The Civil Society Institute (CSI) and the Environmental Working Group (EWG) announced the results of a survey this week that they say shows that Americans are not opposed to more domestic energy production, but that they do not want clean water, energy efficiency and expanded wind and solar power to be sacrificed in the process. The results contrast somewhat with other surveys that have been taken on the matter. Here are the details.
* According to the CSI/EWG survey, of the 809 respondents, 94 percent -- including 92 percent of Republicans and 98 percent of Democrats -- want political leadership on balancing more energy production with protecting the environment.
* Most Americans feel it is important for Congress to demonstrate leadership on a national agenda for clean energy and environmental protections and that national water resources should be an important consideration with U.S. energy planning and decision making.
* The groups -- both of which support the clean energy industry -- report that 86 percent of the respondents to their survey favored a shift from coal and nuclear energy to wind and solar. Additionally, the groups report, the majority of the respondents, regardless of political party, are opposed to fracking until more research is done and want more studies done on the health and environmental consequences of the chemicals used in fracking.
* The groups reported that three-quarters of their respondents have heard of fracking, with about half saying that they are very or somewhat familiar with it.
* According to a nearly one-year-old survey done by Rasmussen , in the wake of President Barack Obama's decision last week to delay the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to Texas for environmental reasons, 59 percent of likely U.S. voters said that -- generally speaking -- job creation was more important than environmental protection. Twenty-nine percent said protecting the environment was more important.
* In March, Gallup found that 47 percent of respondents to a poll it conducted felt like it was more important for America to emphasize energy production, while 44 percent stated that environmental protection deserved emphasis.
* The importance to the two issues was skewed by political party, Gallup showed, with more Republicans in favor of energy production and more Democrats in favor of environmental protection. Independents were split on the matter, with 49 percent in favor of an increased emphasis on environmental protection, and 41 percent in favor of more importance placed on energy production.
* A March survey from Rasmussen showed that 57 percent of respondents favored the used of fracking in order to find more U.S. oil and gas, while only 22 percent of the participants said they were opposed to the process.
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Thursday, January 10, 2013
What Will It Take to Solve Climate Change?
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Atmosphere of Venus Has Strange Magnetic 'Ropes'
Strange, newly discovered structures in Venus' atmosphere are redrawing scientists' perceptions of the planet's magnetic environment.
The European Space Agency's Venus Express spacecraft spotted these enormous magnetic entities - called flux ropes - stretching for hundreds of miles in the planet's upper atmosphere, above the poles.
Flux ropes have been seen before around other planets, including Earth. They transport superheated plasma gas from one side of the 'rope' to the other. But on Venus, scientists don't know why these phenomena form in the atmosphere, according to a paper published Dec. 26 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. How long they exist, and how they dissipate, are also mysteries.
'It is a huge surprise,' study leader Tielong Zhang, who holds dual affiliations at research institutions in China and Austria, wrote in an email to SPACE.com. [Photos of Venus, the Mysterious Planet]
Twisting magnetic lines
Magnetic flux ropes come together from twisted magnetic field lines. They have been spotted in magnetic fields all over the solar system.
On Earth, flux ropes form near the face of the planet opposite the sun. The stream of charged particles known as the solar wind flows around the planet and creates a 'magnetotail' of charged particleson the other side.
Periodic solar outbursts known as coronal mass ejections arise from a type of flux rope. The delicate structures sit on top of the sun and transport matter and superheated gas from one part of the sun to another. Researchers believe that when the flux ropes become unstable, that's when the sun erupts.
Venus stands apart from most other planets in the solar system, however, because it has no magnetic field. Zhang said the ionosphere (or upper atmosphere) of Venus acts as an obstacle to the solar wind.
When Venus' atmosphere has a higher pressure than the incoming solar wind field, the ionosphere is considered 'unmagnetized,' meaning that it's free of all but the smallest magnetic field structures.
The ionosphere of Venus stays unmagnetized most of the time, until the solar wind reaches a higher pressure than the surrounding atmosphere and magnetizes it. In these conditions, relatively small flux ropes can form due to the higher speed of the solar wind rolling over the slower ionosphere, researchers said. [The 10 Weirdest Facts About Venus]
'The ionosphere is filled with these very small - kilometers across - flux ropes,' Christopher Russell told SPACE.com. Russell is a space physicist at UCLA and a co-investigator on Zhang's study.
