World-News

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-glacier17feb17,0,1635034.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Ice Dumped by Greenland's Glaciers Triples in 10 Years Scientists say 'wake-up call' study indicates that sea level could climb even more quickly than current projections. By Alan Zarembo Times Staff Writer

February 17, 2006

Greenland's vast glaciers are dumping ice into the ocean three times faster than they did 10 years ago because of increasing temperatures, suggesting that sea level could rise even more quickly than current projections.

The study, published today in the journal Science, found that the glaciers contributed 53 cubic miles of water to the Atlantic Ocean in
2005, resulting in about a 0.02-inch rise in sea level.

"The models we had were not terribly alarming about Greenland," said Richard Alley, a glaciologist at Penn State University who was not involved in the research. "This paper is a real wake-up call."

Previous estimates of Greenland's contribution to sea level rise were based on tracking the thickness of the glaciers to calculate the amount of ice that had melted and flowed into the ocean.

Researchers estimated that in 1996 total ice lost through melting was about 8.3 cubic miles. Just one-quarter cubic mile of ice would supply the water Los Angeles consumes in a year.

Researchers led by Eric Rignot, a glaciologist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, used satellite imagery to measure another source of water: ice cracking off the ends of glaciers to form icebergs.

The imagery showed that Greenland's southern glaciers are rapidly accelerating their downhill, seaward creep.

Take the Kangerdlugssuaq glacier in the southeast. After creeping along at just more than 3 miles per year, it now moves about 8.7 miles per year.

The increased speed of glacier flow meant that far more water was reaching the ocean.

Greenland's ice cap is larger than Texas and nearly 2 miles thick in places. The researchers calculated that its glaciers deposited 40 cubic miles of ice into the Atlantic Ocean in 2005, about triple the 13 cubic miles dumped in 1996.

More than 13 cubic miles of ice were shed through melting in 2005, they estimated.

Both forms of ice loss are related to rising temperatures, which in southeast Greenland have climbed 5.4 degrees over the last two decades.

As surface ice melts, the water seeps to the underside of the glacier, where it lubricates the ground and exerts an upward force on the ice, accelerating movement of the ice toward the ocean, Rignot said.

Sea level is rising at 0.12 of an inch a year. That would raise the oceans about a foot by the end of the century.

The Greenland ice cap is the third-leading contributor to the rise. It ranks behind the melting of mountain glaciers and the expansion of ocean water because of higher temperatures.

That 100-year estimate may have to be revised upward to reflect a greater increase from Greenland's glaciers.

"We don't know how much more," said Jason Box, a climatologist at Ohio State University who has modeled melting of Greenland's ice cap.


Informant: Scott Munson

By David Shukman
BBC science correspondent

US climate scientists have recorded a significant rise in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, pushing it to a new record level. BBC News has learned the latest data shows CO2 levels now stand at 381 parts per million (ppm) - 100ppm above the pre-industrial average. The research indicates that 2005 saw one of the largest increases on record - a rise of 2.6ppm. The figures are seen as a benchmark for climate scientists around the globe. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) has been analysing samples of air taken from all over the world, including America's Rocky Mountains. The chief carbon dioxide analyst for Noaa says the latest data confirms a worrying trend that recent years have, on average, recorded double the rate of increase from just 30 years ago. "We don't see any sign of a decrease; in fact, we're seeing the opposite, the rate of increase is accelerating," Dr Pieter Tans told the BBC. The precise level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is of global concern because climate scientists fear certain thresholds may be "tipping points" that trigger sudden changes. The UK government's chief scientific adviser, Professor Sir David King, said the new data highlighted the importance of taking urgent action to limit carbon emissions. "Today we're over 380 ppm," he said. "That's higher than we've been for over a million years, possibly 30 million years. Mankind is changing the climate."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/sci/tech/4803460.stm

Published: 2006/03/14 00:12:43 GMT


Informant: Scott Munson

By Robert Evans
Reuters
March 14, 2006

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060314/ts_nm/environment_greenhouse_dc

GENEVA - Greenhouse gases blamed for global warming and climate change have reached their highest ever levels in the atmosphere, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Tuesday.

A bulletin from the United Nations agency said the gases -- the main warming culprit carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide -- "all reached new highs in 2004."

WMO officials also indicated that a near record year-on-year rise in CO2 levels for 2005 recorded by U.S. monitors -- well above the average for the past 10 years -- would not come as a major surprise.

"Global observations coordinated by WMO show that levels of carbon dioxide, the most abundant greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, continue to increase steadily and show no signs of leveling off," said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud.

Carbon dioxide, which the WMO says accounts for 90 percent of warming over the past decade, is largely generated by human activity involving the burning of fossil fuels -- including in industry, transport and domestic heating.

