[Mb-civic] Global Warming

Tue Oct 18 18:56:14 PDT 2005

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Independent Online (S Africa) - Oct 9, 2005
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=143&art_id=vn20051009
102733324C727118

Polar bears face extinction on melting planet

By Anchorage Carrell and Severin Carrell

The polar bear is one of the natural world's most
famous predators -  the
king of the Arctic wastelands. But, like its vast
Arctic home, the  polar
bear is under unprecedented threat. Both are
disappearing with  alarming
speed.

Thinning ice and longer summers are destroying the
bears' habitat, and  as
the ice floes shrink, the desperate animals are driven
by starvation  into
human settlements - to be shot. Stranded polar bears
are drowning  in
large numbers as they try to swim hundreds of
kilometres to find 
increasingly scarce ice floes. Local hunters find
their corpses  floating
on seas once coated in a thick skin of ice.

It is a phenomenon that frightens the native people
who live around the 
Arctic. Many fear their children will never know the
polar bear.

'Are we fighting a losing battle?'

"The ice is moving further and further north," said
Charlie Johnson,  64,
an Alaskan Nupiak from Nome, in the state's far west.
"In the  Bering Sea
the ice leaves earlier and earlier. On the north
slope, the  ice is
retreating as far as 500km or 600km offshore."

Last year, hunters found half a dozen bears that had
drowned about  
320km north of Barrow, on Alaska's northern coast. "It
seems they had 
tried to swim for shore... A polar bear might be able
to swim 150km but 
not 600km."

His alarming testimony, given at a conference on
global warming and 
native communities held in the Alaskan city of
Anchorage last month, is 
just one story of the many changes happening across
the globe. Climate 
change threatens the survival of thousands of species
- a threat 
unparalleled since the last Ice Age, which ended some
10 000 years ago.

The vast majority, scientists warned this week, are
migratory animals - 
sperm whales, polar bears, gazelles, garden birds and
turtles - whose 
survival depends on the intricate web of habitats,
food supplies and 
weather conditions which, for some species, can
stretch for more than  10
000km.

Every link of that chain is slowly but perceptibly
altering.

'There is an earlier break-up of ice'

Europe's most senior ecologists and conservationists
met in Aviemore,  in
the Scottish Highlands, this week for a conference on
the impact of 
climate change on migratory species, an event
organised by the British 
government as part of its presidency of the European
Union.

It is a well-chosen location. Aviemore's major winter
employer - skiing  -
is a victim of warmer winters. Ski slopes in the
Cairngorms, which  once
had snow caps year round on the highest peaks, have
recently been  closed
down when the winter snow failed. The snow bunting,
ptarmigan  and
dotterel - some of Scotland's rarest birds - are also
given little  chance
of survival as their harsh and marginal winter
environments  disappear.

A report presented in Aviemore reveals that this is a
pattern being 
repeated around the world. In the sub-Arctic tundra,
caribou are 
threatened by "multiple climate-change impacts".

Deeper snow at higher latitudes makes it harder for
caribou herds to 
travel. Faster and more regular "freeze-thaw" cycles
make it harder to 
dig out food under thick crusts of ice-covered snow.
Wetter and warmer 
winters are cutting calving success and increasing
insect attacks and 
disease.

The same holds true for migratory wading birds such as
the red knot and 
the northern teal. The endangered spoon-billed
sandpiper, too, faces 
extinction, the report says. They are of "key
concern". It says species 
"cannot shift further north as their climates become
warmer. They have 
nowhere left to go... We can see, very clearly, that
most migratory 
species are drifting towards the poles."

The report, commissioned by Britain's department for
the environment, 
food and rural affairs (Defra), makes gloomy
predictions about the 
world's animal populations.

"The habitats of migratory species most vulnerable to
climate change  were
found to be tundra, cloud forest, sea ice and
low-lying coastal  areas,"
it states. "Increased droughts and lowered water
tables,  particularly in
key areas used as 'staging posts' on migration, were 
also identified as
key threats stemming from climate change." Some of its
findings include:

Four out of five migratory birds listed by the UN face
problems ranging 
from lower water tables to increased droughts,
spreading deserts and 
shifting food supplies in their crucial "fuelling
stations" as they 
migrate.

