Browning Newsletter Jan '11

8/6/2019 Browning Newsletter Jan '11

1/8

SUMMARY

This newsletter contains articles, observations and acts to

support our contention that man is signicantly infuenced

by the climate in which he exists. Our calculations show the

climate, over the next term, will cause dramatic changes in

our social and economic patterns.

We eel that the reader, attuned to the changes that are

occurring, may develop a competitive edge; and,

by understanding his now and uture environment, can

use the momentum o change to his advantage.

JANUARY 2011

Beware o Volcanoes with Unpronounceable Names

1Beware o Volcanoeswith Unpronounceable NamesT h xp f va Rua vcaha chd h Nh Hmph.

In April 2010, an obscure Icelandic volcano, Eyjaallajkull, completelydisrupted European air trac patterns. Atits peak, the troublesome cloud o volcanicdebris stretched rom Canada to Russia andits impact was elt worldwide

In December 2010, obscure volcanoeson Russias Kamchatka Peninsula, totallydisrupted North Hemispheric weather andair trac patterns. Icy weather plungeddeep into the Northern Hemisphere, rom

the US and Canada through Europe andAsia. (In the process, it chilled the UN Cli-mate Change Conerence in tropical Mexi-co.) Caliornias Mammoth Mountain wasburied in 9 to 13.5 eet (2.7 4.1 meters) osnow while New York was buried in 2 eet(60 cm) o snow. wice Florida crops werehit with reezing temperatures. Tis record-breaking weather will aect global crop pro-duction and ood prices.

Obscure polar volcanoes can have veryexpensive consequences.

A La Nia WinterTe cooling eect o the Russian volcanos was enhanced

by the current La Nia. Tis years La Nia began early thissummer and has been warping global weather patterns or the

past six months. In summertime, this meant hotter weather.In winter it creates colder and stormier conditions.

4 When Jetstreams Run Amuck:A Cautionary Tale o Global WeatherWhat in the world is happening and why

7 NEWS NOES

The volcanic debris from several Russian volcanoes

has weakened the Arctic Oscillation making it nega-

tive. This has allowed the polar air mass to surge south

and push the cold and wet impact of the strong Pacic

La Nia further south than usual in North America.

Naural Facors Shaping Winers Weaher

6 Most o the Atlantic is unusually warm(a positive AMO).

7 A negative Indian Ocean dipole.

8 The waters o o East Asia and Australia arewarming (a cool PDO/IPO).

9 The high altitude Quasi Biannual Oscillation(QBO) winds are westerly

10 The Arctic Oscillation is negative and willlet the Polar air mass surge south.

1 The sun is beginning a new solar cycle.

2 Large volcanic eruptions put climate changingdebris in the stratosphere in 2009 and 2010.

3 Several volcanoes continue to have small andmedium-sized eruptions.

4 The waters o the West Coast are cooling..

5 A strong La Nia.

Fig. 1 Browning Newsletter

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World Reports Covering Climate, Behavior, and Commodities Original Papers Historical Perspectives

BRN E W S L E E REvelyn Browning Garriss

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La Nias occur when unusually strongtropical rade Winds blow the sun-warmedsurace waters o the Pacic toward the west. As a result, the western Pacic iswarmer than average and the central andeastern regions are cooler. When the cen-tral and eastern waters are more than 0.5C(0.9F) cooler than normal, the phenom-enon is ocially declared a La Nia. As theevent continues, the cool water expandsnorth and south along the western coast-lines o North and South America.

Te current La Nia is a powerul phe-nomenon. Te water temperatures are 1.4- 1.6C (2.5 - 2.9F) cooler than normal with some areas more than 2C (3.6F)colder. Tese cool waters stretch rom

Alaskas Aleutian Islands to the southern-most tip o South America. NOAAs mostconservative estimate is that these cool wa-ters will remain in place or the rest o thiswinter.

Part o the reason this event is so strongis that the Pacic has entered the negativephase o the decades long Pacic DecadalOscillation. Tis ocean-wide event exag-gerates the tropical cooling in the east andwarming in the west.

La Nias are the water component oa huge ocean-atmospheric phenomenoncalled the El Nino/Southern Oscillation(ENSO). Cooler waters chill the overheadair and this, in turn, changes air pressuresand winds.

