A new analysis paper called "Solutions for a Cultivated Planet" has been published at Nature.com from Jonathan Foley and colleagues at the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment. The analysis will appear in print in the NATURE issue of Oct. 20. 

Initial surveys indicate the displaced books likely can be salvaged.

Sara Reardon: "A heat wave is sweeping the planet, and animals and plants are making a break for cooler climes. Or so scientists have always assumed. It's been hard to tie a species' migration directly to climate change, particularly with human activity destroying ecosystems every year. But researchers have now gathered more evidence for that link by compiling data from 54 scientific papers that collectively map the habitat ranges of more than 2000 species during the past 4 decades. On average, the team finds, creatures move both up mountains and farther away from the equator at a speed that keeps pace with the rate of climate change and at a pace that is far faster than previously predicted...."

From Abstract: "The distributions of many terrestrial organisms are currently shifting in latitude or elevation in response to changing climate. Using a meta-analysis, we estimated that the distributions of species have recently shifted to higher elevations at a median rate of 11.0 meters per decade, and to higher latitudes at a median rate of 16.9 kilometers per decade. These rates are approximately two and three times faster than previously reported..."

"A meta-study published in Science today provides the first evidence that global movement of plants and animals to higher latitudes and altitudes is directly linked to climate change. The research, led by ecologist Chris Thomas at the University of York, UK, also reveals that species are moving two to three times faster than previously thought..."

Seth Borenstein: "Animals across the world are fleeing global warming by heading north much faster than they were less than a decade ago, a new study says. About 2,000 species examined are moving away from the equator at an average rate of more than 15 feet per day, about a mile per year, according to new research published Thursday in the journal Science which analyzed previous studies. Species are also moving up mountains to escape the heat, but more slowly, averaging about 4 feet a year.

"The species -- mostly from the Northern Hemisphere and including plants -- moved in fits and starts, but over several decades it averages to about 8 inches an hour away from the equator...."

Fiona Harvey: "Once heard only rarely outside the north Kent marshes, the loud voice of the Cetti's warbler is now delighting a whole new set of listeners, from the isle of Anglesey to the banks of the Humber. The bird has moved 150 kilometres further north within the UK in the last 40 years, in response to the changing climate...."

Brian Vastag: "Across the globe, plants and animals are creeping, crawling, slithering and winging to higher altitudes and higher latitudes as global temperatures climb.

...and below from NOAA's National Climatic Data Center with analysis further below from Andrew Freedman at Climate Central:

"The globe experienced its seventh warmest July since record keeping began in 1880. July's Arctic sea ice extent was the smallest on record for that month since records began in 1979...."

Supplemental Highlights: "This was the 317th consecutive month with a global temperature above the 20th century average. The last month with below average temperatures was February 1985...."

"Abnormally warm conditions in much of the United States, Northern Europe, Western and Eastern Russia, and parts of the Arctic helped propel July 2011 to the seventh-warmest July on record, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported yesterday. This makes July the 317th month in a row that global average surface temperatures were above normal. The year-to-date is now the 11th warmest period on average...."

The chart below shows the extent of Arctic sea ice in August 2011 compared to normal melt and previous years. Follow the blue line...As NOAA says above, the extent of Arctic sea ice in July was the least amount for any July...the next month will determine whether 2011 (blue line) matches or exceeds the record melt year of 2007 (dotted green line).

An amazing effort by young journalists. Check it out.

Eric Fischer (@enf) has mapped geotagged tweets and flickr pictures in a new collection called "See something or say something." He has posted the maps to, where else, his flickr page. Fischer's previous projects include "The Geotaggers'  World Atlas" and other works and all can be found here:  

In this new collection red (orange?) dots are locations of Flickr pictures. Blue dots are locations of tweets. White dots are locations that have been posted to both. 

