Climate Change

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Vegemite

Climate Change
« on: June 07, 2007, 04:28:56 AM »
I enjoyed the climate change / global warming debate on Saloon #2 so thought I'd start a new one here. What reminded me about our debate was this article about the poor ol' Tuatara, it might be on the road to extinction. The Tuatara's the last surviving reptile from the time of the dinosaurs but global warming means it will have difficulty breeding. It hasn't changed for over 200million years but now, if it can't adapt, it'll be sayonara Tuatara.


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Tuatara faces gender bending climate threat
Reuters | Wednesday, 6 June 2007
JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/The Press

FEELING THE HEAT: The ancient tuatara, which have the sex of their babies decided by temperature, could be facing extinction if global warming predictions come to pass.

The tuatara has survived ice ages and volcanic eruptions but New Zealand's last survivor of the dinosaur age may become extinct because of global warming.

The lizard-like reptile, one of the world's oldest living creatures, is vulnerable to temperature change because temperature determines the sex of its young.

According to Jennifer Moore, a Victoria University researcher investigating the tuatara's sexual behaviour, a temperature above 21.5 degrees celsius creates more male tuatara while a cooler climate leads to females.

Already male tuatara on a tiny predator- free island near the top of the South Island outnumber females by 1.7 times, she says.

"They've certainly survived the climate changes in the past but most of them (past climate changes) have been at a lower rate," she said.

"So you wouldn't expect these guys to be able to adapt to a climate that's changing so rapidly."

The tuatara, whose Maori name refers to the spines on its back, is the only survivor of a species of reptile that flourished during the age of the dinosaurs, about 200 million years ago. It can grow up to 50 centimetres long and weigh up to one kilogram and like its reptile relative, the turtle, the slow-moving tuatara can live more than 100 years, feeding mainly on insects.

But scientists say its long lifespan as well as its four-year breeding cycle
« Last Edit: June 07, 2007, 02:44:16 PM by Vegemite »

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Lotus Eater

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Re: Climate Change
« Reply #1 on: June 07, 2007, 04:42:35 AM »
This one is especially sad to me as I love the Himalayas.

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KATHMANDU - Himalayan glaciers could disappear within 50 years because of climate change, having far-reaching implications for more than a billion people living in the region, experts said on Monday.

The earth's temperature has increased by an average of 0.74 degrees Celsius over the past 100 years, according to a document circulated at a conference on climate change by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in Kathmandu.

It said global warming had pushed up the temperature of the Himalayas by up to 0.6 degrees Celsius in the past 30 years.

"It is extremely serious," said Surendra Shrestha, regional director at the United Nations Environment Programme for Asia and the Pacific. "It is going to change fundamentally the way we live."

"If the temperature continues to rise as it is, there will be no snow and ice in the Himalayas in 50 years."

Thousands of glaciers in the Himalayas are the source of water for nine major Asian rivers whose basins are home to 1.3 billion people from Pakistan to Myanmar, including parts of India and China, conference delegates said.

Andreas Schild, ICIMOD's director general, said the disappearance of glaciers meant a reduction in the mountains' natural water storage capacity.

"It means that the flow of water will be more erratic," he said.

Melting glaciers will have an adverse impact on biodiversity, hydropower, industries and agriculture and make the region dangerous to live in.

The melting also causes lakes to form at the base of glaciers, lakes which can subsequently burst their banks as temperatures continue to rise. This can have devastating effects downstream, delegates said.

"If there is a small earthquake all that water is going to come down," Shrestha told reporters in the sidelines of the conference. "Because of the altitude it will pick up debris and speed... it is like a big bulldozer that wipes everything out."

"It is a silent tsunami," he added.

Officials estimate that there are more than 3,200 glaciers in Nepal -- 14 of which have lakes which are at risk of bursting.

According to Om Bajracharya, a senior Nepali government hydrologist, the Khumbhu glacier in the Everest region frequented by thousands of climbers and trekkers every year, receded by 30 metres between 1978 and 1995.

Story Date: 5/6/2007

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Lotus Eater

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Re: Climate Change
« Reply #2 on: June 07, 2007, 05:20:17 AM »
And even more disturbing:

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DHAKA - Rising temperatures will hurt food production in Bangladesh, and millions of people could be displaced as the seas around the low-lying nation rise, environment experts said on Tuesday.
 
"It is really worrying that production of our main food crops rice, wheat and potato has already started to decline," said Ainun Nishat, an environment expert at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.
"Production will deplete steadily as the climate changes more and more, and by 2015 Bangladesh, along with neighbouring countries, may be forced to look for new brand of crops," he told Reuters.

"With the changing behaviour of weather, time of rainfall has changed, drought has become more rampant while threats of more flooding also loom," Nishat said.

He said higher temperatures and concentration of carbon dioxide in the air was hurting crop output.

The water flow in the country's main rivers has also depleted, especially in summer when most food crops are sown in agrarian Bangladesh, home to more than 140 million people, mostly rice-eaters.

The supply of fish from the rivers has declined across the country, due also to the increased salinity in the rivers along the shores of the Bay of Bengal.

"The main source of water in our rivers is the upstream glaciers. The rise of temperature means these glaciers are being smaller day by day. As a result, the supply of water is being reduced," said Mozaharul Islam, a research fellow of Bangladesh Center for Advance Studies.

"It leads to drought-like situation in Bangladesh's north-western region in the dry season, affecting production of rice and wheat," he said.

The experts said around 11 percent of Bangladesh land would go under water in the next 50 years due to rise in the water level of the Bay of Bengal as a result of global warming. This will displace millions of Bangladeshis, mostly members of the fishing community.

