Scientists install webcam to spy on Mt. Everest

by Kraig Becker on

Research scientists focused on the impact of climate change on the Himalaya have installed a new webcam to keep an eye on Mt. Everest. The high-definition camera is part of a larger initiative called SHARE, or “Stations at High Altitude for Research on the Environment,” which hopes to track the retreating glaciers on the world’s tallest peak – something that is already having a profound effect on the region.

The webcam is actually installed on nearby Kala Patthar, which offers some of the best views of Everest’s South Side. The camera is powered by solar energy, which means it is only active from 6AM to 6PM local Nepal time. But when it is transmitting images, it auto-updates every five minutes, providing some spectacular images of the mountain. You can examine those images for yourself simply by clicking here.

The SHARE team also installed a sophisticated set of meteorological monitors on Kala Patthar as well. Those sensors are feeding back data on temperature, wind speed, barometric pressure, and the like. The data will be used in the long term by the scientists studying climate change, but it can also offer us a glimpse of what conditions are like in the High Himalaya as well. Weather buffs can view that data feed by clicking here.

With the famed Khumbu Glacier in full retreat, the impact of its shrinking size is already leaving an indelible mark on the local people. As small streams and rivers begin to dry up, many of the villages lose their fresh water supply, and are now forced to walk extra miles just to find the water they need. If that continues, the Himalaya could have a severe water crisis on its hand in the very near fture.

New study finds national parks at risk

by Kraig Becker on

The National Parks Conservation Association released a comprehensive report yesterday that paints a grim picture for the future of the national parks in the U.S. The report, which is entitled “The State of America’s National Parks,” examines a number of economic and environmental threats to the parks and is the result of more than a decade of research. The non-profit NPCA also calls on the Obama Administration to address those threats while developing a comprehensive plan for the future, ahead of the 2016 centennial of the National Park Service.

The report, which can be read in it’s entirety here, identifies a number of challenges to the future of America’s national parks. The threats, which are both old and new, include pollution, invasive species, climate change, and continued funding shortfalls, amongst others. The NPCA goes on to say that many of these threats are already having a real and dramatic impact on the parks. During their research they found that 63% of the parks surveyed had issues with air quality to some degree or another. Others were found to have poor water quality as well, while a staggering 95% of the parks assessed had lost at least one plant or animal species over the course of the past ten years.

According to the NPCA, the largest threats to the parks, and their natural resources, stem from two sources – human activity and climate change. In the case of the former, the development of lands surrounding the park is changing the natural habitats of wildlife and contaminating both the air and the water. It may be the latter that has the most lasting effect however, as the report cites threats to everything from the redwoods of Sequoia National Park in California to the coastlines of Katmai in Alaska, as being dramatically impacted by the changing climate.It isn’t all doom and gloom however, as the report also spotlights success stories in several parks as well. For instance, a comprehensive effort to remove non-native species, including horses, rats, and pigs, from the Channel Islands has helped the native fox species there to bounce back in numbers. Similarly, a “vessel management plan” in Glacier Bay National Park has been very successful in protecting the marine mammals that live there as well. The NPCA says that these examples show that when “National Park Service staff have sufficient financial support, up-to-date scientific information, and adequate training,” they can do positive things.

In order to protect these vital natural resources, the NPCA is calling upon the Obama Administration to create a plan for the long term management of the parks. That plan, they contend, must address the threats to the parks and create a system for monitoring the quality of the air and water found within their boundaries. The organization is also asking the President to issue an Executive Order that will commit federal resources to preparing the parks for their second one hundred years and beyond. The NPCA believes that can only be achieved by fully funding the Park Service to equip them with all the tools necessary to address these threats properly.

Considering the attendance numbers over the past few years, it is evident that Americans recognize and appreciate the value of their national parks. Hopefully this report will send the wake-up call that is necessary to ensure that those amazing natural spaces will be around in another hundred years so that new generations of Americans can enjoy them too.

[Photo credit: National Parks Conservation Association]

National Geographic announces Emerging Explorers for 2011

by Kraig Becker on

National Geographic has revealed their selections for the 2011 Emerging Explorers program, which spotlights outstanding scientists and adventurers who are doing great things, even at the early stages of their career. The awards, which are given on a yearly basis, include a $10,000 grant to assist the recipients in furthering their work, which can be in any number of diverse fields.

There are 14 men and women who have earned the title of “Emerging Explorer” this year. They include environmental scientist Jennifer Burney, who is exploring the impact of food production and distribution on climate change and Jørn Hurum, a Norwegian paleontologist who is exploring fossils on the remote Svalbard archipelago in Norway. Entomologist Dino Martins earned a nod for his research on how environmental changes are effecting insects, which are in turn important for pollinating the plants that sustain life on our planet. Meanwhile, Tuy Sereivathana is working to protect slightly larger creatures in the form of Cambodia‘s endangered elephant population.

