Ellen MacArthur launches her next global challenge

From BBCNews

Yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur has set herself a new long-distance challenge - creating an educational foundation to promote sustainability.
Now retired from racing yachts, she has committed herself to changing attitudes towards the planet's finite natural resources.
She wants to persuade young people and businesses to re-think how they use and design products.

"The foundation will be a catalyst for change," she says.

Speaking in London ahead of the launch of the project, Dame Ellen says that this vision of a more sustainable economy has replaced her consuming passion for sailing.

Diminishing supplies

"Five years ago I would never have dreamt I'd be doing this," she says. "But it's become the most exciting thing I've ever done - and I never thought I could say that about anything other than sailing."

The inspiration for this sustainable way of living came from her experience of long-distance voyages, she says.

"When I was at sea I managed whatever I had incredibly carefully, so I never left a computer screen on, never left a light on, I was careful with food, because you know that is all you have."
"What you have on board is finite. If you drop the only screwdriver over the side, it's gone forever. There is no more. You have to live in a very different way."

It started to make her think of the world as being like a boat stowed with finite supplies - except that unlike the frugal long-distance sailor, as a society we were tearing through what was left of the oil, gas and coal.

When she began examining the alarming rate at which resources were being used - she found herself wanting to do something about it.
"I'd come across something. From the moment I discovered it, it was as if I'd picked up a stone that I couldn't put down again."

The foundation will promote ideas for businesses, schools and universities which will encourage people to re-think how the earth's resources are being used.
This isn't a moral message, she says, but a practical one - a form of enlightened self-interest.

Cutting waste

The increasing expense of raw materials is going to drive the development of more efficient ways of working, she says - and she wants her foundation to encourage young people to develop such changes.

Products and services will have to be designed to minimize waste - and she says jobs will be created to serve this new economy.
She says the point is not to urge people to consume less, but to make sure that products are made from materials that can be re-used.
Anything from carpets to washing machines to cars should be re-designed in a way that means that nothing ends up taking the one-way trip to the landfill.

"It's about designing things so that the materials used for a shirt can be re-used for another shirt or turned into a pair of trousers. It's not about using less and less. It's about finding a cycle that works."

But a word she doesn't use is "green". And she admits to having difficulty with the terminology of environmentalism, aware that the language of the eco-warriors can have a negative effect.
"What does 'green' mean? It's not about 'green' or 'the environment'. You could argue it's about how we maintain a good quality of life. It's about how we're going to prosper in the future, when we're so dependent on something that won't be around forever."

Even the word "sustainability" is less than compelling, she suggests - saying that you wouldn't want to describe a relationship with someone as "sustainable".

Herculean challenge

But there is no doubting the seriousness of her intention - applying the dedication of the long-distance yachtswoman to the long haul of promoting her arguments.
There are links being set up with universities, partnerships with businesses and talks with educational organizations.
The foundation also provides another horizon for someone who achieved their lifetime's ambition at an early age.

After setting a world record for a single-handed circumnavigation of the globe at the age of 24 - and becoming the country's youngest dame - she was left with the "What now?" moment.
"Round the world had been my goal - and the moment I'd got there, it wasn't there any more, I'd done it."

Dame Ellen is now recycling her own energies into launching the sustainability foundation - and says she is optimistic about a positive result.
"This is an inspirational message, an aspiration - but getting there will be the most herculean challenge we've ever faced."

Links :

• Scotsman : Ellen MacArthur interview : voyage of self discovery

Animals point to ancient seaway in Antarctica

Scientists dive below Antarctic Ice Sheet to survey marine creatures

From BBCNews

Scientists have found evidence for an ancient sea passage linking currently isolated areas of Antarctica.

The evidence comes from a study of tiny marine animals living either side of the 2km thick Western Antarctic ice sheet.
Reseachers think their spread was due to the collapse of the ice sheet as recently as 125,000 years ago allowing water flow between different regions.
Their findings are published in the journal, Global Change Biology.

Bryozoans are tiny, filter feeding marine animals which in their adult form are immobile, living glued to the sides of boulders, rocks or other surfaces.

As part of the Census of Antarctic Marine Life scientists from the British Antarctic Survey have revealed striking similarities between the Bryozoans living in the Ross and Weddell seas.
These are 1,500 miles apart and separated by the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS), the third largest ice mass on the planet.

