics. The fabric itself is a silver expansion-resistant textile that is form-fitted to the car’s structure. "The high-precision fit of the material to the metal mesh also allows surface changes without slackening the tension," a spokesman said.

I can’t think of a cloth-covered car in science fiction; readers may have a reference. However, I think that sf writers could suggest some improvements on the fabric skin. For example, I think you’d want to have a car skin that kept itself clean; impregnating the cloth with fabricules from Stephenson’s The Diamond Age would give you a car that never needed to be washed. A Self-Cleaning Fabric With Polymer Film Sprinkled With Silver Nanoparticles demonstrates how scientists are working on this kind of fabric.

  Big full moon rising!
Artist Credit: James Coleman

We’re moving into a solid trade wind weather pattern here in Hawaii now. These trade winds are expected to become stronger through the rest of the week, with small craft wind advisories having gone up in those windiest locations in the southern part of the state Wednesday afternoon. There doesn’t appear to be any end in sight for this extended period of trades, which is normal for this time in the month of June.

These gusty trade winds will carry clouds in our direction, although no heavy showers are indicated. Showers will fall generally along the windward sides…although the Kona slopes could see a few afternoon showers too. There are no rainfall enhancing weather systems on our horizon at this time. This isn’t particularly good news however, as we’re a bit dry going into the summer months.

~~~ As can be seen on this looping satellite image, there are still lots of clouds associated with the trough to our west, which is spinning in a counterclockwise fashion near the International Dateline. Meanwhile, to the south, we see a streaky area of high cirrus clouds. They are mostly staying to the south of the Big Island Wednesday evening, but the northern fringe at times pushes up over the Big Island and the islands of Maui County.

~~~ It’s early Wednesday evening, here in Kula, Maui, as I start writing this last paragraph of today’s narrative. It was another nice day here in paradise, with loads of sunshine beaming down, especially along the leeward beaches. The windward sides are finding some increase in clouds and showers, and although they aren’t heavy ones…at this point we need every drop of water that falls from the sky! Speaking of beaming down, June’s full moon will be at the height of its glory tonight! I trust that everyone will have the opportunity, or make it for themselves…to step outside and check it out! I’ll be back very early Thursday morning with your next new weather narrative. I hope you have a bright Wednesday night wherever you happen to be reading from! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Interesting:

With oil prices near $140 a barrel, motorists are starting to look seriously at both alternative fuels and electric vehicles as a way to be able to keep driving their cars. But experts say it will take five to 10 years for these alternatives to take root, given the capacity challenge for an auto industry that is adding 65 million new cars a year to a fleet of 1 billion. In the meantime, car and parts makers, oil companies and even electricity generators are left guessing which way motorists will turn and what technology will win. "We don’t know at the moment whether it’s battery-based electricity technology or sustainable biofuels that will be successful," said James Smith, chairman of Shell UK Ltd, speaking at a climate change seminar hosted by Reuters. "The strategic issues confronting us are very significant." A range of options will emerge as motorists pick between "plug-in" electric cars, longer-range gasoline-electric "hybrids," or simply downsized, more efficient gasoline and diesel models, and as governments, worried by global warming and energy security, give more or less support for biofuels.

Hybrid vehicles, which have both a conventional internal combustion engine and electric motor and battery, are already popular. Toyota Motor Corp has sold 1.5 million Prius hybrids since 1997 and it wants hybrids to reach one tenth of its total sales by 2011. In a hybrid, the electric battery and motor aid stop-start city driving, while the gasoline engine allows longer trips, together cutting energy use and carbon emissions. Hybrids accounted for 3 percent of U.S. car sales in 2007. Makers absorb most of the extra $5,000 engine cost, leaving the street price only $1000 to $2000 higher. Hybrids could be "broadly present" in the auto industry in five years, said Vlatko Vlatkovic, head of electrification research at GE, which has much to gain from widespread electrification of road transport.

Interesting2: The list of countries on the brink of disaster because of the global food crisis is growing by the week. Terrorism and security experts predict widespread social and political unrest and violent conflict in the second and third world. Last week the United Nations’ World Food Program announced it is to provide U.S. $1.2 billion (£600 million) in additional food aid in the 62 countries hit hardest by the food and fuel crisis. And Save the Children Sunday launched an emergency appeal to help children in Ethiopia who are suffering from increasing levels of hunger. The charity said a combination of drought and escalating food prices has left 4.6 million people urgently in need of food. In scenes reminiscent of the famines of the 1980s, about 736,000 of these are children under the age of five, a group which is particularly vulnerable to the effects of malnutrition.

More so than terrorism or global warming, food security will become so critical it will change global governance and result in civil unrest and food wars. “It is clear which countries are going to be at risk,” Graham Hutchings of Oxford Analytica Daily Brief, which provides country-specific daily risk analysis to political leaders, academics, businesses and NGOs, told the Sunday Herald. “Those who are net importers of food and those with weak governments will fall, in all likelihood. The overthrow of the leader in Haiti in April over food prices is the shape of things to come. “Those which have come across our radar are Cambodia, parts of India, the Philippines, central Asian countries such as Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and African countries such as Senegal, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and the Ivory Coast. There have been food riots in Egypt, Yemen and Malaysia.”

Interesting3: