Image caption: Satellites can track African dust clouds as they migrate across the Atlantic Ocean. This NASA TOMS aerosol movie, which spans the interval June 13 through 21, 2001, shows such a cloud raining bits of the Sahara Desert over the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. [more information] NASA tested 8,100 sq. mile region between Tampa Bay and Fort Myers, Florida-Aug. 2001 study
Aug. 2001 NASA article:
8/30/2001, "Desert Dust Kills Florida Fish," "New research links huge African dust clouds with the "red tides" that kill millions of fish along the Florida coast each year," science.nasa.gov
"Without warning, the sea turns a shade of reddish brown, killing scores of fish and other marine life -- and making the water an unwelcome place for humans.
Such "red tides" have, from time to time, plagued coastal communities for centuries. Now a new study, partially funded by NASA, has revealed a surprising connection between red tides in the Gulf of Mexico and giant dust clouds that blow across the Atlantic Ocean from the distant Sahara Desert. NOAA and NASA satellites can spot such dust clouds en route from Africa to the Americas, raising hopes that space-based data could help scientists predict when red tides will strike the Gulf coast....
"The West Florida shelf is a hot spot for fishing, aquaculture and tourism, all of which can be drastically affected by a surprise visit from a red tide," said Jason Lenes, a graduate student at University of South Florida's College of Marine Science, and the lead author in the study.
Red tides, which are actually blooms of toxic algae, have in the past killed huge numbers of fish, shellfish, marine mammals, and birds. They can also trigger skin and respiratory problems in humans.
Storm activity in the Sahara Desert region kicks up fine particles
from the arid topsoil there, generating vast clouds of dust.
Easterly trade winds carry the dust across the Atlantic Ocean
and into the Gulf of Mexico.
The new study shows that these clouds fertilize the water
off the West Florida coast with iron. Plant-like bacteria use
that iron to set the stage for red tides. When iron levels go
up, these bacteria, called Trichodesmium, fix nitrogen
in the water, converting it to a form usable by other marine
life.
The addition of biologically usable nitrogen in the water makes the Gulf of Mexico a friendlier environment for toxic algae. "This is one of the first studies that quantitatively measured iron from the dust and [linked] it to red tides through Trichodesmium," said Lenes.
The research was partially funded by a NASA grant as part of ECOHAB: Florida (Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms), a multi-disciplinary research project designed to study harmful algae.
The study used satellite and ground based measurements to
track large dust clouds leaving Africa on June 17, 1999. Lenes
and his colleagues followed the clouds using data from the Advanced
Very-High-Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR),
an imager aboard the NOAA's Polar Orbiting Environmental
Satellites (POES).
.. The Saharan dust reached the West Florida shelf around July 1st, increasing iron concentrations in the surface waters by 300 percent. As a result, Trichodesmium counts shot up to 10 times what they had been prior to this event. Through a complex process involving a special enzyme called nitrogenase, the Trichodesmium used the iron to convert nitrogen in the water to a form more usable for other marine life.
In October, after a 300 percent increase of this biologically-accessible nitrogen, a huge bloom of toxic red algae (Karenia brevis) had formed within the study area, an 8,100 square mile region between Tampa Bay and Fort Myers, Florida....
Scientists have labored for several years to develop a reliable method to predict red tides, particularly because the results of these blooms can be both physically and economically devastating to a region.
..
Humans who swim in the Gulf during a red tide can experience respiratory problems by breathing toxins from K. brevis that get in the air. Also, eating shellfish poisoned by red tides can lead to paralysis and memory problems. Around the Gulf of Mexico, scientists and others have recorded fish kills totaling in the millions and manatee deaths in the hundreds resulting from a single red tide bloom.
By using satellites to monitor dust arrivals and Trichodesmium blooms, Lenes said this research could lead to forecasting of red tides. "If you could predict when a red tide is coming, you could close beaches and fisheries ahead of time," Lenes said.
.....................
Added: Sarasota candidate Buchanan, how is it that no Republicans including you have the slightest idea how badly the imaginary CO2 danger industry is robbing hungry American children and enriching fat cat cronies and green thugs?
Each day, 365 days a year, $586 million US taxpayer dollars are diverted by the federal government to alleged "climate" danger spending as of 2014. That's $21.4 billion for the year, per Congressional Research Service.
page 3, 2014 "Federal Climate Change" taxpayer funding requested:
$11.6 billion + 9.8 billion= $21.4 billion for the year. This doesn't include additional monies allocated by Congress, monies taken out of the economy via regulation (such as $18 billion removed from the economy in 2012 via costly new alleged environmental regulations), monies diverted by US states and regions, and federal monies not reported for miscellaneous reasons.
