UPDATE: GREAT LAKES NEARLY COVERED WITH ICE. From the bridge of the Coast Guard cutter Mackinaw, northern Lake Huron looks like a vast, snow-covered field dotted with ice slabs as big as boulders — a battleground for the icebreaker's 58-member crew during one of the roughest winters in memory. It's been so bitterly cold for so long in the Upper Midwest that the Great Lakes are almost completely covered with ice. The last time they came this close was in 1994, when 94 percent of the lakes' surface was frozen. As of Friday, ice cover extended across 88 percent, according to the federal government's Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor. Sections of the lakes, which hold nearly one-fifth of the freshwater on the world's surface, harden almost every winter. That freezing keeps the Coast Guard's fleet of nine icebreakers busy clearing paths for vessels hauling essential cargo such as heating oil, salt and coal. But over the past four decades, the average ice cover has receded 70 percent, scientists say, probably in part because of climate change. Still, as this season shows, short-term weather patterns can trump multi-year trends. Winter arrived early and with a vengeance and refuses to loosen its grip. "That arctic vortex came down, and the ice just kept going," said George Leshkevich, a physical scientist with the federal lab. The deep freeze is more than a novelty. By limiting evaporation, it may help replenish lake water levels — a process that began last year after a record-breaking slump dating to the late 1990s. Also getting relief are cities along the lakes that have been pummeled with lake-effect snow, which happens when cold air masses suck up moisture from open waters and dump it over land. Buffalo, N.Y, got nearly 43 inches of snow in January, but this month just 13 inches have fallen, a decline resulting largely from the freeze-over of Lake Erie even though Lake Ontario has remained largely open, said forecaster Jon Hitchcock of the National Weather Service. Heavy ice can also protect fish eggs from predators, and it has delighted photographers, ice anglers and daredevil snowmobilers. At Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in Wisconsin, the rock-solid cover has allowed around 35,000 visitors to trudge miles over Lake Superior to explore caves featuring dazzling ice formations. It's the first time in five years the lake surface has been firm enough to allow passage. With no letup in the cold, the ice hasn't experienced the usual thaw-and-freeze cycle, so nature's artistry is even more delicate and beautiful, with needle-like hoarfrost crystals sprinkled across sheets that dangle from cave ceilings like giant chandeliers. "Seeing them like this is almost a once-in-a-lifetime experience," Superintendent Bob Krumenaker said. There's even an (apparently) tongue-in-cheek Facebook page inviting people to join a convoy of snowmobiles, cars and other vehicles on a nearly 80-mile trek across Lake Michigan. Never mind that its waters remain partly open and experts warn the ice can be dangerously unstable. "If it freezes, and you miss this chance, when will it happen again?" the page says. "Feel free to invite more folks!" For Coast Guard icebreaker teams, it's all business. They've logged four times more hours this season than the average for the same period in recent years, said Kyle Niemi, spokesman for the agency's Cleveland district headquarters. The 240-foot Mackinaw began its duties Dec. 16 — several weeks earlier than usual — and worked nonstop until Feb. 8, when traffic slowed enough to allow a break. "As you can imagine, the crew's tired," Cmdr. Michael Davanzo said this week during a tour of the ship in its home port of Cheboygan. A 35-year Coast Guard veteran who has spent 12 years on the lakes, Davanzo said this winter is the toughest he's experienced because the ice came so soon and is so thick and widespread, and the weather has been constantly bitter. The Mackinaw, commissioned in 2006 to replace an older vessel with the same name, is designed specifically for duty on the Great Lakes. It's propelled by two "Azipod" thrusters that can spin 360 degrees and fire jets of water at adjacent ice, weakening it. Sometimes the crew will drive the ship's bow onto an ice sheet to crack it with sheer weight. Or they'll go backward, chopping up ice with the propeller blades. When the going gets tough, there's the battering-ram option — hurling the reinforced hull directly against walls of ice that can be several feet thick. The workload typically drops sharply after navigational locks on the St. Marys River, the link between Lakes Superior and Huron, close in mid-January and most large cargo haulers dock for winter. But the ice was so thick this year that a number of freighters were still struggling to complete final deliveries days later. Even now, demand for road salt and heating oil in the Midwest is keeping some icebreakers busy. One day last month, the Mackinaw spent 16 grueling hours helping a freighter squeeze through a narrow 3.5-mile section of the St. Marys. As the Mackinaw attacks the ice, the engines roar and the ship vibrates. The noise and motion are "like living in an earthquake 16 hours a day," Petty Officer 3rd Class Ryan Alderman said. Davanzo hopes for rain and warmer temperatures that would melt some ice before the locks reopen in late March, when the Mackinaw will venture onto Lake Superior and clear paths for iron ore and coal haulers. "But if the weather stays like this," he said, "we could be breaking ice all the way to the middle of May." Despite the inconvenience, there's a silver lining for shippers. Since the low-water period began in late 1990s, they've been forced to carry lighter loads to avoid scraping bottom in shallow channels and harbors. Heavy snow and rain in 2013 finally raised water levels. Ice cover blocks evaporation, the leading cause of low water. It also will keep the lakes cooler for a longer time this year, delaying the onset of heavy evaporation season, scientist John Lenters reported in a paper last month, although the benefit is partially offset by stepped-up evaporation shortly before the ice forms. - Yahoo News Philippines

