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Visualizing Climate Change. Digital Life , billed as the largest study ever done into consumers’ online preferences. The wide-ranging survey of nearly 50,000 Internet users in 46 countries that represent 90 per cent of the world’s Internet usage ( TNS Global, market research firm).
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Digital Life, billed as the largest study ever done into consumers’ online preferences. The wide-ranging survey of nearly 50,000 Internet users in 46 countries that represent 90 per cent of the world’s Internet usage (TNS Global, market research firm). • “The digital world is transforming how they live, develop and interact and online consumers in these markets are leaving those in the developed world behind in terms of being active online and engaging in new forms of communications.” • The average social network user in Malaysia has 233 friends, compared to just 29 for Japan; Chinese users are the most prolific bloggers, with an astounding 88 per cent of the country’s wired population reporting having posted on an online forum or created their own web journal (that compares to just 32 per cent in the United States, for example); 92 per cent of Internet users in Thailand have uploaded photos to their social networking sites, compared to just 48 per cent of Germans. • Much like their compatriots in other wealthy countries, Canadians were outpaced by online consumers in the developing world. Less than a third of Canadians had posted on a blog or forum, about 60 per cent have uploaded photos to a social networking site. The average Canadian had 150 friends on their social networking site. • Overall, users in parts of the world that are still in the process of embracing the Internet are doing it increasingly via social networking: those in China, Latin America and the Middle East, for instance, spent 5.2 hours on their social networking sites and 4 hours on e-mail. Developed countries saw the reverse, with Canadian users spending 4.6 hours on e-mail and 3.8 on social networking sites. • Researchers believe the high levels of social networking use is linked to the growth of Internet connectivity via BlackBerries, iPhones and other mobile devices, which are more popular in the developing world than in Canada. • Source: Adrian Morrow, Developing world embracing mobile devices, social networking: survey , Globe and Mail Update, Sunday, Oct. 10, 2010
An aberration or a trend? A recent report [11] from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration announced that: • 2009 was one of the ten warmest years on record (since 1880) • the 2000s was the warmest decade followed by the 1990s and then the 1980s. • If the first 9 months of this year are an indication, the 2010s appear poised to continue this upward march in temperatures. Source: The PEW Center for Global Climate Change http://www.pewclimate.org/print/blog/gulledgej/record-scorching-summer-2010
Arctic sea ice extent for September 2010 was 4.90 million square kilometers (1.89 million square miles). The magenta line shows the 1979 to 2000 median extent for that month. The black cross indicates the geographic North Pole. The U.S. National Ice Center declared both the Northwest Passage and the Northern Sea Route open for a period during September. Stephen Howell of Environment Canada reported a record early melt-out and low extent in the western Parry Channel region of the Northwest Passage, based on analyses of the Canadian Ice Service. Two sailing expeditions, one Norwegian and one Russian, successfully navigated both passages and are nearing their goal of circumnavigating the Arctic. Source: http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/
Arctic summer ice could be gone 'sooner than expected' "Ice may become purely seasonal not by the end of the century, as previously thought, but earlier, much earlier,“ "We do not completely understand what mechanisms lie behind these processes.” “The Arctic is not only changing intensively under the impact of climate change but could also become a factor in climate processes” "It is not only an object or indicator, but an active factor." Vladimir Kattsov, director of the Voyeikov Chief Geophysical Observatory, said at the international forum, The Arctic: Territory of Dialogue. 15:11 22/09/2010 http://en.rian.ru/science/20100922/160681610.html
Environmental Security Alaskan communities falling into the ocean (Shishmaref and Newtok) • As a result of unprecedented warming trends due to climate change, several indigenous coastal villages in Alaska are actively trying to find out where they could move entire communities, due to erosion caused by the thawing of permafrost and large waves slamming against the west and northern shores of Alaska. • More than 80% of Alaskan communities, comprised mostly of indigenous peoples, are identified as vulnerable to either coastal or river erosion.
Inuit and Food Security • The territory of Nunavut has the highest prevalence of food insecurity in Canada, where over 50% of Inuit households are believed to experience difficulties in obtaining sufficient food. • This significantly exceeds the Canadian average of 9.2%. • Research results show a high prevalence of food insecurity with 76% of women skipping or reducing size of their meals in 2008 and 40% reporting not eating enough food when food supplies run out. • context of changing livelihoods, addictions, poverty and climate related stresses, which in many cases are exacerbating food insecurity.
Inuit Human Rights and Climate Change "If we can reverse the emission of greenhouse gases in time to save the Arctic from the most devastating impact of global warming, then we can spare untold suffering for hundreds of millions of people around the globe. Protect the Arctic and we save the planet. Use us in the Arctic as your early warning system."- Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Chair, Inuit Circumpolar Conference 2/12/05
Sheila Watt-Cloutier made climate change a human rights issue NICK ROCKEL From Tuesday's Globe and Mail Published Monday, Oct. 04, 2010 6:00PM EDT Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Inuit activist, has been selected as one of 25 Transformational Canadians. ....In the landmark 2005 legal petition she served against the United States, Sheila Watt-Cloutier linked the devastating effects...
Climate change could lead to Arctic conflict, warns senior NATO commander • Global warming and a race for resources could spark a new 'cold war' in the Arctic, US naval admiral warns ahead of key talks on environmental security • One of Nato's most senior commanders has warned that global warming and a race for resources could lead to conflict in the Arctic. • The comments, by Admiral James G Stavridis, supreme allied commander for Europe, come as Nato countries convene on Wednesday for groundbreaking talks on environmental security in the Arctic Ocean. • "For now, the disputes in the north have been dealt with peacefully, but climate change could alter the equilibrium over the coming years in the race of temptation for exploitation of more readily accessible natural resources," said Stavridis. • In recent weeks, Cairn Energy has announced the first oil and gas discoveries off Greenland and a wave of new mining licences are about to be awarded there. There are similar moves to produce gas in the far north of Russia and Norway, all in the shadow of BP's Gulf of Mexico's oil spill. • "Melting of the polar ice cap is a global concern because it has the potential to alter the geopolitical balance in the Arctic heretofore frozen in time.” • Guardian.co.uk, Monday 11 October 2010 15.46 BST
National Research: Two Eyed Seeing • “Do you want to know the most mind-blowing thing I’ve heard?” asks Mauro. “Inuit elders from four northern settlements separated by thousands of kilometres have independently concluded that climate change is caused by the earth having tilted on its axis.” • “Trusting the knowledge of elders, we shared their perspectives with scientists,” says Mauro. “By linking different ways of knowing, we discovered that a warming atmosphere is actually changing the refraction index of the sky, which dramatically alters the visual landscape of the Arctic.” • The phenomenon is caused by low altitude refraction. According to Mauro, the only other researcher actively working on this topic is Wayne Davidson, a meteorological observer in Resolute Bay, who first documented similar observations in the 1990s. • “Understandably, the elders attribute the visual change to a tilting earth, but it’s actually an optical shift caused by a complex interplay between the wind, atmosphere, earth and ice,” says Mauro. “This observational knowledge of objects shifting in the sky is actually proof of a warming world.” • http://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/newsletter-bulletin/winter-hiver/2010/mauro-eng.aspx • In another study, published this past September in Geophysical Research Letters, Landerer et al (2009) indicate that the warming of oceans, exacerbated by melting glaciers that flow into them, is causing "horizontal mass redistribution" of the world's seas. Essentially, the weight and position of the world's oceans have shifted, and this has literally caused the earth to shift its position on its axis! • http://snardfarker.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-tilting-of-the-earth
Discovery Quest this Week Two Eyed Seeing, Cheryl Bartlett