tcktcktck... BOOM!

As many of us expected, the United Nations Climate Summit in Copenhagen has failed to reach a substantive or binding agreement. The United States negotiating team refused to commit to specific targets for emission of greenhouse gases, continuing the policy initiated during the administration of George W. Bush when we refused to join other developed countries in signing the Kyoto Protocol.

Particularly positive develompents in Copenhagen include a strong showing by developing countries, including civil society participants alongside the official delegations. A new crop of climate activists has emerged, loosely coordinated through organizations such as Friends of the Earth, the Climate Action Network and the tcktcktck Global Citizens for Climate Action.

As Kumi Nadoo writes in his open letter to President Barack Obama, the paltry cuts in greenhouse gas emissions which the United States may successfully enact through the Waxman-Markley bill will fall considerably below what is necessary to avert catastrophic climate change. In addition, we have yet to make a commitment to long-term financial assistance for poor countries which will need to adapt to the impacts of our rapid industrial development throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

Nadoo admonishes Obama for a lack of ambition and warns that many who were energized by his promise of hope are now becoming discouraged. Like Nadoo, I too cling on to hope. To quote Nadoo, "the prospect of personal leadership at the negotiations allows me to retain some ‘audacity of hope’ that (Barack Obama) will have both the courage and the vision to make history."

Schistosome gene sequence decoded

Schistosomes are parasitic flatworms responsible for diseases variously referred to as schistosomiasis or bilharzia. These diseases occur throughout the tropics, particularly in areas adjacent to still or slow-moving water. The life cycle of the schistosome parasites includes a stint of residence inside a freshwater snail. The initial symptoms of schistosomiasis include fever, fatigue, rashes, and eye infections, but the disease can progress to cause internal bleeding, organ failure, and eventually death. I developed schistosomiasis myself as an eight year old boy, after my family returned to the United States from Nigeria.

Dr. Matt Berriman, of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, is quoted by the BBC saying that gene sequencing "provides a foundation for understanding aspects of the parasite's complex biology as well as a vehicle to immediately identify new targets for drug treatment." According to fellow researcher Dr Najib El-Sayed, of the University of Maryland, "the genome sequence has given us, for the first time, a comprehensive view of the engines that drive the parasite, the strategies that allow it to survive in us, its human host.

I know that treatments for schistosomiasis had already progressed far beyond what I was subjected to as a child. It is exciting to hear of these new potential treatments, and the genetics of these organisms may also yield clues about how to manage tropical environments to more effectively control the parasite.

National Hurricane Center shuffle

The director of the National Hurricane Center, Bill Proenza, was "reassigned" yesterday. Today it has been anounced that Proenza will be replaced by veteran forecaster Ed Rappaport.

After replacing veteran NHC director, Max Mayfield, Proenza was outspoken regarding the center's need for more federal funds to fulfill its mission. Proenza was poorly regarded by his own staff of highly trained meteorologists and hurricane forecasters, however.

Rappaport apparently has more clout with the staff, having been with the hurricane center since 1987. He has received a "thumbs up" from Jeff Masters over at his Wunder Blog, although comments on the blog show a mixed reaction from the meteorological community. Rappaport reportedly was considered a leading candidate to replace Max Mayfield but took himself out of the running over family issues.

We know that nearly all Atlantic hurricanes begin forming as tropical storms off the coast of Africa. The mechanisms involved are currently being investigated by the NASA African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses (NAMMA) Mission run out of the Cape Verde Islands. National Public Radio had a very interesting "live action" piece on the mission this morning which I am following up here.

The photograph at the top of this blog shows tropical storm Helene, which the researchers happened to catch in her infancy. Helene went on to become a Category 3 hurricane with sustained winds reaching as high as 110 kilometers per hour (70 miles per hour), although she never made landfall due to high pressure conditions over the North American continent. As NPR reporter Jon Hamilton stated at the end of his piece this morning, the NAMMA scientists hope to learn how to spot "Cape Verde hurricanes" like Helene sooner so that people living in areas where hurricane commonly track on land will have more time to prepare.

Some of the "back story" of the mission is missing from the NPR story in that NAMMA has actually been studying African Easterly Waves (AEWs) and Mesoscale Convective Systems over continental western Africa as well as the small cyclones downwind over the Cape Verde Islands. One key atmospheric scientist in the mission, Paul Kucera, has been working in Senegal for at least two years studying rainfall there. Dr. Kucera's colleague at the University of North Dakota, Paul Le Hardy, is also working as a pilot for the mission.

A scientist prominently featured in the NPR story, Robbie Hood, works out of the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Interestingly enough, she is part Cherokee (1/8th) and descended from the great Cherokee chief John Ross, who led the tribe west on the "Trail of Tears." Other mission participants whom I was able to track down are Bob Pasken, managing the data recorded by the meteorological dropsondes, and Gerry Heymsfield, an expert on cloud radar.