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Scientists map melting history of Greenland’s ice sheet

September 17, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, September 17 (ANI): Researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen have mapped the history of the melting of the Greenland ice sheet.

Numerous drillings have been made through both Greenland’s ice sheet and small ice caps near the coast.

By analyzing every single annual layer in the kilometres long ice cores, researchers can get detailed information about the climate of the past.

But now, the Danish researcher Bo Vinther and colleagues from the Centre for Ice and Climate at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, in collaboration with researchers from Canada, France and Russia, have found an entirely new way of interpreting the information from the ice core drillings.

“Ice cores from different drillings show different climate histories. This could be because they were drilled at very different places on and near Greenland, but it could also be due to changes in the elevation of the ice sheet, because the elevation itself causes different temperatures,” explained Bo Vinther about the theory.

Today, the ice sheet is more than three kilometres thick at its highest point and thinning out towards the coast.

Four of the drillings analyzed are from the central ice sheet, while two of the drillings are from small ice caps outside of the ice sheet itself.

By comparing the Oxygen-18 content in all of the annual layers from the four drillings through the ice sheet with the Oxygen-18 content of the same annual layers in the small ice caps, Bo Vinther has calculated the elevation course through 11,700 years.

Just after the ice age the elevation of the ice sheet rose slightly because when the climate transitions from ice age to warm age, there is a rapid increase in precipitation.

But at the same time, the areas lying near the coast begin to decrease in size, because the ice is melting at the edge.

When the ice melts at the edge, it slowly causes the entire ice sheet to ‘collapse’ and become lower.

The calculations show that in the course of about 3,000 years, the elevation changed and became up to 600 meters lower in the coastal areas.

But in the middle, it was a slow process, where the elevation decreased around 150 meters in the course of around 6,000 years.

It then stabilized.

The new results show the evolution of elevation of the ice sheet throughout 11,700 years and they show that the ice sheet is very sensitive to the temperature.

The results can be used to make new calculations for models predicting future consequences of climate changes. (ANI)

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Polar bears face extinction in less than 70 years because of global warming

September 12, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, September 11 (ANI): A new research has warned that polar bears face extinction in less than 70 years because of global warming.

“Recent projections suggest polar bears could be extinct within 70 years,” Eric Post, associate professor of biology at Penn State University, who led the latest study, told the Telegraph.

“But we think this could be a very conservative estimate. The outlook is very bleak for them and other creatures such as ringed seals,” he said.

Melting ice is causing Polar bear numbers to drop dramatically, scientists warn.

“The rate at which sea ice is disappearing is accelerating and these creatures rely on it for shelter, hunting and breeding. If this goes, so do they,” said Post.

Others also at risk include ivory gulls, Pacific walruses, ringed and hooded seals and narwhals, small whales with long, spiral tusks.

One of the problems is that other animals are moving north, encroaching on their territory, spurred by increasing temperatures, pushing out native species.

The animals are also struggling with the loss of sea ice.

The international team analyzed average temperature in the Arctic over the last 150 years and warned many animals that are dependent upon the stability and persistence of sea ice are faring especially badly.

Polar bears and ringed seals both give birth in lairs or caves under the snow and can lose many newborn pups when the lairs collapse in unusually early spring rains, triggered by climate change.

Among animals migrating further north are red foxes, which are driving out the smaller Arctic foxes. (ANI)

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Sacha Baron Cohen crashes Bruno screening in New York

July 14, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Jul 13 (ANI): Brit comedian Sacha Baron Cohen gave cinemagoers watching the New York screening of Bruno more than they bargained for, when he gatecrashed the movie.

Cohen, 37, stunned fans when he stormed into Times Square’s AMC Empire cinema as his gay Austrian fashionista creation, dressed in a silver uniform and revealing red thong.

According to the Daily Express, the actor high-fived revellers and knocked glasses off people’s faces, before jumping on to a podium and treating the audience to an x-rated pole dance.

Along with his performance, Cohen also added a few comments, in the way his character Bruno does.

“Let’s hope that this film realises its full global potential! Let’s hope it doesn’t have like a really promising start and then peter out like swine flu did! Let’s hope that, like herpes, this film continues to infect all of you,” the New York Post quoted him as saying.

