Incredible Ice Melt
07-Feb-2008
Glaciers are melting in the Arctic and
everywhere
else, and now a huge ice sheet in Canada is melting as well!
The level of the Mediterranean ocean is rising rapidly. Soon this
will be common news, all over the world and it’s already affecting
the weather
right here in the US.
In LiveScience.com, Jeanna Bryner reports that ice fields on
Baffin Island in the Arctic have shrunk 50% percent in the past 50
years and will be gone in 50 more. Baffin is the fifth largest
island in the world, larger than California, and some the ice
fields there formed in pre-Medieval times and have lasted until
now. Bryner quotes researcher Gifford Miller as saying, "That
tells us right there that the warming of the 20th century is the
warmest sustained period of warming in that time. It clearly says
we're now warmer than we were in Medieval times. The general trend
has been cooling for the past
ten
thousand years. The fact that they are now receding like mad
just makes it even more unusual because the large-scale forcing,
how much energy comes in from the sun during the summer months, is
getting less and less."
In Canada, there is a massive crack in the Beaufort Sea ice
pack, which is off the west coast of Banks Island in the Northwest
Territories. This could lead to massive flooding in nearby coastal
areas. CBC News quotes researcher David Barber as saying, "We're
starting to think this is what the
future's
going to look like…It's been an extremely interesting year but
kind of depressing. It’s interesting in a bad way."
Art credit: NOAA
|
|
 |
Gone in Less Than a Week
13-Sep-2007
An area of the
Arctic the size of Florida has melted away in just the last six
days as the polar cap continues to melt at a record rate. And not
surprisingly, polar bears are starting to disappear as well. There
are a lot of
mysterious
events going on in the far North right now.
On the ABC News website, Clayton Sandell reports that "2007
has already broken the record for the lowest amount of sea ice
ever recorded…smashing the old record set in 2005." In just the
last six days, researchers say that almost 70,000 square miles of
Arctic ice has disappeared, which is a piece the size of the state
of Florida.
Sandell quotes polar ice expert Mark Serreze as saying, "If
you had asked me a few years ago about how fast the Arctic would
be ice free in summer, I would have said somewhere between about
2070 and the turn of the century. My view has changed. I think
that an ice-free Arctic as early as 2030 is not unreasonable."
BBC News reports that two-thirds of the world's polar bears
will be gone by the middle of the century, and says, “the US
Geological Survey (USGS) says that parts of the Arctic are losing
summer ice so fast that no bears will be able to live there within
several decades."
Related Stories:
02-Oct-2007:
Time to Re-Draw Our Maps
25-Sep-2007:
What Needs to be Changed…FAST
14-Sep-2007:
Is Ancient Bacteria Still a Threat?
29-Aug-2007:
MORE Extreme Weather
22-Aug-2007:
Coldest Lake is Heating Up
21-Aug-2007:
Pole Problems
10-Aug-2007:
Extreme Weather—Will it Get Better or Worse?
24-Jul-2007:
Weather Woes Grip Planet
18-Jul-2007:
Arctic: Still Cold, but Not Cold Enough
11-Jul-2007:
Planting Trees Doesn't Always Help
|
Arctic Ice Continues Record Melting
Arctic Ice the Size of Florida Gone in a Week
Scientists report that arctic ice the size of the
state of Florida has melted in the last six days. (ABCNEWS)
By CLAYTON SANDELL
Sept. 10, 2007
An area of Arctic sea ice the size of Florida has melted
away in just the last six days as melting at the top of the
planet continues at a record rate.
2007 has already broken the record for the lowest
amount of sea ice ever recorded, say scientists, smashing
the old record set in 2005.
Currently, there are about 1.63 million
square miles of Arctic ice, according to the
National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder,
Colo. That is well below the record of 2.05
million square miles set two summers ago and
could drop even lower before the final numbers
are in.
North Pole's Ice Disappears
From September 3 to September 9,
researchers say 69,000 square miles of Arctic
ice disappeared, roughly the size of the
Sunshine State.
Scientists say the rate of melting in
2007 has been unprecedented, and veteran ice
researchers worry the Arctic is on track to be
completely ice-free much earlier than previous
research and climate models have suggested.
"If you had asked me a few years ago
about how fast the Arctic would be ice free in
summer, I would have said somewhere between
about 2070 and the turn of the century," said
scientist Mark Serreze, polar ice expert at
the NSIDC. "My view has changed. I think that
an ice-free Arctic as early as 2030 is not
unreasonable."