Scientists warn emissions must be slowed and reduced if the earth is to avoid climatic havoc with devastating heat waves, droughts, floods and rising sea-levels sinking low-lying island states and hitting seaboard cities like New York and London.

The U.N.'s 1992 Kyoto Protocol, which came into force last year after a decade of wrangling, obliges major industrial nations to cut emissions while granting exemptions to developing countries like India and China.

But it was weakened by the withdrawal in 2001 of the United States, whose President George W. Bush said that working to meet its targets would seriously damage the U.S. economy. He has also argued that warming is a natural, not man-made, process.

In its first Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, to be an annual publication, the WMO said that in 2004 carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere stood at 377.1 parts per million (ppm), 35 percent higher than in the pre-industrial age before 1750.

Methane, generated by intensive farming and landfills as well as the burning of fossil fuels like oil and coal and which accounts for around 20 percent of the greenhouse effect, has risen 155 percent in the modern age.

But its growth is slowing down, the WMO said, while nitrous oxide, which accounts for only 6 percent of the warming effect, is rising consistently.

The average annual increase in absolute amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere over the past decade has been 1.9 ppm, slightly higher than the 1.8 ppm of 2004, WMO environment division chief Leonard Barrie told a news conference.

Barrie said a finding by the U.N. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, cited by the British Broadcasting Corporation, that carbon dioxide had grown last year by 2.6 ppm had to be viewed in perspective.

"It is important to take the long view. There can be fluctuations," he said. "The 2.6 ppm figure is within past experience. If it were to persist over several years, then we would have to start talking about what it means."


Informant: NHNE

http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/erde/0,1518,405921,00.html

(SPON) Der Kohlendioxid-Gehalt in der Erdatmosphäre ist so hoch wie seit mindestens einer Million Jahren nicht mehr. Und die Konzentration des Treibhausgases steigt weiter, wie globale Messungen zeigen.


Link zum Beitrag / Hintergrundinfo oder Pressehinweis: http://www.hh-online.com?lid=23739 und http://links.net-hh.de?lid=23739

Infopool / metainfo hamburg http://www.hh-online.com



Der "American Way of Life" gefährdet zunehmend das ökologische Gleichgewicht des Planeten und seine natürlichen Resourcen. Besonders die Amerikaner greifen weit überdurchschnittlich auf diese knapper werdenden Ressourcen zurück... http://www.jjahnke.net/umwelt.html

A new study by NASA confirms accelerated global warming and predicts an irreversible decline of the Greenland ice sheet by the end of this century. A NASA researcher also said: "A few months ago this press release might have been seriously edited or not approved." The Bush administration recently changed its policy of censoring climate change news.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/031306EA.shtml

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article351135.ece


Informant: NHNE

http://rs.net-hh.de/archiv/23729.htm?PHPSESSID=c4e460fc01661d9c7b7b54eea821dd37

Zunehmend unübersehbar machen sich die Folgen der Klimawende bemerkbar. Die durch die Klimaerwärmung ansteigende Luftfeuchtigkeit beschert Rekordmengen an Schnee, Regen, Hochwasser und Unwetter. Freuen können sich die Verursacher: die Ölkonzerne und Energiemonopole über die Entwicklung.

Nutznießer der Klimawende sind in erster Linie ihre Verursacher, die sch gleichzeitig mit allen Mitteln gegen eine Kursänderung der Energiepolitik stemmen.

Der mittlerweile nicht nur errechnete sondern anhand von Messreihen belegte Rückgang des Golfstroms wird mit großer Wahrscheinlichkeit zukünftig Mitteleuropa in einen Kühlschrank verwandeln, da die bisherige Beheizung durch die Meeresströmung nachlässt und in absehbarer Zeit ganz ausbleiben wird.

Im Hamburger Abendblatt zog ein Klimaforscher den Vergleich heran mit Zeiten, in denen ähnliche Temperaturen vorherrschten, wie sie nach dem Erliegen des Golfstroms zu erwarten sind: vor mehr als 100.000 Jahren reichten damals die skandinavischen Gletscher bis an die Elbe, das Klima wäre vergleichbar dem in der Heimat der Eskimo.

Dass die großen Ölkonzerne und Energiemonopole kein Problem mit einer solchen Perspektive haben, ist gut nachvollziehbar: sie erhalten damit die Möglichkeit, ihre Umsätze weiter in ungeahnte Höhen zu treiben: der dann immens gesteigerte Energieverbrauch für die Beheizung von Wohnräumen wird sie zu den Königen der Welt erheben, soweit sie diesen Status nicht schon heute eingenommen haben.