'That might seem large to somebody walking down the street, but in terms of the size of the ionosphere, they are small,' said Russell, who was also the principal investigator of NASA's Venus Pioneer missionthat first spotted these structures.
Scientists have known about these small flux ropes for a generation, since Pioneer orbited Venus in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
But the giant flux ropes were completely unknown until Venus Express - which was in a different orbit than Pioneer - spotted them with its magnetometer in 2008 and 2009. And they likely are created by a very different process, Russell said.
Frequent flux ropes
Venus Express saw the giant flux ropes in magnetized regions of the Venusian ionosphere over the poles, where that region of the atmosphere of Venus made its closest approaches to the planet. According to the paper, these ropes happen 'quite often' and are hundreds of miles long, about as long as the depth of the ionosphere.
Scientists determined that the flux ropes form from solar particles on the side of the planet facing away from the sun, in the magnetotail. As the ropes' magnetic fields twisted tighter, they passed from the equator region to the poles.
'It seems to be associated with a process known as reconnection, which is magnetic field lines joining up together and forming a new magnetic configuration,' Russell said. On Earth, this is the driving force behind the planet's spectacular auroras, which also tend to originate in the magnetotail.
As Venus' flux ropes move over the poles, the local magnetic field they create is stronger than the background, Russell added. To better understand them, the scientists are now working on a statistical survey to figure out how often flux ropes occur in Venus' ionosphere, and where they are.
Zhang, who is the principal investigator for Venus Express' magnetometer instrument, noted that giant flux ropes were previously found in the atmosphere of Mars - but only in the southern hemisphere. Mars, like Venus, does not have a planet-wide magnetic field.
'The observation and formation of the large flux rope at Mars might raise speculative questions related to the giant flux ropes at Venus,' Zhang said, but added it was too early to draw direct links.
At least one study, according to Zhang's paper, has drawn a link between the magnetic rocks found on Mars and the flux ropes found above the Red Planet.
But Mars is a much different environment than Venus, so the giant flux ropes found by Venus Express could arise for another reason, he said.
Zhang works for both the University of Science and Technology of China and the Austrian Academy of Sciences, while the rest of his paper's research team hails from Austria, the United States, Germany, China and the United Kingdom.
Follow Elizabeth Howell @howellspace, or SPACE.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+.
This news article is brought to you by FREE ROMANTIC DATING SITE BLOG - where latest news are our top priority.
The European Space Agency's Venus Express spacecraft spotted these enormous magnetic entities - called flux ropes - stretching for hundreds of miles in the planet's upper atmosphere, above the poles.
Flux ropes have been seen before around other planets, including Earth. They transport superheated plasma gas from one side of the 'rope' to the other. But on Venus, scientists don't know why these phenomena form in the atmosphere, according to a paper published Dec. 26 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. How long they exist, and how they dissipate, are also mysteries.
'It is a huge surprise,' study leader Tielong Zhang, who holds dual affiliations at research institutions in China and Austria, wrote in an email to SPACE.com. [Photos of Venus, the Mysterious Planet]
Twisting magnetic lines
Magnetic flux ropes come together from twisted magnetic field lines. They have been spotted in magnetic fields all over the solar system.
On Earth, flux ropes form near the face of the planet opposite the sun. The stream of charged particles known as the solar wind flows around the planet and creates a 'magnetotail' of charged particleson the other side.
Periodic solar outbursts known as coronal mass ejections arise from a type of flux rope. The delicate structures sit on top of the sun and transport matter and superheated gas from one part of the sun to another. Researchers believe that when the flux ropes become unstable, that's when the sun erupts.
Venus stands apart from most other planets in the solar system, however, because it has no magnetic field. Zhang said the ionosphere (or upper atmosphere) of Venus acts as an obstacle to the solar wind.
When Venus' atmosphere has a higher pressure than the incoming solar wind field, the ionosphere is considered 'unmagnetized,' meaning that it's free of all but the smallest magnetic field structures.