Sea ice melt will likely reach the
absolute minimum in the next few days as
temperatures at the North Pole cool and
refreezing begins.
Worldwide Climate Implications
Melting sea ice, unlike land-based
glaciers like the ones in Greenland and
elsewhere, does not raise sea level. But it
does play a major role in regulating the
planet's climate by affecting air and ocean
currents.
"It will shift some of the weather
patterns in ways that we are just beginning to
understand," said Robert Correll, a scientist
who chairs the Arctic Climate Impact
Assessment and is also the climate change
director at the Heinz Center for Science,
Economics and the Environment in Washington,
D.C.
Correll said that white sea ice also
acts as a mirror at the top of the planet,
reflecting much of the sun's energy back into
space. As it melts, it reveals darker water
that absorbs more energy from the sun --
further warming the ocean in a process
scientists call a "feedback."
"If there is no ice, the ocean is going
to continue to heat, and that is going to
accelerate the global warming process," said
Correll.
In coastal villages throughout the Arctic, less sea
ice also means less protection from wind and waves that
erode the shoreline. It also means less habitat for animals
like polar bears and other marine animals.
Last week, the United States Geological Survey issued a
report that found if the ice continued to decline at the
current rate, two-thirds of the world's polar bear
population will disappear by 2050.
"Our results do give me some concern," said Steve
Armstrup, a Polar Bear Project Leader with the USGS. "In
Northern Alaska, where I've been working for these years,
there may not be polar bears. So as Polar bears go, that
probably reflects to a great extent a lot of things that are
happening to other organisms in the Arctic system."
Northwest Passage Opening
The melting ice continues to open up the fabled
Northwest Passage, long-sought by explorers and shipping
companies as a short cut between Europe and East Asia.
Historically, that debate has been largely theoretical
because the passage has been frozen and impassable. But in
August, satellite images showed the passage has now become
more navigable than ever, fueling a hot debate between the
United States and Canada over who should control it.
At a summit last month in Montebello, Canada, the
leaders of the two nations expressed their disagreement.
"Canada's position is that we intend to strengthen our
sovereignty in the Arctic area, not only military, but
economic, social, environmental and others," said Canadian
Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
"We believe it's an international passageway,"
President Bush countered a moment later.
The
latest satellite image
shows a clear, wide path running through the Arctic that has
major implications for global commerce.
For example, ships that must currently go around South
America's Cape Horn because they are too big to traverse the
Panama Canal could save about 10,000 miles out of their
shipping route.
The passage also saves about 5,000 miles when shipping
between Europe and Asia.
Canada, the United States and Denmark are also
competing for resources as melting Arctic ice
reveals potential deposits of oil and gas.
A mini-submarine placed a Russian flag at the North Pole
last month in a symbolic claim to that country's share of
Arctic resources.
Environmental groups worry that increased traffic through
the Arctic could put the natural resources in jeopardy if
there is an oil spill or other disaster in the remote
region.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Technology/GlobalWarming/story?id=3582433&page=1
|
|
GREAT LAKE DRYING UP - LAKE SUPERIOR 6-18-07
By Julia Cheng, AP
The case of the
disappearing Great Lake
Ice from Lake Superior gathers near the
lighthouse on Wisconsin Point near Superior, Wis. Even with warmer
temperatures the ice still remains from this past winter.
|
LiveScience Staff
Tue May 15, 4:45 PM ET
Warm temperatures melted an area of western Antarctica
that adds up to the size of California in January 2005,
scientists report.
Satellite data collected by the scientists between July
1999 and July 2005 showed clear signs that melting had
occurred in multiple distinct regions, including far inland
and at high latitudes and elevations, where melt had been
considered unlikely.
"Antarctica has shown little to no warming in the recent
past with the exception of the Antarctic Peninsula," said
Konrad Steffen of the University of Colorado, Boulder. "But
now large regions are showing the first signs of the impacts
of warming as interpreted by this satellite analysis."
Changes in the ice mass of Antarctica, Earth's largest
freshwater reservoir, are important to understanding global
sea level rise. Large amounts of Antarctic freshwater flowing
into the ocean also could affect ocean salinity, currents and
global climate.
NASA's QuikScat satellite detected snowmelt by radar
pulses that bounce off of ice that formed when snowmelt
refroze (just as ice cream turns to ice when it is refrozen
after being left out on the counter too long.)