CLICK ARTICLE: Great Lakes become nearly covered with ice - Yahoo News Philippines: "Lake Superior, snowbound Isle Royale National Park is home to a dwindling and inbred wolf population that is usually trapped on the island. Biologists hope a newcomer or two will venture to the park now that the lake is almost entirely frozen over. The park's first wolves are believed to have crossed an ice bridge from Canada, 15 miles away, in the late 1940s.
There's also a chance that one or more of the island's wolves could grab the rare opportunity to escape.
"They are inveterate travelers," veteran wolf expert Rolf Peterson said. "And they don't need a reason that would make sense to us."
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Follow John Flesher on Twitter at http://twitter.com/JohnFlesher."



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UPDATE: GOOGLE BACKS STUDY ON ECONOMIC BENEFITS OF SOLAR LAMPS - Analysis from BusinessGreen - Google is to fund a $650,000 (£390,000) research project with UK charity SolarAid to explore the extent to which efforts to distribute solar lights in Africa can help alleviate poverty. Renewable energy companies have long maintained that solar lamps can significantly improve livelihoods in areas of Africa that are off-grid by eliminating the need for dangerous and polluting kerosene lamps, allowing businesses to stay open longer, and enabling school children to complete their homework safely at night. FURTHER READING World's largest solar thermal project heats up in the Californian desert BusinessGreen Solar Hub But despite the growing market for solar lamps, there is currently no firm evidence to demonstrate the scale of these various benefits, according to Kat Harrison, who set up SolarAid's impact and research unit in 2012. Now the charity has secured funding from Google to carry out a two-year research project to gather this crucial data that will shape the organisation's future strategy and help it lobby governments to support the roll out of the technology. The study will be conducted by an independent external research partner appointed by SolarAid, which will aim to interview around 15,000 people across two to three counties in Kenya. The research will assess four different groups that will access and use the technology in different ways, in an attempt to ascertain how it can reach the widest number of users and have the biggest impact. The first group will be offered the chance to buy solar lamps through SolarAid's traditional business model, while the second will be offered the same opportunities but at a subsidised price. The third group will be given solar lamps for free and a final group will receive no lamps at all. "The idea of the research isn't really to test the models of distribution but to ensure we can still pick up benefits no matter what a household's economic status is, because obviously the more money you have will impact on your decision to buy a light in the first place," explained Harrison. "It's not about trying to find out if giving out free solar lights is better than selling them. SolarAid doesn't believe that at all, because we think it undermines the market, it's not sustainable, and it doesn't encourage market practices to come into play, which brings in competition, better quality and access. It's more around just answering that question of 'does a solar light make a difference?'" As part of the programme researchers will measure whether those households with solar lights are saving money and what those savings are being spent on. They will also explore whether shopkeepers are able to boost their incomes by extending their opening hours after dark, and examine the impact on education and health. An initial pilot will be launched this summer, followed by a wider study later in the year, which could track as many as 15,000 people.

CLICK ARTICLE SOURCE: Google backs study on economic benefits of solar lamps - 17 Feb 2014 - Analysis from BusinessGreen: "Jacquelline Fuller, director of Google.org, said it hoped the research could prove to be a powerful tool against fighting poverty. "SolarAid has committed to rigorously assessing their programmes and openly sharing their findings – and not just the rosy ones – to make sure they're making a big impact in people's lives," she said. "We're excited to further support their mission."
This article is part of the BusinessGreen Solar Hub, hosted in association with Solar Aid.
Bring Me Sunshine! SolarAid is taking part in a UK government fund match scheme. Meaning all donations by UK residents will be doubled this winter."



