Category: RT Newswire

Thursday, August 9, 2007
http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere

Today, the Northern Hemisphere sea ice area broke the record for the lowest recorded ice area in recorded history. The new record came a full month before the historic summer minimum typically occurs. There is still a month or more of melt likely this year. It is therefore almost certain that the previous 2005 record will be annihilated by the final 2007 annual minima closer to the end of this summer.

In previous record sea ice minima years, ice area anomalies were confined to certain sectors (N. Atlantic, Beaufort/Bering Sea, etc). The character of 2007’s sea ice melt is unique in that it is dramatic and covers the entire Arctic sector. Atlantic, Pacific and even the central Arctic sectors are showing large negative sea ice area anomalies.

While we use sea ice concentration data supplied by NASA via the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), there are some differencesbetween the way we and NSIDC process our sea ice indices. NSIDC uses 10-day running means; we use 3-day running means. NSIDC will often report sea ice extent indices and records, we are reporting a new sea ice minima sea ice area. The ice area metric includes year-to-year variations within the central pack ice and not just variations in the southern sea ice edge. Regardless of these differences, the rapid rate of sea ice melt this summer, along with the current negative sea ice anomalies almost guarantees a record Northern Hemisphere summer sea ice minimum this summer, by any metric.

Follow this link for some background information on historic sea ice minima.

• The Guardian
• Friday July 27 2007

Heathrow airport is targeting climate change activists with a sweeping injunction which could prevent members of the RSPB and the National Trust, plus millions more affiliated to environmental organisations, from attending a green protest.

The airport’s owner, BAA, said it wants to minimise disruption when the Camp for Climate Action is held there from August 14 to 21. The Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, gave warning yesterday that disruption to the airport was likely. Continue reading

for pics see: http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2007/07/88818.html

On Friday, July 27, a crowd of protesters filled the Midtown Manhattan lobbies of two large Citigroup offices and a Citybank branch, as well as three branches of Bank of America. The protesters demanded that Citibank and Bank of America withdraw their investments from Massey Energy Co., the notorious coal company known for its abuse of the people and environment of southern West Virginia, as well as other areas in the southern Appalachian coalfields, through the use of mountain top removal coal mining.

The protesters handed out fliers about the destructive investments of the banks, held signs and banners, made impromptu speeches and chants, disrupting business for the afternoon. “The human rights abuses committed by Massey Energy are only made possible by the funding they get from these banks. Bank of America and Citibank should do the responsible and environmentally-friendly thing and stop funding climate change and mountain top removal,” said Lisa Hender, one of the protesters.

Mountain top removal is a form of coal mining that destroys entire ecosystems. Heavy explosives and massive machines are used to turn beautiful biodiverse forests into desolate wasteland. In Appalachia, an entire culture and way of life is being destroyed and driven out as machines are brought in to replace jobs, streams are buried, wells run dry, and elementary schools sit beneath sludge dams.

For more information about mountain top removal coal mining and investors in coal companies, check the following websites:

http://www.mountainjusticesummer.org/
http://ran.org/new/dirty_money/home/no_new_coal/
http://www.crmw.net/