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Moon Dance (Vampire for Hire, Book 1)

Posted by admin on August 13th, 2011

Review **Acclaim for MOON DANCE and J.R. RAIN**

“I enjoyed this immensely. The protagonist, Samantha Moon, is a female vampire with a husband and children. Those predate her condition; six years ago she was attacked by a vampire and rendered into one. Now she’s trying to carry on with family and private eye business, and she’s a feisty, skilled person, so is doing mostly okay. It is not a horror story; she buys animal blood to eat and doesn’t generally prey on humans. But her husband has an increasing problem with her coldness–not of spirit, but of body. ‘You sicken me and scare the hell out of me,’ he tells her. ‘And when I touch you it’s all I can do to not gag.’ She replies, ‘Words every wife wants to hear.’ I love this! She really doesn’t deserve to be frozen out of her marriage, yet his attitude is understandable. In the course of the novel she solves the mystery she is tackling for a client, and finds a new romantic interest. What makes it special are her character and nature. I sure wouldn’t have kicked her out of bed. I recommend it as light reading, odd as that may sound.” –Piers Anthony, New York Times bestselling author of A SPELL FOR CHAMELEON and ON A PALE HORSE

“MOON DANCE is absolutely brilliant!” –Lisa Tenzin-Dolma, author of UNDERSTANDING THE PLANETARY MYTHS

“MOON DANCE is a must read. If you like Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum, bounty hunter, be prepared to love J. R. Rain’s Samantha Moon, vampire private investigator.” –Eve Paludan, author of LETTERS FROM DAVID

“Impossible to put down. J.R. Rain’s MOON DANCE is a fabulous urban fantasy.” –April Vine, author of THE MIDNIGHT ROSE

“Gripping, adventurous, and romantic–J.R. Rain’s ARARAT is a breakneck thriller that traces the thread of history from Biblical stories to current-day headlines. Be prepared to lose sleep!” –James Rollins, international bestselling author of ALTAR OF EDEN and THE DOOMSDAY KEY

“DARK HORSE is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time! A great classic detective story with a modern twist. Unique and interesting characters (I think I’m half in love with Jim Knighthorse now!), a great plot that kept me guessing until the end, and some of the funniest lines I’ve read anywhere. Rain does an amazing job of blending suspense, mystery and humor in this fantastic debut novel destined for the keeper shelf.” –Gemma Halliday, Rita and Golden Spur award-winning author of MAYHEM IN HIGH HEELS and SCANDAL SHEET

“I totally loved THE BODY DEPARTED. As someone who communicates with those who are either earthbound or have crossed over–your descriptions and interpretations of the dialogue and circumstances could not have been written more accurately. My favorite scene is the one of Jesus stepping down from the cross and then the passionate and compassionate way it was treated as he went back to the cross. I will relive that for a long time to come. You’re a wonderfully descriptive writer who paints a very creative, visionary canvass based in a paranormal pallet that only a few experience and many can enjoy. Thank you for your talent.” –Julie Belmont, author of THE PATH TO PERSONAL SUCCESS AND FREEDOM –This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. My warning bells sounded, starting first as a low buzz in my ears. The buzzing is always followed by an increase in heart rhythm, a physical pounding in my chest. I knew the feeling well enough to trust it by now, and I immediately began looking for trouble. And as I rounded another corner, there it was.

Three men stepped out of the shadows in front of me. I slowed, then finally stopped. Four more men stepped out from behind a raised truck parked on the street. Next to the house was an empty, dark school yard. As if reading their collective minds, I had a fleeting prognostication of my immediate future: an image of the seven men dragging me into the school yard. Then having their way with me. Then leaving me for dead.

A good thing the future isn’t written in stone.

I smiled at them. “Hello, boys.”

* * *

I could smell alcohol on their breaths and sweat on their skin. The sweat was pungent and laced with everything from fear and excitement, to hostility and sexual frustration. None of it smelled good. If mean had a scent, this would be it.

A smallish Latino stepped forward. A switchblade sprang open at his side, locked into place. For my benefit, he let the faint light of the moon gleam off its polished surface. He was perhaps thirty-five and wore long denim shorts and a plaid shirt. He was surprisingly handsome for a rapist.