“It’s like a Benetton ad in here. New York City, the cultural melting pot. You’ve even got black guys here. I’m a chocoholic,” he added. (ANI)

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Mars had warmer weather in its recent past than previously thought

June 30, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, June 30 (ANI): A new research led by a UK scientist has indicated that Mars had significantly warmer weather in its recent past than previously thought.

Dr. Matthew Balme, from The Open University, made the new discovery by studying detailed images of equatorial landforms that formed by melting of ice-rich soils.
is work indicates that the Martian surface experienced “freeze thaw” cycles as recently as 2 million years ago, and that Mars has not been locked in permafrost conditions for billions of years as had been previously thought.

The high-resolution images, which show a variety of interesting landforms, were taken with NASA’s HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging science Experiment) which is onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) mission.

According to Dr. Balme, “The features of this terrain were previously interpreted to be the result of volcanic processes. The amazingly detailed images from HiRISE show that the features are instead caused by the expansion and contraction of ice, and by thawing of ice-rich ground. This all suggests a very different climate to what we see today.”

All of the landforms observed are in an outflow channel, thought to have been active as recently as 2 million to 8 million years ago.

Since the landforms exist within, and cut across, the pre-existing features of the channel, this suggests that they too were created within this timeframe.

The pictures show polygonally patterned surfaces, branched channels, blocky debris and mound/cone structures.

All of these features are similar to landforms on Earth typical of areas where permafrost terrain is melting.

“These observations demonstrate not only that there was ice near the Martian equator in the last few million years, but also that the ice melted to form liquid water and then refroze. And this probably happened for many cycles,” Dr. Balme said.

“Given that liquid water seems to be essential for life, these kinds of environments could be a great place to look for evidence of past life on Mars,” he added.

According to Professor Keith Mason, CEO of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), “Understanding current processes on the surface of Mars and the past and present role of climate improves our knowledge of the planet’s history and thus the chances of one day detecting evidence for past or present life.” (ANI)

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TERI chief says Indian Army’s biggest enemy is climate change

June 28, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, June 28 (ANI/ Business Wire India): Dr. R.K. Pachauri, Director General of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has warned the Indian Army that climate change could prove to be their biggest enemy, as melting snow could open a new passage for terrorists.

“Climate change poses new threats to India. Melting snows in the north open up passages for terrorists, just as melting glaciers affect water supply in the subcontinent’s northern part, sharpening possibility of conflict with our neighbours. Changing rainfall patterns affect rain fed agriculture, worsening poverty which can be exploited by others,” Dr. Pachauri said while delivering the keynote address at the convocation ceremony at the Military College of Telecommunication Engineering, Mhow.

He cautioned that climate change might force millions of ‘climate refugees’ across India’s border, posing a new challenge to nation’s armed forces.

“Our defence forces might find themselves torn between humanitarian relief operations and guarding our borders against climate refugees, as rising sea-levels swamp low-lying areas, forcing millions of ‘climate refugees’ across India’s border,” he added.

As the Chief Guest, Pachauri presented the Chief of Army Staff Trophy and other awards to the winners.

In his Valedictory Address, Dr. Pachauri complimented the officers for the exemplary work they have done during various natural calamities across the length and breadth of the country.

He praised the Corps of Signals for their good work in the field of modern communications and computer networks and their remarkable use of advanced systems of Optical Fiber, Satellite Communications, and other networks to conduct its operations, including Low Intensity Conflict Operations and UN missions.

The Commandant, Military College of Telecommunication Engineering in his farewell address, exhorted the passing out officers to apply their knowledge in their units and to keep abreast with the latest in the field of technology. (ANI)

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Perpetual cycle of melting and refreezing may explain Saturn moon’s odd activity

May 30, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, May 30 (ANI): In a new research, a scientist has suggested that a perpetual cycle of melting and refreezing may offer the best explanation for why Saturn’s moon Enceladus seems so active today.

According to a report in New Scientist, the scientist in question is Norman Sleep of Stanford University, US.

In Sleep’s scenario, Enceladus is now heading back into a long cold phase after a comparatively brief warm spell.

For any potential life on Enceladus, “it’s boom and bust”, said Sleep.