The ionosphere of Venus stays unmagnetized most of the time, until the solar wind reaches a higher pressure than the surrounding atmosphere and magnetizes it. In these conditions, relatively small flux ropes can form due to the higher speed of the solar wind rolling over the slower ionosphere, researchers said. [The 10 Weirdest Facts About Venus]
'The ionosphere is filled with these very small - kilometers across - flux ropes,' Christopher Russell told SPACE.com. Russell is a space physicist at UCLA and a co-investigator on Zhang's study.
'That might seem large to somebody walking down the street, but in terms of the size of the ionosphere, they are small,' said Russell, who was also the principal investigator of NASA's Venus Pioneer missionthat first spotted these structures.
Scientists have known about these small flux ropes for a generation, since Pioneer orbited Venus in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
But the giant flux ropes were completely unknown until Venus Express - which was in a different orbit than Pioneer - spotted them with its magnetometer in 2008 and 2009. And they likely are created by a very different process, Russell said.
Frequent flux ropes
Venus Express saw the giant flux ropes in magnetized regions of the Venusian ionosphere over the poles, where that region of the atmosphere of Venus made its closest approaches to the planet. According to the paper, these ropes happen 'quite often' and are hundreds of miles long, about as long as the depth of the ionosphere.
Scientists determined that the flux ropes form from solar particles on the side of the planet facing away from the sun, in the magnetotail. As the ropes' magnetic fields twisted tighter, they passed from the equator region to the poles.
'It seems to be associated with a process known as reconnection, which is magnetic field lines joining up together and forming a new magnetic configuration,' Russell said. On Earth, this is the driving force behind the planet's spectacular auroras, which also tend to originate in the magnetotail.
As Venus' flux ropes move over the poles, the local magnetic field they create is stronger than the background, Russell added. To better understand them, the scientists are now working on a statistical survey to figure out how often flux ropes occur in Venus' ionosphere, and where they are.
Zhang, who is the principal investigator for Venus Express' magnetometer instrument, noted that giant flux ropes were previously found in the atmosphere of Mars - but only in the southern hemisphere. Mars, like Venus, does not have a planet-wide magnetic field.
'The observation and formation of the large flux rope at Mars might raise speculative questions related to the giant flux ropes at Venus,' Zhang said, but added it was too early to draw direct links.
At least one study, according to Zhang's paper, has drawn a link between the magnetic rocks found on Mars and the flux ropes found above the Red Planet.
But Mars is a much different environment than Venus, so the giant flux ropes found by Venus Express could arise for another reason, he said.
Zhang works for both the University of Science and Technology of China and the Austrian Academy of Sciences, while the rest of his paper's research team hails from Austria, the United States, Germany, China and the United Kingdom.
Follow Elizabeth Howell @howellspace, or SPACE.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+.
- Amazing Venus Photos by ESA's Venus Express
- Deadly Venusian Storms Exposed On New TV Series | Video
- Planet Venus: Quiz Yourself on Venus Facts
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Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Florida python hunting contest draws hundreds
ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - A python hunting competition starting on Saturday is drawing hundreds of amateurs armed with clubs, machetes and guns to the Florida Everglades, where captured Burmese pythons have exceeded the length of minivans and weighed as much as grown men.
Python Challenge 2013, a month-long event sponsored by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, is open to hunters and non-hunters alike.
But the idea of luring weapon-wielding amateurs into the harsh environment of the Everglades has raised some alarms.
'I just thought it was as exciting as could be. It's a once- in-a-lifetime opportunity,' said contestant Ron Polster, a retired salesman from Ohio whose closest encounter with the swamp has been from the highway heading south for the winter.
Participants pay a $25 entry fee and take an online training course, which consists mostly of looking at photographs of both the targeted pythons and protected native snakes to learn the difference.
The state wildlife agency is offering prizes of $1,500 for the most pythons captured and $1,000 for the longest python.
A Burmese python found in Florida last year set records as the largest ever captured in the state at 17-feet, 7-inches. The snake weighed nearly 165 pounds (75 kg).
FWC spokeswoman Carli Segelson said the number of registered contestants reached about 500 this week and was growing, with people coming from 32 states.
The stated goal of the competition is to raise awareness of the threat Burmese pythons pose to the Everglades ecosystem. The snakes are native to Southeast Asia and have no known predators in Florida.
The contest also serves as a pilot program to determine whether regular hunting competitions can cull the growing population of the invasive species, said Frank Mazzotti, a wildlife expert from the University of Florida who helped create the competition.