“If you scream, I’m going to hurt you.” His accent was thick.

“Gee, what a romantic thing to say,” I said.

“Shut up, bitch.”

I kept my eyes on him. I didn’t need to look at the others. I could feel them, sense them, smell them. I said, “Now what would your mothers all think of you now? Ganging up on a single woman in the middle of the night. Tsk, tsk. Really, I think you should all be ashamed.

”The little Latino looked at me blankly, then said simply: “Get her.”

Movement from behind. I turned, punched, extending my arm straight from my body. Jacky would have been proud. My fist caught the guy in the throat. He flopped down, gagging and holding his neck. Probably hurt like hell. I didn’t care.

I surveyed the others, who had all stopped in their tracks. “So what was the plan, boys? You were all going to get a fuck in? The very definition of sloppy seconds—hell, sloppy thirds and fourths and fifths. Then what? Slit my throat? Leave me for dead? Let some school janitor find me stuffed in a dumpster? You would deny my children their mother for one night of cheap thrills?

”No one said anything. They looked toward their leader, the slick Latino with the switch. Most likely not all of them spoke English.

“I’ll give you once chance to run,” I said. “Before I kill all of you.” –This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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Sixteen Brides

Posted by admin on August 13th, 2011

Product Description Sixteen Civil War widows living in St. Louis respond to a series of meetings conducted by a land speculator who lures them west by promising “prime homesteads” in a “booming community.” Unbeknownst to them, the speculator’s true motive is to find an excuse to bring women to the fledging community of Plum Grove, Nebraska, in hopes they will accept marriage proposals shortly after their arrival! Sparks fly when these unsuspecting widows meet the men who are waiting for them. These women are going to need all the courage and faith they can muster to survive these unwanted circumstances–especially when they begin to discover that none of them is exactly who she appears to be.

About the Author Stephanie Grace Whitson, bestselling author and two-time Christy Award finalist, pursues a full-time writing and speaking career from her home studio in Lincoln, Nebraska.

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Huge Tundra fire 2007 offer of climate indices

Posted by admin on August 10th, 2011

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – A forest fire that burned over 400 square kilometres of the tundra in the torrid summer 2007 flow as the amount of carbon in the atmosphere as the Arctic all normally absorbs each year, according to a new study in the scientific journal Nature of Alaska. Life Inc.: no new car this year, I am ruined erratic MOM: new trial “a risk, I am ready to take” schools dispute pits ‘haves’ against “poor” Teen buried in the sand: “I thought I was going to die” where are people of colour in national parks? Company gives $ 1 million to the pro-Romney group, which dissolves FAA cost millions more that it would save

The fire of the tundra, near slope North of the Alaska Anaktuvuk River, was viewed as an event without precedent at the time. He was, by far, the largest ever recorded on the Arctic tundra without trees unique forest fire and was twice as large as all previously recorded tundra of Alaska fires combined.

But it can be a worrying sign of climate problems in the future, according to the study and the researchers who conducted it.

The study, published Thursday, measured the amount of carbon emitted by the fire of long months – even if massive it covered only a tiny portion of the vast North Slope – 2.1 million metric tons.

“It was of the same order of magnitude as that Arctic resumed and stores it in the plant biomass,” said Bret-Harte data of the Institute of Arctic biology at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, one of the authors of the study.

Which creates the potential for a “positive feedback” loop enhance the warming trend in the North, according to the study.

Repeated major fires could even negate any potential benefits of carbon absorption of growth plants in the Arctic that has been made possible by global warming in the region, the researchers said.

Fires in the Arctic tundra are not unusual, but most of the flames are very small and short-lived due to the cold climate and humidity of the environment, Bret Harte said.

The fire in 2007, however, occurred in extreme conditions – a particularly hot and dry year, marked by smaller Arctic sea ice cover ever recorded by satellite, in addition to the winds. The fire caused lightning began in July of the same year and smoldered weeks before it was whipped up by winds in September, when the tundra plants have been drained, she said.