Sleep raised the idea after researchers learned that Enceladus is pouring out 15 gigawatts of heat – more than double earlier estimates.

The new number makes matters worse for scientists trying to explain where all the heat comes from.

It far exceeds what can be accounted for by the decay of radioactive elements and tidal stress – strains induced by Saturn’s pull on the moon.

The effects of the heat are dramatic: Enceladus is one of the most active bodies in the solar system, with vast plumes of water molecules streaming from cracks in its icy crust.

There are also hints of a subsurface ocean below.

While this has raised excitement over Enceladus as a potential place to search for life, it is becoming clear that something is awry.

Enceladus cannot have been as it is now throughout its whole existence. It would have lost 20 percent of its mass via its geysers if that had been the case.

Sleep proposes a scenario in which Enceladus is frozen most of the time but thaws repeatedly.

Over hundreds of millions of years, an existing gravitational interaction with the moon Dione causes the orbit of Enceladus to grow increasingly more elongated, or eccentric.

This produces much more tidal stress than Enceladus experiences today and eventually causes wide-scale fracturing and friction within its icy crust.

The friction leads to runaway melting and produces an ocean and eruptions of water on the surface.

The trick is that in its fluid state, Enceladus can more easily dissipate energy, which weakens the effect that drove up its eccentricity to begin with.

The eccentricity returns to normal and then Enceladus refreezes, starting the cycle anew.

“This has probably happened a few times before,” said Sleep.

“What strikes me about it is that you can start with Enceladus cold and re-melt it,” said John Spencer of the Southwest Research Institute.

As to whether life can survive on such a schizophrenic moon, Sleep said it depends on whether Enceladus freezes completely during the cold spells or retains a few watery pockets where microbes can eke out an existence in the lean times. (ANI)

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Sea-level rise may pose greatest threat to Northeast US and Canada this century

May 28, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 28 (ANI): A new research has suggested that the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet this century may drive more water than previously thought toward the already threatened coastlines of New York, Boston, Halifax and other cities in the northeastern United States and Canada.

The researchers suggest that moderate to high rates of ice melt from Greenland may shift ocean circulation by about 2100, causing sea levels off the northeast coast of North America to rise by about 30 to 51 centimeters (12 to 20 inches) more than other coastal areas.

The research builds on recent reports that have found that sea level rise could adversely affect North America, and its findings suggest that the situation is even more urgent than previously believed.

“If the Greenland melt continues to accelerate, we could see significant impacts this century on the northeast U.S. coast from the resulting sea level rise,” said scientist Aixue Hu, the research paper’s lead author.

“Major northeastern cities are directly in the path of the greatest rise,” Hu added.

To assess the impact of Greenland ice melt on ocean circulation, Hu and his coauthors used the Community Climate System Model, an NCAR-based computer model that simulates global climate.

They considered three scenarios: the melt rate continuing to increase by 7 percent a year, as has been the case in recent years, or the melt rate slowing down to an increase of either 1 or 3 percent a year.

If Greenland’s melt rate slows down to a 3 percent annual increase, the study team’s computer simulations indicate that the runoff from its ice sheet could alter ocean circulation in a way that would direct about a foot of water toward the northeast coast of North America by 2100.

This would be on top of the average global sea level rise expected as a result of global warming.

Although the study team did not try to estimate that mean global sea level rise, their simulations indicated that melt from Greenland alone under the 3 percent scenario could raise sea levels by an average of 53 centimeters (21 inches).

But if the melt rate continued at its present 7 percent increase per year through 2050 and then leveled off, the study suggests that the northeast coast could see as much as 51 centimeters (20 inches) of sea level rise above a global average that could be several feet.

According to NCAR scientist Gerald Meehl, “Ocean dynamics will push water in certain directions, so some locations will experience sea level rise that is larger than the global average.” (ANI)

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Spring agricultural fires can accelerate Arctic melting

May 27, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 27 (ANI): A research has found that agricultural fires during spring have an adverse impact on the melting Arctic, because the black carbon or soot produced by the fires can lead to accelerated melting of snow and ice.

The two-year international field campaign known as POLARCAT was conducted most intensively during two three-week periods last spring and summer and focused on the transport of pollutants into the Arctic from lower latitudes.