Python Challenge rules require contestants to kill specimens on the spot in a humane fashion, recommending shooting the snakes precisely through the brain.
'I was hoping there would be a lot of machetes and not a lot of guns,' said Polster, the retired salesman. He said he worries 'these idiots will be firing all over the place.'
Shawn Heflick, star of the National Geographic 'Wild' television show 'Python Hunters,' told Reuters that despite the formidable size of the snakes, he expects the swamp itself, with its alligators, crocodiles and venomous snakes, to pose a greater threat to the contestants.
'You get these people going down there, they'll get lost, they'll get dehydrated, they'll get sucked dry by mosquitoes,' Heflick said.
Segelson said the wildlife agency will provide training on the use of GPS devices and on identifying venomous snakes at the kick-off event. In the meantime, she said, contestants should be familiarizing themselves with the Everglades environment, just as they should before entering any other strange territory.
Heflick said most of the contestants likely were drawn to the Python Challenge by the romantic mystique of bagging a giant predator. He expects few will last long in the hunt.
'The vast majority of them will never see a python. The vast majority of them will probably curtail their hunting very quickly when they figure out there's a lot of mosquitoes, it's hot, it's rather boring sometimes - most of the time really, and I think a lot of them will go home,' Heflick said.
(Editing by Tom Brown and Dan Grebler)
This news article is brought to you by DATING ADVICE 201 - where latest news are our top priority.
Python Challenge 2013, a month-long event sponsored by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, is open to hunters and non-hunters alike.
But the idea of luring weapon-wielding amateurs into the harsh environment of the Everglades has raised some alarms.
'I just thought it was as exciting as could be. It's a once- in-a-lifetime opportunity,' said contestant Ron Polster, a retired salesman from Ohio whose closest encounter with the swamp has been from the highway heading south for the winter.
Participants pay a $25 entry fee and take an online training course, which consists mostly of looking at photographs of both the targeted pythons and protected native snakes to learn the difference.
The state wildlife agency is offering prizes of $1,500 for the most pythons captured and $1,000 for the longest python.
A Burmese python found in Florida last year set records as the largest ever captured in the state at 17-feet, 7-inches. The snake weighed nearly 165 pounds (75 kg).
FWC spokeswoman Carli Segelson said the number of registered contestants reached about 500 this week and was growing, with people coming from 32 states.
The stated goal of the competition is to raise awareness of the threat Burmese pythons pose to the Everglades ecosystem. The snakes are native to Southeast Asia and have no known predators in Florida.
The contest also serves as a pilot program to determine whether regular hunting competitions can cull the growing population of the invasive species, said Frank Mazzotti, a wildlife expert from the University of Florida who helped create the competition.
Python Challenge rules require contestants to kill specimens on the spot in a humane fashion, recommending shooting the snakes precisely through the brain.
'I was hoping there would be a lot of machetes and not a lot of guns,' said Polster, the retired salesman. He said he worries 'these idiots will be firing all over the place.'
Shawn Heflick, star of the National Geographic 'Wild' television show 'Python Hunters,' told Reuters that despite the formidable size of the snakes, he expects the swamp itself, with its alligators, crocodiles and venomous snakes, to pose a greater threat to the contestants.
'You get these people going down there, they'll get lost, they'll get dehydrated, they'll get sucked dry by mosquitoes,' Heflick said.
Segelson said the wildlife agency will provide training on the use of GPS devices and on identifying venomous snakes at the kick-off event. In the meantime, she said, contestants should be familiarizing themselves with the Everglades environment, just as they should before entering any other strange territory.
Heflick said most of the contestants likely were drawn to the Python Challenge by the romantic mystique of bagging a giant predator. He expects few will last long in the hunt.
'The vast majority of them will never see a python. The vast majority of them will probably curtail their hunting very quickly when they figure out there's a lot of mosquitoes, it's hot, it's rather boring sometimes - most of the time really, and I think a lot of them will go home,' Heflick said.
(Editing by Tom Brown and Dan Grebler)
This news article is brought to you by DATING ADVICE 201 - where latest news are our top priority.
Crushing Rocks Reveals Magma Mantle Mysteries
Crushing lovely green gems at horrendous pressures has helped geologists solve a long-standing mystery about Earth's deep inner layers.
