Do we need to be preparing for Arctic cruising strategies because of Global Cooling

[SailOar]

'Coral zombies' may spell doom for coral reefs around world | Phys.Org

Scientists have known for a while that coral reefs around the world are dying, and in a worst-case scenario they were counting on large, healthy-looking corals to repopulate.

But a new study presented at the 13th International Coral Reef Symposium in Honolulu today shows that these seemingly healthy colonies are "Coral Zombies" with no reproductive ability, which makes them useless in a recovery effort.[...]

In some places - including two sites in the Florida Keys - the coral had no eggs or sperm. The study suggests that with no ability to propogate, elkhorn corals in those spots will eventually die out - like zombies, they essentially are walking dead. Two samples from a more remote area in St. Croix found the coral had 100 percent reproduction ability.

"Basically the places with the heaviest tourism had the most severe damage," Fauth said. He dove and took samples from all of the Puerto Rican sites in the study, along with marine biologists Michael Nemeth and Katie Flynn.

This study adds to growing evidence that coral reefs frequented by divers are in peril. Last year a study found that oxybenzone, a common UV-filtering compound in sunscreen, is in high concentrations in the waters around the more popular coral reefs in Hawaii and the Caribbean. The chemical not only kills coral, it causes DNA damage in adult coral and deforms the larval stage, making it unlikely they can develop properly. The highest concentrations of oxybenzone were found in reefs most popular with tourists. Fauth was a co-investigator of that 2015 study, which was published in the journal Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology.[...]

"It's almost counterintuitive," said Fauth, who is a co-author of that study as well. "We think that aerosol sunscreen is to blame." When you spray sunscreen, much of it lands on the sand or water, Fauth said. So when the high tide comes in, it collects all the overspray and pulls it back out to sea.[...]

[Rustic Charm]

If we all work together

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=426L8RJd_Ss

[SailOar]

Scientists have unearthed a 100m-thick river of ice beneath Antarctica’s Larsen C ice shelf, which they fear could accelerate its path to eventual collapse. | Carbon Brief

A team led by Prof Bryn Hubbard, director of the centre for glaciology at Aberystwyth University in Wales, lived on the ice shelf for several months examining what it looks like from the inside.

Their new paper describes how the layer of solid ice could be speeding up the flow of ice to the ocean, potentially leading Larsen C towards a similar fate to its now-collapsed sister ice shelves, Larsen A and B.[...]

Several major ice shelves have collapsed almost completely, losing the vast majority of their mass in just a few months. The most widely reported of these “catastrophic breakup events” were the Larsen A and B ice shelves, which collapsed in 1995 and 2002, respectively.

Larsen C is the next ice shelf in line, geographically-speaking. It is also the largest of the three sister shelves, with a surface area two and a half times the size of Wales. [...]

The team drilled a 100m-long borehole in a part of the Larsen-C ice shelf called Cabinet Inlet, where scientists first spotted meltponds 15 years ago. Just a few metres below the surface, they struck upon a layer of solid ice about 100 metres thick, formed as water from the meltponds percolates through the ice and refreezes. The discovery was startling, says Hubbard, not only because of the ice layer’s thickness but because of its proximity to the surface.[...]

The vast icy layer below Larsen C is a concern, says Hubbard. It is warmer than the compacted snow it replaced because of the latent heat that is released as the percolating meltwater refreezes at depth. Thi, in turn affects how the ice moves, Hubbard explains:

“Similar to syrup, warm ice flows more readily than cold ice.”[...]

Since ice shelves float on the water, when an ice shelf collapses entirely it doesn’t directly affect sea levels. But once an ice shelf disappears, there’s little to stop the glaciers behind it from flowing into the ocean, causing sea level to rise faster.[...]


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[newhaul]

Folks we have a new king of cut and paste .

[Exile]

Originally Posted by newhaul

Folks we have a new king of cut and paste .

Good timing too, as Jack says he's leaving for some extended sailing.

Between the perpetually vexing Marmite vs. Vegemite controversy, the Ovaltine deniers, those who have the nerve to be skeptics about the link between sunscreen and coral zombies (), and now the "startling discovery" of a large, underwater ice shelf in as unlikely a place as Antarctica (), ya gotta wonder what all this fuss about Brexit, global terrorism, nuclear proliferation, and dysfunctional elections is really all about . . . .

[SV THIRD DAY]

Wasn't there a Consensus among the experts that Brexit wouldn't happen?

