Snippetts Plus’
December 2009
48.8
8th
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091203101424.htm
Major impacts of climate change expected on mental health
Leading mental health researchers are warning that some of the most important health consequences of climate change will be on mental health, yet this issue is unlikely to be given much attention at the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen. Dr Lisa Page and Dr Louise Howard from the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) at King's College London reviewed a range of recent research by scientists into the potential mental health impacts of climate change.
In an article published in Psychological Medicine online, the two mental health experts conclude that climate change has the potential to have significant negative effects on global mental health. These effects will be felt most by those with pre-existing serious mental illness, but that there is also likely to be an increase in the overall burden of mental disorder worldwide.
The scientists urge for the lack of research into the mechanisms that cause the effects of climate change on mental disorder to be addressed, so that mental health policy makers can plan for the significant impacts of climate change on mental health that are to be expected. Dr Page, lead author of the article and Clinical Lecturer in Liaison Psychiatry at the IoP, comments: 'Climate change is assuming centre stage with the upcoming UN conference in Copenhagen. While delegates will discuss the effects of climate change and possible responses by the international governments, we fear that the effects of climate change on mental health will be largely ignored, posing a tremendous risk to the mental health of millions of people in the not-too-distant future.'
Dr Page and Dr Howard identified the following ways in which climate change is likely to impact mental health:
Natural disasters, such as floods, cyclones and droughts, are predicted to increase as a consequence of climate change. Adverse psychiatric outcomes are well documented in the aftermaths of natural disasters and include post-traumatic stress disorder, major depression and somatoform disorders. The needs of people will chronic mental illness have often been overlooked following disaster in favour of trauma-focused psychological interventions and yet the mentally ill occupy multiply vulnerabilities for increased mortality and morbidity at such times.
As global temperatures increase, people with mental illness are particularly vulnerable to heat-related death. Contributing risk factors such as psychotropic medication, pre-existing respiratory and cardiovascular disease and substance misuse, are all highly prevalent in people with serious mental illness. In addition, maladaptive coping mechanisms and poor quality housing are likely to further increase vulnerability, and death by suicide may also increase above a certain temperature threshold.
Adverse impacts such as psychological distress, anxiety and traumatic stress resulting from emerging infectious disease outbreaks are also likely to increase if the predicted outbreaks of serious infectious diseases become reality.
Coastal change and increased flooding is expected to lead to forced mass migration and displacement, which will undoubtedly lead to more mental illness in affected population. Urbanisation, a phenomenon which will be partially beneficial, for example by increasing opportunities for work and better access to health services, is associated with an increased incidence of schizophrenia in developed countries. In many low- and middle-income countries, mental health provision is already hugely inadequate and is unlikely to be prioritised should further economic collapse occur secondary to climate change.
The knowledge of man-made climate change could in itself have adverse effects on individual psychological well being.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091206162955.htm
Earth more sensitive to carbon dioxide than previously thought
In the long term, the Earth's temperature may be 30-50% more sensitive to atmospheric carbon dioxide than has previously been estimated, reports a new study published in Nature Geoscience. The results show that components of the Earth's climate system that vary over long timescales -- such as land-ice and vegetation -- have an important effect on this temperature sensitivity, but these factors are often neglected in current climate models.
Dan Lunt, from the University of Bristol, and colleagues compared results from a global climate model to temperature reconstructions of the Earth's environment three million years ago when global temperatures and carbon dioxide concentrations were relatively high. The temperature reconstructions were derived using data from three million-year-old sediments on the ocean floor.
Lunt said, "We found that, given the concentrations of carbon dioxide prevailing three million years ago, the model originally predicted a significantly smaller temperature increase than that indicated by the reconstructions. This led us to review what was missing from the model." The authors demonstrate that the increased temperatures indicated by the reconstructions can be explained if factors that vary over long timescales, such as land-ice and vegetation, are included in the model. This is primarily because changes in vegetation and ice lead to more sunlight being absorbed, which in turn increases warming.
Including these long-term processes in the model resulted in an increased temperature response of the Earth to carbon dioxide, indicating that the Earth's temperature is more sensitive to carbon dioxide than previously recognised. Climate models used by bodies such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change often do not fully include these long-term processes, thus these models do not entirely represent the sensitivity of the Earth's temperature to carbon dioxide.