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UPDATE: IRAN PLANS CARBON EMISSIONS TRADING MARKET, official says | Reuters - Iran plans to set up a carbon trading market to reduce industrial emissions of climate-warming gas, an official from Iran's Fuel Conservation Organization (IFCO) told oil ministry news service Shana. Iran has some of the world's largest gas reserves and is major crude oil exporter. But rapidly rising domestic demand has created a gas supply and vehicle pollution crisis in some cities. Although Iran has some large hydro-power plants, heavy subsidisation of fossil fuels means there is little incentive for private investments in wind or solar power projects. The European Union set up the world's first carbon emissions trading scheme in 2005 in the hope that forcing industry to buy permits to emit carbon would spur them to reduce pollution. The EU's success has been limited because too many emissions allowances were issued, driving down the price of permits to levels that give little incentive to cut. A short but growing list of other countries - including China and India - are developing their own emissions trading schemes and now Iran is planning its own. "Reducing energy consumption and capping carbon emission are two sides of the coin. When energy consumption declines, carbon emission will also fall," Mehdi Sharif, director of energy efficiency at IFCO, a subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company, was quoted as saying on Sunday. Under the planned scheme, some industrial facilities will be allocated credits to emit a limited amount of carbon and will have to buy permits on the carbon market to cover any further emissions, Sharif said. He gave no further details and did not specify which industrial facilities would be included in the scheme. Carbon markets are supposed to encourage companies to reduce their emissions of climate-warming gas by creating a visible cost for polluters. For such schemes to work there must be a shortage of permits in the system that encourages some companies to invest in cleaner and more efficient energy technology. Middle East oil producers like Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates still rely heavily on oil export income and heavily subsidize oil and gas supplies.

Iran plans carbon emissions trading market, official says | Reuters: "But there is a growing sense around the Gulf that solar energy, in particular, could help dampen rapid fuel demand growth at home that threatens long term oil export revenues.

There is also growing acceptance that excessive carbon emissions from unrestrained fossil fuel burning contribute to global warming. (Reporting by Daniel Fineren; Editing by Anthony Barker)"



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UPDATE: Stronger winds which have cooled the surface of the Pacific Ocean could explain what is likely to be a temporary slowdown in the pace of global warming this century, researchers said. Last year, scientists on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said the pace of temperature rise at the Earth's surface had slowed over the past 15 years, even though greenhouse gas emissions, widely blamed for causing climate change, have risen steadily. Past research has linked the slowdown in the pace of warming to factors such as a build-up of sun-dimming air pollution in the atmosphere or a decline in the sun's output. Others suggest the deep oceans may be absorbing more heat. A study published in the journal Nature Climate Change on Sunday said stronger Pacific trade winds - a pattern of easterly winds spanning the tropics - over the past two decades had made ocean circulation at the Equator speed up, moving heat deeper into the ocean and bringing cooler water to the surface. The winds have also helped drive cooling in other ocean regions. "We show that a pronounced strengthening in Pacific trade winds over the past two decades is sufficient to account for the cooling of the tropical Pacific and a substantial slowdown in surface warming," said the study, led by scientists from the University of New South Wales in Australia. "The net effect of these anomalous winds is a cooling in the 2012 global average surface air temperature of 0.1-0.2 degrees Celsius, which can account for much of the hiatus in surface warming since 2001." - Yahoo News

Stronger Pacific winds explain global warming hiatus: study - Yahoo News: "COOLING DOWN

The study's authors, including scientists from other research centers and universities in the United States, Hawaii and Australia, used weather forecasting and satellite data and climate models to make their conclusions.

"This hiatus could persist for much of the present decade if the trade winds trends continue, however, rapid warming is expected to resume once the anomalous wind trends abate," the study said.

"If the anomalously strong trade winds begin to abate in the next few years, the model suggests the present hiatus will be short-lived, with rapid warming set to resume soon after the wind trends reverse," it added."