One-third of turtle nesting sites in the Caribbean -
home to  
diminishing numbers of green, hawksbill and loggerhead
turtles - would  be
swamped by a sea level rise of 50cm. This would
"drastically" reduce 
their numbers. At the same time, shallow waters used
by the endangered 
Mediterranean monk seal, dolphins, dugongs and
manatees will slowly 
disappear.

Whales, salmon, cod, penguins and kittiwakes are
affected by shifts in 
distribution and abundance of krill and plankton,
which has "declined  in
places to a hundredth or thousandth of former numbers
because of  warmer
sea-surface temperatures".

Increased dam-building, a response to water shortages
and growing  
demand, is affecting the natural migration patterns of
tucuxi, South 
American river dolphins, "with potentially damaging
results".

Fewer chiffchaffs, blackbirds, robins and song
thrushes are migrating 
from Britain due to warmer winters. Egg-laying is also
two to three  weeks
earlier than 30 years ago, showing a change in the
birds'  biological
clocks.

The science magazine Nature predicted last year that
up to 37 percent  of
terrestrial species could become extinct by 2050. And
the Defra  report
presents more problems than solutions. Tackling these
crises  will be far
more complicated than just building more nature
reserves -  a problem that
Jim Knight, the British nature conservation minister, 
acknowledges.

A key issue in sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, is
profound poverty. 
After visiting the Democratic Republic of Congo last
month, Knight  found
it difficult to condemn local people eating gorillas,
already  endangered.

"You can't blame an individual who doesn't know how
they're going to  feed
their family every day from harvesting what's around
them. That's  a real
challenge," he said.

And the clash between nature and human need - a
critical issue across 
Africa - is likely to worsen. As its savannah and
forests begin  shifting
south, migratory animals will shift along with them.
Some of  the
continent's major national parks and reserves - such
as the  Masai-Mara or
Serengeti - may also have to move their boundaries if 
their game species,
the elephant and wildebeest, are to be properly 
protected. This could
bring conflict with local communities.

There is also a gap in scientific knowledge between
what has been  
discovered about the impact of climate change in the
industrialised  world
and in less developed countries. Similarly, fisheries
experts  know more
about species such as cod and haddock than they do
about fish  that humans
don't eat. Many environmentalists are pessimistic
about the  prospects of
halting, let alone reversing, this trend. "Are we
fighting  a losing
battle? Yes, we probably are," one naturalist said..

Britain, which is attempting to put climate change at
the top of the 
global agenda during its presidency of the G8 group of
industrialised 
nations, is still struggling to persuade the American,
Japanese and 
Australian governments to admit that mankind's gas
emissions are the 
biggest threat. These three continue to insist there
is no proof that 
climate change is largely manmade.

And many British environmentalists suspect that Prime
Minister Tony 
Blair's public commitment to a tougher global treaty
to replace the  Kyoto
Protocol, aimed at a 60 percent cut in carbon dioxide
emissions  by 2050,
is not being backed up by the government in private.

Despite US President George Bush's resistance to a new
global climate 
treaty, many US states are being far more radical.
Even the G8  communiqué
after the Gleneagles summit in July had Bush
confirming that  the climate
was warming.

In Alaska last week, satellite images released by two
US universities  and
Nasa revealed that the amount of sea-ice cover over
the polar ice  cap has
fallen for the past four years. "A long-term decline
is under  way," said
Walt Meier of the US National Snow and Ice Data
Centre.

The Arctic's native communities don't need satellite
images to tell  them
this. John Keogak, 47, an Inuvialuit from Canada's
North West 
Territories, hunts polar bears, seals, caribou and
musk ox.

"The polar bear is part of our culture," he said.
"They use the ice as  a
hunting ground for the seals. If there is no ice,
there is no way the 
bears will be able to catch the seals."

He said the number of bears was decreasing and feared
his children  
might not be able to hunt them. He said: "There is an
earlier break-up  of
ice, a later freeze-up. Now it's more rapid. Something
is  happening."

And now, said Keogak, there was evidence that polar
bears are facing an 
unusual competitor - the grizzly bear. As the
sub-Arctic tundra and 
wastelands thaw, the grizzly is moving north,
colonising areas where  they
were previously unable to survive.