Alan Haywood, a co-author on the study from the University of Leeds, said, "If we want to avoid dangerous climate change, this high sensitivity of the Earth to carbon dioxide should be taken into account when defining targets for the long-term stabilisation of atmospheric greenhouse-gas concentrations."
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Lunt added: "This study has shown that studying past climates can provide important insights into how the Earth might change in the future."
(a) shows predicted global temperatures when processes that adjust on relatively short-term timescales (for example sea-ice, clouds, and water vapour) are included in the model
(b) includes additional long-tem processes that adjust on relatively long timescales (vegetation and land-ice).
This research was funded by the Research Council UK and the British Antarctic Survey.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8398545.stm&ct=ga&cd=rj36OSfKflw&usg=AFQjCNH5AMTs5m-mTizFO4Qba57GMI3qTA
Emergency water trucked into Australia's Queensland
Emergency water supplies are being transported by road to communities in the northern Australian state of Queensland. Fears are mounting that reservoirs are about to run dry, at the beginning of a long, hot summer. One parched town west of Brisbane had just eight hours worth of water left before residents were forced to significantly reduce their consumption. Weather forecasters have blamed extreme temperatures. Water storage levels at reservoirs in Toowoomba, Queensland's biggest inland city, have fallen to 8.5%.
The big dry
A new pipeline that will carry supplies from the Wivenhoe Dam near Brisbane will not be ready until the New Year.
Fortunately, residents in Toowoomba have a natural insurance policy against such dry conditions. Emergency bores have been drilled into the Great Artesian Basin, which is one of the world's largest underground lakes. Other drought-hit communities in Queensland are relying on deliveries brought by water tankers as the situation worsens. Supplies in the coal mining town of Blackwater, 825km (513 miles) north-west of Brisbane, have been reduced to a trickle.
Local motel owner, John McKenzie, says it has made life difficult.
"We got up this morning and went to shower and we didn't have enough water... and we had guests here in the same boat so it was pretty awkward to try and explain to them. They weren't happy. "And I have a guy here putting a swimming pool in - they went to fill the pool up and it was just a black ooze came out of the pipe." In recent days households in Dalby in central Queensland were told the town had only eight hours worth of water left.
There is likely to be little relief for many drought-hit regions in the months ahead with weather forecasters predicting a roasting summer for much of Australia, the world's driest inhabited continent. Emergency water supplies are being transported by road to communities in the northern Australian state of Queensland. Fears are mounting that reservoirs are about to run dry, at the beginning of a long, hot summer. One parched town west of Brisbane had just eight hours worth of water left before residents were forced to significantly reduce their consumption.
Weather forecasters have blamed extreme temperatures.
Water storage levels at reservoirs in Toowoomba, Queensland's biggest inland city, have fallen to 8.5%.
http://www.uq.edu.au/news/?article=20223
Cheap fresh water for Queensland country towns using geothermal heat
An underground source of hot-rock energy may have the potential to produce low-cost fresh water, according to The University of Queensland's Queensland Geothermal Energy Centre of Excellence. The Centre's research has found that Queensland has ample geothermal energy resources to power thermal desalination plants and provide clean water for small towns suffering from water shortages. Centre Director Professor Gurgenci said the geothermal-powered desalination systems could play a pivotal role in helping ease the water crisis facing small towns.
“This may not be the solution for large-scale desalination needed for cities like Brisbane, but should have a significant contribution in smaller towns like Dalby and Maleny, which have recently experienced extreme water shortages,” he said. “Overseas experience suggests that these systems can be scaled up to provide 10 to 20 kilolitres of water per day while also helping greenhouse plant growing.” Queensland's geothermal resources range from high-temperature Hot Fractured Rock (HFR) of the Cooper, Eromanga and possibly Drummond Basins to Hot Sedimentary Aquifiers (HSA) of the Great Artesian Basin.