Yet....

Here we are, reality has a way of embarrassing those that can't or won't acknowledge it.

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by SV THIRD DAY

Wasn't there a Consensus among the experts that Brexit wouldn't happen?

I know it's thread drift, but - your thoughts on Brexit?

[jackdale]

Originally Posted by Lake-Effect

I know it's thread drift, but - your thoughts on Brexit?

There is a or two thread on Brexit already.

[Exile]

Jack -- I gather you're delivering a boat back to the PNW from Hawaii. I haven't been able to sail for quite awhile now so it sounds downright epic to me. I hope you do a write-up and post pics upon your return, but either way wish you a successful (i.e. uneventful) adventure.

[jackdale]

Originally Posted by Exile

Jack -- I gather you're delivering a boat back to the PNW from Hawaii. I haven't been able to sail for quite awhile now so it sounds downright epic to me. I hope you do a write-up and post pics upon your return, but either way wish you a successful (i.e. uneventful) adventure.

This is my fourth time doing this trip. Leave for Maui July 27. Depart August 1.

My last one involved a medical evacuation 1040 miles north of Hawaii.

https://youtu.be/NBn7drXizb0?list=PL...DRn3mAR3lTg4qN

Uneventful is good.

[Exile]

Originally Posted by jackdale

This is my fourth time doing this trip. Leave for Maui July 27. Depart August 1.

My last one involved a medical evacuation 1040 miles north of Hawaii.

https://youtu.be/NBn7drXizb0?list=PL...DRn3mAR3lTg4qN

Uneventful is good.

Some capable helmsmanship. Probably looks quite a bit easier than it really is pulling alongside one of those behemoths. A bit of a nail biter after the sick/injured crew member was tied on and then the boat started to fall away. Lucky that the ship had what looked like a decent ladder vs. netting. Did you make contact through AMVER via USCG or ship-to-ship? I'll do a search for a thread write-up.

From what I've read, the passage at that time of year can bring all sorts of conditions, from days & days of no wind to gales as you approach the N. coast. What's your rough guess-timate on passage time?

[SV THIRD DAY]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

California uses 5% solar for the states needs which leads the nation. Why not just increase it to 14%?...duh!

Ever run a Power Grid where 14% of it is unavailable at night or on cloudy days? Ah....sorry...there is a thing called spinning reserves, so when you use Solar you also need another power plant (Nat Gas typically) spinning and ready to take the load.

I've been to the large solar plants in the California desert to do what?
To test their Nat Gas fired Steam Boilers that turn on at sunset...kinda funny that the green plants..well....arn't. But if you listen to the folks that have never been to a power plant...they think solar on a boat is like Solar on the grid...uh...NOT.

[SV THIRD DAY]

Originally Posted by Lake-Effect

I know it's thread drift, but - your thoughts on Brexit?

Brexit is a natural progression of people's reaction to the type of Big Government top down policies that are akin and necessary in socialist systems of government. The reason of course I brought it up in this thread is because it fits perfectly into the MMGW cult mindset. If only more control is given to the elites, the smart folks, the masterminds, then whether it be the environment, the economy, or the Society THEY will be able to run it better than those ignorant rubes. And just like Brexit and MMGW...the result from the enlightened class is the same...to go on the attack that don't agree with their policies of control, regulation and enslavement.

As a second generation American with most of my mother's family still living in Italy all of them I talk to despise the EU, the Euro and the masterminds in Brussels who have sold them down the river for their Utopian dreams.

The EU Experiment has failed and I fully support returning power back closer to the people where it belongs. The Elites hate it...will lecture the Brits and us on why we should surrender our Sovereignty for the greater good, and now that the people have spoken, they will ever try to ignore and nullify the will of the people. It is what the elite do in science, government, politics and religion.

Now..
Why is that darn sun so cold?
‘The sun goes blank again during the weakest solar cycle in more than a century’ | Climate Depot

[chala]

Originally Posted by SV THIRD DAY

As a second generation American with most of my mother's family still living in Italy all of them I talk to despise the EU, the Euro and the masterminds in Brussels who have sold them down the river for their Utopian dreams.

Obviously, for some, Brussels is an off-shoot of adolphe reich.

[DeepFrz]

I thought this news report might be of interest to some of you as it deals with carbon in the atmosphere and climate change.

26 million trees have died in the Sierra since October, raising fire risk - LA Times