These are just four examples of the 2011 class of Emerging Explorers. There are ten others who are doing interesting and important work in their own fields of interest as well. National Geographic recognizes that they are all on the cutting edge of their professions, and that their work could have a lasting impact on their particular realms.

While winning this award is a great honor, it is by no means an indicator of future success. Still, past winners have gone on to make impressive strides in their areas of expertise and achieved great things along the way. These Emerging Explorers are working hard to not only unravel the mysteries of our planet, but the entire universe as well. Pretty heady stuff from a group of young people.

Bowermaster’s Adventures: Navigating the hordes of jellyfish

by Jon Bowermaster on

Jellyfish — those gelatinous, stinging, floating-condoms-of-the-sea, the pint-sized boogeyman of the ocean are fast becoming the equivalent of a coal mine’s canaries. Appearing this summer en masse along coastlines around the globe, jellyfish are evidence of just how badly we’re treating the ocean and with painful results.

During the last days of summer jellyfish swarmed the Atlantic coast of Spain stinging hundreds on a single day, sending many swimmers to the hospital. While most of the stinging effects would go away in a week or two, many can still itch months later and sometimes require surgery to remove the affected area.

Dubbed a couple years back by the New York Times as the “cockroaches of the sea,” hordes of jellyfish have been showing up in similar abundances along beaches in New York, France, Japan and Hawaii, stinging innocent passersby and clogging fishing nets.

While jellyfish do little more than float with the currents and sting only when bumped into, last year more than 30,000 Australians were treated for stings, double the year before. Such swarming used to happen on occasion, but last just a couple days. Now some are lasting for weeks. In Spain this summer a fishing boat from the Murcia region reported an offshore swarm of iridescent purple jellyfish spread over a mile.

“Those jellyfish near shore are a message the sea is sending us saying ‘Look how badly you are treating me,’ ” jellyfish expert Dr. Josep-Maria Gili with the Institute of Marine Sciences of the Spanish National Research Council told the New York Times.

Experts believe this is a problem that’s only going to grow in years to come, thanks to a variety of environmental ills bearing down on the ocean simultaneously:

1. GLOBAL WARMING increases sea surface temperatures, which encourage jellyfish growth, as does a corresponding lack of rainfall. Typically freshwater from rain aggregates near shore and helps keeps the jellyfish at a distance; lack of rain due to a changing climate – as they’ve experienced along the European coasts this summer — means jellyfish float closer and closer to shore.

2. COASTAL POLLUTION reduces oxygen levels and visibility in the water, which scares most fish away from the shoreline but is conditions in which jellyfish thrive. While most fish have to see their catch, jellyfish filter food from the water, so eat passively.

3. OVERFISHING eliminates natural predators of jellyfish like tuna and swordfish, which also allows for more plankton growth, which helps the jellyfish proliferate.

One bright note to the boom? Some predict in the not-so-distant future jellyfish may be the only marine life left and thus may become a dietary staple. Savvy scientists, like the University of British Columbia’s Daniel Pauly, believe thanks largely to overfishing that we better start working on some jellyfish recipes … and fast.
Eating jellyfish is already prevalent in some Asian and Third World countries where sea cucumbers and sea urchins – “which live off dirt,” notes Pauly – are already on menus. When Pauly first suggested the notion of jellyfish sandwiches, it was intended as a joke. Not today.

Photos show effects of climate change on Everest

by Kraig Becker on

A new series of photos from the Himalaya reveal the undeniable effects of global climate change on the glaciers there. This is especially evident on Mt. Everest, where comparative shots from 1921 show just how much the Rongbuk Glacier has retreated over the past 89 years.

Filmmaker and mountaineer David Breashears made the journey to Everest’s North Side, where explorer George Mallory once took a very famous photo of the mountain. Standing in the very spot where Mallory once shot his image, Breashears took a new one, and the differences between the two are startling. In the earlier photo, a thick layer of snow and ice stretches far down the valley, but in the one taken by Breashears, the glacier has withered dramatically. In fact, the Rongbuk has lost more than 320 vertical feet since Mallory shot his photo.

Over the past few years, Breashears has visited a number of other famous mountains throughout Nepal, Tibet, and Pakistan as well. While there, he took similar photos, and each case he discovered a significant loss of glacial ice, which is particularly troubling considering that the Himalayan glaciers are the Earth’s largest sub-polar ice reserves. The loss of that ice has already had a direct and profound impact on the mountains and the people that live there, many of whom now have to walk for hours each day just to find fresh water.

Breashears has taken his collection of photos and created an exhibit known as Rivers of Ice, which just went on display last week at the Asia Society, located in Manhattan. The photos will be open to the public to see until August 15, giving visitors a chance to witness the changes for themselves.

[Photo credit: AFP]