This mail came in through another list I'm member of. It's completey
off topic on that list but I think it's appropriate here. I want to live
my life the way I like it, Paleostyle. Not forced by changes in climate
brought upon by morons most likely that we've been protesting against.
Yes, the fluctuations in the earth's ax can have some to do with it as
well but right now I feel like blaming mankind. Just that kind of mood
I'm in ok? ;-)
In all seriousness I think it is time to start looking for a Paleocamp
for myself somewhere high up in the mountains. Not too polluted so far
and a fair bit of wildlife around.
The original idea of a Paleocamp this summer still stands. I've tried
to contact the Pangaians on Hawaii but their addy is on the blink. And
somehow they charge a big sum for visitors to stay with them. So maybe
we could best look for a nice area closeby for those that will be flying
in and secluded enought to hunt and eat. Then we can't learn from them
but I'm pretty confident there is a lot of knowledge on this list too.
Come on people, pack the ol' tent, bow and arrows and let's have this
powwow.
Any suggestions?
Christy
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 03/19: Antarctic Ice Shelf Collapses
Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2002 14:18:41 -0600
From: Ben Burch <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To:
:
[ I've been saying for years that when climate change happens, it
will happen swiftly. Now this. Also, the US Navy has conducted a
study on how to police the Arctic Ocean *when* it becomes ice free
enough for navigation. ]
Antarctic Ice Shelf Collapses
By ROBERT BARR
c. The Associated Press
LONDON (March 19) - A large Antarctic ice shelf in an area of the
giant continent that is warming faster than the global average has
collapsed with ''staggering'' rapidity, British scientists said
Tuesday.
The shelf designated as Larsen B, 650 feet thick and with a surface
area of 1,250 square miles, has collapsed into small icebergs and
fragments, the British Antarctic Survey said. Before breaking apart,
the ice shelf was about the size of Rhode Island.
The ice shelf collapse reported Tuesday was first detected on
satellite images earlier this month by Ted Scambos of the National
Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado.
''The reason this is worth paying attention to is that we're seeing a
very rapid and profound response by the ice sheet to a warming that's
been around for just a few decades,'' Scambos said.
''And we can use this as sort of a guide for what's going to happen
if the rest of the Antarctic should begin to warm because of climate
change.''
David Vaughan, a glaciologist at the British Antarctic Survey, said
the agency predicted three years ago that ice shelves would be
disappearing.
''Since then, warming on the peninsula has continued and we watched
as piece-by-piece Larsen B has retreated,'' Vaughan said.
''We knew what was left would collapse eventually, but the speed of
it is staggering. Hard to believe that 500 million billion tons of
ice sheet has disintegrated in less than a month.''
In recent months, scientists have presented apparently contradictory
evidence about warming in Antarctica. Two months ago, the journal
Science reported new measurements which indicated that the ice in arctica was thickening, rather than melting.
Scientists are unsure what to make of those measurements, but they
are not incompatible with the recently observed ice sheet collapses
because they apply to a region much closer to the South Pole than the
Antarctic Peninsula.
Referred to as the ''banana belt'' by polar scientists, the peninsula
is much closer to the equator than is the rest of Antarctica and
surrounded on three sides by moderating seas.
In the past half century, the Antarctic Peninsula, which is nearest
to southern Argentina and Chile, has warmed by 4.5 degrees
Fahrenheit, much faster than average global warming, the Survey said.
As a result, five ice shelves which extend out over the ocean along
the peninsula have retreated.
In January, researchers Ian Joughin of the California Institute of
Technology and Slawek Tulaczyk of the University of California, Santa
Cruz, said ice was thickening in West Antarctica. The scientists said
the change, if not merely part of some short-term fluctuation,
represented a reversal of the long retreat of the ice.
Their finding came less than a week after a paper in the journal
Nature reported that Antarctica's harsh desert valleys - long
considered a bellwether for global climate change - had grown
noticeably cooler since the mid-1980s.
Air temperatures recorded continuously over a 14-year period ending
in 1999 declined by about 1 degree F in the polar deserts and across
the White Continent, that paper said.
AP-NY-03-19-02 1216EST
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press.
--
"Love is the law, love under will."
-Ben Burch
[log in to unmask]
"The tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the
blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it's natural manure." ---Thomas
Jefferson
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