One surprise discovery was that large-scale agricultural burning in Russia, Kazakhstan, China, the US, Canada, and the Ukraine is having a much greater impact than previously thought.

A particular threat is posed by springtime burning – to remove crop residues for new planting or clear brush for grazing – because the black carbon or soot produced by the fires can lead to an increased melting of snow and ice.

Soot, which is produced through incomplete combustion of biomass and fossil fuels, may account for as much as 30 percent of Arctic warming to date, according to recent estimates.

Soot can warm the surrounding air and, when deposited on ice and snow, absorb solar energy and add to the melting process.

In addition to soot, other short-lived pollutants include ozone and methane.

Although global warming is largely the result of excess accumulation of carbon dioxide (CO2), the Arctic is highly sensitive to short-lived pollutants.

During the UNH workshop, a report by the Clean Air Task Force detailing some of the campaign’s findings on agricultural burning and transport to the Arctic will be officially released.

“Targeting these emissions offers a supplemental and parallel strategy to carbon dioxide reductions, with the advantage of a much faster temperature response, and the benefit of health risk reductions,” said Ellen Baum, senior scientist of the Clean Air Task Force.

“In addition, we have the know-how to control these pollutants today,” she added.

The report notes that during April, at the beginning portion of the field campaign in Northern Alaska, aircraft-based researchers were surprised to find 50 smoke plumes originating from fires in Eurasia more than 3,000 miles away.

Analysis of the plumes, combined with satellite images, revealed the smoke came from agricultural fires in Northern Kazakhstan-Southern Russia and from forest fires in Southern Siberia.

The emissions from fires far outweighed those from fossil fuels, the report states.

“These fires weren’t part of our standard predictions, they weren’t in our models,” said Daniel Jacob, a professor of atmospheric chemistry and environmental engineering at Harvard University. (ANI)

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Sediments deposited in oceans by major Arctic rivers hold clues to future global climate

May 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 19 (ANI): A new study has suggested that sediments deposited in the ocean by major Arctic rivers may hold clues to understand how Earth’s climate will change in the next few decades.

The study was carried out by geoscientists at The University of Texas at Austin and Texas A and M University, US.

Sediments deposited in large river deltas around the world record information about past sea level, productivity and storminess on the ocean margin, climate on the adjacent continents and human factors that affect sediment delivery to the margin, among other things.

In addition to these climate factors, Arctic sediments, in particular, could contain records of changes on land due to warming, including permafrost temperature and melting of upland glaciers.

According to Mead Allison, senior research scientist at The University of Texas at Austin’s Jackson School of Geosciences and co-author of the study, Arctic river deltas have been neglected as records of past climate because the far north is a challenging and expensive environment to work in and it only came to be seen as a bellwether for climate change in the last decade or so.

Arctic river deltas are critical to explore because the largest changes in climate are projected for the Arctic, said the researchers.

Large amounts of carbon are stored in Arctic permafrost. As those soils thaw, rivers will transport much of their organic carbon to the oceans.

As global warming speeds up the melting of shorefast ice (ice attached to the shore), it will likely accelerate coastal erosion from storms, providing a further supply of organic carbon to the coastal zone.

Allison described several ways these sediments could advance scientists’ understanding of the global climate system.

They could help answer a hotly debated question about the role of river deltas in the global carbon cycle.

Arctic river deposits could also confirm the existence of natural climate cycles that climate models need to take into account.

Finally, these sediments would establish past climate proxies for specific locations that could be monitored in the future to track the changing climate of the Arctic.

If it is a region that will experience the biggest climate changes in this century, it will be important to establish how climate is recorded in sediments. (ANI)

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Global warming maybe poisoning food for Arctic people

April 18, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, April 18 (ANI): In a new research, a team of scientists has found that global warming is not just transforming the land for the Arctic people, but it is also poisoning their food, with mercury levels in seals and beluga whales reaching levels that would be considered unsafe in fish.

According to a report in New Scientist, Gary Stern of Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and colleagues did the research.

They found that seal meat contains more mercury in low-ice years, suggesting the problem will only get worse.

The team sampled ringed seals caught by traditional hunters in the western Canadian Arctic between 1973 and 2007.

Mercury levels were higher after summers with less sea ice. According to the team, this is because Arctic cod flourishes in low-ice years.

