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CLIMATE: Warming destabilizing western Antarctic (01/14/2008)
Gradually warming temperatures are destabilizing expansive ice sheets of western Antarctica, according to a paper published online in the journal Nature Geoscience.
Antarctica holds 90 percent of the world's ice, but until now ice loss and destabilization has been confined mostly to the peninsula that extends out from the frozen continent. But the new research shows the loss of ice to be far more widespread.
"Without doubt, Antarctica as a whole is now losing ice yearly, and each year it's losing more," said Eric Rignot, lead author of a paper.
In western Antarctica, the ice loss has increased by 59 percent over the past decade to about 132 billion metric tons per year, while the yearly loss along the peninsula has increased by 140 percent to 60 billion metric tons.
The expedited warming effects on Antarctica could accelerate the rate at which sea levels are expected to rise. Last year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimated that sea levels would rise by 8 inches to 2 feet by the end of the century, assuming no melting in western Antarctica.
Rignot said the tonnage of yearly ice loss in Antarctica is rivaling Greenland's loss (Marc Kaufman, Washington Post, Jan. 14).
U.K. scientist says greens hurting reform
The former chief scientific adviser for the British government believes green activists are hurting the climate change debate with their tactics and risk pushing back the movement.
Sir David King told the London Guardian that green campaigners fail to focus on the technological innovation needed to overcome the issue, calling their strategy one of "utter hopelessness."
"There is a suspicion, and I have that suspicion myself, that a large number of people who label themselves 'green' are actually keen to take us back to the 18th or even the 17th century," he said, characterizing the argument as "let's get away from all the technological gizmos and developments of the 20th century."
King, who is credited with convincing former Prime Minister Tony Blair of the urgency of climate change and said in a 2004 article in the journal Science that climate change is "more serious even than the threat of terrorism," believes industries like aviation have been the scapegoats of the problem.
He argues in his new book, "The Hot Topic," that a localist approach, like reducing mileage traveled via car and using reusable grocery bags, may create more emissions than purchasing food from overseas. He also advocate for a 700-fold increase in power from alternative sources like solar, wind and nuclear (Oliver Burkeman, London Guardian, Jan. 12).
U.N. weather agency wants NASA satellites to monitor warming
The United Nations' World Meteorological Organization will ask NASA and other space agencies this week to build their next generation of satellites able to monitor climate change, a senior official said last week.
"The main focus of the meeting next week will be the expansion of the global observing system by satellites to not only monitor severe weather, which is a core function, but also to monitor climate on a very continuous and long-term basis," WMO expert Jérome Lafeuille told a news briefing in Geneva.
The satellites, set for launch over the next 20 years, will constantly record factors such as greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and sea levels, the agency said.
The idea will be proposed at a WMO meeting between officials with NASA, the European Space Agency, and other agencies in Japan, China, Brazil and India later this week in New Orleans (Stephanie Nebehay, Toronto Globe and Mail, Jan. 11). -- EB