Climate change and population growth in the United States will make having enough fresh water more challenging in the coming years

In 1985-1986 there were historical (water level) highs and now in less than 25 years we are at historical lows. Those sorts of swings are very scary," said Robert Glennon, speaking at the State of the Lakes Ecosystem Conference in Erie, Pennsylvania.

Glennon, a professor at Arizona State University and the author of "Unquenchable: America's Water Crisis and What To Do About It," said that that according to climate experts, shorter, warmer winters mean less ice and greater exposure to the air, leading eventually to more water evaporation.

"We think about water like the air -- infinite and inexhaustible but it is very finite and very exhaustible," Glennon said.

"When you have a shorter ice season you have great exposure to the air and more evaporation. As temperatures go up it is very troubling," Glennon said. "The cycles are going to become more acute which is very troubling.""
Climate change making country's water problems worse: expert | Reuters: ""
'via Blog this'

Tip:"Parent's emotional state affects child's emotional health. It's important to tell your pediatrician how you feel, though you're not the patient"

Tips on taking your child to the doctor: "Your pediatrician is interested in hearing anything relative to your child's development, particularly daily habits that a doctor can't observe. How and what does your child eat? How active is your child? How much sleep does your child need? Does your child seem generally happy? What does your child say or how does he/she communicate? Does the child play or interact well with other children? Have there been unusual stresses at home, such as a move, job loss, illness or death of a family member? It's important that your pediatrician not only assess your child's physical health, but emotional health as well because children's emotions can greatly impact physical health, activity and behavior.

Why did our pediatrician ask me how I feel?
Adults also can be subject to depression, and moms specifically to postpartum depression. An adult's emotional state affects a child's emotional health. If parents are dealing with major stressors, the child also may feel stressed physically and emotionally. So it's important to tell your pediatrician how you feel even though you are not the patient. Your pediatrician will be able to refer you to someone who can help you." (click link above to read full article)

'via Blog this'

Ways to Mitigate Climate Change: Alternative Energy: Wind & Solar will coexist & work in tandem... because neither source can be controlled by man"

We can use solar energy when it comes,” Dr. Erk Thorsten Heyen, vice president, marketing, sales and finance of Wacker Polysilicon Division of Wacker Chemie AG Read more: Cleveland Daily Banner - Wacker VP Renewable energy is the future . “Typically, the wind is stronger when there is no sun.” But, he said, to move to a point where 60 percent of all energy is from renewable sources, it will be necessary to generate electricity with wind and solar systems when it is available and store it in batteries or hydroelectric plants. Water can be pumped to a higher level during the day and released at night. “You can use the energy from solar cells to convert water into hydrogen and oxygen and use the oxygen to make power or heat,” he said.

“There are many, many different technologies which could be used to store the excess electricity generated when the sun is shining or when the wind is blowing and use it when those conditions don’t exist. All of those technologies are available, but some of them are still a bit too expensive.” But, bringing those costs down will require government policy or utilities such as the Tennessee Valley Authority to move in that direction. "
Cleveland Daily Banner - Wacker VP Renewable energy is the future: "“
'via Blog this'

Update: Researchers from University of California, Berkeley confirmed reports that global temperatures have risen by 1 degree Celsius

Massive Study Proves Climate Change is No Hoax - Technorati Green: "The team included a 2011 Nobel Prize winner in Physics, Saul Perlmutter and various climatologists and statisticians. Compiling a huge open database of temperature records, researchers found a striking correlation with earlier American and British studies and the data clearly supports the conclusions that warming is occurring.

This study is the most comprehensive and thorough to date and focused on some nagging questions about the debate.
According to this statement:

" The most important indicator of global warming, by far, is the land and sea surface temperature record. This has been criticized in several ways, including the choice of stations and the methods for correcting systematic errors. The Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature study sets out to to do a new analysis of the surface temperature record in a rigorous manner that addresses this criticism. We are using over 39,000 unique stations, which is more than five times the 7,280 stations found in the Global Historical Climatology Network Monthly data set (GHCN-M) that has served as the focus of many climate studies.""

'via Blog this'

Tip: Emotional Well-Being = ability to understand range of feelings at "any" given time & to know how to manage it to live a life in full as possible

"The main component of the "Your Good Self" programme is the bibliotherapy scheme. Bibliotherapy is the use of reading materials for therapeutic purposes. Bibliotherapy or healthy reading schemes are well established in the U.K. and Irish schemes include "Mind Yourself" in Wexford and "The Power of Words" in Dublin."Book in to your emotions at Mallow library - News - Corkman.ie:

'via Blog this'

Ways to Mitigate Climate Change: "Imagine you no longer have monthly utility bills, instead you get your electricity from solar shingles on your roof"

...or imagine pulling into a gas station, but it no longer sells gasoline. Instead, you can top off your car with electricity, hydrogen, biofuels, whatever. To those of you who already have solar panels on your roofs or an electric car in the garage, this may not sound so far-fetched. For the rest of us, this is the future. Let's talk about the year 2050 as imagined by my next guest. He says we can quit using oil and coal to power our country by 2050 and not just for the health of the environment but for national security, creating jobs, and saving money, motivations that he says transcend politics. But is this really possible? Is it reasonable to expect politicians, automakers and big oil and coal to innovate and disrupt, quote, business as usual? How is all this stuff going to get done and save or create jobs? Those answers are all in my next guest's book, "Reinventing Fire: Bold Business Solutions for the New Energy Era." Amory Lovins is author of this book. He is co-founder, chairman and chief scientist at Rocky Mountain Institute in Snowmass, Colorado. Reinventing Fire: Getting Beyond Fossil Fuels : NPR: " (click link to read full transcript)

'via Blog this'

Update: World governments and aid agencies should prepare to help the world's poorest to move away from areas most affected by climate change

Environmental change would affect the world's poorest the most, and millions would be forced to abandon sterile farmland and migrate to areas less affected by the problem.

The Migration and Global Environmental Change Foresight Report studied the effect flooding, drought and rising sea levels caused by climate change would have on human migration patterns over the next 50 years, the BBC reported Wednesday. Three-quarters of this migration would be within national borders, it said, predominantly from rural to urban areas. Unless such migration is properly managed it could lead to widespread humanitarian disasters, the report authors said.

"[These people] will be trapped in dangerous conditions and unable to be moved to safety," the British government's chief scientist, Professor Sir John Beddington, said."

'via Blog this'Climate change to bring migrations - UPI.com: "