Antarctica once looked very different: a sea passage linked currently isolated areas

The finding led the scientists to conclude that these marine animals could only have spread across both seas if there had been a partial collapse of the WAIS opening up a trans Antarctic seaway. They believe this could have been as recently as 125,000 years ago.

It would only take a partial collapse to have a huge impact on sea levels raising them by as much as five metres globally.

While there is some geological evidence for the collapse of the WAIS at least once in the last million years, the data has been limited. Dr David Barnes, from the British Antarctic Survey is the lead author of the survey.

'Smoking Gun'
"There was no real smoking gun saying yes it's happened recently. This is the first time there's hard direct evidence that there has been a collapse," he told BBC News.

"For us that is a big deal. That would make the WAIS the least stable of the three ice masses and so that would mean that we could expect more sea level rise than we might have bargained for."

Because Bryozoans are abundant, fossilise easily and exist in many different, but highly localised forms, they are very useful for scientists trying to understand the connections between places.

"What we've got is this group of animals that don't disperse very well because the adults don't move at all and the larvae are short-lived and sink so they find it difficult to get around," said Dr Barnes.

"So you're left with this nice signal of where things used to be connected, and in this case it appears to be a connection between what is now an ice sheet."

He told the BBC he thinks the opening up of the seaway and the sea level rise that goes with it could have been relatively recent.

"It has to be recent because otherwise we would have lost the signal of connectivity... each ice age would have bulldozed out most of the animals living on the continental shelf. It's asking a lot to maintain a strong signal over multiple ice ages. "

The findings are a critical in understanding the future stability of the Western Antarctic Ice sheet and how ice sheets behave in different climate scenarios.
Scientists believe a future collapse of the WAIS would raise sea levels globally by 3.3m - 5m.

Links :

• Wired : Sea creatures hint at recent trans-Antarctic seaway
  

Why fish in the Arctic don’t freeze

Antarctic or Arctic fish : fresh, not frozen
These fish can survive in the coldest marine environment on the planet

From Wired

Scientists studying why fish in the Arctic ocean don’t freeze have discovered how a natural antifreeze that keeps blood flowing at sub-zero temperatures works.

The temperature of the water in the Arctic is a fairly constant 28.6 degrees Fahrenheit year-round, close to the freezing point of seawater.
The freezing point of fish blood, however, is about 30.4 degrees Fahrenheit.
You’d expect fish traveling beyond a certain latitude to ice up.

Instead, fish are able to keep moving thanks to a frost-protection protein in their blood. It was discovered about 50 years ago, but only now are scientists discovering how the protein works.

Researchers led by Bochum University chemist Martina Havenith used terahertz spectroscopy to examine water molecules in the presence of the protein.
They saw that water molecules, which normally dance around, forming and breaking bonds, slow down in the protein’s vicinity.

“The disco dance becomes a minuet,” said Havenith.

The slowing of the bond-forming process prevents ice crystallization, which would be fatal for the fish.
Under extremely low temperatures the fish can still freeze, but by that point the water around it will have frozen solid too.

The research was funded by Volkswagen, who no doubt want to find better ways of anti-freezing their cars.
The natural proteins found in the fish perform far better than man-made antifreezes, which bond directly with water molecules to lower the freezing point.
The proteins don’t need to bond. Their mere presence is enough to slow freezing.

Links :

• JBC (1978) : Antifreeze glycoproteins from Arctic Fish
  

Ancient coral reef uncovered in South Pacific

The ancient reef surrounds Lord Howe Island (AHS610 chart)

From BBC News

An ancient reef found in the Pacific may provide clues to what will happen to coral when sea temperatures rise.

A team of researchers from Australia and New Zealand have discovered a huge 9,000-year-old reef surprisingly far south.
Lord Howe Island is 600km east of the Australian mainland and has a small modern coral reef - the furthest south in the world.

The ancient reef however is nearly 30 times as large as the modern reef.
The scientists, headed by Colin Woodroffe from the University of Wollongong in Australia and researchers from Geoscience Australia, discovered a large ridge about 30m under water in the Tasman Sea.
They have published their work in Geophysical Research Letters.

