Thursday, December 16, 2010

Kuldinn í BNA og Evrópu / The cold spell in USA and Europe

(Íslenska neðan við myndina)

The Atlantic Oscillation (AO) has caused cold temperature throughout most of Europe and USA. However, parts of Greenland for instance, have been unseasonably warm.

The image below shows the temperature anomaly for 3 – 10 Desember 2010, as compared to the average for the same dates in 2002 – 2009.

LSTempAnom_3_10des2010_copm2002_2009 
NASA Earth Observatory image created by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of the NASA/GSFC Distributed Active Archive Center. Caption by Holli Riebeek.

Svokölluð AO sveifla, sem ræðast af þrýstingsmun milli háþrýstisvæði nær miðbaug og lágrþrýstisvæða yfir heimskautinu, er nú í þeim fasa (kallaður neikvæður, lítill þrýstimunur) að kalt er víða í Evrópu og BNA, en hlýtt t.d. á Grænlandi.

Myndin hér að ofan sýnir hitafrávik fyrir dagana 3 – 10. desember, 2010, í samanburði við meðaltal sömu daga árin 2002 – 2009.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Lítið orðið eftir af nýjum fiskveiðisvæðum / World running out of new places to fish: study

Frétt um það hvernig tekist hefur að viðhalda miklum fiskveiðum með því að stækka veiðisvæði, þannig að nú er nánast ekkert nýtt veiðisvæði eftir, fyrir utan svæði sem lítið gefa af sér.


The world's fishing industry is fast running out of new ocean fishing grounds to exploit as it depletes existing areas through unsustainable harvesting practices, according to a study published Thursday.

World running out of new places to fish: study: VANCOUVER (Reuters)
Report published in the online journal PLoS ONE. (here)


From the news summary:

  • Expansion into unexploited fishing grounds allowed global catches to increase for decades, and disguised the fact that older areas were being depleted ...
  • ... most fishing is done by large companies ... companies can ignore the decline of older stocks by simply moving to new areas.
  • ... left only unproductive fishing areas on the high seas and the ice-covered waters of the Arctic and Antarctic for boats to move into.