NWF: Global Warming in Greenland

National Wildlife Federation


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New York Times: Grim Outlook for Polar Bears

Picture linked from New York Times Article

Grim Outlook for Polar Bears
By ANDREW C. REVKIN

ANCHORAGE — Two biologists who measure field time with polar bears in decades sat in a federal building here, envisioning two possible fates for this denizen of ice in a warming world — and neither future looked bright.

A polar bear expert with the Fish and Wildlife Service, Scott L. Schliebe, said the bears were resilient and adaptable, but just to a point. “I truly believe this is an important part of our natural history,” Dr. Schliebe said. “We should take every effort we can to try to maintain it.”

On one possible track, the bears, facing a chronic food gap, could weaken and reproduce ever less as the ice-free summer season expands. The other course could be a swift collapse, should more summers unfold like this past one, said Steven C. Amstrup of the United States Geological Survey. He led an exhaustive recent study of polar bears in a federal review weighing whether they should be put on the endangered species list.

If emissions of greenhouse gases and resulting global and Arctic warming continue apace, the study said, two-thirds of the 22,000 or so bears will disappear by midcentury. Some bear experts see that prognosis as overly dire.

The script for a slow fade-out may already be on display along the western shores of Hudson Bay in northern Canada, Dr. Amstrup said.

After binging on ringed seals early each year, this southern population, well below of the Arctic Circle, leaves the melting ice and scrounges snow geese and lyme grass, losing weight all summer.

“It appears they’ve reached a point where the earlier departure of the sea ice and their earlier appearance onshore is starting to affect their survival,” he said.

But an abrupt collapse could occur, as well, Dr. Amstrup said.

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EPA Targets $2 Million to Fight Climate Change in Nine Countries

by Trey Granger

Washington, D.C. — China, Russia, Argentina, Brazil, India, Korea, Mexico, Nigeria and Ukraine will have projects funded under the auspices of the Methane to Markets Partnership, an international effort promoting near-term, cost-effective projects that capture and use methane as a clean-energy source.

EPA is announcing the award of $2 million for projects that will enhance the capture and use of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas 20 times more effective than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. The primary component of natural gas, methane is also a valuable and clean-burning energy resource.

“An investment in methane capture and use projects is an investment in a more environmentally sustainable future,” said Bob Meyers, principal deputy assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Air & Radiation. “By financing international projects through the Methane to Markets Partnership, the U.S. government and its global partners are cutting greenhouse gases while promoting economic development and energy security.”

Projects funded by these grants will support a variety of partnership activities designed to remove technical or informational barriers to successful methane capture and use projects. These activities include, among others: training, development of databases on potential project sites, feasibility studies, technology transfer and project expositions.

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Arctic Warming

Picture linked from www.arctic-warming.com




Picture linked from New York Times Article


Arctic Melt Unnerves the Experts
By ANDREW C. REVKIN

The Arctic ice cap shrank so much this summer that waves briefly lapped along two long-imagined Arctic shipping routes, the Northwest Passage over Canada and the Northern Sea Route over Russia.

Over all, the floating ice dwindled to an extent unparalleled in a century or more, by several estimates.

Now the six-month dark season has returned to the North Pole. In the deepening chill, new ice is already spreading over vast stretches of the Arctic Ocean. Astonished by the summer’s changes, scientists are studying the forces that exposed one million square miles of open water — six Californias — beyond the average since satellites started measurements in 1979.

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To have a look at the Sea Ice In Retreat, please click on the following location:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2007/10/01/science/20071002_ARCTIC_GRAPHIC.html



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BBC News: Concern over Europe 'snow crisis'

Unseasonably warm conditions across Europe are being greeted with a mixture of disbelief and despair by those who normally rely on cold winters. James Cove and James Rodgers assess the winter weather.




Read More Here. >>>

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6185345.stm





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National Geographic: Alps Glaciers Gone by 2050, Expert Says

Alps Glaciers Gone by 2050, Expert Says

John Roach

National Geographic News

January 23, 2007

Glaciers are quickly disappearing from the Alps and will be all but gone by 2050, a climate expert said Monday. That's 50 years earlier than a July 2006 study predicted.

The loss would change the supply of drinking and irrigation water, lead to more falling rocks, and cripple the European ski industry.

On average about 3 percent of Alpine glacial ice is lost each year, said Roland Psenner, a fresh water scientist at the University of Innsbruck in Austria. That corresponds to about 3.3 feet (1 meter) of ice thickness.

Ten percent was lost in the record-breaking heat of 2003. Seven percent was lost in 2006, Psenner said.

"If the melting goes on at this pace, glaciers will be gone by 2030 to 2050—except some high-altitude sites in the French, Swiss, and Italian Alps," he wrote in an email to National Geographic News.

Read More Here >>>

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/01/070123-alps-glaciers.html



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WARMER WORLD GETS WETTER

Surprised?


Satellite observations suggest climate models are wrong on rainfall.

Harvey Leifert

Global warming will increase worldwide precipitation by three times the amount predicted by current climate models, according to a study based on two decades' worth of satellite observations.

The discrepancy between the models and the data might mean that the models are wrong. Or it might be that two decades is not long enough to test their predictions. But researchers believe that the work is a step towards understanding the thorny issue of how global temperatures affect rainfall.

Warmer air holds more water. Satellite observations and climate models agree that each rise of 1 °C in global temperatures increases the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere by about 6.5%.

Read More Here>>>


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Expansion on Eucalyptus Monoculture in Brasil

http://www.carbontradewatch.org/news/0704_caravan_against_the_green_desert.html









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CarbonTradeWatch.org

www.carbontradewatch.org












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