All indications are that the climate change in the Arctic will be more likely future fires, Bret Harte said. Lightning strikes on the northern slopes have increased substantially in the course of the past 20 years, increasing the potential for fire separation, while temperatures are rising, he said.

“The expectation would be that of conditions that allowed this to happen could probably recur in the future,” said Bret Harte. “We will probably see it more often that we have in the past.”.

A bright note in the study was the discovery that none of the documents burned in the fire was plu of 50 years, contrary to fears, fire released carbon stored in land vegetation that grew to hundreds or thousands of years.

“It is really that it was primarily young carbon,” proves much available material containing carbon in the soil remains intact, said.

During this time, burned Tundra is recovering, said Bret-Harte, which refers to the distance Toolik Field Station, a research centre of the University of Alaska located relatively close to the Anaktuvuk River fire site.

Lichens to slow growth, a source of food for caribou and mosses were not yet back, she said. But such vascular plant cotton grass and shrubs grow well again, and there is a good harvest of cloudberries on the site, she said.

“At first glance, it seems pretty green,” she said. “It is not just a black hole in the landscape.”

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click on for restrictions.

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Climate change Demystified? Not so fast

Posted by admin on August 9th, 2011

New research suggesting that cloud cover, not carbon dioxide, causing global warming is getting buzz in climate sceptic circles. But the scientists dismissed as unrealistic and politically motivated research. Life Inc.: no new car this year, I am ruined erratic MOM: new trial “a risk, I am ready to take” schools dispute pits ‘haves’ against “poor” Teen buried in the sand: “I thought I was going to die” where are people of colour in national parks? Company gives $ 1 million to the pro-Romney group, which dissolves FAA cost millions more that it would save

“This is not worthy of interest,”Daniel Murphy, National Oceanic and researcher in Cloud Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), wrote in an e-mail to LiveScience.”"

The study, published July 26 in the online open-access journal in remote sensing, has the attention of the public when an author for the Heartland Institute, a think tank libertarian that promotes scepticism of climate change, wrote for Forbes magazine study has refuted the concerns of warming global change “alarmists.” However, mainstream scientists say that the argument put forward in the document is neither new nor correct. Author of the book, University of Alabama, Huntsville Roy Spencer researcher, is a controversial of skeptical climate climate change research community.

“It took a wrong model, it changed to match observations, but the conclusions that you get that are not correct,” Andrew Dessler, Professor of science of the atmosphere at the Texas A & M University, said the new study of Spencer.

Cloud chaos
Spencer research is based on the role of clouds in climate change. Traditional climate researchers agree that climate change occurs when carbon dioxide traps heat from the Sun in the atmosphere, much in the same manner as a windshield traps solar heat in a car on a sunny afternoon. As the planet warms, a side effect is more water vapour in the atmosphere. This water vapour, knows that most of us like the clouds, traps more heat, creating a viscous loop. [Earth in balance: 7 crucial Tipping Points]

Spencer sees differently. He thinks that the whole cycle starts with the clouds. In other words, random increases in cloud cover cause warming. Changes in clouds are caused by “chaos in the climate system”, Spencer told LiveScience.

In the new document, Spencer considered satellite data of 2000 to 2010 for compare the cloud cover and surface temperatures. With the help of a simple model, it linked the two, find, he said, warming of cloud drive. Comparisons of its data with six intergovernmental group of experts on the evolution of the climate models showed, he said, that the models are too sensitive (i.e. certain variables, such as the global warming, increase the slightest change of other factors), and that carbon dioxide is not likely to cause a lot of warming at all. [Image: curious cloud]

Disagreements
However, no climate scientist contacted by LiveScience does agreed.

The study found a lag between changes in months cover of clouds and the temperature in the models against the real world for 10 years, said Gavin Schmidt, a climatologist NASA Goddard. “That this discrepancy is due to – processing of data, errors in the data or the real problems in the models – is not completely clear.”

Other researchers have pointed out Spencer paper defects, including a model of “unrealistic” place clouds that the driver of the warming of the planet and a lack of information on the statistical significance of the temperatures observed by satellites. Statistical significance is the likelihood that actual results, as opposed to fluctuations of chance without any link to other variables in the experiment.