Life for Alaska's polar bears is rapidly becoming very
precarious. - 
Foreign Service

[This article was originally published on page 15 of
Sunday Independent 
on October 09, 2005]

------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Sat, 15 Oct 2005 00:03:42 -0400 (EDT)
From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com
Subject: [NYTr] Chilling Effects of Climate Change in
the Antarctic
To: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (NYTr List)
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<200510150403.j9F43hp24643 at olm.blythe-systems.com>
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sent by Scott Munson (activist_list) - Oct 14, 2005

IPS via CommonDreams - October 13, 2005
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1013-03.htm

Chilling Effects of Climate Change in the Antarctic

by Gustavo González

SANTIAGO - Climate change, which the scientific
community links to the
increased intensity of tropical storms and other
extreme weather
phenomena, is also making itself felt in Antarctica,
where the "hole" in
the ozone layer continues to grow and the increasing
break-up of the ice
shelves could have played a role in the recent deaths
of Argentine and
Chilean scientists and members of the military.

This undated photo shows polar stratospheric clouds
lit from below near
Kiruna, in Sweden. Polar stratospheric clouds, long
known to play an
important role in Antarctic ozone destruction, are
occurring with
increasing frequency in the Arctic. As high altitude
clouds that form only
at very low temperatures, they act as 'breeding
grounds' for
ozone-destroying molecules. (HO/NASA/Lamont Poole
GN/jp/Reuters)

"The hole in the ozone layer expanded this year, and
the quantity of
ozone destroyed within that area increased as well,"
Bedrich Magas, a
researcher with the University of Magallanes, told IPS
from the city of
Punta Arenas. Magas carries out daily measurements of
ultraviolet
radiation in the port city of 120,000, located at the
southern tip of
Chile.

According to the Argentine Antarctic Institute, in
September - the start
of the southern hemisphere spring - the hole in the
ozone layer reached 28
million square kilometres, representing an eight
percent increase from
2004. In addition, the ozone value dropped from 95 to
87 Dobson Units (a
measure of the "thickness" of the ozone layer, with
220 units considered
the acceptable lower limit).

In satellite images, the hole appears as a fluctuating
oval-shaped area
that in the most critical period - which peaks in
September and October -
stretches from Antarctica to the southern part of
South America, affecting
cities in southern Argentina and Chile like Punta
Arenas, 1,000 km north
of the Antarctic's King George Island and 2,300 km
south of Santiago.

The ozone layer protects the earth from the harmful
effects of
ultraviolet radiation, which include skin cancer and
cataracts in humans
and threats to flora and fauna.

Claudio Casiccia, a physicist who heads the Ozone
Laboratory at the
University of Magallanes, told IPS that in early
October, the hole
shrank to 21 million square kilometres, from 24
million square
kilometres in August and 28 million square kilometres
in September.
Nevertheless, the ozone value has remained below 100
Dobson Units.

"The southern portion of South America, Patagonia and
the Magallanes
region, are under the influence of the Antarctic ozone
hole for a short
period in springtime, with varying thickness and
intensity. This year, we
had an event (in Punta Arenas), but there was no major
increase in
ultraviolet radiation, because the angle of the sun is
still steep and it
is quite cloudy," said the scientist.

The thinning of the ozone layer is blamed on chemical
emissions like
halons, which are used in fire extinguishers, CFCs
(chlorofluorocarbons), used in refrigerators, air
conditioners and
aerosols, and methyl bromide, used as a pesticide and
in building
fumigations.

The Montreal Protocol, signed in 1987, set global
targets for phasing out
these chemicals, which "according to estimates by
scientists will allow
the ozone layer to recover by the middle of this
century," Ana Isabel
Zúñiga, head of the governmental National Environment
Commission's Ozone
Programme in Chile, told IPS.

But the scientific community itself has warned that
the greenhouse
effect, caused by carbon dioxide (CO2) and other
emissions from the
burning of fossil fuels blamed for global warming, is
also having an
impact on the thinning of the ozone layer.

The Kyoto Protocol, aimed at cutting emissions of
greenhouse gases -
which has not been signed by the United States, the
largest single
source of these gases - should thus act along with the
Montreal Protocol
to protect the ozone layer, while it curbs other
phenomena attributed to
global warming.

