Why Didn’t Scientists Recognize Global Warming Sooner?

Some did. In 1958, the National Academy of Sciences published a booklet titled “Planet Earth: The Mystery with 100,000 Clues,” which contained this prescient paragraph:

Our industrial civilization has been pouring carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at a great rate. By the year 2000 we will have added 70 percent more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. If it remained, it would have a marked warming effect on the earth’s climate, but most of it would probably be absorbed by the oceans. Conceivably, however, it could cause significant melting of the great icecaps and raise sea levels in time.http://www.extremeicesurvey.org/index.php/glaciology/

Again...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - One Antarctic ice shelf has quickly vanished, another is disappearing and glaciers are melting faster than anyone thought due to climate change, U.S. and British government researchers reported on Friday.

They said the Wordie Ice Shelf, which had been disintegrating since the 1960s, is gone and the northern part of the Larsen Ice Shelf no longer exists. More than 3,200 square miles (8,300 square km) have broken off from the Larsen shelf since 1986.

Climate change is to blame, according to the report from the U.S. Geological Survey and the British Antarctic Survey, available at pubs.usgs.gov/imap/2600/B.

Militarisation de l'Arctique?

http://www.lemonde.fr/ameriques/article/2009/03/28/le-canada-intraitable-sur-sa-souverainete_1173735_3222.html

Le ministre canadien des affaires étrangères, Lawrence Cannon, a dû, par deux fois en une semaine, réaffirmer avec force la souveraineté du Canada sur son espace maritime. Vendredi 27 mars, il réagissait à l'annonce d'une nouvelle stratégie russe prévoyant de militariser l'Arctique. Deux jours plus tôt, il condamnait la revendication par la France de renégocier ses droits sur le plateau continental entourant l'archipel de Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon.

"Nous sommes intraitables sur la défense de la souveraineté canadienne sur l'Arctique à l'égard de nos alliés et des pays qui pourraient avoir des velléités à l'attaquer", a martelé M. Cannon. Il a précisé qu'il en parlerait "dans un avenir proche" à son homologue russe.

Sur le même sujet

Les faits Le Canada "intraitable " sur sa souveraineté

Edition abonnés Fiche pays : Canada

Le même jour, le Kremlin venait en effet de rendre publique son intention de déployer des forces militaires dans l'Arctique pour "défendre ses intérêts" dans une région qui recèle d'immenses ressources convoitées par la Russie et le Canada et également par le Danemark, la Norvège et les Etats-Unis. Les Russes affirment que toute une partie des fonds marins de l'Arctique sont la propriété de Moscou parce qu'il s'agit d'un prolongement du plateau continental sibérien. La Russie a déposé un dossier auprès des Nations unies sur cette question.

Deux jours avant cette polémique sur l'Arctique, Ottawa s'était déjà senti attaqué sur un autre "front", celui de l'Atlantique. M. Cannon avait alors "déploré" la décision française de rouvrir le dossier de la délimitation du plateau continental de Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, archipel proche des côtes canadiennes de Terre-Neuve. L'enjeu porte, là aussi, sur l'exploitation de ressources pétrolières et gazières sous-marines.

La ministre française de l'intérieur, Michèle Alliot-Marie, avait annoncé mercredi le dépôt "d'ici le 13 mai", à la Commission des limites du plateau continental de l'ONU, d'une lettre d'intention pour "préserver les droits de la France". M. Cannon affirme, lui, que "le Canada prendra toutes les mesures nécessaires pour défendre et protéger ses droits sur le plateau continental canadien".

"NE PAS REVENIR EN ARRIÈRE"

L'affaire pourrait relancer la polémique des années 1980 sur la délimitation des eaux territoriales et zones de pêche des deux pays au large de l'Est canadien. "C'est un incident qui ne devrait pas entacher leurs excellentes relations", pense Stéphane Roussel, un spécialiste de la politique étrangère canadienne. Le Canada estime que le différend a été réglé "de manière définitive" en 1992.

L'archipel français s'était alors vu octroyer une zone économique exclusive de 12 milles marins à l'est et de 24 milles à l'ouest, avec un corridor nord-sud de 200 milles de long par 10 milles de large. L'intérêt économique de cette zone reposait alors sur la pêche à la morue, dont les stocks se sont, depuis, effondrés. En revanche, du gaz et du pétrole ont été découverts non loin de là.