Peridotite, which glows like a green cat's eye, is one of the most common minerals in the mantle, the slushy zone between Earth's stiff crust and dense iron core. Home to a rolling mass of rising and falling material, the slow but constant convection brings materials from deep within the planet to the surface through volcanic hot spots and mid-ocean ridges - openings into the mantle where Earth's tectonic plates spread apart.
Because of the tremendous pressure in the mantle from overlying rock, geologists believe mantle material wouldn't melt until it rose up enough to reach around 40 miles (70 kilometers) below Earth's surface.
But a group led by geologist Rajdeep Dasgupta of Rice University in Texas put very small samples of peridotite under very large pressures and discovered mantle rock can and does liquefy, at least in small amounts, as deep as 150 miles (250 km) in the mantle. The result explains several puzzles that have bothered scientists about the mantle beneath oceanic crust, Dasgupta said in a statement.
Researchers determine the mantle's density by measuring the speed of earthquake waves as they zip back and forth through the planet. These waves travel slower through liquids than solids, and geologists have detected waves slowing down through what should be the mantle's solid zone. 'Seismologists have observed anomalies in their velocity data as deep as 200 kilometers [124 miles] beneath the ocean floor,' Dasgupta said. 'Based on our work, we show that trace amounts of magma are generated at this depth, which would potentially explain that.'
Dasgupta uses powerful hydraulic presses to partially melt rocks and minerals to simulate what is happening under equivalent pressures in the mantle. The study also shows that rock containing tiny amounts of carbon dioxide helps to make magma at extreme depths in the mantle, which in turns explains the melted rock's electrical conductivity, or ability to sustain an electric charge.
'The magma at such depths has a high enough amount of dissolved carbon dioxide that its conductivity is very high,' Dasgupta said. 'As a consequence, we can explain the conductivity of the mantle, which we knew was very high but always struggled to explain.'
The results are detailed in the Jan. 9 issue of the journal Nature.
Reach Becky Oskin at boskin@techmedianetwork.com. Follow her on Twitter @beckyoskin. Follow OurAmazingPlanet on Twitter @OAPlanet. We're also on Facebook and Google+.
This article is brought to you by FREE DATING SITE.
Peridotite, which glows like a green cat's eye, is one of the most common minerals in the mantle, the slushy zone between Earth's stiff crust and dense iron core. Home to a rolling mass of rising and falling material, the slow but constant convection brings materials from deep within the planet to the surface through volcanic hot spots and mid-ocean ridges - openings into the mantle where Earth's tectonic plates spread apart.
Because of the tremendous pressure in the mantle from overlying rock, geologists believe mantle material wouldn't melt until it rose up enough to reach around 40 miles (70 kilometers) below Earth's surface.
But a group led by geologist Rajdeep Dasgupta of Rice University in Texas put very small samples of peridotite under very large pressures and discovered mantle rock can and does liquefy, at least in small amounts, as deep as 150 miles (250 km) in the mantle. The result explains several puzzles that have bothered scientists about the mantle beneath oceanic crust, Dasgupta said in a statement.
Researchers determine the mantle's density by measuring the speed of earthquake waves as they zip back and forth through the planet. These waves travel slower through liquids than solids, and geologists have detected waves slowing down through what should be the mantle's solid zone. 'Seismologists have observed anomalies in their velocity data as deep as 200 kilometers [124 miles] beneath the ocean floor,' Dasgupta said. 'Based on our work, we show that trace amounts of magma are generated at this depth, which would potentially explain that.'
Dasgupta uses powerful hydraulic presses to partially melt rocks and minerals to simulate what is happening under equivalent pressures in the mantle. The study also shows that rock containing tiny amounts of carbon dioxide helps to make magma at extreme depths in the mantle, which in turns explains the melted rock's electrical conductivity, or ability to sustain an electric charge.
'The magma at such depths has a high enough amount of dissolved carbon dioxide that its conductivity is very high,' Dasgupta said. 'As a consequence, we can explain the conductivity of the mantle, which we knew was very high but always struggled to explain.'
The results are detailed in the Jan. 9 issue of the journal Nature.
Reach Becky Oskin at boskin@techmedianetwork.com. Follow her on Twitter @beckyoskin. Follow OurAmazingPlanet on Twitter @OAPlanet. We're also on Facebook and Google+.
