FW: Earth Policy News - Ice Melt Accelerates Around the World
February 5, 2008 at 08:57AM -----Original Message-----
From: Earth Policy News [mailto:Earthpolicynews@earthpolicy.org]
Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2008 4:16 AM
To: scott-e22@earthlink.net
Subject: Earth Policy News - Ice Melt Accelerates Around the World
We apologize for any duplication.
Eco-Economy Indicator -- ICE MELT
February 4, 2008
Eco-Economy Indicators are the twelve trends the Earth Policy Institute
tracks to measure progress in building an eco-economy. Ice melting is one of
the most visible indicators of climate change.
ICE MELT ACCELERATES AROUND THE WORLD
Frances C. Moore
With atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations at new record highs and
global average temperature now some 0.8 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial
levels, the frozen regions of the earth are showing us just how rapidly
climate change can take effect. Recent years have seen ice melt accelerate
and spread to new, previously unaffected regions. In many areas, the pace of
melting has surprised even the scientists studying it most closely,
providing a strong early indication that the consequences of climate change
could come faster and be more severe than previously believed.
The most dramatic loss of ice in recent years has been the decline of summer
sea ice in the Arctic Ocean. Between 1953 and 2006, the area covered by sea
ice in September shrunk by 7.8 percent per decade, more than three times as
fast as the average rate simulated by climate models. Researchers were
further stunned in the summer of 2007 when Arctic sea ice extent plummeted
to the lowest level ever measured, more than 20 percent below the 2005
record...
For entire text see http://www.earthpolicy.org/Indicators/Ice/2008.htm
For data see http://www.earthpolicy.org/Indicators/Ice/2008_data.htm
For an index of Earth Policy Institute resources related to Ice Melt see
http://www.earthpolicy.org/Indicators/Ice/index.htm
And for more information on the effects of rising temperature and how to
stabilize climate, you may be interested in Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save
Civilization by Lester R. Brown (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2008),
posted at http://www.earthpolicy.org/Books/PB3/index.htm.
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