“I cannot believe he has published,” said Kevin Trenberth, senior researcher at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Several researchers expressed frustration that the study was drew the attention of the media.

“If you want to make a story and then write a pointing to the ridicule of people jumping on each press release, as if the well-established science gets rejected for a penny,” said Schmidt. “Climate sensitivity is not limited by the last two decades of satellite data imperfect, but rather the paleoclimatic record.”

Spencer agreed that its work could not disprove the existence of climate change caused by man. But he rejected the ancient climate research, calling it “grey science.”

Policy and science
The science of the work of Spencer proved inextricable political debate surrounding global warming. The paper was largely unnoticed in the public sphere until the Forbes blogger said that the “extremely important”.

Dessler, climatologist A & M said that he doubted that the research would change the political debate on climate change.

“It makes the sceptics feel good, it irritates the traditional climate science community, but by this point, the debate on climate policy has nothing to do with science,” said Dessler. “It’s essentially a debate on the role of the Government,” surrounding the issues of freedom against the regulation.

Spencer himself is to forward the policy surrounding his work. In July, he wrote on his blog that his job “saved our economy from the ravages of economic control environmental extremism” and said that it considered its role of protecting “the interests of the taxpayer.” When asked why his work is not to accept dominant, quoted Spencer as a motivation for climate change researchers find problems related to the environment.

You can follow LiveScience senior editor Stephanie Pappas on Twitter@sipappas. Follow LiveScience to the latest science and discoveries on Twitter @ livescience and on Facebook.

? 2011 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.

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A study revealed an erosion of the West Coast a lesson to global warming.

Posted by admin on August 5th, 2011

Severe erosion along the West Coast in the winter of 2009-2010 offers a look on and lessons, a global warming with the rise of the waters, a new study finds.

A natural cycle of the El Nino warming the Pacific Ocean produces these severe conditions, but computer models suggest that similar damage may have come from the level of the sea related to the human-caused greenhouse gases.

Life Inc.: no new car this year, I am ruined erratic MOM: new trial “a risk, I am ready to take” schools dispute pits ‘haves’ against “poor” Teen buried in the sand: “I thought I was going to die” where are people of colour in national parks? Company gives $ 1 million to the pro-Romney group, which dissolves FAA cost millions more that it would save

“If these trends continue,” Government of the United States and academic experts in their study, wrote “the combination of large waves and water levels high, particularly when enhanced by El Ninos, could be more frequent in the future, resulting in an increased risk of erosion, flooding and coastal cliffs failures.” “.”

Main author Patrick Barnard, a coastal geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said his study used platform “to understand the broad coastal impact of conditions, we are likely to experience more frequently in the future.”

In California, the researchers found that the energy of the winter waves was above the average of 20% for the years dating back to 1997, resulting in the erosion of banks which exceeded the average of 36%.

“The stormy conditions winter 2009-10 El Nino eroded the beaches of the summits often at sites throughout California,” Barnard said in a release of USGS published with the study.

San Francisco Ocean Beach has seen some of the more severe erosion. The remote shoreline feet 184-75 per cent more than in a typical winter – leaving a path of a major pathway. Sites of San Diego, Santa Barbara and Ventura also saw significant erosion.

In his statement, the USGS has warned that a worsening of erosion such as global warming melts glaciers and ice sheets and creates potentially more severe storms.

“When combined with levels of expected rising sea due to global warming and perhaps even more heavy winter storms,”he said, “these factors are likely to contribute to an increase in rates of beach and the erosion of cliffs along the West coast of United States, regional production, coastal change on a large scale,”.”.”

History: Cliffs ruin discourage these residents

Barnard noted that El Ni?os may raise water levels 4 to 8 inches along the West Coast winter. In view of the acceleration of the rise in the overall level of the sea making approximately one-tenth of an inch each year, he said, “it is likely that us will hit at this level in the next few decades” along the coast due to global warming.