Professor Gurgenci said that while some of these resources may not be hot enough for electricity generation, they would be a perfect fit for thermal desalination of underground brackish aquifers. “Australian emphasis so far has been on large-scale desalination using reverse osmosis technology although an overwhelming fraction of desalination around the whole is done by thermal means,” Professor Gurgenci said. “Studies indicate that for plants in the range of one to 100 megalitres per day, thermal desalination technologies are more suitable than reverse osmosis especially if there is a cheap and abundant supply of heat.
“A geothermal-powered desalination plant in that range can easily provide the entire fresh water needs for an outback city at the cost of around 80 cents to $1.60 per kilolitre.” The estimated cost developed by the Centre's researchers significantly undercuts the 2010/2011 bulk water prices of $1.00 to $2.00 per kilolitre outlined by the Queensland Water Commission. Professor Gurgenci said the technology could also be used in smaller-scale applications, and in particular in agricultural settings.
“Geothermal heat can be used to heat and humidify a greenhouse and produce fresh water at the same time,” Professor Gurgenci said. “This is a clever combination where desalination is coupled with an agricultural function which is both cost-efficient and environmentally-friendly.” The Queensland Geothermal Energy Centre of Excellence is funded by the Renewable Energy Fund and the Climate Change Fund established as part of Queensland's ClimateSmart 2050 climate change strategy.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://groups.google.com/group/australian-water-network/web/murray-darling-basin-1&ct=ga&cd=rj36OSfKflw&usg=AFQjCNEfFihbm9x2P56DetJpoAobc2P2aQ
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MURRAY-DARLING BASIN #1 - Australian Water Network | Google Groups
Check out the above web site it is a big site but really very interesting
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1131382/At-a-glance:-Renewables-&-Australia-/
World News Australia - Renewables: Is Australia falling behind?
Australia has some of the world's best clean energy sources, but experts claim we are lagging behind on renewables compared to many other other developed countries. So, what's laying ahead?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/12/08/2764567.htm?WT.mc_id=newsmail
Divisions run deep in Copenhagen
The Copenhagen climate talks have opened with a declaration that the 12 days of negotiations represent an historic opportunity for the world, but deep divisions between delegates have already emerged. The representative of the developing world says the amount of money set aside to help poor nations adapt to climate change is an insult, and Saudi Arabia's chief negotiator has raised issues about the validity of the scientific research used to justify claims that global warming is man-made.
United Nations climate change chief Yvo De Boer opened the conference warning that although Copenhagen had already written history, it must be the right history.” The clock has ticked down to zero. After two years of negotiation, the time has come to deliver," he said. Danish Climate Change Minister Connie Hedegaard, the host of the function, said she was disappointed that the 15th gathering of climate negotiators would not end in a legal agreement.
"This is a time to deliver, this is the place to commit," she said.
"And yes, I know, there [are] still many obstacles, but it is up to us, us in this room now, to try to overcome them, and it is doable." A four-minute video produced especially for the opening, featuring a young girl traumatised by nightmares of a world ravaged by drought and floods, was designed to shock the 15,000-strong crowd into action.
Sceptics resolute
The screams of climate change catastrophe continued to be interrupted by sceptics, who seized on leaked emails from the Climate Change Unit of Britain's University of East Anglia. Saudi Arabia's negotiator Mohammed Al-Sabban addressed the conference, claiming there were still questions around the science of man-made global warming.
He said the so-called 'Climate-gate' episode had shaken trust in the scientific literature. But his American counterpart, Jonathan Pershing, strongly disagreed, making it clear that the United States was committed to reaching a strong political agreement when President Barack Obama travels to the Danish capital next week.
"What I think is unfortunate, and in fact shameful, is the way some scientists who have devoted their lives are being pilloried in the press without due regard to the process," he said. "The science is incredibly robust."
Poor countries 'insulted'
Around 110 heads of state and government will converge on Copenhagen in the final days of the summit. As well as a deal on reducing carbon emissions, they will need to devise a way to channel aid money to poor countries to help them reduce their pollution levels, as well as adapt to climate change. Sudan holds the presidency of the group of 77 developing nations, and its negotiator attacked the European Union and the US for what he called insufficient emissions cuts.
Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aping called the $US10 billion on the table to help the poorer countries an insult. "Ten billion dollars under the current scenarios will not buy the poor of developing countries coffins, let alone address the serious problems that this challenge is causing," he said.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/12/07/2764406.htm