As President Obama ploughs through his troublesome large in tray, his inaugural promise to “restore science to its rightful place” could be ringing in his ears with an added sense of urgency. One of his scientific advisors should show him a picture of Antarctica that has just been published that shows a red streak down … Read More
melting Antarctic
Arctic “passes point of no return”
Yesterday on the blog I noted that “what was deemed impossible just months ago now seems highly probable or even normal”. OK, I was talking about the financial chaos and the volatile oil price, but the same could be said of climate change.
Despite Record Profits, Shell Halts Oil Sands Project
Earlier this week, when BP announced record profits, it signaled it was going to invest more in oil sands. Yesterday, as Shell smashed analysts predictions and posted a 71% rise in profits to $10.9bn, it did exactly the opposite. Although Shell’s profits mean the company is awash with cash because of the high oil price … Read More
Antarctica: Climate Change Exposes “Toxic Soup”
One of the ways climate change will affect us will be in ways we do not expect. We may have climate models, but we cannot predict all the horrors that lie in store. Here is one such horror. The New Scientist has run a story about how “decades after most countries stopped spraying DDT, frozen … Read More
The Ice Shelf Hanging by a Thread
It is one of the biggest in Antarctica and, for the past century, the massive Wilkins ice shelf appeared to have escaped the ravages of global warming. But now, enormous cracks have appeared in this floating ice platform the size of an American city. Scientists say it is breaking apart at an unprecedented rate after … Read More
Antarctic Glaciers “Surge” to Ocean
UK scientists working in Antarctica have found some of the clearest evidence yet of instabilities in the ice of part of West Antarctica. If the trend continues, they say, it could lead to a significant rise in global sea level. The new evidence comes from a group of glaciers covering an area the size of … Read More
Climate Change: King Penguin Faces Extinction
Another day, another species in trouble. One of the emblems of the Antarctic, the king penguin, could be driven to extinction by climate change, a French scientific study has warned. Second in size only to the emperor penguin, king penguins live on islands on the fringes of Antarctica in the southern Indian Ocean, with an … Read More
Loss of Antarctic Ice Increased 75% in 10 years
Parts of the ice sheets covering Antarctica are melting faster than predicted, with the net loss of ice accelerating in because of climate change. A satellite survey between 1996 and 2006 found that the net loss of ice from Antarctica rose by about 75 per cent as the movement of glaciers towards the sea speeded … Read More
UN Chief Visits Antarctica
When UN boss Ban Ki-moon clambered out of a Chilean Air Force transport plane and planted his boots in the snows of Antarctica, he became the first head of the UN ever to visit the world’s icy underbelly. It might have been an extremely fleeting visit, but it underscores how rapidly climate change is rising … Read More
Un Chief to Visit Antarctica and Amazon
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has made climate change a priority, will visit the Antarctic and the Amazon rain forest during a South American tour starting next week, the United Nations has confirmed. The visits will be “so that he can see first-hand the effects of climate change and deforestation on the environment,” U.N. spokeswoman Marie … Read More