Bees and Sunspots

10 06 2008
Here is some interesting reading linking solar magnetic activity to Bees. Bees use the sun to navigate, so it is not a surprise that they’d be in tune with the sun. But there are also other issues such as immune systems and ag chemicals,
Vanishing Bee Colonies, Doomsday Scenarios and Sunspots

Vanishing Bee Colonies, Doomsday Scenarios, and Sunspots

By Aidan Maconachy
Published: 6/8/2007 at http://www.buzzle.com/

Albert Einstein once said : “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.”

Apocalyptic for sure. We haven’t reached that point yet, but some worrisome indicators suggest dramatic drops in the bee population of the US are likely to impact crop production. This is not a small agricultural sector that is being impacted either. In the US bees pollinate more than $14 billion worth of seeds and crops each year.

The disappearing bee phenomena isn’t restricted to the US. In Europe countries are experiencing varying degrees of what investigators describe as “colony collapse disorder” (or CCD). Countries effected include Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. However the most serious losses have occurred in the US. On the West Coast keepers have seen bee population losses in the 30 to 60 percent range. On the East Coast and Texas it gets as high as 70%. These are catastrophic drops for an industry that considers around a 20% population decline to be an off-season norm.

There are a number of different theories about why this is happening. After looking at a cross-section of scientific opinion I tend toward the view that the decline in the bee population is being triggered by a variety of factors, rather than a single overriding cause. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Uncategorized

NOAA: Them’s fightin’ words

10 06 2008


Bureaucracy at work

UPDATE: Today, June 11th, NOAA issued a new updated press release, which you can read here:

NOAA Proposes Rule to Require Saltwater Angler Registration

They say the program will not charge you for the first two years, but after that $15-25, and that a state saltwalter license will exempt you from the fee, but that you still have to register. It would have been nice if they included these details in the Media Advisory sent out initially.

Still, a science organization issuing a personal federal fishing license? Bad idea. This is just a way to fund a program without congressional approval of a tax.

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This is a bit off topic for this blog, but I’m posting it because it shows the thoughtless heavy handedness that is permeating government organizations like NOAA. Last week is was bonfires on the beach in Seattle being considered for a ban due to “CO2 concerns”, this week it’s fishing on the open ocean. For me, this is a tipping point.

One by one our freedoms are being taken away by environmental concerns. Where’s the ACLU on this one?

Point to NOAA: There is no way I’m going to register for one of your fishing licenses. I already buy one from the state of California for salt water fishing. We have commercial offshore fishing that takes TONS of fish, crab, lobster, whatever, and you, as a science organization, want me to register (and likely pay fees in the process to support the program) for recreational catch and release fishing now?

My advice to NOAA: Go fish!

Write your congressman, senator, and anyone who will listen. Press release below explains all. An idea: Mail them every fish you catch. An office full of stink might make them think twice about this.

You can also participate in the call in (see details below) and give them an earful.

Here’s the address:

National Marine Fisheries Service, Fisheries Statistics Division,
1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910

NATIONAL OCEANIC & ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
WASHINGTON, DC

Contact: Monica Allen 301-713-2370

NOAA to Propose Requiring Saltwater Angler Registration

NOAA’s Fisheries Service will discuss a new proposed requirement that recreational anglers who fish in federal ocean waters be registered in a national saltwater angler registry before fishing in 2009 in a phone press availability on Wed., June 11. The rule also requires registration by those who may catch
certain species anywhere, including striped bass, salmon, and shad.

WHAT: Phone press availability
WHO: Jim Balsiger, NOAA acting assistant
administrator for NOAA’s Fisheries
Service Gordon Colvin, NOAA fisheries biologist
301-713-2367 x 175

WHEN: Wed., June 11, 1:30 – 2:00 p.m. ET

WHERE: Please contact Monica Allen at 301-713-2370 for call-in information.

BACKGROUND: The national saltwater angler registry is part of a larger state and federal initiative to improve the quality and accuracy of data on marine recreational fishing catches. This improved data will help scientists and policymakers make the best conservation decisions to ensure the sustainable management of valuable fish stocks for those who enjoy fishing today and for future generations. It will also help measure
the positive economic effects of recreational fishing on the national economy.

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Categories : Uncategorized

Scientists not sure why Sun ‘continues to be dead’

10 06 2008


The sun today. There appears to be an emerging Cycle 23 spot
at the left, but still no new Cycle 24 spots. Click for large image

That’s never a good sign. Below is an excerpt from an article in Science Daily that ponders the question:

Excerpt: The sun has been laying low for the past couple of years, producing no sunspots and giving a break to satellites. That’s good news for people who scramble when space weather interferes with their technology, but it became a point of discussion for the scientists who attended an international solar conference at Montana State University. Approximately 100 scientists from Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa and North America gathered June 1-6 to talk about “Solar Variability, Earth’s Climate and the Space Environment.”

The scientists said periods of inactivity are normal for the sun, but this period has gone on longer than usual. “It continues to be dead,” said Saku Tsuneta with the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, program manager for the Hinode solar mission. […] The last cycle reached its peak in 2001 and is believed to be just ending now, Longcope said. The next cycle is just beginning and is expected to reach its peak sometime around 2012. Today’s sun, however, is as inactive as it was two years ago, and scientists aren’t sure why. “It’s a dead face,” Tsuneta said of the sun’s appearance.

Tsuneta said solar physicists aren’t like weather forecasters; They can’t predict the future. They do have the ability to observe, however, and they have observed a longer-than-normal period of solar inactivity. In the past, they observed that the sun once went 50 years without producing sunspots. That period, from approximately 1650 to 1700, occurred during the middle of a little ice age on Earth that lasted from as early as the mid-15th century to as late as the mid-19th century.

I’m never encouraged when a solar scientist describes the face of the sun as “dead”.

 


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Categories : solar

Anecdotal Climate & Weather Roundup

10 06 2008

Seattle has coldest first week of June since 1891

Seattle just experienced the coldest first week of June, according to climate records dating to 1891, said Cliff Mass, University of Washington metrologist. Both 1999 and 2008 share the record, with 1917 falling in second place, he said. “Just wait until tomorrow,” he said, when temperatures are going to be even colder.
Story here:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004466972_webweather09m.html

Missoula water park closing due to cold weather ‘to protect children from hypothermia’

Missoula water park closing for week due to cold weather
Associated Press – June 9, 2008 8:24 PM ET MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) – The Missoula Parks and Recreation Department has decided to close the Splash Montana Waterpark this week, because cold weather is forecast.

Story here:
http://www.montanasnewsstation.com/Global/story.asp?S=8454678&nav=menu227_7
Lobsterman: ““Global warming is having the opposite effect for us”

Costs up, prices down

Water temperature played a big part in the last minute scramble that closed the season with temperatures falling so low the lobsters were not crawling.

In order for the lobsters to crawl into a trap the water has to be at least over the 40-degree mark and Crouse said the spring season has hardly any times when the conditions are right.

“Our spring is just not viable,” he said. “Global warming is having the opposite effect for us and we are seeing the temperatures of the water stay lower for longer.”

Story here:
http://www.novanewsnow.com/article-220834-Costs-up-prices-down.html

Aspen to reopen this June for Skiing

Story here:
http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=93380&catid=188


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Categories : climate_change, weather