Maximum high temperatures of 41 degrees Fahrenheit that
persisted for about a week in Antarctica caused a melt intense
enough to create an extensive ice layer.
Evidence of melting was found up to 560 miles inland
from the open ocean, farther than 85 degrees south (about 310
miles from the South Pole) and higher than 6,600 feet above
sea level.
Water from the melted snow can penetrate cracks and the
ice, lubricating the continent's ice sheets, sending them
toward the ocean faster and raising sea levels, the scientists
said.
"Increases in snowmelt, such as this in 2005, definitely
could have an impact on larger scale melting of Antarctica's
ice sheets if they were severe or sustained over time,"
Steffen said.
No further melting has been detected through March 2007.
|
http://www.nytimes.com/
5-6-07
BECCLES JOURNAL: GREAT BRITAIN
GLOBAL WARMING: AS THE CLIMATE DRAMATICALLY CHANGES, CHUNKS OF ENGLAND's
COAST CRUMBLE INTO THE OCEAN! / LARGE ACRES OF FARMLAND HAVE DISAPPEARED
IN ONE WINTER! / MILLIONS OF "ENVIRONMENTAL REFUGEES" ARE EXPECTED BY 2050
and 60 MILLION PEOPLE WILL LOSE THEIR COASTAL HOMES BY 2080! –
By Elisabeth Rosenthal,
The New York Times, Sunday, May 6, 2007
EXTREME CLIMATE CHANGE FLASHPOINT: LAND LOSS at Benacre "HAS
ACCELERATED DRAMATICALLY," said Mark Venmore-Roland, the estate's manager.
"At first
it was like a chap losing his hair — bit by bit, so you'd get used to
it." But in the past few years, he said, "IT's BEEN REALLY FRIGHTENING."
BECCLES, England — This winter a 50-foot-wide strip of Roger
Middleditch's sugar-beet field fell into the North Sea, his rich East
Anglian lands reduced by a large fraction of their acreage. The adjacent
potato field, once 23 acres, is now less than 3 — too small to plant
at all, he said.
Each spring Mr. Middleditch, a tenant farmer on the vast Benacre Estate
here, meets with its managers to recalculate his rent, depending on HOW
MUCH LAND HAS BEEN EATEN UP BY ENCROACHING WATER. As he stood in a muddy
field by the roaring sea recently, he tried to estimate how close he
dared to plant this season.
"We've LOST SO MUCH THESE LAST FEW YEARS," he said. "You plant, and by
harvest it's fallen into the water."
Coastal erosion has been a fact of life here for a century, because the
land under East Anglia is slowly sinking. But the EROSION HAS NEVER BEEN
AS QUICK and cataclysmic as it has been in recent years, an EFFECT OF
CLIMATE CHANGE AND GLOBAL WARMING, many scientists say.
To make matters worse for coastal farmers, the government has stopped
maintaining large parts of the network of seawalls that once protected
the area. Under a new policy that scientists have labeled "managed
retreat," governments around the globe are concluding that it is not
worth taxpayer money to fight every inevitable effect of climate change.
LAND LOSS at Benacre "HAS ACCELERATED DRAMATICALLY," said Mark
Venmore-Roland, the estate's manager. "At first it was like a chap
losing his hair — bit by bit, so you'd get used to it." But in the
past few years, he said, "IT's BEEN REALLY FRIGHTENING."
A report this year from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
estimates that rising seas WILL FORCE 60 MILLION PEOPLE AWAY FROM THEIR
COASTAL HOMES and jobs by the year 2080.
Another study, the Stern Report, released last December by the British
government, projected hundreds of MILLIONS OF "ENVIRONMENTAL REFUGEES"
by 2050. That category includes people whose land is ruined by floods
and those whose pastures are parched by drought.
Most are expected to be poor people in developing countries, like
fishermen in Asia or shepherds in Africa. Mr. Middleditch, a grizzled,
balding man in Wellington boots, and Mr. Venmore-Roland, with his
upper-class accent, plush yellow corduroy trousers and walking stick,
are certainly not typical of this group. But their plight shows that
even here in Europe, livelihoods are being affected, particularly in
rural areas.
Walkers and birders who frequent these famous Broads, or salt marshes,
will find that the hiking path through Benacre that once gently declined
from a low grassy plateau toward the beach, now ends in a precipitous
drop of 16 feet to the water; the rest fell into the sea in February.