The team suspected it might be an ancient reef.
The size and shape of the ridge can be mapped using a type of sonar called multi-beam echo sounding.
The researchers could not be sure it was coral until they had taken samples.

The modern reef appears in red, the ancient one in orange

Drilling for samples in the Tasman Sea is very dependent on weather and the seas can be rough - it involves lowering a submersible drill from a boat.
The samples confirmed that it was indeed coral and radiocarbon dating confirmed its age.

Other similar ancient reefs - called relict reefs - have been discovered before, but none as far south as this.
The team think that this reef died when it was flooded as a result of sea levels rising about 7,000 years ago, but the modern temperature at these latitudes also limits coral growth, which is why the relict reef is so much bigger than the modern reef.

Now that sea temperatures are rising, however, reefs may start to grow bigger at higher latitudes.

The relict reef doesn't have an extensive modern reef attached to it but it does have some individual corals which are newer - from the last 2,000 years.
This suggests that there is a suitable habitat for corals which might grow into a larger reef when temperatures rise further.

In the Northern Hemisphere both Florida and Bermuda have small reefs, though they are at the northern limits for coral life.
It is possible that large relict reefs might also be found in those northern waters.
Like the Tasman Sea relict reef, these might be able to support new growth.

Rising sea temperatures are dangerous for coral reefs at hotter tropical latitudes but they may mean we see new reef growth at the far southern, and northern, limits of current reefs.

Links :

• AFP : Ancient Australian reef raises hopes for coral as seas warm
  

NASA Earth Science Hurricane Katrina retrospective

From NASA Goddart Multimedia
On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall along the Gulf Coast. Five years later, NASA revisits the storm with a short video that shows Katrina as captured by satellites.
Before and during the hurricane's landfall, NASA provided data gathered from a series of Earth observing satellites to help predict Katrina's path and intensity.
In its aftermath, NASA satellites also helped identify areas hardest hit.

From VOANews

Severe weather: How ocean storms work

BARBARA KLEIN: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein.

BOB DOUGHTY: And I’m Bob Doughty. Today we remember Hurricane Katrina and tell about the science of severe ocean storms.

BARBARA KLEIN: Many Americans are observing the fifth anniversary of one of the nation’s worst natural disasters. Hurricane Katrina reached the state of Louisiana on the morning of August twenty-ninth, two thousand five. It was the costliest hurricane in American history, and one of the deadliest.

Radio and television programs, concerts and films are recalling the storm and its effects on the nation. Literary readings and religious observances also are marking the event.
Hurricane Katrina struck hardest in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Death and destruction from the hurricane and its effects extended along the Gulf Coast. More than one thousand eight hundred people were killed.

BOB DOUGHTY: The storm formed over the Bahamas on August twenty-third, two thousand five. The next day, it grew strong enough for scientists to call it a tropical storm. Then it moved toward the United States. It first reached land in south Florida on August twenty-fifth.

At that time, the National Hurricane Center said the winds were at a top continuing speed of more than one hundred thirty kilometers per hour. Experts identified the storm as a hurricane. They named it Katrina, and rated it as the least severe type of hurricane. Still, it caused flooding and killed people in Florida.

BARBARA KLEIN: Hurricane Katrina weakened again after striking Florida. Later it moved to the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf’s warm waters helped it gain strength. At one point, the storm’s winds were blowing at more than two hundred sixty-eight kilometers per hour. Experts increased its rating to the most severe hurricane.

Time passed, and the winds again weakened. Then Hurricane Katrina reached land in Louisiana. Its speed had fallen to about two hundred kilometers per hour when it struck near New Orleans.
But the wind was strong enough to pick up trees, vehicles and buildings. It threw them into the air like toys. Walls of water flooded over the land. Intense rain fell. Then Hurricane Katrina struck land again, this time at the border of Mississippi and Louisiana. Again, there was loss of life and terrible destruction.

BOB DOUGHTY: Severe ocean storms in the northern part of the world usually develop in late summer or early autumn near the equator. Scientists call them cyclones when they develop over the Indian Ocean. When they happen over the northwestern Pacific Ocean, the storms are typhoons. And in the eastern Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean they are called hurricanes.
Ocean storms develop when the air temperature in one area is different from the temperature nearby. Warmer air rises, while cooler air falls. These movements create a difference in the pressure of the atmosphere.