The study was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

? 2011 msnbc.com reprints

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Australia to tax the worst polluters of the nation

Posted by admin on August 5th, 2011

SYDNEY – Australia will force its 500 worst polluters to pay 23 Australian dollars ($25) for each tonne of carbon dioxide they emit, with the Government promising to compensate households affected by electricity bills higher under a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions unveiled on Sunday.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has sought to reassure Australians are wary that the very unpopular carbon tax will cause only a minority of households pay more and insisted that it is essential to help the country to reduce its massive carbon emissions. The Australia is one of the worst greenhouse gas polluters in the world, because of its high dependence on coal for electricity.

“Generate us more carbon pollution per capita than any other country in the world developed,” Gillard told journalists in Canberra because it leaves the details of the tax, which will enter into force on July 1, 2012. “We have much work to do to keep our place in the race that the world is running”.

The Government hoped to firms affected by the tax will seek alternative energy to reduce their bills. The companies involved will pay 23 $ per metric ton of carbon, with the prices of 2.5% per year until 2015, when the plan will move to a market-based emissions trading system.

The carbon tax is the main tool of the Government’s commitment to reducing gas emissions Australia greenhouse at least 5% below 2000 levels by 2020. At this time, the tax will be contributed to the pollution of carbon by 160 million metric tons – the equivalent of 45 million cars off the road, Gillard said.

Criticism of Australian households say plan will be unfairly burdened by charges higher transmitted to them by the major polluters. To compensate for the higher bills, nine in ten households will receive a any assistance in the form of reductions in the income tax and payments. Two-thirds of households receive enough aid to cover the full financial impact of the tax, said Gillard.

Under the plan, the average household will be its cost increase to the $9.90 per week, which includes an additional 3.30 $ per week for electricity and one in the $1.50 per week for gas. But the Government, on average, households receive the $10.10 per week to help.

Areas affected by the change will get to the $ 9.2 billion in compensation over the next three years, with most affected businesses should be manufacturers of steel and aluminum.

The conservative opposition leader Tony Abbott, a candid criticism of the plan, has insisted it will be the cost of the lives of millions of Australian and will do nothing to help the environment.

“It is socialism disguised as environmentalism,” Abbott told journalists. “This is a package of all economic pain for no environmental gain.”

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and industry, said the tax would weaken the economy and do little to help the environment.

Life Inc.: no new car this year, I am ruined erratic MOM: new trial “a risk, I am ready to take” schools dispute pits ‘haves’ against “poor” Teen buried in the sand: “I thought I was going to die” where are people of colour in national parks? Company gives $ 1 million to the pro-Romney group, which dissolves FAA cost millions more that it would save

“On the economic front, the tax is a harsh blow to import and export of competing undertakings, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises,” CEO Peter Anderson of the group said in a statement. “Our international competitors doing a kick, of our own production.”

Mitch Hooke, CEO of the minerals Council of Australia, also violently has the plan, saying that it will cost the minerals industry to the 25 billion ($26.8 billion) between 2012 and 2020.

Hooke, said the Government and the Green Party were “imposing costs that face to any of our international competitors and cannot be justified in the transition from the Australian industry to a low-carbon future.”

“It will just export investment, jobs, global market share and emissions at the offshore,” said Hooke.

Environmental groups have been cautiously optimistic about the regime.

“This package is not perfect, but it is absolutely essential Australia attend,” Executive Director Australian Conservation Foundation Don Henry said in a statement. “.”

Greenpeace said the package is a good start, but believes that the price per tonne of carbon should be higher.

“The fact that we must at all costs to all is testament to all the Australian who has applied to the Government to take action on climate change”, Greenpeace Australia Pacific CEO Linda Selvey said in a statement. “But also, the fact that it is a low price, with such limited coverage is testament to the power of the major polluters to dominate the political leadership of the Australia.”.

Scientists say that carbon dioxide and other gases of retention of heat emitted by industry, transport and agriculture is at the wheel of higher temperatures.

Without the drama cuts, scientists have warned that the melting of polar ice caps will be flooding Islands and areas coastal certain plant and animal species risk extinction and extreme weather conditions will increase.