The 6,000-acre Benacre Estate is losing swaths of land 30 feet wide
along its entire two miles of coastline each year. Inland trees that
were once sold for timber are dying or no longer commercially valuable,
because the proximity to the salty sea air has left them stunted.
Farmers like Mr. Middleditch are losing fields and trying to adjust
crops to an unpredictable climate. Mr. Middleditch is now planting hemp.
In Cornwall, in southwestern England, warmer and wetter weather has led
farmers to experiment with growing jalapeño peppers.
As climate change has accelerated erosion on the east coast of Britain,
many scientists and politicians have decided that it no longer makes
sense to defend the land. Under the policy of managed retreat, farms,
nature preserves and villages are surrendered to the sea.
"This land is very sensitive to climate change because it is very
low-lying and doesn't tolerate high temperatures like we've had the last
few summers," said David Viner, a climate expert at the University of
East Anglia.
"The government will only protect land it thinks of as economically
important, and on an economic level you can say that makes sense, but of
course that's not the whole picture."
A landmark scientific report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change, released in February, predicted that warming caused by human
activities could produce rises in sea level of 7 to 23 inches,
accompanied by much stormier weather, by the end of the century.
In Indonesia, the environment minister predicted that 2,000 of the
country's islands could be swallowed by the seas in 30 years and said
that little can be done to defend them. In wealthier regions, vast
engineering projects can often prevent the sea's encroachment, Mr. Viner
said, but the cost is often so high that it becomes politically
unacceptable.
Here in the Broads, there are conflicts about who deserves to be spared
the effects of climate change, and what should be sacrificed to the
advancing water. Local council meetings have pitted conservation groups
against farmers; landowners against environmentalists; national
politicians against villagers. Then there is the question of who, if
anyone, should compensate people for the land and income lost.
Farmers and landowner groups are calling for government payments and for
a voice in deciding what must be saved. They would also like permission
to build their own private sea defenses. Last year, Peter Boggis, a
farmer whose land abuts Benacre, paid a contractor to add dirt to the
bottom of the sea cliff that abuts his land. He was ordered to stop,
after conservation groups said he was tampering with a site of
scientific interest.
Farther up the coast, four or five homes from the village of Happisburgh
fall into the sea each year, as the cliff beneath them crumbles. While
they appeal for help, the North Norfolk District Council and Coastal
Concern Action Limited have started to shore up Happisburgh's cliff with
rocks, financed in part by an Internet campaign,
"Buy a Rock for Happisburgh."
"The U.K. won't let London flood," Mr. Viner said, "but the national
government's not going to worry about an odd village or farm."
------------------------------------------
© Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company
|
|
Mars Is Warming, NASA Scientists Report
Data coincide with increasing solar output
Written By: James M. Taylor
Published In: Environment News
Publication Date: November 1, 2005
Publisher: The Heartland Institute
|
|
The planet Mars is undergoing significant global warming, new data
from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) show,
lending support to many climatologists' claims that the Earth's modest
warming during the past century is due primarily to a recent upsurge in
solar energy.
Martian Ice Shrinking Dramatically
According to a September 20 NASA news release, "for three Mars
summers in a row, deposits of frozen carbon dioxide near Mars' south
pole have shrunk from the previous year's size, suggesting a climate
change in progress." Because a Martian year is approximately twice as
long as an Earth year, the shrinking of the Martian polar ice cap has
been ongoing for at least six Earth years.
The shrinking is substantial. According to Michael Malin,
principal investigator for the Mars Orbiter Camera, the polar ice cap is
shrinking at "a prodigious rate."
"The images, documenting changes from 1999 to 2005, suggest the
climate on Mars is presently warmer, and perhaps getting warmer still,
than it was several decades or centuries ago," reported Yahoo News on
September 20.
Solar Link Possible
Scientists are not sure whether the Martian warming is entirely
due to Mars-specific forces or may be the result of other forces, such
as increasing solar output, which would explain much of the recent
asserted warming of the Earth as well.
Sallie Baliunas, chair of the Science Advisory Board at the George
C. Marshall Institute, said, "Pluto, like Mars, is also undergoing
warming." However, Baliunas speculated it is "likely not the sun but
long-term processes on Mars and Pluto" causing the warming. However,
until more information is gathered, Baliunas said, it is difficult to
know for sure.
