Satellites reveal sudden Greenland ice melt

[The Hammer]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18978483

The surface of Greenland's massive ice sheet has melted this month over an unusually large area, Nasa has said.

Scientists said the "unprecedented" melting took place over a larger area than has been detected in three decades of satellite observation.

Melting even occurred at Greenland's coldest and highest place, Summit station.

The thawed ice area jumped from 40% of the ice sheet to 97% in just four days from 8 July.

Although about half of Greenland's ice sheet normally sees surface melting over the summer months, the speed and scale of this year's thaw surprised scientists, who described the phenomenon as "extraordinary".

[-jose-]

Mother Earth is very upset with the way humans treat the earth and one of these days she's going to wipe us all out...

[DARKSEID]

I remember watching Planet Earth and learning about the arctic forests that supply almost all the oxygen on earth.

And then I saw these recent pictures of the arctic on yahoo. Anybody know if this is normal, or if the climate changes are endangering these trees?

[BetterCallSaul]

The quicker humans cause an ecological disaster, the quicker the Earth can start its recovery. Eventually humans will wipe ourselves out and the Earth will continue to thrive as it has done for billions of years.

That's why I don't believe that there are many highly intelligent lifeforms in the universe. Life reaches a point where it's intelligent enough to use a planets resources for its own benefit, but in turn destroys its means to survival before its brain can evolve to a point where it has the necessary intellect to reverse the damage it has caused.

[The Hammer]

The quicker humans cause an ecological disaster, the quicker the Earth can start its recovery. Eventually humans will wipe ourselves out and the Earth will continue to thrive as it has done for billions of years.

That's why I don't believe that there are many highly intelligent lifeforms in the universe. Life reaches a point where it's intelligent enough to use a planets resources for its own benefit, but in turn destroys its means to survival before its brain can evolve to a point where it has the necessary intellect to reverse the damage it has caused.

Yes.

It took 3 billion years for complex life (multi-celled organisms) to evolve from simple life. Many stars don't live more than a billion years, so would that give simple life on it's planets enough time to evolve into complex life?

It took another 500,000,000 years for "intelligent" life to evolve on earth from complex life.

I believe that although simple life is abundant in the universe, complex life is uncommon. And intelligent life is very, very rare.

[The Hammer]

Protected tropical forests' biodiversity 'declining'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18970076

Despite having protected status, the biodiversity in a large number of tropical forests is still continuing to decline, a study has suggested.

The authors said the findings should cause concern because the areas have been seen as a final refuge for a number of threatened species.

Habitat disruption, hunting and timber exploitation have been seen as signs of future decline, they added.

The findings have been published online by the science journal Nature.

"The rapid disruption of tropical forests probably imperils global biodiversity more than any other contemporary phenomenon," the international team of research wrote.

"Many protected areas in the tropics are themselves vulnerable to human encroachment and other environmental stresses."

Tropical forests are considered to be the biologically richest areas on the planet.

Humans are in the process of causing a major ecological crisis and the worst mass extinction in 65 million years.

Climate change (or "global warming" as it's inaccurately labeled) is only a part of it.

[Optimistic]

We're ****ing the earth up pretty badly.

[-Swizzy-]

on the positive side, a huge land mass just became habitable.

[MARKBNLV]

The quicker humans cause an ecological disaster, the quicker the Earth can start its recovery. Eventually humans will wipe ourselves out and the Earth will continue to thrive as it has done for billions of years.

That's why I don't believe that there are many highly intelligent lifeforms in the universe. Life reaches a point where it's intelligent enough to use a planets resources for its own benefit, but in turn destroys its means to survival before its brain can evolve to a point where it has the necessary intellect to reverse the damage it has caused.

good post man made me think

[MARKBNLV]

We're ****ing the earth up pretty badly.

I magine what chinas doing they are the usa times 1000 right now,people here talk about carbon footprint well the chinese have reversed it.