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China's Extreme Cold Snaps Records
An unusually cold winter across China has some regions hitting their lowest average temperatures in more than 40 years, according to state media reports. The Chinese national meteorological agency said polar fronts caused by global warming are to blame for the frigid air.
The freeze is the coldest winter in 28 years, the English-language newspaper China Daily reported. The national average temperature across China's vast territory was a chilly 25.2 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 3.8 degrees Celsius) since late November. In northeast China, which typically has snowy, cold winters, the average temperature was an icy 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 15.3 degrees Celsius), the lowest in 42 years.
Temperatures have dropped down to minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 40 degrees Celsius) in eastern Inner Mongolia, northern Xinjiang and the Arctic reaches of northeast China. (Mohe, in northeast China, holds China's record low temperature of minus 62.1 F, or minus 52.3 C, set on Feb. 13, 1962.)
Global warming brings record cold
The wintry weather doesn't disprove global warming, however. In fact, an expert a China's National Climate Center blamed rising temperatures for the deep freeze. Global warming is shrinking ice in the Arctic and pushing polar fronts south, Zhou Botao told China Daily.
The loss of Arctic ice could affect weather in China in several ways, said Julienne Stroeve, a research scientist specializing in Arctic ice at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colo. 'It's hard to separate out cause and effect, but one of the things we do know is when we have less sea ice, the Arctic atmosphere is a lot warmer,' Stroeve told OurAmazingPlanet.
With less ice cover, the Arctic Ocean absorbs heat and solar energy from the sun that the ice would have reflected back into space. The heating of Arctic sea water can shift weather patterns in the Arctic and also affect the jet stream, Stroeve said. The jet stream is a persistent river of air that circles the planet, and has a strong influence on winter storms and movement of frosty polar air. Dips and troughs created by the shifting Arctic wind patterns could let Arctic air sneak south, studies show.
November and December also saw a strongly negative Arctic Oscillation, a winter weather pattern that drives colder-than-normal weather, Stroeve said. The NSIDC reported today (Jan. 8) that the Arctic Oscillation is weakening, so relief may be coming to hard-hit areas. 'Temperatures aren't quite as cool now as they have been,' Stroeve said.
Putting Asia on ice
As of last week, about a thousand ships were stuck in ice in Laizhou Bay in the eastern Bohai Sea, according to China Daily. Some 10,500 square miles (27,000 square kilometers) of sea surface has frozen in Bohai Bay, the greatest ice extent since records began in 2008, according to the Chinese Meteorological Association.
Northern India is also suffering from record cold winter temperatures, Weather Underground reported. In Uttar Pradesh, home to New Delhi, 175 people have died from the cold. The high on Jan. 2 was just 49.6 F (9.8 C), the coldest daily maximum in 44 years.
Brutal cold is also shattering records across Russia. This winter is the coldest on record since 1938, and temperatures plunged as low as minus 58 F (minus 50 C) in some areas.
Reach Becky Oskin at boskin@techmedianetwork.com. Follow her on Twitter @beckyoskin. Follow OurAmazingPlanet on Twitter @OAPlanet. We're also on Facebook and Google+.
This article is brought to you by FREE DATING SITE.
The freeze is the coldest winter in 28 years, the English-language newspaper China Daily reported. The national average temperature across China's vast territory was a chilly 25.2 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 3.8 degrees Celsius) since late November. In northeast China, which typically has snowy, cold winters, the average temperature was an icy 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 15.3 degrees Celsius), the lowest in 42 years.
Temperatures have dropped down to minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 40 degrees Celsius) in eastern Inner Mongolia, northern Xinjiang and the Arctic reaches of northeast China. (Mohe, in northeast China, holds China's record low temperature of minus 62.1 F, or minus 52.3 C, set on Feb. 13, 1962.)
Global warming brings record cold
The wintry weather doesn't disprove global warming, however. In fact, an expert a China's National Climate Center blamed rising temperatures for the deep freeze. Global warming is shrinking ice in the Arctic and pushing polar fronts south, Zhou Botao told China Daily.
The loss of Arctic ice could affect weather in China in several ways, said Julienne Stroeve, a research scientist specializing in Arctic ice at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colo. 'It's hard to separate out cause and effect, but one of the things we do know is when we have less sea ice, the Arctic atmosphere is a lot warmer,' Stroeve told OurAmazingPlanet.
