Monthly Archive for August, 2011

Call for Journal Editor

Published on August 30, 2011 in Headline, Journal and Newsletter. 0 Comments

climate_frontThe International Journal of Climate Change: Impacts and Responses seeks an editor, or team of editors, for a one-year term. This is an opportunity to make a significant contribution to what we believe will become one of the leading journals in its field, the journal’s associated conference and, more broadly, the knowledge-community which the journal and conference seek to serve.

The roles of the editor are to:

  • write an introduction for the Journal volume which would be included in the first issue for the year, and possibly on the website, the newsletter and other appropriate places or for the purposes of marketing and promotion.
  • collate papers addressing a theme of the editor’s choosing into a book, to be launched at the conference at the completion of the editor’s term. The chapters may be drawn from submissions to the journal during this or recent years, and other material as considered appropriate.
  • actively solicit manuscripts for the Journal from well-known and notable members of the community—these would could be refereed if the author wished, or regarded as ‘invited papers’.
  • assist the Commissioning Editor with suggestions of supplementary peer reviewers for specific papers (and this will never be burdensome – note that the Commissioning Editor of the Journal finalizes a majority of the peer reviewer requirements based on thematic matching and ‘mutual obligation’ principles in which all author requested to review up to three other papers).
  • promote the journal throughout their network and other associated networks.
  • maintain regular communications with the community via periodical blog posts to the community website (which feeds automatically to our email newsletter, Facebook and Twitter).

The editor will be offered a complimentary electronic subscription to the Journal, free copies of the book which they edit, an electronic subscription to the book series as well as complimentary registrations to attend the conferences at the beginning and end of their term.

Qualifications

The Editor of the Journal must possess the following attributes:

  • They will have successfully obtained higher degree, and have academic teaching and scholarly research experience in an area related to the subject matter of the Journal.
  • They will have published in this or other comparable scholarly journals.

Applicants are asked to send:

  1. a cover letter outlining their interest and relevant experience, and the ways in which you would propose to enhance the profile of the journal
  2. a curriculum vitae
  3. a special theme outline: a title with paragraph explanation.

Please send applications and supporting documentation to journals@on-climate.com.

The deadline for applications is 26 September 2011.


Better Desalination Technology Key to Solving World’s Water Shortage

Published on August 29, 2011 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

From ScienceDaily

“The globe’s oceans are a virtually inexhaustible source of water, but the process of removing its salt is expensive and energy intensive,” said Menachem Elimelech, a professor of chemical and environmental engineering at Yale and lead author of the study, which appears in the Aug. 5 issue of the journal Science.

Over one-third of the world’s population already lives in areas struggling to keep up with the demand for fresh water. By 2025, that number will nearly double. Some countries have met the challenge by tapping into natural sources of fresh water, but as many examples — such as the much-depleted Jordan River — have demonstrated, many of these practices are far from sustainable.

A new Yale University study argues that seawater desalination should play an important role in helping combat worldwide fresh water shortages — once conservation, reuse and other methods have been exhausted — and provides insight into how desalination technology can be made more affordable and energy efficient.

To Read More…

Is Craig Venter Going to Save the Planet? Or is This More Hype from One of America’s Most Controversial Scientists?

Published on August 20, 2011 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

Photo of Molecular biologist J. Craig Venter

By Susan Okie from The Washington Post

In a pristine white greenhouse in La Jolla, Calif., maverick molecular biologist Craig Venter is showing off tubs of dark green goop that might help rescue the planet.

Winter sunlight streams through the glass roof onto rows of long, white troughs filled with algae and seawater. A little water wheel in each trough turns to keep the liquid circulating and the growing cells evenly exposed to light and to carbon dioxide-enriched air. Computers maintain a constant temperature. Giant transparent bags of algae varieties waiting to be tested hang from metal beams.

This goop, Venter hopes, will someday replace oil wells, free the planet from its dependency on fossil fuels and create a near-endless supply of energy.

To Read More…

Climate Change Journal, Volume 2, Number 4

Published on August 19, 2011 in Journal and Newsletter. 0 Comments

climate_frontThe final issue of  Volume 2 The International Journal of Climate Change: Impacts and Responses has now been published.

Volume 2, Number 4 contains:


Russia May Lose 30% of Permafrost by 2050

Published on August 12, 2011 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

From physorg.com

Russia’s vast permafrost areas may shrink by a third by the middle of the century due to global warming, endangering infrastructure in the Arctic zone, an emergencies ministry official Friday.

“In the next 25 to 30 years, the area of permafrost in Russia may shrink by 10-18 percent,” the head of the ministry’s disaster monitoring department Andrei Bolov told the RIA Novosti news agency.

“By the middle of the century, it can shrink by 15-30 percent, and the boundary of the permafrost may shift to the north-east by 150-200 kilometres,” he said.

The temperature of the zones of frozen soil in oil and gas-rich western Siberia territories will rise by up to two degrees Celsius to just three or four degrees below zero, he predicted.

To Read More…


Climate: June 2011 was the 7th Warmest on Record

Published on August 5, 2011 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

By Summit Voice

The world is warming at an unrelenting pace, according to the latest global monthly summary from the National Climatic Data Center, which showed that the combined land and ocean average surface temperature for June 2011 was 1.04 degrees above the 20th century average — the seventh-warmest June on record.According to the summary, compiled at thousands of stations around the world, it was the 316th consecutive month with an average temperature above the 20th century average. The last the monthly average temperature was below normal, Ronald Reagan was president, in February 1985.

The land surface temperature was 1.6 degrees above average, while the sea surface temperature was 0.85 above average. The year to-date is the 11th warmest on record for combined land and sea surface temperature.

To Read More…