Attention has been focused lately on devastating
hurricanes like Katrina
and Stan, because studies have shown that warmer
oceans and rising sea
levels are producing stronger tropical storms, said
Vicki Arroyo, director
of policy analysis for the Virginia-based Pew Centre
on Global Climate
Change.

Another U.S. scientist, Peter Frumhoff with the Global
Environment
Programme of the Union of Concerned Scientists, told
IPS in late
September that "The recent science has clearly linked
higher storm
intensity to climate change."

The phenomenon of climate change was also blamed for
the drought, high
temperatures and flooding seen in Europe since 2002.

Casiccia said that while the link between global
warming and extreme
weather events is still being studied, "it has been
accepted that there is
an important relationship, in need of further study,
between the weakening
of the ozone layer and global climate change."

Paola Vasconi, coordinator of the Santiago-based
Terram Foundation's
environment programme, told IPS that the increase in
ultraviolet
radiation also drives up temperatures.

"One thing is probably certain: if the climate does
not stabilise, the
hole in the ozone layer will never close," said Magas,
who pointed out
that the United States emits "the shocking equivalent
of 25 tons of CO2
per capita every year, compared to 3.7 tons for Chile
and a global average
of three tons per capita."

The link between global warming and the thinning of
the ozone layer was
demonstrated in 1987 by international measurements
taken in the Magallanes
region, the scientist pointed out.

"The incredible thing is that after that, efforts were
not undertaken to
curb emissions of greenhouse gases, which are today,
now that CFC
emissions have been curtailed, the main cause of the
destruction of ozone
worldwide," said Magas.

"Although it sounds terrible, the hurricanes are
welcome, if that's what
it takes to change the mentality of the big,
irresponsible polluters," he
added.

U.S. "President (George W.) Bush issued a call to
'drive less' and
announced a federal programme aimed at cutting fuel
consumption -
accompanied, of course, by deregulation policies on
the environment
allowing for increased exploration and drilling for
oil in protected
wilderness areas," said Magas.

On Sept. 16, International Day for the Preservation of
the Ozone Layer,
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan
underscored the efforts made
by the international community to curb the use of
ozone-depleting
substances.

The next day, two Argentine men lost their lives in
Antarctica -
biologist Augusto Thibaud and naval officer Teófilo
González - when
their snowmobile plunged into a deep hidden crevasse.

And on Sep. 28, Captain Enrique Encina and
non-commissioned officers
Fernando Burboa and Jorge Basualto, members of the
Chilean army, died when
their snow-cat fell into a 40-metre crevasse in
Antarctica.

Magas pointed out that although there have always been
crevasses on that
continent, making travel dangerous, the ice shelves
are increasingly
breaking up due to the higher temperatures associated
with global warming.

With a surface area of more than 14 million square
kilometres,
Antarctica is the fourth-largest continent. A full 95
percent of the
territory is ice, and the continent accounts for 70
percent of the
world's fresh water reserves.

------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Sat, 15 Oct 2005 00:05:23 -0400 (EDT)
From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com
Subject: [NYTr] Planet Sees Warmest September on
Record
To: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (NYTr List)
Message-ID:
<200510150405.j9F45Oo24742 at olm.blythe-systems.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

AP via The New York Times - Oct 14, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/science/AP-Warm-September.html

Planet Sees Warmest September on Record

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Worldwide, it was the warmest
September on record, the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said
Friday. Averaging
1.13 degrees Fahrenheit (0.63 degree Celsius) above
normal for the month,
it was the warmest September since the beginning of
reliable records in
1880, according to NOAA's National Climatic Data
Center.

The second warmest September was in 2003 with an
average temperature of
1.02 degrees Fahrenheit (0.57 Celsius) above the mean.

For the United States it was the fourth warmest
September on record. The
average U.S. temperature for the month was 2.6 degrees
(1.4 C) above
average.

Only the West Coast and parts of the Rockies were near
normal. Louisiana
had its warmest September in 111 years of national
records and an
additional 27 states ranked much above average.

Some cities also set new records for warmest average
September
temperatures including: Houston-Galveston, Texas;
London, Ky.; Shreveport,
La.; and Raleigh-Durham, N.C.

For the month, rain and snowfall across the country
were below average,
with unusually dry conditions for much of the East
Coast and parts of the
Plains and Northwest. Georgia, South Carolina and
Maryland had their
driest September on record.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press

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