With less ice cover, the Arctic Ocean absorbs heat and solar energy from the sun that the ice would have reflected back into space. The heating of Arctic sea water can shift weather patterns in the Arctic and also affect the jet stream, Stroeve said. The jet stream is a persistent river of air that circles the planet, and has a strong influence on winter storms and movement of frosty polar air. Dips and troughs created by the shifting Arctic wind patterns could let Arctic air sneak south, studies show.
November and December also saw a strongly negative Arctic Oscillation, a winter weather pattern that drives colder-than-normal weather, Stroeve said. The NSIDC reported today (Jan. 8) that the Arctic Oscillation is weakening, so relief may be coming to hard-hit areas. 'Temperatures aren't quite as cool now as they have been,' Stroeve said.
Putting Asia on ice
As of last week, about a thousand ships were stuck in ice in Laizhou Bay in the eastern Bohai Sea, according to China Daily. Some 10,500 square miles (27,000 square kilometers) of sea surface has frozen in Bohai Bay, the greatest ice extent since records began in 2008, according to the Chinese Meteorological Association.
Northern India is also suffering from record cold winter temperatures, Weather Underground reported. In Uttar Pradesh, home to New Delhi, 175 people have died from the cold. The high on Jan. 2 was just 49.6 F (9.8 C), the coldest daily maximum in 44 years.
Brutal cold is also shattering records across Russia. This winter is the coldest on record since 1938, and temperatures plunged as low as minus 58 F (minus 50 C) in some areas.
Reach Becky Oskin at boskin@techmedianetwork.com. Follow her on Twitter @beckyoskin. Follow OurAmazingPlanet on Twitter @OAPlanet. We're also on Facebook and Google+.
- 10 Things You Need to Know About Arctic Sea Ice
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Tuesday, January 8, 2013
The Cheap iPhone Rumor Has Returned
Here's a familiar promise from the mysterious Apple whisperers: The company is working on a lower-end iPhone that will cost less and arrive by the end of this year, sources tell The Wall Street Journal's Jessica E. Lessin. It will look like the iPhone we love, only with cheaper parts - a plastic shell instead of aluminum... and recycling!
RELATED: Apple Is Now the Most Valuable Company of All Time (Kind Of)
We've been promised the same sort of affordable Apple phone before, of course, but to no avail. The idea is very un-Jobsian, after all: Apple has long prized quality over volume, which has long worked out well. Also, in Apple world, a rumor is just a rumor until proven otherwise - even if the rumorers proved accurate with their iPhone 5 predictions. And as we get closer to that alleged end-of-2013 release date, this whole thing could disappear as a manufacturing impossibility - Apple could abandon the plan altogether, one person told Lessin.
RELATED: Apple Maps Are Leaving People Stranded in the Outback
Still, Apple has some motivation for making a cheaper device. When the company has lowered prices on previous models of the iPhone, wireless carriers have reported high demand for those discounted devices. And then there are the phones on Google's Android platform, which offer a lot of cheap competition. So maybe it's time to buy into all the hype - any thrifty phone user would surely appreciate if this wish came true.
This news article is brought to you by SAVING MONEY BLOG - where latest news are our top priority.
RELATED: Apple Is Now the Most Valuable Company of All Time (Kind Of)
We've been promised the same sort of affordable Apple phone before, of course, but to no avail. The idea is very un-Jobsian, after all: Apple has long prized quality over volume, which has long worked out well. Also, in Apple world, a rumor is just a rumor until proven otherwise - even if the rumorers proved accurate with their iPhone 5 predictions. And as we get closer to that alleged end-of-2013 release date, this whole thing could disappear as a manufacturing impossibility - Apple could abandon the plan altogether, one person told Lessin.
RELATED: Apple Maps Are Leaving People Stranded in the Outback
Still, Apple has some motivation for making a cheaper device. When the company has lowered prices on previous models of the iPhone, wireless carriers have reported high demand for those discounted devices. And then there are the phones on Google's Android platform, which offer a lot of cheap competition. So maybe it's time to buy into all the hype - any thrifty phone user would surely appreciate if this wish came true.
This news article is brought to you by SAVING MONEY BLOG - where latest news are our top priority.
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