Tese altered water tem-

peratures and winds have amajor impact on global cli-mate, especially on the PacicRim nations. North Americausually experiences the ol-lowing our developments:

1. Te cool waters typi-cally lead to cooler temper-atures o the West Coast oNorth America. Tis waterholds less moisture and when the prevailing west-erlies blow the air inland,

there is less rain and snow.Most o the precipitationalls close to the coast, leav-ing less snowpack or theinland Rockies and thewestern plains and prairies.

2. Te unusually warmwaters in the western Paci-ic nurture tropical storms.

Tese tropical disturbances have beenable to linger and move very ar north.Prevailing winds, called the PineappleExpress carry extraordinary theirmoisture to the Pacic Northwest.

Originally named or the winds thathastened the arrival o sailing ships romHawaii to Seattle, the Pineapple Express isa deceptive name or a very real weatherproblem. When these warm tropical windscrash into a La Nias cold oshore water,it causes heavy snow, rains and foods tothe West Coast. Mid-December saw thePineapple Express in all its ury hit South-ern Calionia.

3. Te polar airstream is diverted sothat it carries cooler than average airthrough Western Canada, large seg-

ments o the western US and thenorthern tier o states. We saw typi-cally large La Nia conditions in thelast weeks o November. Usually, aswinter progresses, this cold moves eastand by mid-winter reaches the GreatLakes or, this year, the East Coast.

4. Finally the La Nia shits the tropi-cal jet stream north so that it fowsnorthwest through the desert regionso Mexico into exas and the DeepSouth. Tese hot dry winds defectmoisture rom the Gul. As a result,the South aces a winter o drought.

A Cold Warrom Russia

North America experienced a typical LaNia autumn and began to develop nor-mal La Nia winter conditions. Ten, inthe late November, rumbles rom Russia

fg. 2 Tis years La Nia weaher paernsabove: http://www.cpc.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/ensocycle/lanina_schem.shtml

right: http://www.pecad.fas.usda.gov/cropexplorer/continentView.cfm?ftypeid=24&fattributeid=1&stypeid=

24&sattributeid=3&regionid=namerica&startdate=12%2F11%2F10&imenddate=12%2F20%2F10

data: courtesy NOAA

fgs. 3-5 Te Pineapple Express Rain Evenhis Caliornia

fg. 6 Norh American emperaure anomaliesNov 21-30, 2010

Last Novembers classic strong La Nia weather

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completely changed the weather scenario.Te volcanoes on the Kamchatka Peninsulaawoke and began to blast the atmosphere.

Russias Kamchatka Peninsula, acrossthe North Pacic rom Alaskas AleutianIslands, is one o the most volcanically ac-tive areas on Earth. Its long central valleyis fanked by large volcanic belts contain-ing about 160 volcanoes, 29 o them stillactive. From a weather point o view, it isupwind rom North America, and whenthose volcanoes explode the debris is car-ried here.

Geologically, Kamchatka could be de-scribed as the site o a multiple car crash. Itis located on the Okhotsk tectonic plate, arelatively small block o the global surace.Te huge Pacic tectonic plate is slam-

ming into it rom the southwest at a rateo ~3.1 cm/year (1.2 inches per year). Atthe same time, halway up the peninsula,another tectonic plate, the Bering Block, is

colliding into it rom thewest and northwest at a rateo ~ 1.9 cm/year (0.7 inchesper year.) Not surprisingly,the result is messy.

Basically, both the Pacicand Bering plates are sub-ducting (sliding beneath)

under it and each other. Justas enders crumple during acar wreck, so the KamchatkaPeninsula surace is bucklingwith mountain ranges. Whenthe ocean plates sink deepenough, portions are meltedby the intense heat generated within the mantle, turningthe solid rock into molten

magma. Te magma bubbles up throughthe crust, ultimately bursting to the suraceand orming volcanic eruptions.

As a result o all this geological activ-ity, Kamchatka tends to be somewhat ac-tive but recently it has been ridiculous!Since late November Kizimen, Sheveluch,Karymsky and Kliuchevskoi have beenerupting almost constantly. Most o theeruptions have ranged rom 2 10 km (1.2 6.2 miles) high. While the smallest erup-tions have only had minor local eruptions,the larger ones have entered passing ronts,cooling temperatures, altering air pressureand increasing precipitation.

Volcanic ash screens out incoming tem-perature, cooling the air below. Tis lowersair pressures which, in turn, changes windpatterns. In particular, in polar regions, itappears to weaken the Arctic Oscillation

winds. When the Arctic Oscillation turnsnegative, that is when the winds weaken,the cold air normally trapped around theNorth Pole surges south.