 
Story by Azad Majumder 

And where will they go, how will they survive and who will help them?

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Raoul F. Duke

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Re: Climate Change
« Reply #3 on: June 07, 2007, 05:33:47 AM »
All as New Zealand gets overrun by hot, randy, gay dinosaur-lizards. kkkkkkkkkk

I do apologize. I just couldn't get the image out of my head.
"Vicodin and dumplings...it's a great combination!" (Anthony Bourdain, in Harbin)

"Here in China we aren't just teaching...
we're building the corrupt, incompetent, baijiu-swilling buttheads of tomorrow!" (Raoul F. Duke)

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Vegemite

Re: Climate Change
« Reply #4 on: June 07, 2007, 02:46:26 PM »
All as New Zealand gets overrun by hot, randy, gay dinosaur-lizards. kkkkkkkkkk

REPTILES - the Tuatara is a reptile, not a lizard. bibibibibi

We'll get over-run by hot, randy, gay dinosour reptiles!

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Mr Nobody

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Re: Climate Change
« Reply #5 on: June 07, 2007, 06:10:04 PM »
Lizards are reptiles. Tuatara aren't lizards, but a different family, although still reptiles. Turtles are reptiles but not lizards. Snakes are reptiles but not lizards.Dinosaurs are not reptiles nor lizards any more than they are mammals, which are also not lizards or reptiles. Birds too, aren't reptiles, but maybe dinosaurs after all. Pteranodons aren't dinosaurs, nor birds, but something else again. I think they aren't reptiles now either, though. And thus not lizards.

All are (or at least were) probably delicious, and if still existent, are bound to be a main component of some dish or another in Cantonese cooking, where, after all, crocodiles (another reptile, but not a lizard either) are a fish. I think frogs are a kind of chicken in Chinese. If they are endangered, then they are probably a medicine as well.

People in New Zealand don't eat Tuatara any more since the importation of pakeha, although people in Bangladesh would, if they could, along with all the above.

If the Chinese find out about randy Tuataras living for so long, the poor lizards will become a medicine, which can then be a great source of income to the many tuatara farmers living in NZ, along with the third eye they sometimes have while young could be used as a medicine to enhance their psychic powers.

Hope that sorted it all out. A bucket of fried lizard parts, anyone? Want fries with that?

BTW, I solved the world's CO2 issues. Have sent a summary to some scientists who seem impressed, and it is now going the rounds of the skeptics societies, being checked by scientists, engineers, and various luddites of interest. It is doing the rounds as "the shellfish solution". It looks like it really might work. Everyone can now stop arguing and get on with their lives. Send cheques care of Mr N, centre of the universe. Thank you, thank you one and all. Go back to what you were doing. Nothing to see here.

So now you can all rest assured that all possible is done to prevent global warming.
Just another roadkill on the information superhighway.

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Vegemite

Re: Climate Change
« Reply #6 on: June 07, 2007, 07:46:22 PM »
If the Chinese find out about randy Tuataras living for so long, the poor lizards will become a medicine, which can then be a great source of income to the many tuatara farmers living in NZ, along with the third eye they sometimes have while young could be used as a medicine to enhance their psychic powers.

Hope that sorted it all out. A bucket of fried lizard parts, anyone? Want fries with that?

REPTILES!!! Not lizards...they're a reptile. bibibibibi

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Tuatara's relatives were the beak headed reptiles (Rhinocephalia). These spread all around the world 200 million years ago, but died out 100 million years ago. Only Tuatara survived to become  a "living fossil".

Tuatara (Sphenodon) is often used by zoologists as an example of about as basic a reptile as they can find. "The diapsid reptile Sphenodon is the most unspecialised living amniote." The evolution of both reptiles and birds can be described starting from tuatara anatomy. This does NOT mean tuatara is the common precursor, just that comparative anatomical diagrams of reptiles and birds can start conveniently with this animal.

Us Kiwis are proud of our Tuatara!

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teleplayer

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Re: Climate Change
« Reply #7 on: June 09, 2007, 12:05:13 PM »
Lizards are reptiles. Tuatara aren't lizards, but a different .... And thus not lizards.

All are (or at least were) probably delicious, and if still existent, are bound to be a main component of some dish or another in Cantonese cooking, where, after all, crocodiles (another reptile, but not a lizard either) are a fish. I think frogs are a kind of chicken in Chinese. If they are endangered, then they are probably a medicine as well.

People in New Zealand don't eat Tuatara any more since the importation of pakeha, although people in Bangladesh would, if they could, along with all the above.

If the Chinese find out about randy Tuataras living for so long, ...to enhance their psychic powers.

Hope that sorted it all out. A bucket of fried lizard parts, anyone? Want fries with that?

BTW, ....


Definitely one of your funniest in a while.  bkbkbkbkbk


And hope you'll forgive me, but I read so many of your posts hearing the voice of the Geico gecko and this one, especially is no exception.

Free Pie and Chips: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmiK7cIx-pU
Cup of Tea:         http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip5VOv92bC8

Talk Show #2 (aka: People trust advertising icons):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnLaDOLaj3I

 "...for the record, the Geico Gecko has been voiced by Kelsey Grammar (the stiff English accent), Richard Steven Horvitz (the voice in the Kung Fu Fighting spot), and Dave Kelly (the relaxed British-Aussie accent)." The new voice is Jake Wood new on "East Enders" as Max Branning and has been on "Red Dwarf" as Kill Crazy.

So, bring on the KungFu butt whippin'! I had to get it off my chest.

« Last Edit: June 09, 2007, 12:13:53 PM by teleplayer »