Nasa confirms global warming impact on ice sheets

Scientists confirm that climate warming is changing how much water remains locked in Earth’s largest storehouse of ice and snow

Previous studies have illustrated incremental losses of ice in parts of the regions but the new survey is the first to inventory the deficit of ice and the addition of new snow across both continents

www.scenta.co.uk... FAArea1=customWidgets.content_view_1

Global warming may kill ground-based astronomy


A Cambridge astronomer has claimed that global warming may do for ground-based astronomy by 2050 - due to a significant increase in cloud cover provoked by expanding aircraft condesation trails, New Scientist reports

he conclusion is simple: "Contrails increase global warming, and global warming helps larger contrails form," Gilmore explains. Indeed, the study demonstrated that the problem is much greater than previously thought, showing that "ground-based telescopes will be worthless by 2050."

Gilmore concludes: "We can only go to the least affected places and try to make governments pass laws to protect these sites. But the future of cheap aeroplane transport and climate change is out of our hands."

The NASA data suggested that "by 2050, average contrail coverage over Europe will be four times higher than at present, or about 4.6 per cent. In the United States, the increase will be 2.6 times current levels, or 3.7 per cent coverage; and in Asia, the increase will be ten times current levels, or 1.2 per cent".

www.theregister.co.uk...

Race to save New Guinea treasures from global warming

LONDON: The unexplored wonders of New Guinea are being destroyed by global warming before scientists have even had a chance to examine the island, researchers say.

The mountainous island has been left virtually untouched by humans, the highlands too difficult for local tribesmen to access.

An almost constant cloud cover over the area means that even satellites have been unable to photograph what lies beneath.

An abundance of unknown flora and fauna as well as tropical glaciers is thought to exist there. Only last week, British researchers at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, revealed the discovery of a new type of palm tree in the Wondiwoi Mountains.

New species of butterfly, frog, bird, plant and a tree kangaroo were found in the Foja mountains last month by the American group Conservation International.

But a US climate scientist, Michael Prentice of Plymouth State University, New Hampshire, has warned that many more of the island's treasures may die out before they are identified.
Writing in New Scientist, Dr Prentice said global warming was happening in the island, shared by Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, 20 times faster than previously thought.

While on the island, he found a series of unpublished meteorological data that showed temperatures have risen by 0.3 degrees every decade. "We have seven or eight good sets covering the period after the early 1970s

smh.com.au... e-to-save-new-guinea-treasures-from-global-warming/2006/03/09/1141701633548.html

Paris panel to discuss glacial conditions at Waterton-Glacier

HELENA A panel meeting in Paris next week plans to discuss concern that human-caused warming of the climate is why glaciers in Glacier National Park are melting.

A dozen organizations last month filed a petition asking the United Nations to declare Glacier in Montana, and the adjacent Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada endangered.

They're concerned about glacial retreat, and its effect on the environment of the parks.

Together the parks are known as Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, and are covered by a 1995 treaty as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The proposal to have the parks designated a World Heritage Site in Danger is scheduled for discussion at the Paris meeting next Thursday and Friday.

The gathering will be held at the headquarters of the U-N Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

www.kbzk.com...

Global warming evidence grows: UN expertEvidence that humans are to blame for global warming is rising but governments are doing too little to counter the threat, the head of the UN climate panel said.

Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), also said costs of braking climate change in coming decades might be less than forecast in the IPCC's last report in 2001.

"If one looks at just the scientific evidence that's been collected, it's certainly becoming far more compelling. There is no question about it," he told Reuters of research since 2001 into a link between human emissions of greenhouse gases and rising temperatures.

Pachauri was more forthright than at the last UN climate meeting in Montreal, Canada, in December, when he declined to say whether there was clearer scientific evidence that human activities were to blame.

The last IPCC report in 2001 said there was "new and stronger evidence" that gases released by burning fossil fuels in power plants, factories and cars were warming the planet.

Warming may herald catastrophic climate changes such as more heatwaves, droughts, floods and rising sea levels.

The IPCC, grouping research by about 2,000 scientists, will present its next report to the UN next year. The report is the mainstay for environmental policy-making.


www.theage.com.au... bal-warming-evidence-grows-UN-expert/2006/03/07/1141493633480.html