Additionally, the ash and chemicals inthe volcanic debris collect water, ormingthick clouds and eventually alling out inunusually heavy rains and snows. SmallerKamchatka eruptions tend to precipitateout along the West Coast. Larger ones sailurther in the atmosphere and precipitateout east o the Rockies, in the NorthernPlains, Midwest and East Coast.

Wha we are seeing his Decemberis he combinaion o he La Nia wih

volcano weaher. Basically, he coolingha resuled rom he norhern erupions has shoved he ypical La Niapaerns souh. For Canada, his meanmany regions enjoyed warmer emperaures as he sorm rack shied urhersouh han normal. Te La Nia wouldnormally bring heavy rains o he PacicNorhwes. Insead he cooling rom he

Russian volcanic debris moved he precipiaion souh so ha he PineappleExpress hi Los Angeles and San Francisco. Te ash and debris added o herecordbreaking inensiy o he rains. Alarge La Nia would normally have polar air masses sink ino he Eas in mid

winer. Te volcanic condiions encouraged he Arcic air o plunge deep inoFlorida and he Gul o Mexico.

fg. 7 US Drough Monior December 30, 2010

http://drought.unl.edu/DM/MONITOR.html

fg. 8 Tis December, Kamchakavolcanoes are eruping simulaneously

Like characters in Russian novels, Russianvolcanoes can have more than one name.Klyuchevskaya Volcano is also known as Kliuchevskoiand Klyuchevskoy

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/47000/47538/

klyuchevskaya_ali_2010338_lrg.jpg

fg. 10Acive volcanoes on Kamchakahttp://www.kscnet.ru/ivs/volcanoes/holocene/main/main.htm

fg. 9When volcanic duscombines

wih a Pineapple Express

http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/cmb/hazards/2010/12/ca-rain-

fall-20101215-21.png

La Nina brings drought to southern states

PAGE 3

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Part o this is based on the progress othe La Nia. Te ropical Pacics cool-ing has mostly stopped and a ew areasare slightly warmer. However, overall, thepattern seems airly stable with little signo large-scale warming. Tere is little tono sign o the pattern being interruptedby any warming infuences o the smallerPacic. Indeed, most models expect theevent to continue through spring andNOAAs Climate Forecast System modelhas it remaining at least until mid-summer.It is not unusual or a La Nia to last ormore than a year.

In other words, the La Nia will re-main strong all winter long. Te nextquestion is whether it will continue tobe enhanced. Tis depends on whetherthe circumpolar winds continue to beweak enough to allow the Arctic air massto surge deep into the middle latitudes.I one looks at models, most expect the

Arctic Oscillation (AO or strength o thewinds circling the North Pole) to remainnegative but not as negative. Te oceantemperatures in the Arctic and NorthernAtlantic that aect air pressures and windpatterns do not indicate a continuation othe current extreme negative AO.

Tis winters severe cold and stormyweather depends on whether northern vol-canic activity continues to be high enoughto aect the Arctic air patterns. Most o

One more actor has added to this win-ters misery. Te waters o the Atlantic arerelatively warm. When the chilled conti-nental air mass meets the warm marine air,the result is snow- lots and lots o snow.From Atlanta to Boston, the East Coasthas had a white Christmas delighting thechildren and stranding thousands o rus-trated travelers. (Tere will be more aboutthis in the second article.)

The Rest oWinter

Ater a reezing month o coast-to-coaststorms, what can we expect? Some weatherorecasters are saying the worst is over.

the debris rom last years huge explosionsshould have precipitated out, so the weath-er will depend on this winters eruptions.Tat is hard to project. However, given thecurrent huge level o activity, it appearsunlikely that they will become quiet in thenext ew months. In other words, it ap-pears that the cooling created by La Nia will continue to be enhanced. Addition-ally, this would probably indicate that thesevere drought usually caused by La Niaswill probably be at least partially alleviated

Wet

125% or moreof normalmoisture

Warm

2-4C or morehigher thannormal temps.

Dry

75% or lessof normalmoisture

Cool

2C or morelower thannormal temp.