Because Arctic cod is higher up the food chain than the seals’ other food, their tissues accumulate more mercury.

Arctic residents may well be exposed to other pollutants as well.

Melting ice releases chemicals such as DDT and PCBs that leached from the atmosphere decades ago and became entombed in ice and permafrost, warns Philippe Grandjean of Harvard University.

As the ice melts, its contaminants flow into streams, rivers and the Arctic Ocean.

“It may already be too late to prevent a surge of pollutants from polar ice,” said Grandjean.

However, he notes, policy-makers can try to prevent the same thing happening again by reducing pollutants still in use, such as flame retardants. (ANI)

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ROUNDUP: US seeks restrictions on tourism to Arctic-Antarctic region

April 7, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington – The United States will push for more restrictions on tourism to the North and South Poles to protect the regions’ natural environment and avoid the worst effects of global warming, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday.

Opening a nearly two-week summit bringing together the two diplomatic bodies that govern the Arctic and Antarctic, Clinton warned that protecting the region was crucial to stabilizing the global climate.

“The changes under way in the Arctic will have long-term impacts on our economic future, our energy future and indeed again the future of our planet, so it is crucial that we work together,” Clinton said at an opening ceremony at the State Department in Washington.

The gathering, which brings together scientists and government officials from 47 countries, marks the first US-hosted summit on the environment since President Barack Obama took office in January, and comes as world governments are hoping to reach a new deal by December to curb the pollutants that cause global warming.

This week’s summit, which moves to Baltimore, Maryland, after Monday’s opening ceremony, will review the latest science, the impact of tourism and protecting the environment and species in the polar region.

“Strengthening environmental regulation is especially important as tourism to Antarctica increases,” Clinton said, proposing limits on larger ships and increasing safety and environmental regulations.

Scientists have warned that global warming is already having a significant impact on the world’s polar regions. Melting Arctic ice could cause a dangerous rise in global sea levels, flooding some coastlines and accelerating the impact of climate change around the world.

A study by US space agency NASA released on the sidelines of the polar summit found that Arctic ice was melting, and thinning, at a faster rate than expected. About 70 per cent of the Arctic’s sea ice now melts over the summer months, up from 40-50 per cent in the 1990s. Only 10 per cent of the ice survives two years or more.

A separate study last week by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Washington warned that Arctic summers could be completely devoid of ice in 30 years time. Earlier studies forecast that the Arctic ice would vanish only at the turn of the next century.

The polar conference comes on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Antarctic Treaty. Agreed to by 12 governments, the treaty designated the poles a peaceful “natural reserve” that could not be used by any governments for military purposes.

Clinton said that past agreements on protecting the poles served as a “living example” of governments’ ability to cooperate on environmental issues, and urged similar cooperation in the lead-up to a crucial Copenhagen summit on climate change at the end of the year.

“As the world prepares for climate talks in Copenhagen this December, meetings like this are more important than ever,” Clinton said.

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Technique measures heat transport in the Earth’s crust

April 1, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, March 31 (ANI): A scientist has developed a technique that provides much more accurate data on heat transport through rocks in the Earth’s crust than conventional methods, which brings scientists closer to a better understanding of the planet’s interior.

The scientist in question is Anne M. Hofmeister, research professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts and Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL).

Temperature is an important driver of many geological processes, including the generation of magmas (molten rocks) in the deepest parts of the Earth’s crust, about 30 to 40 kilometers below the surface.

Yet, until recently, temperatures deep inside the Earth’s crust were uncertain, mainly because of difficulties associated with measuring thermal conductivity, or how much heat is flowing through the rocks that compose the crust.

In conventional methods of measuring thermal conductivity, measurement errors arise as the temperature of a rock nears its melting point.

At such high temperatures, heat is not just transported from atom to atom by vibrations, but also by radiation (light).

Since conventional methods cannot separate heat flow carried by vibrations from that associated with radiation, most measurements of how efficiently rocks transport heat at high temperatures have been overestimated.

Using an industrial laser that is typically used for steel welding, Hofmeister was able to circumvent the problems that plagued the older methods. er technique, laser-flash analysis, provides much more accurate data on heat transport through rocks than conventional methods.