Pat Michaels, past president of the American Association of State
Climatologists and senior fellow at the Cato Institute, similarly
expressed a desire for more information about the Martian climate. "What
is the internal dynamic that is warming Mars?" asked Michaels. "Given
the fact that there are not a lot of anthropogenic greenhouse gas
emissions on Mars, and given the fact that new research indicates that
10 to 30 percent estimated conservatively of Earth's recent warming is
due to increased solar output, the Martian warming may support that new
research."
Models May Be Wrong
The new research mentioned by Michaels is the October 2 release of
findings by Duke University scientists that "at least 10 to 30 percent
of global warming measured during the past two decades may be due to
increased solar output rather than factors such as increased
heat-absorbing carbon dioxin gas released by various human activities."
"The problem is that Earth's atmosphere is not in thermodynamic
equilibrium with the sun," Duke associate research scientist Nicola
Scafetta explained in a Duke University news release. Moreover, "the
longer the time period [that the Earth's atmosphere is not in
thermodynamic equilibrium] the stronger the effect will be on the
atmosphere, because it takes time to adapt."
Examining a 22-year interval of reliable solar data going back to
1980, the Duke scientists were able to filter out shorter-range effects
that can influence surface temperatures but are not related to global
warming. Such effects include volcanic eruptions and ocean current
changes such as El Niño.
Applying their long-term data, the Duke scientists concluded, "the
sun may have minimally contributed about 10 to 30 percent of the
1980-2002 global surface warming."
"[Greenhouse] gases would still give a contribution, but not so
strong as was thought," Scafetta observed.
Several Forces Affect Temperature
"We don't know what the sun will do in the future," Scafetta
added. "For now, if our analysis is correct, I think it is important to
correct the climate models so that they include reliable sensitivity to
solar activity."
Iain Murray, senior fellow and global warming specialist at the
Competitive Enterprise Institute, said the Mars warming adds another
level of uncertainty to claims that the Earth's modest recent warming is
a result of human activity. "It is probably too much to claim that any
one source is the principal driver of the warming trend on Earth," said
Murray.
"The number of significant temperature forcings on the climate
system grows yearly as we get to know more and more about it, but we
really are at a very early stage of our exploration of this very complex
system," Murray noted. "If all the estimates are true about the relative
effects of forcings like the sun, black carbon, and greenhouse gases,
then it is quite possible that we would have been in a sharply cooling
phase over recent years were it not for these forcings. In which case,
one might say, thank goodness for global warming!"
James M. Taylor (taylor@heartland.org)
is managing editor of Environment & Climate News.
For more information ...
The September 30 news release announcing the findings of the Duke
University research, "Sun's Direct Role in Global Warming May Be
Underestimated, Duke Physicists Report," is available online at
http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2005/09/sunwarm.html.
|
Subject: Svalbard ice melting
Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2007
Svalbard
ice melting
The glaciers on arctic
Svalbard
are melting faster than researchers believed and the pace has
accelerated over the past five years.
Over 16 cubic kilometers of ice
from the many Svalbard glaciers vanishes each year.
At the same time record summer temperatures have been measured
in Longyearbyen, and snowfall has declined.
The resulting changes have
already been highly visible, with new islands appearing, and
the Blomstrand peninsula being revealed as an island after the
retreat of glacial ice.
"We see a clear and dramatic
change," said Kim Holmén, research director at the Norwegian
Polar Institute. He believes the reduction in ice is due to
warmer climate and said that recent research indicates that
the consequences of global climate change is first registered
in the Arctic.
"Svalbard is now a
greater contributor to the world's rising sea level than we
previously believed," Holmén said.
"The volume of the glaciers is
being reduced. One thing is that they retreat, at least as
dramatic is that they are also becoming thinner," said glacier
researcher Jack Kohler at the Norwegian Polar Institute. He
has worked with the
Svalbard glaciers for many years and can state that they are being
reduced by 60-70 centimeters (23.6-27.5 inches) in thickness
per year.
On Thursday the International
Polar Year (IPY) begins, with thousands of researchers from
over 60 nations concentrating on polar research. Climate
changes and their consequences will be a central theme and
much of the research will take place at Svalbard
and in the adjacent region.
http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1667963.ece
|
Subject: Vanishing giant
Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2007
The glacier is now clearly
split, with the smaller piece just visible off to the left.
PHOTO: NVE
Vanishing giant
The bottom portion of
Norway's Storbreen (Big Glacier) in Jotunheimen has
split in two and is steadily melting.
|
This photo from autumn 2005
shows the glacier in retreat, one visible indication being
the more prominent crag in the center of the photo.