Late Winter

Dry

fgs. 13-15 Browning mapsfg. 12 Volcano Weaher + La Nia = A mess Browning Maps

Spring

http://www.cpc.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/lanina/

enso_evolution-status-fcsts-web.pdf

fg. 11 NOAAs CFS models projecLa Nia will coninue ino summer

La Nina range

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in the West and Midwest by volcanicallyenhanced precipitation.

When one examines the years with themost similar alignment o natural actorsshaping the climate, the winters and springhad the weather patterns shown in gures

When Jetstreams Run Amuck: A Cautionary Tale o Global Weather

SUMMARY The warm Atlantic and Indian

Oceans have combined with the La Nia

and volcanic activity to create weather

problems throughout the globe.

usually turns negative as well. Not sur-prisingly, with the warm AMO weak-ening the cool Icelandic low it makesboth the negative NAO and the nega-tive AO more requent. Boh o heseencourage cold Arcic air o plungedeep ino he Norhern Hemisphere,paricularly easern Norh Americaand Wesern Europe. Boh reinorcehe La Nia impac on he polar je

sream. All hree are causing he jesream o fucuae wildly.

Te result has been an insane polar jetstream. In North America, it has dippedpast Cuba into the Caribbean. Across theAtlantic, it dipped into Arica, then soaredar to the north over Russia. We have seenthe results in the US and Canada. Te im-pact has been as paralyzing in Europe.

Meteorologists are reporting that thishas been Europes coldest winter in 100years and the cold will last well into 2011.Te UKs Met Oce has reported that this

December 2010 was almost certain tobecome the coldest since records began in1910. Hundreds o people have died, andhundreds o thousands have been stranded.Te weather chaos even created a cyclone inthe Eastern Mediterranean which disrupt-ed the Suez Canal and sank a cargo ship oo Israel.

Ocean are dominated by the fow otropical currents like the Gul Streamrom the equator to the north. Te di-erent tropical currents are fowing un-usually ast, which warms the NorthAtlantic. Large portions o the oceanhave been 1.5 3.5C (2.7 - 6.3F)above normal. Sometimes the westernportions o the ocean cool down whencold winter storms churn up the water,

but the Gul Stream warms the watersagain airly rapidly.

2.NORtH AtLANtIC OSCILLA-tION (NAO) Since the 1920s, ithas been known that Northern At-lantic weather patterns are shaped bythe dierence o atmospheric pressurebetween the Icelandic low and the Azores high. Tis dierence controlsthe strength and direction o west-erly winds and storm tracks acrossthe North Atlantic. When the dier-ence between these pressures is high,

the west-to-east winds are very strongin the north and Arctic air masses re-main trapped in the polar latitudes. When the NAO is negative the di-erence between these air pressures is weak and the winds, particularly thepolar jet stream, are weak. Te weaker winds fuctuate more, veering northand south. ypically negative NAOsare more common when the North-ern Atlantic is warm when theAMO is in its warm phase.

3. ARCtIC OSCILLAtION According to most climate sci-entists, the Arctic Oscillationis closely related to the NAO.Specically they share the polarjet stream over the Atlantic and arepartially shaped by the Icelandiclow air pressure. When one o theseoscillations turns negative, the other

Tis winters travel chaos has not beenconned to North America. Te US andparts o Canada may have been delugedin snow, but so was Europe. We may havebeen reezing, but so were the Irish, Britishand Germans. Te harsh American weath-er crossed the pond and lashed Europewith the same intensity as it did here.

Indeed, part o the reason both sidesexperienced so much misery has been thatthe pond has been warm. Ironically, high-er temperatures in the Atlantic have led tolower temperatures throughout the North-ern Hemisphere. When combined with LaNia and the volcanic activity in the NorthPacic, the warm Atlantic has created a sea-son o snow, storms and misery.

Three Oscillationsand a Jet Stream

It all comes down to three oscillations.Tese oscillations are teleconnections,links between atmospheric occurrences or weather patterns that are very ar apart. When one pattern switches, so does theother, even i it is hundreds, or thousands,o miles away. In the case o oscillations, we are reerring to teleconnections thatalternate between extremes hot andcold, wet and dry, positive and negative.Te three oscillations that are creating theweather that is blasting both sides o theAtlantic are:

1. tHE AtLANtIC MULtIDEC-ADAL OSCILLAtION (AMO) Te temperatures o the Atlantic

13 15. Te uture usually resembles thepast, which means we are looking ahead to warmer conditions in the South and coldtemperatures and heavy storms in the Northand portions o the West. But remember this weather will depend on volcanoes withunpronounceable names.

