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.

"I didn't see one cube of ice!"

A commercial ship travels through the Northwest Passage...
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2008/11/28/nwest-vessel.html

New rifts form on Antarctic ice shelf

Well, ice shelves are breaking in Antarctica too...
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/11/29/antarctic.ice.shelf.collapse/index.html

Gorbachev-Children ceremony - Nov. 21, 2008

Mikhail Gorbachev listens to children presenting findings of the 2008 Arctic expedition:
more photos at:http://www.sagaxexpeditions.com/2US%20-%204.5%20-%20Russia%20Photos-Videos.html
and videos at:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FO1hYmqKPo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvRvr6p5gkk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmcCefS_528
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B956u8QM8IY

Greenlanders vote on expanding autonomy

Greenlanders vote on expanding autonomy on Tuesday. A 'Yes' (likely), will mean more interest in oil and minerals exploration revenues in the future, to compensate for Denmark assistance which would likely decrease with autonomy...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081125/ap_on_re_eu/eu_greenland_referendum

Gorbachev honors Arctic Young Ambassadors

Moscow - November 21, 2008 – President Mikhail Gorbachev honors participants of the Pax Arctica Arctic expedition 2008 with Young Ambassador Award. From Left to Right: Beth Idlout, Aïnhoa Hardy, Flaam Hardy and President Mikhail Gorbachev (at the Gorbachev Foundation). More photos and details tomorrow...

http://gci.ch/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=374&Itemid=1

Moscow under snow!

The Pax Arctica team has arrived in Moscow last night.
Three children from the 2008 Arctic expedition, including Beth, all the way from Resolute Bay, are now in Moscow.
Together with a few sponsors of the expedition (Groupe UFG, KDS, Rabobank), they will be presenting the results of our findings to President Mikhail Gorbachev this afternoon.
We will report later on today.

Relocating an entire sinking nation... :(((

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/11/11/maldives.president/