Fatalistic Friday: Warmer Winters Shrinking Scottish Sheep

by Emily Gertz

categories: Arctic & Antarctic, Consumer, Drowning Nations, Environmental Justice, Fatalistic Friday, Food & Agriculture, Forests, Greenhouse Gas, Humanitarian Relief, Oceans, Wilderness, Wildlife & Biodiversity

Published July 03, 2009 @ 01:00PM PT

Are We Not Sheep? We Are Devo(lving) Scientists solve mystery of Scotland's shrinking sheep: Shorter, milder winters caused by global warming to blame for steady decrease in size of St Kilda sheep. (The Guardian)

Rainy Days and Thursdays Always Get Me Down: Millions of euro worth of damage was caused yesterday after Dublin was swamped by a record two weeks' worth of rain in one hour. "This is the second time within the space of 12 months that Dublin experienced this type of flooding and it is clear that this is as a direct consequence of climate change," Lord Mayor Councillor Emer Costello said. (The Irish Independent)

Never Can Say Goodbye: ExxonMobil continues to sink hundreds of thousands of dollars into climate change sceptic groups National Center for Policy Analysis, the Heritage Foundation, and the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. This is despite promising more than once to stop its efforts to cultivate fear, uncertainty and doubt about global warming; Between 1998 to 2005, ExxonMobil gave almost $16 million to 43 lobby groups that worked to confuse Americans about the reality of global warming. (Wonk Room)

I Want You Back: New research reconstructing the extent of ice in the sea between Greenland and Svalbard from the 13th century to the present indicates that there has never been so little sea ice as there is now. Even though the 13th century was a notably warm time, there has never been so little sea ice as in the 20th century. (ScienceCentric)

Sludge, Drain O'er Me: EPA has posted a list of 44 “High Hazard Potential” coal ash waste dumps. They're near 26 communities in 10 different states, and similar to the impoundment that buried over 300 acres in Tennessee in toxic mud late last year. (Associated Press)

And highlights of the rest of the week's bad news about global warming:

Global warming may halve Bangladesh rice yields (SciDev.net)

NZ scientist warns of Antarctic ice melt, sea rise (China Central Television)

Permafrost melting a growing climate threat (Reuters)

Ocean acidification may push many fish to the brink (Christian Science Monitor)

Oyster Die-off in Pacific May Be Due to Ocean Acidification (e360 - Yale)

Global Sunscreen Won’t Save Corals (Carnegie Institution for Science)

India Will Reject Curbs On Its CO2 Emissions (CleanTechies)

Consumer culture keeps carbon emissions high(American Chemical Society)

World failing to halt biodiversity decline (Associated Press)

Amazon squatter law fuels deforestation worries (ScienceCentric)

Mangrove-dependent animals globally threatened (ScienceCentric)

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Image: Soay sheep on St. Kilda, Scotland. Via CommonorGarden/flickr