Browning Maps

FIGS. 15-16 Te Negaive NAO has beenmore common since he AMO

wen warm in 1995

Negaive NAOPosiive NAO

The severe drought usually caused by

La Nias will probably be at least

partially alleviated in the

West and Midwest by volcanically

enhanced precipitation.

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At the same time, urthereast, the jet stream veeredsharply north fooding rstthe Middle East, then Mos-cow with unusual warmth.(Tis was a similar patternto the Russian heatwave othis summer.) Snow turned

to rain, then roze, coatingMoscow with thick layers oparalyzing ice. Power linescollapsed, lling the region with massive blackouts. Tenews reported near riot condi-tions as angry airport travelersattacked Aerofot employees. What wont be reported arethe upcoming days o thick, wet snow and the long waitor power repairs.

Asia and YetAnother Oscillation

Te wild fuctuation o the jet streamdoes not stop with Moscow. In Asia, it veerssouth again and has swept cold weatherthrough Eastern China.

Dont expect Chinas cold to be as re-cord-breaking as Europes. Te impact oLa Nia, while present, is relatively minorin Europe. It dominates the Pacic Rim.Te phenomenon may chill North Amer-ica, but it strengthens the Pacic Warm

Pool, the warm region o water aroundSoutheast Asia. Currents are carrying this warmth north along Asias coastline. Tewarmth is cushioning China rom the ullimpact o the southward plunge o the po-lar jet stream. Southern China has beenrecently been experiencing temperatures 2- 4C (3.6 - 7.2F) cooler than normal butnot the record-breaking cold o Europe.

Te cold doesnt have to be record-breaking, however, to present China withsome severe inrastructure problems. Tenation is acing a severe coal shortage andblackouts are sweeping seven provinces.

Experts predict the shortages will reachcritical proportions and the blackouts mayexpand nationally. o make the problemeven more severe, large portions o Chinahad a very dry year and hydroelectricityplants have, on average, water levels 10%below normal. Te State Grid reports thatChinas Tree Gorges dam, the worlds big-gest hydroelectric dam, has water fow 26%

below normal.

China depends on coal or 75% o itspower production, but coal reserves havebeen emptied by a huge surge in powerdemand, prompted by the recent cold weather, and the challenge o transport-ing Chinas annual output o over 3 billiontons o coal. Tis problem has been com-pounded by government eciency cam-paigns that closed down smaller privatelyowned mines.

Te cold weather is likely to produceanother problem, particularly in southern

China. When the cold air hits the unusu-ally warm waters o the East and SouthChina Seas, it can produce heavy precip-itation. Te last time we saw a La Niacombined with heavy fuctuation o theArctic Oscillation was in early 2008, whenblizzards paralyzed the Chinese New Yeartravel.

An article by Chongyin Li and Min-gquan Mu, Relationship Between EastAsian Winter Monsoon, Warm Pool Situ-ation and ENSO Cycle, published in the August 2000 Chinese Science Bulletin,notes that the La Nia and a warmer Pa-cic Warm Pool correlate with a strongerEast Asian winter monsoon. Tis meanscolder weather and heavier storms or East Asia. We are already seeing this happenand it will continue to shape the Asianwinter.

Remember, the last time we saw thishappen, the winter o 2007 2008,

there were shortages in Southeast Asiangrain production, particularly rice.here is a +70% chance o history re-peating itsel.

When the East Asian Monsoons are a-ected, it is not just a Pacic phenomenon;it also is an event aecting the IndianOcean. Like the Atlantic and Pacic, the

Indian Ocean goes through an oscillation the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD). It shapesthe monsoons that eed hal o the worldspopulation, not only in Asia, but also EastArica and Australia. Tis winter, the IODhas gone negative. Not only is it aectingAsia, but it is setting Australia awash.

Looking South Australia& South America

Te negative IOD indicates that Austra-lia will have plentiul rain. What is didntindicate was the absolute chaos the LandDown Under has experienced this summer.Large sections o the nation have had be-tween 200 400% o their normal rainall.Queensland is currently experiencing theworst fooding in a century, with militaryhelicopters recuing the entire town o Te-odore. Tree monsoon lows and a cyclonehave swept the beleaguered nation and itsonly the rst month o summer. Its nice toend the Big Dry, but not like this!