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UPDATE: DELHI, India and Air Pollution Problems. The combination of rapid urbanization, a high density of cars and industrial emissions, and other environmental factors have made the smog in Delhi worse even than Beijing. However, despite India slipping down to a staggering rank of 155 in the global Environmental Performance Index this year, on-the-ground awareness of how bad the air truly is remains low overall. While the thick smog is hard to miss, widespread information linking environmental impacts from pollution to health effects is currently lacking in India. Many Delhi residents are unaware of the growing body of scientific evidence that shows direct links between increasing automobile use and emissions of harmful PM2.5 emissions — the kind of particulate matter (PM) that is so small that it can enter the human bloodstream. The question is, will the international spotlight on the country's air pollution shine through the smog to spark action? Despite low awareness, the serious health effects of Delhi's poor environmental quality are harder to ignore. The dangerous air pollution threatens a literal chokehold on the population as asthma and other respiratory ailments affect two in five Delhi residents, according to the International Harvard Review. But as communities throughout the country can attest, harmful particulates in the air are not just Delhi's problem — air pollution is the sixth biggest killer across India, according to the Lancet Global Health Burden of Disease report. Finding cleaner ways forward, including shifting to energy sources that pollute less than fossil fuels, is key to improving India's air, water and environment, as well as combating the global problem of climate change.- | The Energy Collective

CLICK LINK TO READ ARTICLE: India and Air Pollution Problems | The Energy Collective: "Much remains to be done to mitigate the severe air pollution across India's cities and rural areas. Raising awareness of the often-fatal health impacts of poor air-quality and ways the country can move towards a cleaner future — including through greener transportation fleets, energy efficient buildings and clean energy — are necessary to spark action on all levels. By prioritizing less polluting, renewable energy sources domestically, including wind and solar, India's communities will begin to breathe easier."



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UPDATE: UK: Treasury urged to insulate homes with carbon tax revenues - - A coalition of businesses and NGOs has accused the Treasury of hypocrisy over its refusal to use proceeds from carbon taxes to insulate the UK's housing stock. A new report, authored by an ex-Treasury economist for campaign group Energy Bill Revolution, which is made up of nearly 200 UK charities, businesses, unions, consumer, and health groups, highlights how the Treasury's decision to retain proceeds from emissions trading and the carbon floor price is something of an anomaly. Revenues from other policies classed as environmental taxes are set aside to be reinvested in specific programmes. For example, the Renewables Obligation funds green energy incentives and the London Congestion Charge is reinvested in Transport for London. The report, published on Friday, also highlights 13 countries in the EU that use proceeds from EU emissions trading to finance energy and climate change initiatives, including France and Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Hungary, Estonia and Lithuania. However, the UK government has so far refused to recycle its carbon taxes for environmental initiates because it could reduce spending in other areas.- 10 Feb 2014 - News from BusinessGreen

CLICK LINK TO READ Treasury urged to insulate homes with carbon tax revenues - 10 Feb 2014 - News from BusinessGreen: "Energy Bill Revolution says revenues from carbon taxes could provide an extra £60bn over the next 15 years to help reduce fuel poverty.
"The real reason the Treasury has opposed carbon tax recycling into energy efficiency is because they don't want to reduce their control over public spending and other departments," said Ed Matthew, director of the Energy Bill Revolution in a statement.
"When will they understand that this is not their tax revenue? It belongs to the people and we want it back to warm up our homes. Using carbon tax to make households more energy efficient is by far the best long term solution to both bring down energy bills and end fuel poverty.""



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UPDATE: China's large state-owned power firms have taken the lead in the country's nascent carbon offset market, leveraging preferential procedures to cut the cost of complying with new rules capping greenhouse gas emissions. The central government will issue offsets, known as Chinese Certified Emissions Reductions (CCERs), under a new programme to reward projects that can prove they cut carbon emissions. Companies covered by China's five recently launched emissions trading schemes can use CCERs to cover 5 percent to 10 percent of their emissions, making for an attractive low-cost compliance option. But China's state-owned enterprises get preferential treatment as they can apply directly to the central government for eligibility, while private firms face a time-consuming process to get approval from regional authorities before they can turn to Beijing. "This will cut compliance costs for the state-owned companies, and since they are first in line to take on targets in the envisaged national (carbon) market, the earlier they move, the less costly it will be for them," said Chen Bo, a researcher at the Central University of Finance and Economics. State enterprises own six of the first seven projects up for consideration later this week by a technical panel under the offset programme. China General Nuclear runs four of them, all wind farms. The advantage held by the state-owned enterprises may prove especially important in the first year of the scheme. Companies covered by carbon markets in Beijing, Guangdong, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Tianjin must hand permits to regulators to cover for their 2013 emissions by the end of June, and getting low-cost credits issued by then will be a race against time, especially for private firms.

China's state utilities move on preferential rules in carbon offset market | Reuters: "Traders say it will take 6 to 8 months from the design phase until a project can receive its first CCERs.