Copyright 2011 the Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Worrisome sign of the former sea level rise

Posted by admin on August 5th, 2011

In the search for style whodunit for the culprit behind thousands of years dramatic sea level rise, new research could have opened a party falsely accused – but, like all good thriller, the history of the relief brings with it a disturbing turn and which has implications for life on earth today. Life Inc.: no new car this year, I am ruined erratic MOM: new trial “a risk, I am ready to take” schools dispute pits ‘haves’ against “poor” Teen buried in the sand: “I thought I was going to die” where are people of colour in national parks? Company gives $ 1 million to the pro-Romney group, which dissolves FAA cost millions more that it would save

The last time that parts of the Earth were as warm as they are today was about 100,000 years ago. For a period of 12 millennia rassasies known as the last interglacial period (128 to 116 thousand years), in the northern hemisphere summer temperatures have been as much as 9 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius) warmer and in the world, the sea levels were approximately 21 feet (6.5 meters higher than they are now).

“The only ways to do that are the thermal expansion of the oceans” and the melting of the ice, said Anders Carlson, associate professor in the Department of Earth sciences at the University of Wisconsin and the author of a book on the rise of the published ancient sea level today in the journal Science.

“Sea rise during millions of years, conducted by the movements of crusts, the building of the mountains,” Carlson said OurAmazingPlanet, “but this has occurred in a few thousand years and it is too little time to be explained by tectonics.”

Not guilty Greenland
It is fairly well established that warmer temperatures helped about 1.3 ft (4 m) high sea waters; the water expands as it gets warmer. Which leaves the melting of the ice as the only factor remaining and presented to scientists with two key suspects.

“The only viable sources are the Antarctic or Greenland,” said Carlson. “When we began this study, I actually thought that you could explain the increase in most of the Greenland sea level, and then we had these results.”

Carlson and his colleagues studied silt was deposited on the bottom of the Ocean during the last interglacial period just to the South of Greenland. The silt was recovered by an expedition of drilling in 1999.

Isotope – Atomic signatures in the sediment – revealed where, Greenland sediment comes; the presence or absence of deposits of sediment themselves in some places under the ocean floor if the island was free of ice or frozen during the last interglacial period.

The research is among the first to provide evidence geochemistry and sedimentary of side-by-side to the extent of the loss of Greenland ice at the time. It indicates that half South of Greenland, ice remote indeed 125,000 years ago, but not as many scientists estimated. “This is not what I expected”, said Carlson.

The findings of this ancient period shall inform our understanding of what might happen in the island ice in the world of the planet’s warming.

“This means that Greenland is not as sensitive as people had thought earlier,” said Carlson. “If he will lift the sea level in the future, but estimated people not as quickly.”

A ball of diaphragm
Good news? Not quite. This means that estimates the most conservative of the height of the ancient sea can only be explained by the melting of ice in the only Northern hemisphere.

“You must have the Antarctic are shrinking, more ominously,” said Carlson.

For the layman, the prehistoric ice melting on a continent at the bottom of the world may not everything spooky, but climate around the world may be about to hit the button repeated, scientists say.

“It is the most recent period when the summers in the northern hemisphere were warmer than they are today, and it has been used as an analogy for how climate might look like at the end of the century,” said Carlson.

He said further research is needed to better understand the details of climate 100,000 years previously in the southern hemisphere and magnitude with ice are based on the Antarctic, however, research indicates Antarctica appears to be more prone to sudden and unpredictable melting than Greenland.

In fact, some parts of Antarctica are already in the grip of the pronounced temperature changes.

Research by the National Snow and Ice Data Center of the University of Colorado, Boulder, indicates that the Antarctic Peninsula, a finger of land that points to South America, is one of the zones more quickly to the warming of the planet.

In recent years, the region experienced a catastrophic ice shelf collapses, which it has been demonstrated to speed up the melting of glaciers.

Carlson, said that although his research studied the distant past, he spends time thinking about what it means for the time being.

“I think that the sea level rise is really worrying,” he said.

Get Andrea Musta’in at amustain@techmedianetwork.com. Follow it on Twitter@AndreaMustain.

? OurAmazingPlanet of 2011. All rights reserved. More than OurAmazingPlanet.