PHOTO: NVE
A 3D model image that shows
the glacier's range over time, with the lowest mark coming
from around 1750, a period known as Norway's 'little ice
age'.
PHOTO: NVE
|
Several years of warm summers
and poor snowfall have left Bretunga, the lower part of the
glacier, in poor shape.
"The glacier is now clearly
divided in two. Less than ten years ago it was completely
joined there at the bottom," Liss Marie Andreassen,
glaciologist at the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy
Directorate (NVE), told Aftenposten.no.
Andreassen's doctorate focused
on Storbreen. She says that the glacier has retreated around
60 meters due to melting since 1997, and since measurements
began in 1949, the ice has melted about 500 meters back from
its previous edge.
More or less all of Norway's
glaciers are now on the retreat according to the NVE. They are
shrinking in both length and volume, and the trend has been
clear since the beginning of the 20th century.
According to the research
project RegClim, 1,600 Norwegian glaciers can be gone within
the next hundred years, leaving only about 30. Andreassen
would not give unconditional support to this prognosis.
"There is no doubt that many of
the smaller glaciers will disappear if global warming
continues. And many of the larger glaciers will greatly
decrease in volume. But saying something about the situation
in 100 years is difficult," she said.
"It depends on how warm it will
be and how much precipitation falls. For example, it isn't
unthinkable that there will be significantly more
precipitation in the mountains in coming years. In this case
it would lead to better conditions for coastal glaciers,"
Andreassen said.
According to the NVE about 98
percent of all electricity in Norway is generated
from hydropower and the glaciers play a vital role in this
process.
"About 15 percent of the water
power comes from water systems with significant amounts of
glacial water, and in drier years glaciers regulate water
flow," said Andreassen, who also noted that glaciers are an
important indicator of climate change.
"Glaciers react quickly to
changes in temperature and precipitation, and provide much
useful information to climate researchers," she said.
Aftenposten's Norwegian
reporter
Kjetil Olsen
Aftenposten English Web Desk
|
|
Melting ice caps are forcing polar bears further
inland
|
|
Island people swallowed by the sea
This week saw the launch of International
Polar Year, an initiative in which scientists from 60
countries will study the Arctic and Antarctic, with the major
focus on climate change.
The BBC's David Willis travelled to the
remote Alaskan island of Shishmaref, a community that is
being destroyed by climate change.
It is not quite the end of the world but you
could probably see it from here.
Shishmaref loomed as a dot on the landscape
as our twin-engined Cessna cargo plane cut through
snow-capped mountains.
We had flown to the edge of the Arctic
circle, to a wilderness captivatingly beautiful yet
inhospitably remote - a land where it seemed human beings
were never meant to live.
At the cliff's edge
I was last here nearly three years ago to
witness the effects of global warming on this community of
nearly 600 people.
For several decades the people of this
barrier island have been fighting a losing battle with
nature.
Not only are the glaciers melting, causing
sea levels to rise, but the frozen ground on which the
village was built - also known as permafrost - is thawing,
making the ground crumble like sand.
Shishmaref is a community that is literally
being swallowed by the sea.
Village elder Tony Weyiouanna estimates the
tide moves an average of 10 feet (three metres) closer to
the land every year.
Two homes have already toppled into the sea,
others have wilted and buckled and now teeter ominously at
the cliff's edge.
Tony told me that since I was last here the
village had decided - very reluctantly - to relocate.
What they had yet to agree on was where to.
This close-knit Inuit community has been here
for generations. Where they live defines who they are - the
fear is that relocation could leave their subsistence
lifestyle under threat.
A greater concern, Tony told me, was that a
heavy storm could sweep the entire community into the sea.
"We need to preserve our village before that
happens," he told me, "right now we're living on borrowed
time."
Washington delegation
Grocer Percy Nietpuck says anyone who doubts
the existence of global warming should pay Shishmaref a
visit.
Amid the frozen sea he has recently observed
clouds of steam - a sign that the ice, once thick and
stable, is cracking.
The fact that the village could disappear
virtually at any moment has everyone worried - there have
even been some suicides.
As we spoke the mercury was nudging -30C,
bone chilling for a man of my warm-blooded Western
sensibilities, positively tropical for the people here.
On the short plane ride from the nearby town
of Nome (whose local newspaper bears the slogan: 'There's no
place like Nome') we met Malcolm Henry.