In laser-flash analysis, a rock sample is held at a given temperature and then subjected to a laser pulse of heat, allowing Hofmeister to measure the time it takes for the heat to go from one end of the sample to the other.

Since measuring heat transport in the crust itself is impossible, Hofmeister used the laser to measure heat transport in individual rock samples at various temperatures and then averaged across samples to represent the dynamics of the crust.

According to Hofmeister, “Our analysis shows that rocks are more efficient at conducting heat at low temperatures than was previously thought and less efficient at high temperatures. The process of moving heat around really depends on the temperature of the rocks.”

Hofmeister and her collaborators found that the conductivity of rocks in the lower crust, where the external temperature is very high, is much lower – by as much as 50 percent – than was predicted by conventional methods.

These results also suggest that the lower crust may be much hotter than scientists previously recognized.

“The new methods change our understanding of how heat is transported in geological environments,” said Hofmeister. (ANI)

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Soon, robots could have muscles stronger than steel

March 20, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, March 20 (ANI): Scientists have created a new material that is stronger than steel and stiffer than diamond, weighs little more than its volume in air, and could be the perfect artificial muscle for robots.

According to a report in New Scientist, scientists at the University of Texas, Dallas, US, developed the material.

“We’ve made a totally new type of artificial muscle that is able to provide performance characteristics that have not previously been obtained,” said Ray Baughman, a materials scientist at the University of Texas, and co-developer of the new muscle.

Baughman and colleagues have developed a technique to make ribbons of tangled nanotubes that expand in width by 220 percent when a voltage is applied and then return to their normal size once it is removed.

The process takes only milliseconds.

“Collections of those ribbons could act as artificial muscle fibres – for example, to move the limbs of a walking robot,” said Baughman.

The material has other impressive properties.

It is extremely stiff and strong in the “long” direction – that in which the nanotubes are aligned – but is as stretchy as rubber across its width.

It also maintains its properties over an extreme range of temperatures: from -196 degrees Celsius, at which temperature nitrogen is liquid, to 1538 degrees C, above the melting point of iron.

This means any robot equipped with the nanotube muscles could potentially keep working in some very extreme environments.

The new material has some advantages over previous artificial muscles.

Some of those work only when bathed in methanol fuel, others are capable of only very small changes in size and none of them work well at extreme temperatures.

The tangled nanotubes are constructed into a film that can be described as an aerogel, meaning it contains more air than anything else.

Ribbons of the aerogel are made by first growing “forests” of carbon nanotubes that resemble a dense thicket of bamboo stalks.

The researchers then stick a length of adhesive to the sides of those stalks and pull gently to draw out a long, thin film of the tubes, which tangle during the process.

So far, ribbons a 50th of a millimeter thick by 16 centimeters wide and several meters long have been made, but it should be possible to form larger sheets by starting with more nanotubes.

According to Electrical engineer John Madden at the University of British Columbia, resilience and low density could make it a good material for building structures in space, with its lightness keeping down the cost of sending a payload into orbit. (ANI)

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Rising climate warning affecting stability of West Antarctic Ice Sheet

March 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, March 19 (ANI): New evidence has emerged which determines that even a slight rise in atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, one of the gases that drives global warming, affects the stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS).

The massive WAIS covers the continent on the Pacific side of the Transantarctic Mountains. Any substantial melting of the ice sheet would cause a rise in global sea levels.

The evidence was collected by a 56-member team of scientists, which conducted a research on a 1,280-meter (4,100-foot)-long sedimentary rock core taken from beneath the sea floor under Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf during the first project of the ANDRILL (ANtarctic geological DRILLing) research program.

“The sedimentary record from the ANDRILL project provides scientists with an important analogue that can be used to help predict how ice shelves and the massive WAIS will respond to future global warming over the next few centuries,” said Ross Powell, a professor of geology at Northern Illinois University.

“The sedimentary record indicates that under global warming conditions that were similar to those projected to occur over the next century, protective ice shelves could shrink or even disappear and the WAIS would become vulnerable to melting,” he added.

“If the current warm period persists, the ice sheet could diminish substantially or even disappear over time. This would result in a potentially significant rise in sea levels,” he further added.