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The melting of ice at a record rate of Arctic heat wave

Posted by admin on August 5th, 2011

This year could be well on its way to the winner a dubious spot in the record books. Life Inc.: no new car this year, I am ruined erratic MOM: new trial “a risk, I am ready to take” schools dispute pits ‘haves’ against “poor” Teen buried in the sand: “I thought I was going to die” where are people of colour in national parks? Company gives $ 1 million to the pro-Romney group, which dissolves FAA cost millions more that it would save

Arctic sea ice has melted with astonishing speed in the first half of July, with an average speed of approximately 46 000 square miles a day, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado

Which is the equivalent of an area about the size of Pennsylvania melt in the sea every 24 hours.

“That is relatively fast, said Julienne Stroeve, researcher at the NSIDC.

Range of the sea ice – how far the ice extends across the ocean – this year is already less than as at the same time in 2007, a year which, in September, saw the sea the lowest ever recorded of ice cover.

On 17 July of this year, ice covered sea 2.92 million km2 of the frigid Arctic Ocean. That may seem much, but it is 865,000 square miles below the 1979 to 2000 average.

However, Stroeve said, much of what is happening in the coming days depends on the weather.

Stroeve, “Unless things change in the coming weeks, we might have a new record for July,” said OurAmazingPlanet. “Certainly in the whole, we believe that the ice is thinner overall leader in this season that he was in 2007.”

The ebb and the flow of sea ice Arctic is an annual event. Each fall, as the northern hemisphere temperatures drop, ice extends outward, away from the Earth and over the ocean; each spring, with the onset of warmer weather, the ice recedes. However, the extent of sea ice has decreased regularly since the beginning of the satellite in 1979 records.

Researchers have found that the previous Arctic ice begins to melt in the spring, the largest global melting for the whole of the year.

In 2011, in the Chukchi Sea near Alaska and the Barents Sea, Kara and Laptev sea, the Finland and the Russia, NASA researchers are melting began two weeks to two months earlier than the 1979 to 2000 average.

History: polar bear cubs die as the bottom ice, swimming get more

This year, a large part of the Arctic has been in the grip of a warm period.

As conditions that sparked the wave of heat running roughshod over the huge parties to the United States, a high pressure system has been parked on the Beaufort Sea, North of Alaska, from June, bringing warmer temperatures of the Arctic as a whole. Temperature of air at the North Pole are a full 11 to 14 degrees Fahrenheit (6 to 8 degrees Celsius) warmer than usual.

In addition, high pressure systems are associated with a clear sky, Stroeve said, so the ice is often the rays of the Sun for the day of the Arctic, encouraging more fusion.

Although Stroeve said that a change in time could radically change the fate of the 2011 Arctic sea ice, she said that a new record is not out of the question.

“It is too early to say that we will have new record minimum”, says Stroeve, but I would say that it is certainly possible with the way things were going. ?

? OurAmazingPlanet of 2011. All rights reserved. More than OurAmazingPlanet.

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The West pine risk of extinction

Posted by admin on August 5th, 2011

WASHINGTON – A flagship species of the American West, pine, is in danger of extinction from climate change and disease, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said Tuesday, but no immediate action is planned. Life Inc.: no new car this year, I am ruined erratic MOM: new trial “a risk, I am ready to take” schools dispute pits ‘haves’ against “poor” Teen buried in the sand: “I thought I was going to die” where are people of colour in national parks? Company gives $ 1 million to the pro-Romney group, which dissolves FAA cost millions more that it would save

There is not enough money for pine as being endangered or threatened under the endangered species Act, with other species have priority in the list. Such a list would trigger a recovery plan, the wildlife service said in a paper published in the Federal Register.

Government wildlife experts will review the status of the tree in the 12 months to determine the level of biological risk and to determine if there are sufficient resources to begin to develop a plan to allow him to recover.

“We believe (pine) is in danger of extinction, or likely to be in the foreseeable future, in the whole or a substantial part of its range,” the service reported.

The big tree includes of mountainous regions of the State of California, Nevada, Wyoming, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Washington in the United States and the Colombia of British Columbia and Alberta to the Canada.