In the US map above you can see the dominance of images in the scenic western states, and the red on the Washington DC map below shows the National Mall from the dominance of the red geotagged flickr images. Blue tweets drape over much of the the rest of DC, no doubt this is all the cutting-edge policy thinking going on.

Nathan Yau, whose new book "Visualize This," is just out, writes about Fischer's new work at his blog, Flowing Data (@flowingdata).

The dozen or so of you who have followed this thing, whatever it may be called, haven't seen much from me lately. This mostly because too much else has been going on and there's just too little bandwidth to keep up. Several projects are underway that require lots of deep digging. 

Also trumping a "blog" has been devotion to several personal documentary photography projects of prom parties, musicals and plays, state and regional frisbee tournaments, community swim meets, and other family, school, and community activities:

Something has to give, and this electronic outpost has taken a back seat. If any of you have thoughts on what should or could be done next here, give a shout....the issues remain. What, for example, are you interested in knowing more about that you cannot find out elsewhere? 

My own interest is as strong as ever in the idea of visualizing global change at the intersection of human aspiration and earth's ability to sustain us. With this comes the formidable challenge of convincingly communicating this nexus simply, elegantly, and viscerally. Right now there is just a shortage of time and bandwidth to focus on this idea, I will continue as I can.

In the meantime, two items of note:

In May I was in London to speak at and participate in a fascinating conference contemplating the emergence of the "Anthropocene" geologic epoch.  Suffice to say the Anthropocene is a fascinating way for us people to understand our relationship to to the planet that supports us and our seemingly infinite appetites. Expect to hear more about the Anthropocene as a way to frame our relationship to Earth.

Others have written about the conference, notably Andrew Revkin at NYT Dot Earth, who also participated, and the journal Nature. 

Oliver Morton of The Economist reported on the conference with a major feature story, and the magazine put the Anthropocene idea on the cover of its May 28 issue (cover image below):

The Anthropocene idea has been covered in some depth here:

I also helped co-orchestrate, moderate panels, and speak at the annual Aspen Environment Forum, which ended earlier this month.  Now in its fourth year the forum is a co-production of colleagues at National Geographic and The Aspen Institute.

One session of particular interest, one I had been trying to get on the agenda for years, on what could be called "black swan" events, was the May 30 opening discussion: Coping With Calamity: The Art of Looking Ahead. 

"Headlines from the past two years tell an unsettling story: we live in an increasingly disaster-prone world. An Icelandic volcano shuts down air travel over the North Atlantic; an exploding drill rig coats the Gulf of Mexico with oil; epic floods (Nashville, Pakistan, Australia) and massive earthquakes (Haiti, Chile, New Zealand, Japan) kill hundreds of thousands of people and cost hundreds of billions of dollars. Some of these disasters were natural, some caused by humans, and some perhaps a mix of the two. But all were dramatically amplified in their impact by the fact that we have, in the past half-century, put so many more people and failure-prone technology in harm's way--nuclear reactors on the coast of Japan, for instance, where the word "tsunami" was coined. Is it possible to build more resilience into our crowded and complex world? To what extent is preparedness merely a matter of investing resources and to what extent does it require changing mindsets--of learning to expect rather than be surprised by inevitable calamity?"

It was also my very food fortune to speak at length with Stewart Brand, originator of the Whole Earth Catalog, Long Now Foundation, co-founder of the Global Business Network, and author of the recent book "Whole Earth Discipline." We talked about challenges and opportunities ahead as our expanding, aspiring human family continues to leverage the finite resources of the planet...

Brand's annotated website for Whole Earth Discipline:

Now, to the sea soon to conjure and contemplate...

"...From Tennessee to Louisiana, the arteries and tributaries that normally supply the lifeblood of trade and business to the communities along the river's banks are now paralyzing them. The engorged river has disrupted waterway commerce, delaying barge traffic and forcing some cargo to be trucked overland. Grain elevators, a crucial link to the nation's grain exports, have been swamped. Early corn and soybean plantings on delta farms are submerged...."