BARBARA KLEIN: If the pressure changes over a large area, winds start to blow in a huge circle. High pressure air is pulled toward a low pressure center. Thick clouds form and heavy rains fall as the storm gains speed and moves over the ocean waters. Storms can get stronger as they move over warm ocean waters.

The strongest, fastest winds of a hurricane blow in the area known as the eyewall. It surrounds the center, or eye, of the storm. The eye itself is calm by comparison.
Wind speeds in severe ocean storms can reach more than two hundred fifty kilometers an hour. Up to fifty centimeters of rain can fall. Some storms have produced more than one hundred fifty centimeters of rain.

These storms also cause high waves and ocean surges. A surge is a continuous movement of water that may reach as high as six meters or more. The water strikes low coastal areas. Surges are commonly responsible for about ninety percent of all deaths from ocean storms.

BOB DOUGHTY: The National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, keeps watch on severe storms. It works closely with public officials and with radio and television stations to keep people informed. Experts believe this early warning system has helped reduce deaths from ocean storms in recent years.
But sometimes people cannot or will not flee the path of a storm. That is what happened in many places in New Orleans.

BARBARA KLEIN: Weather scientists use computer programs to create models that show where a storm might go. The programs combine information such as temperatures, wind speed, atmospheric pressure and the amount of water in the atmosphere.
Scientists collect the information with satellites, weather balloons and devices floating in the world's oceans. They also collect information from ships and passenger flights and from government planes. These planes fly into and around storms. The crews drop instruments attached to parachutes. The instruments report temperature, pressure, wind speed and other conditions.

BOB DOUGHTY: Scientists use the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale to measure the intensity of storms based on wind speed. It provides an idea of the amount of coastal flooding and property damage that might be expected. The scale is divided into five groups or categories.
The mildest hurricane is called category one. It has winds of about one hundred twenty to one hundred fifty kilometers an hour. This storm can damage trees and lightweight structures. It can also cause flooding.

Wind speeds in a category two hurricane can reach close to one hundred eighty kilometers an hour. These storms are often powerful enough to break windows or blow the roofs off houses.
Winds between about one hundred eighty and two hundred fifty kilometers an hour represent categories three and four. An even more powerful storm is a category five hurricane.

BARBARA KLEIN: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Hurricane Katrina was a strong category three hurricane when it hit land in Louisiana. But researchers say other forces than its wind speed helped cause Katrina’s extensive destruction. NOAA scientists say Katrina’s air pressure was very low. The lower the air pressure, the stronger the storm. And Katrina was also an unusually wide storm.

Katrina’s most damaging power, however, came from the water it brought. The storm surge was estimated at more than six meters, and may have been as high as nine meters.

BOB DOUGHTY: All this water poured into Lake Pontchartrain on the north side of New Orleans. It also flooded into the Mississippi River to the south. New Orleans was built below sea level. The city is surrounded by levees made of earth and walls made of concrete.

The water and wind pressure from Katrina broke through the flood dams and destroyed many areas of New Orleans. The surge washed away large areas of the coastal cities of Biloxi and Gulfport, Mississippi. There was also heavy damage in Alabama.

BARBARA KLEIN: Some scientists believe climate change affects major storms. Some say the warming of Earth’s atmosphere is already making the storms worse. Other scientists have published studies that disagree.

Earlier this year, a special World Meteorological Organization committee reported on severe storms. The committee’s work appeared in the journal Nature Geoscience. Ten scientists took part. The experts represented both sides of the debate about global warming. They reached no clear answer about whether global warming had already intensified storms. Still, the committee made some predictions.

BOB DOUGHTY: They said global warming might cause more powerful ocean storms in the future. They said the overall strength of storms measured by wind speed might increase two to eleven percent by the year twenty-one hundred. And there might be an increase in the number of the most severe storms. But there might be fewer weak and moderate storms.

The current Atlantic Ocean hurricane season began in June. Weather experts say fewer severe storms than usual have struck since then. Experts had predicted above-normal numbers of storms during the season, which continues through November.


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Links :

• MSNBC Hurricane tracker : interactive mashup built by Stamen using Bing Maps. Use the app to track recent events and see exactly where the storm has been and where its going
• Stormpulse : other tracker
• NOAA NHC : Hurricane Earl force wind speed probabilities