The budding market has yet to establish a clear and transparent price for the carbon credits."



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FYI: Women suffer more disabling strokes than men and need to become better aware of their unique risk factors, including pregnancy complications and the use of oral contraceptives, according to recommendations released Thursday by the American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association. The stroke prevention guidelines — the first to be released specifically for women — also point to risk factors more common in women, such as migraines with aura, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. Such differences could point to why strokes are the third leading cause of death in women but only the fifth leading cause of death in men. “These new guidelines are a call to action that doctors really need to be focusing more on women when it comes to stroke prevention,” said Dr. Shazam Hussain, head of the Stroke Section at the Cleveland Clinic, who was not involved with developing the guidelines. About 3 percent of Americans have lived through strokes, with many suffering permanent health problems such as impaired speech, memory loss, or paralysis. Women who develop dangerous hypertension during pregnancy, known as preeclampsia, have twice the risk of having a stroke later in life compared with those who had healthy pregnancies.

Stroke prevention guidelines highlight special risks for women - Health & wellness - The Boston Globe: "The guidelines, published in the journal Stroke, advise doctors to consider preeclampsia to be a stroke risk factor akin to smoking, high cholesterol, and obesity because it’s likely to lead to hypertension years after the pregnancy."



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UPDATE: Abu Dhabi -- Nineteen countries have pledged to create an Africa Clean Energy Corridor to exploit the continent’s vast renewable potential. Energy ministers and delegates from the countries endorsed an action agenda drawn up by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in Abu Dhabi. The corridor is designed to boost the deployment of renewable energy and help meet Africa’s rising energy demand with clean power from renewable sources such as hydro, geothermal, biomass, wind and solar. IRENA’s director-general Adnan Z. Amin said the corridor would “provide the continent with the opportunity to leapfrog into a sustainable energy future.” “The dynamic development that Africa will see in the next decades needs to extend to the energy sector, and Africa’s abundant renewable energy resources are a perfect match to meet rising demand in a sustainable and cost-effective way, from Cairo to Cape Town.”

Countries Vow to Form Africa Clean Energy Corridor: "Electricity demand is expected to triple in southern Africa and quadruple in east Africa over the next 25 years and there is a desire among many nations to meet this demand with renewables.

Ethiopia’s energy minister Alemayehu Tegenu said the clean energy corridor would help “leverage the tremendous opportunity that renewable energy presents, for the best of the African states and the entire continent.”"



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UPDATE: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's critical assessment of the proposed northern leg of the Keystone pipeline could have outsized influence on the final decision of whether to approve the project, experts familiar with the process said. Friday's State Department report contained the EPA's evaluation that crude produced from Canada's oil sands, which the pipeline would carry, are 17 percent more greenhouse gas intensive than average oil used in the United States. The EPA also said oil sands imports would be 2-10 percent more greenhouse-gas intensive than imported oil from Mexico or Venezuela that would probably replace it.

EPA scrutiny could be linchpin to Keystone review process - Yahoo News: "The Departments of Defense, Commerce, Commerce, Energy, Justice, Transportation and Homeland Security are also evaluating the State Department's environmental assessment of the Keystone proposal. Of the eight agencies that have 90 days to weigh in, the EPA's evaluation is expected to be the most influential because of its expertise on the environment."



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UPDATE: "Geoengineering is a controversial approach to dealing with climate change. Gaia Vince explores the process of putting chemicals in the stratosphere to stop solar energy reaching the earth. When volcanoes erupt they put sulphur in the stratosphere. The particles reflect solar rays back into space and the planet cools down. Scientists are suggesting that it could be possible to put sulphur into the stratosphere using specialised aircraft or a very long pipe. But if this was implemented there could be impacts on rainfall and the ozone layer. Another idea is to spray seawater to whiten clouds that would reflect more energy away from the earth. Gaia Vince talks to the researchers who are considering solar radiation management. She also hears from social scientists who are finding out what the public think about the idea and who are asking who should make decisions about implementing this way of cooling the planet. "BBC World Service - Discovery, Geoengineering

CLICK LINK TO LISTEN: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01p2pf4?ocid=socialflow_twitter_worldservice



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Best Earth Footage (1080p HD) Enigma - Indian Chanting. Yeha Noha - Sacred Spirits._(1080p).mp4 - YouTube

Best Earth Footage (1080p HD) Enigma - Indian Chanting. Yeha Noha - Sacred Spirits._(1080p).mp4 - YouTube: ""



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