The
big boogyman on the environmental scene is global warming. Scientists
have credibly argued both sides of the issue, but the recent discovery
of open water at the North Pole brings a scary reality to what was once
an academic debate.
Friends
of the Earth Considers Legal Action to Curb Global Warming
Lycos
Parallel
to the landmark lawsuits that have forced change upon the tobacco industry,
one of the world's largest environmental groups today announced it may
take legal action against industrialized countries and private industries
that attempt to block the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol on global
warming.
Hole
in Antarctic Ozone Now Three Times the Size of the U.S.
NASA Science
News
The hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica is bigger than ever, US
scientists announced yesterday. Nasa has measured the area of thinning
ozone as covering an area three times the size of the US.
No
Ice at the North Pole
The Guardian (UK)
For nearly a century, human visitors to the North Pole have found a
frozen featureless scene covered in thick ice. Until now.
Scary
Study: Greenland Ice Cap Is Melting
The Washington Post
Ice
equal to an 11-mile cube is melting and breaking off of the Greenland
ice sheet every year, adding to a global sea level rise that has reached
nine inches in the past century, a study shows. More than 50 billion
tons of water a year are eroding away from Greenland annually, according
to a NASA high-tech aerial survey of the massive North Atlantic island,
home of the Earth's second largest ice sheet.
A
Warning From The North Pole
The San Francisco Examiner
The
New York Times broke the story on Saturday and the San Francisco Chronicle
did a nice front-page follow-up Monday, but coverage by The Examiner
was more typical. Here in its entirety is the page A-4 story in Sunday's
Examiner: "For the first time in 50 million years, visitors to the North
Pole can see something extraordinary: water. "The thick ice that covers
the Arctic Ocean at the North Pole has melted, leaving a mile-wide stretch
of water at the top of the world, The New York Times reported Saturday.
Scientists
Fear Waste of Crucial Navy Data
The Guardian (UK)
Data
from top secret navy submarine missions under the North Pole holding
vital clues to the nature and speed of global warming could end up lying
unused because scientists have not been given the money to finish analysing
it.
And
meanwhile, Little George Bush spends $100 million on his presidential
election campaign.
Satellite
Tracks Arctic Meltdown
Not
everyone is alarmed, however. There are still some who think that Global
Warming is a myth.
Stuck
in the Ice Age
The National Review
This
past Saturday, readers of the New York Times woke up to an alarming
and overwrought front-page story complete with photos about the hole
in the ice over the North Pole. Apparently holiday cruisers in the Arctic
were dismayed to discover that they could not have their pictures snapped
while standing on ice floes at the pole. The Times opined that "the
last time scientists can be certain the pole was awash in water was
more than 50 million years ago." "Maybe McCarthy ought to have consulted
the U.N.'s own arctic temperature record," says University of Virginia
climatologist Patrick Michaels. "That record clearly shows no net warming
in summer time arctic temperatures for the past 70 years."
Global
Warming Threatens One-Third of All Habitat
Lycos
As
the planet warms, extinction is the forecast for vulnerable animals
and plants across more than a third of the Earth's natural habitat,
researchers report in a sweeping new study released recently.
For
our take on Global Warming, we suggest you dig up a copy of Tiny Tim's
recording of "The Ice Caps Are Melting".