More from Congressional Research Service:
Sept. 13, 2013, "Federal Climate Change Funding from FY 2008 to FY 2014," Congressional Research Service
page 3:
"The President’s request for FY2014 contains $11.6 billion for federal expenditures on programs. In the request, 23% would be for science (the U.S. Global Change Research Program or USGCRP), 68% for “clean energy” technology development and deployment, 8% for international assistance, and 1% for adapting to climate change. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) also reports energy tax provisions that may reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions would reduce tax revenues by $9.8 billion." [This added $9.8 billion removed from tax revenue via "energy tax provisions" isn't shown on chart below (from p. 3)].
--------------------
Added: CO2 regulations against imaginary CO2 danger take billions more out of US economy:
4/22/2013, "Costs of New Regulations issued in 2012 dwarf those of previous years, according to OMB report," Regulatory Studies Center, George Washington University
(chart from GWU)
.....................
2012's most costly regulations were issued by EPA:
One new regulation costs $10.8 billion annually (adds $1800 to the price of a new car). Another regulation costing $10 billion+ annually will increase electricity costs to consumers via added equipment requirements for electricity providers:
"Regulations of 2012"...
"The most costly regulations[10] were issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Topping the list were new automotive fuel-economy standards, issued jointly by the EPA and the Department of Transportation, which the EPA calculated will cost $10.8 billion annually. The bulk of this cost will fall on drivers, who will pay an estimated $1,800 more for a new vehicle.
Coming in a close second was the EPA’s so-called Utility MACT regulation[11] at more than $10 billion annually. This 210-page regulation requires utilities and other electricity generators that use fossil fuels to install the “maximum achievable control technology” (MACT) to limit emissions. So stringent are the standards that potentially dozens of coal-fired power plants will close, thereby undermining the reliability of the power grid and substantially raising the costs of electricity for consumers. The EPA is currently reconsidering the portion of this rule pertaining to new power plants, and has stayed its implementation of the rule for such facilities."...
May 1, 2013, "Red Tape Rising: Regulation in Obama’s First Term," Heritage Foundation, James Gattuso, Diance Katz
.
===================
Added:
6/4/2012, "Climate change stunner: USA leads world in CO2 cuts since 2006," Vancouver Observer, Saxifrage
"Not only that, but as my top chart shows, US CO2 emissions are falling even faster than what President Obama pledged in the global Copenhagen Accord."... Here is the biggest shocker of all: the average American’s CO2 emissions are down to levels not seen since 1964 --over half a century ago. …Coal is the number two source of CO2 for Americans. Today the average American burns an amount similar to what they did in 1955, and even less than they did in the 1940s. …It is exactly America’s historical role of biggest and dirtiest that makes their sharp decline in CO2 pollution so noteworthy and potentially game changing at the global level.”...
..............................
US CO2 drops to 20 year low:
8/16/2012, "AP Impact: CO2 Emissions in US Drop to 20-Year Low," AP, Kevin Begos
"In a surprising turnaround, the amount of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere in the U.S. has fallen dramatically to its lowest level in 20 years, and government officials say the biggest reason is that cheap and plentiful natural gas has led many power plant operators to switch from dirtier-burning coal.
Many of the world's leading climate scientists didn't see the drop coming, in large part because it happened as a result of market forces rather than direct government action against carbon dioxide....
In a little-noticed technical report, the U.S. Energy Information Agency, a part of the Energy Department, said this month that energy related U.S. CO2 emissions for the first four months of this year fell to about 1992 levels. Energy emissions make up about 98 percent of the total. The Associated Press contacted environmental experts, scientists and utility companies and learned that virtually everyone believes the shift could have major long-term implications for U.S. energy policy....
Coal and energy use are still growing rapidly in other countries, particularly China, and CO2 levels globally are rising, not falling."...
..........................
Added: George HW Bush mandated in 1990--with the approval of the entire US political class every day since--that US taxpayers must spend decades paying for creation of a new global industry, global climate science. A special twist--the new industry is based on demonizing and punishing Americans in perpetuity:
Desperately seeking "climate action"? You got it, thanks to George HW Bush and unlimited access to US taxpayer cash by the US political class. "Climate action" via US taxpayer dollars exploded in 1990 and has continued (This chart, page 4, pdf, is an underestimate, doesn't include congressional appropriations):
"Note and Sources: The data shown here are funding disbursements by the White House U.S. Global Change Research Program and its predecessor, the National Climate Program, available at NCP 1988, 43; Climate Science Watch 2007; and Leggett, Lattanzio, and Bruner 2013. These data, however, do not represent congressional climate science funding appropriations to other government agencies. As we show later in a more detailed assessment of U.S. government climate science funding, the numbers here, especially those for more recent years, greatly underestimate the actual level of funding." pdf p. 4
Fall 2015, "Causes and Consequences of the Climate Science Boom," independent.org, Butos and McQuade
"Government policies and funding as well as the emergence of a scientific “Big Player” [UN IPCC] that has aggressively championed the hypothesis of anthropogenic global warming (AGW)1, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), have together fomented a boom in climate science that began in the early 1990s and has grown markedly over the past decade."...
Image of Bush #1, "New World Order quotes" via You Tube
....................
....................
No comments:
Post a Comment