Rocard nommé Ambassadeur pour les pôles...

L'ancien premier ministre a quitté, à 78 ans, son mandat de député européen pour un poste d'ambassadeur chargé des relations internationales relatives aux pôles Arctique et Antarctique.

How to save 10-20% on auto gas bills?

Easy!
1 - Just make it mandatory for ALL car manufacturers to install a data screen like you have in the Prius: simple, easy to read, fun. 5-10% saved right there.
2 - As part of getting a driving license, teach new drivers how to SAVE gas while driving. Another 5-10% saved.
TOTAL = 10-20%. It is that easy...

Drowning islands...

(CNN) -- There is one holiday destination that should shake the faith of even the most vehement climate change skeptic: the Carteret Islands, part of Papua New Guinea, located northeast of Bougainville.http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/03/15/eco.climaterefugees/

THE YEAR OF CLIMATE CHANGE

LEADERS OF UN, US DECLARE 2009 THE YEAR OF CLIMATE CHANGE
New York, Mar 12 2009 6:00PM

With nations set to conclude negotiations on an ambitious new
greenhouse gas emissions agreement this December, Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon and United States President Barack Obama have stressed
the need for 2009 to be the year of climate change.

Mr. Ban, who met with the “visionary” American leader earlier this
week at the White House in Washington, <"http://www.un.org/apps/news/
infocus/sgspeeches/statments_full.asp?statID=449">told journalists in
his monthly press conference at UN Headquarters today that they both
agree that climate change poses an “existential threat.”

The two men share a commitment that “2009 must be the year of climate
change,” he said, stressing the importance a comprehensive successor
pact to the Kyoto Protocol – the legally binding emissions reduction
regime whose first commitment period ends in 2012 – at December’s UN
climate change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.

“With US leadership, in partnership of the United Nations, we can and
will reach a climate change deal that all nations can embrace,” the
Secretary-General noted.

Reports of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (<"http://
www.ipcc.ch/">IPCC) – the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize co-laureate – have
shown unequivocally that the world is warming, almost certainly due
to human activity, with potentially disastrous effects including
worsening drought in some regions and heavier rainfall in others.

Mr. Ban said today that he and Mr. Obama were of the same opinion
that ‘green’ investments are an essential part of any stimulus
package targeting the current global economic turmoil.

“If we are going to spend such tremendous sums of money, let us be
smart about it,” he said.

He said that during his two-day visit to Washington, climate change
also dominated his discussions with key American officials, including
Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, and Congressman Howard Berman, Chairman of the House
Foreign Affairs Committee.

Last week, the top UN climate change official said that he sees
“enthusiasm” in the current US Government to pass laws to reduce gas
emissions and a willingness to work towards a new global climate
change pact.

Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on
Climate Change (<"http://unfccc.int/2860.php">UNFCCC), said he was
“very much encouraged” following his recent meetings with officials
in Mr. Obama’s administration and members of Congress.

“There is, I believe, a huge enthusiasm and energy in both the House
and the Senate to put cap and trade climate change legislation in
place in this country,” he added.

Mr. de Boer also underscored the willingness in the current US
administration “to work towards an agreement in Copenhagen, to come
with an ambitious domestic policy [and] to engage with international
partners” to come to an accord.

350 Max!!

American climatologist Dr. James Hansen of NASA says we already have too much CO₂ and other greenhouse gases in the air: "If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted ... CO₂ will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm."

Acceleration of Planet's warming :((

For those who still doubt:

By Clive Cookson in Chicago
Published: February 16 2009

The world is warming far more quickly than scientists forecast just two years ago when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published its last reports, according to a series of assessments presented over the weekend.

Chris Field of Stanford University, a senior member of the IPCC, told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science that the unexpectedly rapid increase in the burning of fossil fuels, especially coal, since 2000 would have dire consequences because of “feedback loops” in the global climate.

“We are looking now at a future climate that’s beyond anything we’ve considered seriously in climate model simulations,” Prof Field said.

