RT Newswire – Page 280 – Rising Tide North America

Vanishing Glacial Lakes in Greenland

By postMigrator April 18, 2008 April 18, 2008 RT Newswire

Greenland glacial lake vanishes in warming drama
Thu Apr 17, 2008 8:50 PM EDT
Related News
Greenland glacial lake vanishes in warming drama
17 Apr 2008
Iceland: life on global warming’s front line
05 Apr 2008
Nobel scientist issues warning on global warming
05 Apr 2008

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Surface melting fueled by climate warming can trigger dramatic events on the vast Greenland ice sheet such as a lake suddenly vanishing through a crack with force of Niagara Falls, experts said on Thursday.

Rising global temperatures are expected to cause an increase in meltwater in frozen expanses like the Greenland ice sheet, and this meltwater often forms sizable lakes.

Scientists have worried that when this increase in meltwater reaches the base of the Greenland ice sheet, it could further lubricate its slide over bedrock toward the sea, causing it to shrink more quickly than expected.

Global Warming Researchers Reverse Stance on Storm Intensity Theory

By postMigrator April 14, 2008 April 14, 2008 RT Newswire

Blog: Science Global Warming Researchers Reverse
Stance on Storm Intensity Theory
Michael Asher (Blog) – April 13, 2008 3:56 AM

The image of a hurricane-spawning smokestack was
used to promote the film, An Inconvenient Truth.

Author of the theory that global warming breeds
stronger hurricanes recants his view

Noted Hurricane Expert Kerry Emanuel has publicly
reversed his stance on the impact of Global
Warming on Hurricanes. Saying “The models are
telling us something quite different from what
nature seems to be telling us,” Emanuel has
released new research indicating that even in a
rapidly warming world, hurricane frequency and
intensity will not be substantially affected.

“The results surprised me,” says Emanuel, one of
the media’s most quoted figures on the topic.

World Bank “Playing Both Sides of Climate Crisis”

By postMigrator April 12, 2008 April 12, 2008 RT Newswire

Published on Friday, April 11, 2008 by Inter Press Service
World Bank “Playing Both Sides of Climate Crisis”
By Haider Rizvi

NEW YORK – A new study released by an independent policy think tank casts further doubts on the World Bank’s ability to stay neutral in the global politics of climate change.

“It is making money off of causing the climate crisis and then turning around and claiming to solve it,” charged Janet Redman, the study’s lead author and a researcher at the Institute for Policy Studies.

In releasing the 79-page report Thursday, Redman described the World Bank’s role in the so-called carbon markets as “dangerously counterproductive” to international efforts to tackle climate change.

Carbon markets refer to commercial aspects of environmental responsibility, in which energy companies can either agree to cut carbon emissions or buy the right to keep polluting.

Scientists: Warmer Seas, Over-Fishing Spell Disaster for Oceans

By postMigrator April 12, 2008 April 12, 2008 RT Newswire

Published on Friday, April 11, 2008 by Agence France Presse
Scientists: Warmer Seas, Over-Fishing Spell Disaster for Oceans

HANOI – The future food security of millions of people is at risk because over-fishing, climate change and pollution are inflicting massive damage on the world’s oceans, marine scientists warned this week.

The two-thirds of the planet covered by seas provide one fifth of the world’s protein — but 75 percent of fish stocks are now fully exploited or depleted, a Hanoi conference that ended Friday was told.

Warming seas are bleaching corals, feeding algal blooms and changing ocean currents that impact the weather, and rising sea levels could in future threaten coastal areas from Bangladesh to New York, experts said.

“People think the ocean is a place apart,” said Peter Neill, head of the World Ocean Observatory. “In fact it’s the thing that connects us — through trade, transportation, natural systems, weather patterns and everything we depend on for survival.”