Te rain can be explained away, but it isharder to explain the summer snow. Resi-dents in east coast states New South Walesand Victoria experienced a rare WhiteChristmas-style start to their holidayweek, ater a cold spell let up to 11 inches(28 cm) o snow covering some o the areasski resorts. A ew days later, it snowed insunny asmania.

What is happening is that Australia isbeing hit by both the negative IOD whichencourages rainall in western and northernparts o the nation and a strong La Niawhich brings rain to the northern and east-

ern states. At the same time, the La Niaseems to be aecting the southern polar jet stream, so that it is fuctuating as vio-lently as the northern one that is reezingthe US. Tis allowed reezing winds romAntarctica to hit Australia in the middle o

fg. 18 Europes very chilly winer

http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/cmb/hazards/2010/12/europe-temp-

anom-20101201-16.gif

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summer.

Australia is the worlds largest wheatexporter but the excessive moisture has de-layed its wheat harvests by 4 to 6 weeksand damaged the crop. It is currently esti-mated that the level o damage could wipeup to $1billion rom the value o the na-tional wheat crop.

Australia is not the only southern na-tion suering unusual weather and cropdamage. South America is typically moreaected by La Nias than any other con-tinent. Indeed, they named the phenome-non and have recorded it since the Spanish

conquest in the 1500s. Te phenomenonusually brings severe cold to the westernAndes nations, drought to Argentina, andrain to Venezuela and Brazil. Tis year itis ollowing its normal pattern with a ven-geance. Tis is a strong La Nia and its cli-

mate impact is heavy.

For the Central Amer-ica and northern South America, this Decem-bers torrential rains havebeen more o the same.Te regions May-No- vember rainy season,

warped by the La Nia,have been extremely se-vere. December opened with widespread food-ing in Venezuela, includ-ing its capital Caracas.More than 40 peoplehave died and 130,000people have been lethomeless. Tis naturaldisaster was used to justiy granting Ven-

ezuelan President Hugo Chavez the abilityto rule by decree and near-total control othe government or the next 18 months.

Further south, the concentration hasbeen on crops. Argentina is the worldsbiggest shipper o animal eed and cook-ing oil made rom the oilseed and itshows an 80 90% historical correla-tion o having droughts during La Nias.Rainall was low in both October andNovember. Now summer has arrived andthe unusually warm Atlantic is creatingtemperatures rom 95 - 106F (32 -41C). Te heat and drought is devastat-ing the corn and soybean crop. ypically

Brazil has plentiul rain, but this is an un-usually strong La Nia, and the heat anddrought is spreading to Brazils southernarmlands. Brazils central growing landsare doing well, but some private orecastersworry that the heavy rains in the north may

increase plant disease.

Conclusion

Te current strong La Nia is caus-ing unusually cold stormy weather in theNorthern Hemisphere and problems withcrop production in the Southern Hemi-

sphere. Expect more problems with ex-treme weather, especially in January. Someexperts claim that the phenomenon haspeaked, but i others, who predict a newpeak in March are right, the problems withcrops, storms and global transportationwill last or the next three months.

ments. Since these ragments control the amount o solar energythat can enter the atmosphere, discovering that there may be 2to 8 times more ragments than we thought is a major faw inour understanding o climate.

Last year, 2010, was the UNs International Year oBiodiversity. As it drew to a close, scientists at the RoyalBotanic Gardens, Kew have been reporting on some o

their ndings. Not only have they discovered new species, but

Tanks to improved satellite imagery scientists arenally beginning to understand more about the aero-sols that foat through the atmosphere and alter the

weather. What they are learning is how little we know. One othe most recent studies published by Jasper Kok in the Proceed-ings of the National Academy of Sciencessuggests there areseveral times more dust particles in the atmosphere than previ-ously thought. Te dirt, dust and volcanic ash shatters in the airlike glass, producing an unexpectedly high number o rag-

fg. 19 Te Negaive Dipole brings rainand foodingo Ausraliahttp://www.jamstec.go.jp/frsgc/research/d1/iod/

fg. 20 La Nia brings drough o mucho Souh America

Precipitation anomalies:Dec 11-20, 2010http://www.pecad.fas.usda.gov/cropexplorer/continentView.