The IPCC’s fourth assessment in 2007 concluded that the average global temperature would increase by between 1.1°C and 6.4°C by 2100, depending how much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases were released into the atmosphere over the coming decades. Prof Field said that seriously underestimated the potential severity of global warming, based on the new evidence.

Prof Field warned that there were early signs of melting in the Arctic tundra and increased fires in tropical forests – over and above deliberate deforestation – that could add billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.

“There is a real risk that human-caused climate change will accelerate the release of carbon dioxide from forest and tundra ecosystems, which have been storing a lot of carbon for thousands of years,” Prof Field said.

“We don’t want to cross a critical threshold where this massive release of carbon starts to run on autopilot.”

Al Gore, the former US vice-president turned climate change campaigner, responded with a passionate plea to an audience of 1,600 scientists, urging them to become more politically active in the fight against global warming.

“Scientists can no longer in good conscience accept this division between the work you do and the civilisation in which you live. This is a historic struggle.”

Mr Gore focused particularly on the accelerating loss of Arctic ice and the global increase in coal burning.

However there was optimism at the AAAS meeting – based on the professed determination of the new US administration to promote effective action, both in its domestic energy policies and in taking a lead in international climate change negotiations.

James McCarthy, a climate change expert at Harvard University and this year’s AAAS president, said: “The scientific talent President [Barack] Obama has recruited is of extraordinary calibre. He could not have found anyone better to look after energy and the environment.”

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009

Special Envoy for Climate Change!

Wow! the US now has a Special Envoy for Climate Change!!

Secretary Clinton Announces Appointment of Special Envoy for Climate Change: Todd Stern

http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2009a/01/115409.htm
SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you. Thank you very much. Well, welcome to the State Department, but really, many of you work here and work at USAID and do the important business of our country, and I’m so pleased that you could join us today, because it is with great enthusiasm that I am naming today a Special Envoy for Climate Change.
As should be evident by now, the President and I believe that American leadership is essential to meeting the challenges of the 21^st century. And chief among those is the complex, urgent, and global threat of climate change. From rapidly rising temperatures to melting arctic icecaps, from lower crop yields to dying forests, from unforgiving hurricanes to unrelenting droughts, we have no shortage of evidence that our world is facing a climate crisis.

For video: http://www.state.gov/video/?videoid=9120359001

Oil, Trade and Arctic Ice

A simple, brief and informative video from The Economist Website on the geopolitical issues facing the Arctic today:
http://audiovideo.economist.com/?fr_chl=37b523f6e1fab620d03697edb18b1216db2961ca

Warming in Antarctica

Antarctica is warming, that is the conclusion of scientists analyzing half a century of temperatures on the continent.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/science/earth/22climate.html

2008 cooler than last year, but Planet still warming...

NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies has released its preliminary temperature plot for 2008 (December's not over yet). As the chart (above) shows, overall temps in the past almost-a-year took a dip, with 2008 the coolest year of the past eight.
http://globalwarming.change.org/blog/view/2008_cooler_than_last_year_yes_globe_still_warming_yes

Our expedition on TV: Planet Green

here it is - Happy Holidays

http://web.mac.com/knappy1/iWeb/ARCTIC/Young%20Ambassadors%20of%20the%20Arctic.html

Antarctic tourist ship leaks fuel...

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - An Antarctic cruise ship carrying 122 passengers and crew started to take on water and leak fuel after it ran aground on Thursday, an Argentine naval official said.

Admiral Daniel Martin told local television a nearby passenger ship was on its way to the stricken Panamanian-flagged vessel, called the Ushuaia after the Tierra del Fuego port from which it sailed in Argentina on Sunday.

He said none of the boat's passengers had been injured.

"We've received information from the captain of the Ushuaia that the boat is grounded ... with a minimal amount of water coming in and some fuel loss," Martin said.

He said the ship lay some 186 miles (300 km) southwest of Argentina's Marambio military base on the Antarctic Peninsula.

Cruise travel has grown in Antarctica in recent years, with tourists paying thousands of dollars to see towering icebergs, seals, whales and penguins.

A year ago, more than 150 crew and passengers, many of them elderly, escaped unhurt in a dramatic rescue after their cruise ship hit ice off Antarctica and sank.

The ship is operated by Antarpply Expeditions, based in Ushuaia.