A key threat is the pine beetle needs to kill pine trees to reproduce. The beetle has long been in the American West, but improved its ability to reproduce and survive winters, temperatures have risen over the past decades.

Other factors include a rust called invasive disease, said the wildlife service.

“Climate change should significantly reduce the likelihood of persistence of the area” of the tree, the wildlife service said, with a possible decline of 70 per cent of distribution across its range from 2030.

In 2100, less than 3% of the habitat should remain, said the wildlife service.

Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group that a petition to protect the pine, said that the decision of the Government that “the first widely dispersed tree that the Federal Government has clearly indexed as a victim of climate.”

Pine is considered a foundation species, which means that it is one of the first pioneers of areas and create the necessary conditions for other plants and animals to get established in the alpine ecosystem hard. The trees block the wind, extend the melting of the snows, regulate the spring runoff and reducing the risk of flooding and erosion.

“This designation (by the wildlife service) will help to draw attention to register these difficult trees and the long list of species,’ as the Grizzlies of Yellowstone, which rely on people to live in this difficult environment,”Louisa Wilcox of the NRDC, said in a release. “

The wildlife service said immediately as pine as endangered or threatened listing is “prevented by priority to the list of actions.”

An emergency regulations which would give the temporary protection of the tree is not justified today “” because the threats to the species are not impact on entire species across its range of the pint where species are immediately lost.”"

The service said that this kind of temporary list could be an option in the future.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click on for restrictions.

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Polar bear cubs die as swimming get more

Posted by admin on August 5th, 2011

WASHINGTON – a new study polar Cubs forced to swim long distances with their mothers their habitat ice of the Arctic merits seem superior to Cubs mortality rate which was not to swim up to, reports.

Polar bear hunting, feeding, and give birth on ice or on land and are not aquatic creatures naturally. Previous reports have noted animals, hundreds of kilometres to reach the platforms of ice or land of swimming, but it is one of the first to show that these swimming poses a risk to polar bear young.

“Climate change is taking the sea ice under the feet of polar bears, forcing some to swim longer distances to find food and habitat,”, said Geoff York of World Wildlife Fund, co-author of the study.

York said that it was the first time these long swimming was measured quantitatively, fill a gap in the history of this iconic species of the Arctic.

To collect data, the researchers used satellite and followed by 68 equipped more than polar bear females six years, from 2004 to 2009, necklaces GPS to find opportunities when these bears swam more than 30 miles per hour.

There are 50 long distance swimming over these six years, involving 20 polar bears, ranging up to 426 miles and the maximum length of 12.7 days, remotely scientific article.

At the time the collars were 11 of polar bear swimming long distances had young cubs; five of these mothers lost polar bear cubs in the bath, which represents a rate of mortality by 45 percent, the study revealed.

Cubs who did not to swim long distances with their mothers had a mortality rate of 18 per cent, the study said.

“They are much like us,” said York. “They cannot close their nasal passages in the choppy waters.” Therefore old bear or of so many young bears, if they are out in open water and a hits storm, they will have a tough time surviving. ?

Two factors make it even more difficult for polar bear weather for long periods in Arctic waters, said Steve Amstrup, a former scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey and now Director scientific polar bears International, a conservation group.

“Young bears is not very fatty and therefore that they are not very well isolated and only can deal with being in cold water for a long time”, said Amstrup.

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Because they are leaner than their parents, Amstrup said, “they are probably not as floating (as adult polar bears) in the water rough, they you have more difficulty in keeping your head above water.”

The administration polar bear listed Bush endangered species Act being endangered due to the decrease in ice in the Arctic habitat. This decision has survived a court challenge last month, and this month, Canada listed the polar bear as an endangered species.

The Arctic warms faster than low latitudes due to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the summer sea ice melt accelerates the warming effect.

Extent of sea ice in the Arctic – the area covered by sea ice – in June was the second most low in the case of satellite since 1979, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Main author as anthony Pagano U.S. Geological Survey has been with the study Tuesday at the Conference the International Bear Association in Ottawa.

The study will be published in the Canadian Journal of zoology.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click on for restrictions.

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