Unter den Koordinaten des neoliberalen Marktes ist es nicht nur als Option zu verstehen sondern als marktwirtschaftlicher Imperativ für die Führungen der Konzerne, die Klimaveränderung voranzutreiben: die vorteilhafte Ertragslage des jeweiligen Unternehmens genießt bekanntlichermaßen den Vorrang vor anderen Kriterien ihrer Entscheidung. Politiker, die sich ihnen hierbei in den Weg stellen könnten, werden von ihnen eingekauft, bevor ein solches Risiko entsteht: jeden Monat verlängert sich inzwischen die Liste derer in einem politischen Amt, von denen bekannt wird, dass sie ein Zusatzeinkommen eines Konzerns der Energiemonopole oder anderweitige Gratifikationen erhalten haben.

Aus dem Klimawandel ergeben sich weitere profitträchtige Vorteile, die sich bereits abzeichnen: zur Abhilfe des Problems wird bereits angeboten, das im Kraftwerksbetrieb entstehende CO2 zu verflüssigen und in der Erdkruste einzulagern. Dies Geschäft wird ggf. von denselben Konzernen übernommen, de bereits das Problem verursachten, und ermöglicht ihnen zusätzliche Umsätze und Gewinne.

Außerdem erfahren wir inzwischen verschiedentlich, dass mit dem fortschreitenden Abschmelzen des Polareises eine große Zahl von weiteren Rohstoffvorkommen zugänglich werden, die bisher unerreichbar waren.

Eine weitere umfangreiche Quelle für die profitable Erkundung und Ausbeutung von Ressourcen tut sich somit auf - durch die Zerstörung der Klimabalance. Und dass es die großen Energiemonopole sein werden, die in der ersten Reihe dieses Geschäftes stehen, ergibt sich schon daraus, dass sie es sind, die über das erforderliche Kapital, die Logistik und die personellen Ressourcen für solche Vorhaben verfügen.


Link zum Beitrag / Hintergrundinfo oder Pressehinweis: http://www.hh-online.com?lid=23729 und http://links.net-hh.de?lid=23729


Infopool / metainfo hamburg http://www.hh-online.com

By Margaret Munro
CanWest News Service / The Vancouver Sun

Friday, March 10, 2006

An international research team that hitches a ride north through the Bering Sea every summer with the Canadian Coast Guard says a "major ecosystem shift'' has occurred in the frigid waters that act as gateway to the Arctic.

Gray whales, walruses and diving seabirds are being replaced by fish that are moving north as ice cover shrinks and waters warm, say the scientists who detail their findings in the journal Science today.

The change is so dramatic the researchers say it threatens both commercial fishing and the livelihood of people such as the Yupik hunters of St. Lawrence Island, near the entrance of Bering Strait, who are watching the ice thin and the seals and walrus disperse.

"It's much more dangerous for them to go out and hunt, it is not the same stable platform they are used to,'' says co-author Fiona McLaughlin of the Institute of Ocean Sciences (IOS) in Victoria.

McLaughlin and her colleagues have been monitoring everything from water temperature and salinity to the behaviour of gray whales, walruses and diving ducks such as spectacled eiders for almost two decades. What emerges from the mass of data is clear evidence, they say, of an ecosystem shift in the shallow and productive waters of the northern Bering Sea.

Creatures that live on the bottom and feed on the bottom, such as whales and sea birds, are giving way to fish that feed within the water column, the scientists say. They believe the change has been triggered by the shrinking of a huge pool of cold water in the Bering Sea where such fish as salmon and pollock can not survive.

"This is a big change,'' says Eddy Carmack, IOS oceanographer and co-author, who likens it to switching from tundra to a boreal forest. As the pool of icy 1 C water shrinks, the fish are not only moving into the northern Bering Sea but they are slipping into the Arctic, the researchers report. Pink salmon are now showing up in rivers that drain into the Arctic Ocean.

The scientists say warm-blooded mammals such as walruses and seals appear to be seeking out colder waters elsewhere. There is also evidence mother walruses are abandoning their pups as the ice thins.

The researchers say the change appears to be tied to climate change and global warming. But they stress the need for more monitoring to understand what is happening and to manage resources.

"Relying on records of past fisheries catches and atmospheric pressure patterns is simply not enough," says Carmack. "You have to go into the field and look."

The scientists travel north through the Bering Sea on the Canadian icebreaker, the Sir Wilfrid Laurier, which heads for the Arctic each summer. Twelve to 14 researchers from the U.S., Japan and Canada typically go along as part of what Carmack calls the "entrepreneurial'' project.

Asked if they are worried about the trends they are seeing McLaughlin says, "it certainly makes you stop and think."

Carmack says he is not a worrier. But he says there is a clear need to better understand what is happening. "I think it would be irresponsible to not observe and report on the ecosystems that are being impacted," says Carmack. "Irresponsible."

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=deb7bfa5-25ff-4926-8c32-c859a55a8283&k=54717


Informant: NHNE

09.03.2006

Wo bleibt die Erderwärmung fragen schon einige in diesem langen und schneereichen Winter.

http://www.sonnenseite.com/index.php?pageID=6&news:oid=n4770