He wore a baseball cap, loose-fitting jacket
and Hawaiian shorts.
Protruding from the shorts were legs
impressively devoid of goose-pimples.
"You must be freezing?" I suggested from
beneath a balaclava and six layers of clothing.
"Man, this is warm for the time of year. I
remember when it was -40C with a wind-chill factor of -60."
Everywhere we went the anecdotal evidence
suggested that Alaska's winters are not only getting warmer
but shorter, and its summers longer.
And the impact extends to wildlife as well:
shortly after we arrived local television was carrying
reports about efforts to have polar bears listed as an
endangered species.
The ice caps on which they live are melting -
no prizes for guessing why - causing them to come further
inland to look for food and thus making them easier prey for
local hunters.
Later this month a delegation from Shishmaref
and other communities threatened by global warming
(estimates suggest that more than 180 Alaskan villages are
feeling the impact of flooding and erosion) will travel to
Washington DC to provide evidence that climate change is
destroying their way of life.
They will also argue that US energy policies
- and the Bush administration's position on greenhouse
gases - are to blame for the problem, and constitute an
infringement of their basic human rights.
Whatever effect their efforts may have some
believe it is already too late.
The impact of global warming is vivid. Just
ask the people of Shishmaref.
|
|
|
HOT!
Global Warming: Warmest January ever recorded worldwide in 2007!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070217/sc_afp/usweatherclimate
HOT! GET YOUR FOSTER GRANTS OUT! GLOBAL WARMING REALITY CHECK: WARMEST
JANUARY EVER RECORDED WORLDWIDE IN 2007: U.S. SCIENTISTS! ˆ
AFP, Monday, February 19, 2007
NEW YORK ˆ World temperatures in January were the highest ever
recorded for that month of the year, U.S. government scientists said.
"The combined global land and ocean surface temperature was the highest
for
any January on record," according to scientists from the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Climate Data Center in
Asheville, N.C.
The combined global land and ocean surface temperature was 1.53 degrees
Fahrenheit (0.85 Celsius) warmer than the 20th-century average of 53.6
degrees F (12 C) for January based on preliminary data, NOAA said.
The figures surpass the previous record set in 2002 at 1.28 F (0.71 C)
above
average. Land surface temperature was a record 3.40 F (1.89 C) warmer
than average, while global ocean surface temperature was the fourth
warmest in 128 years, about 0.1 F (0.05 C) cooler than the record
established during the very strong El Nino climate phenomenon in 1998.
A moderate El Nino started in September and continued into January
before weakening, NOAA said. El Nino is an occasional seasonal warming
of the central and eastern Pacific Ocean that upsets normal weather
patterns from the western seaboard of Latin America to East Africa, and
potentially has a global impact on climate.
"The presence of El Nino along with the continuing global warming trend
contributed to the record warm January," NOAA said. "The unusually warm
conditions contributed to the second lowest January snow cover extent on
record for the Eurasian continent," it said.
"During the past century, global surface temperatures have increased at
a rate near 0.11 F (0.06 C) per decade, but the rate of increase has
been three times larger since 1976, or 0.32 F (0.18 C) per decade, with
some of the largest temperature increases occurring in the high
latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere," it said.
------------------------------------------
CLIMATE CHANGE RESOURCE PAGE:
http://www.nhne.org/tabid/490/Default.aspx
------------------------------------------
© 2007 AFP / Yahoo! News
|
|
Sunday, 4 February 2007
Jakarta floods death toll rises
Large swathes of Jakarta are under water
At least 20 people have
been killed and 340,000 made homeless by massive floods
that have swept through the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.
Three days of torrential rain have caused
rivers to burst their banks, sending muddy water up to
3m (10ft) deep into homes and businesses. Authorities say the city of nine million
people is now on its highest level of alert.
The floods are said to be the worst to
hit Jakarta for five years.
Meteorologists have warned the downpour
is likely to continue for another week, and with heavy
rains falling on hilly regions to the south, more
flooding is threatened.
Power cuts
Rising floodwaters have cut water
supplies and communications to parts of the city and
forced medical teams to use boats and helicopters to
reach many of those left stranded.
More than 670,000 people have been left
without electricity.
Staff manning a key
floodgate in the east of the capital said it had failed
and the water flowing in had caused the main canal to
burst its banks.
Some main roads have been closed and
patients in some hospitals moved to upper floors.
The dea | | |