cfm?regionid=samerica

BROWNING NEWSLEERJanuary 2011 PAGE 7

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some species, long thought to be extinct in the wild, have beenrediscovered. Te Kew botanists have collected over 8 millionspecimens o plants and ungus and are responsible or 10% o thenew discoveries o global plant lie. Some o the Gardens discover-ies this year have been pretty, like a new orchid and three newirises. Others are just weird, like Dypsis metallica, a Madagascarpalm tree with thick, blue leaves and the British birds-eyeprimrose smut (Urocystis primulicola) thought to be extinct orthe past 106 years. Teir labs even discovered that one species, the

Paris japonica, has the longest known genome on earth - 50 timesthe size o the humans. Tey are so long that, i the coiled tangleo genes was stretched out to their ull length, they would be tallerthan the tower o Big Ben! What 2010 has shown is how verydiverse the globes population is.

It may only be a coincidence but a number o elephantstories have come out ater the recent round o Republicanvictories.

Remember when lie was simple and you were taught that therewere 2 types o elephants Arican (big ears) and Asian (smallears). Whoops it turns out there are 3 species! Arica has twospecies (both with big ears), the large savanna elephant and thesmaller orest elephant. DNA studies by Nadin Rohland et. al.,

published in the December 21 PLoS Biology, show that the twospecies have been separate or several million years. Te scienticteam collected DNA rom all three species and the remains oextinct woolly mammoth and mastodon. Surprisingly, the twoArican species are as genetically distinct rom each other as Asianelephants and the extinct mammoths. According to the authors,they have been separate species almost as long as mankind hasbeen distinct rom chimps. Tis has come as a surprise to the bio-logical community despite the act that the six to seven ton savan-nah elephant was roughly double the weight o the orest elephant.

Scientists think they may have rediscovered the extinctJavan elephant alive and well and living in Borneo.Findings by Junaidi Payne et.al. , o the World Wildlie

Foundation published in the Sarawak Museum Journalshowthe rare Borneo pygmy elephant is not native to Borneo aterall. Tey are not closely related to any other known populationo Asian elephant and have a unique appearance and behavior.

Instead, researchers are beginning to believe that they are thelast survivors o the Javan elephant race accidentally savedrom extinction by the Sultan o Sulu centuries ago. TeIslamic Sultanate o Sulu, which stretched rom the Philip-pines to Borneo, used elephants as gits to tribal leaders. AterEuropeans arrived, the herds in the Philippines and their nativeJava were hunted to extinction by the 1800s.. Apparently a ewo the imported animals o Borneo escaped and have bred inthe wild or centuries. Preservationists who are currently tryingto save endangered animals, like the white rhino, are encour-aged to see a 400-year-old relocation program that has saved aspecies rom extinction.

Lots o people want to help the environment, butFlorida marine conservationists have come up witha tasty way to save it - have a nice serving o lion-

sh. Red lionsh, native to the South Pacic, Indian Oceanand Red Sea, are poisonous, spiny predators spreading acrossFloridian and Caribbean coral rees, destroying the local sh,

shrimp and crab populations. Some scientists are now listingthe invasive lionsh species among the top 15 threats to globalbiodiversity.

Te Key Largo-based Ree Environmental Education Founda-tion has come up with a delicious way to ght back. Teyvereleased Te Lionsh Cookbook, and report the prickly shhas delicately favored white meat, very buttery. It is sae to eatand contains no venom. So be a hero. Leave the cold and save aree by vacationing in Florida and eating lionsh. Bon apptit!

Te BROWNING NEWSLEERis published monthly at an annual subscription rate o $250or print OR email version, $270 or both ormats. Subscriptions should be directed to:

The BROWNINGNEWSLETTERPO Box 1777Burlington, VT 05402

phone: 1-802-658-0322e-mail:[email protected]

The opinions expressed are those of the writer,

and although they are based on extensive studies

o physical data and phenomena, many statements

published here are not entitled to be regarded

as rigorously proved in a scientifc sense. Some

decades must pass beore these issues are resolved.

Meanwhile, decisions must be based on the best

available inormation and estimates.

This newsletter will not contain:

Analysis of, or recommendations concerning,any investment possibilities.

Recommendations on any particularcourse of action.

Evelyn Garriss now offers an e-mail update service to notify subscribers when eruptions happen,and how they are likely to affect the weather.

For more details, price, and subscribing information: www.BrowningNewsletter.com/contact.ht ml

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BROWNING NEWSLEER

PAGE 8 January 2011

Browning Newsletter Jan '11

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