According to Tim Naish, director of Victoria University of Wellington’s Antarctic Research Centre, the new information gleaned from the core shows that changes in the tilt of Earth’s rotational axis has played a major role in ocean warming that has driven repeated cycles of growth and retreat of the WAIS for the period in Earth’s history between 3 million and 5 million years ago.

“It also appears that when atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations reached 400 parts per million around four million years ago, the associated global warming amplified the effect of the Earth’s axial tilt on the stability of the ice sheet,” he said.

“Carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere is again approaching 400 parts per million,” Naish added.

According to Naish, “Geological archives, such as the ANDRILL core, highlight the risk that a significant body of permanent Antarctic ice could be lost within the next century as Earth’s climate continues to warm.”

“Based on ANDRILL data combined with computer models of ice sheet behavior, collapse of the entire WAIS is likely to occur on the order of 1,000 years, but recent studies show that melting has already begun,” he added. (ANI)

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Sea level rise to threaten 1 in 10 humans in low-lying coastal areas by 2100

March 11, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, March 11 (ANI): New research has indicated that rising sea levels due to global warming would have major impacts around the world, with a maximum rise of one meter by 2100 endangering one in ten humans in low lying coastal areas.

The research, presented at the International Scientific Congress on Climate Change in Copenhagen shows that the upper range of sea level rise by 2100 could be in the range of about one meter, or possibly more.

In the lower end of the spectrum, it looks increasingly unlikely that sea level rise will be much less than 50 cm by 2100.

This means that if emissions of greenhouse gases is not reduced quickly and substantially, even the best case scenario will hit low lying coastal areas housing one in ten humans on the planet hard.

New insights reported include the loss of ice from the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets.

According to Dr John Church of the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, “The oceans are continuing to warm and expand, the melting of mountain glacier has increased and the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are also contributing to sea level rise.”

“As a result of the acceleration of outlet glaciers over large regions, the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are already contributing more and faster to sea level rise than anticipated. If this trend continues, we are likely to witness sea level rise one meter or more by year 2100,” said Eric Rignot, Professor of Earth System Science at the University of California Irvine.

“Unless we undertake urgent and significant mitigation actions, the climate could cross a threshold during the 21st century committing the world to a sea level rise of meters,” said John Church.

The impacts of sea level rise, even in the lower ranges of the current predictions, looks to be severe.

Approximately ten percent of the world’s population – 600 million people – live in low lying areas in danger of being flooded.

A previously released study led by John Church, shows that even a modest sea level rise of 50 centimeters will result in a major increase in the number of coastal flooding events.

“Our study centered on Australia showed that coastal flooding events that today we expect only once every hundred years will happen several times a year by 2100″, said Church. (ANI)

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Mega-laser to unravel secrets of exoplanets developed

March 3, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Mar 1 (ANI): Scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California have developed a “mega-laser” that may soon be used to probe the secrets of extrasolar planets.

The ultraviolet lasers from the device known as National Ignition Facility (NIF) can deliver 500 trillion watts in a 20-nanosecond burst, a power that can open up new scientific possibilities.

Raymond Jeanloz, an astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley will test the device to recreate conditions inside Jupiter and other larger planets, where pressures can be 1000 times as higher as those at the centre of the Earth.

He will then fire the lasers at an iron sample 800 micrometres in diameter.

The intense heat generated will vaporise the metal, producing a gas jet so powerful that it will send a shock wave through the iron, compressing it to over a billion times atmospheric pressure.

He will later measure the metal’s crystalline structure and melting point change to study the formation of the hundreds of giant exoplanets that have been discovered in the last two decades.

“The chemistry of these planets is completely unexplored. It’s never been accessible in the laboratory before,” New Scientist quoted Jeanloz as saying.

Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California had initially built the device to provide fusion data for nuclear weapons simulations. It may soon be used to unravel the secrets of exoplanets.

Livermore teams are planning to conduct further experiments that could ultimately have an even bigger impact.

They will use the lasers to ignite a fusion reaction in a ball of hydrogen isotopes. This would deliver a big enough jolt of energy to trigger a reaction that burns until the fuel is used up.

The data produced may aid in designing a commercial fusion power plant. (ANI)

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Greenland warming lags, but bound to catch up in future

March 2, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Feb 28 (ANI): A new study has suggested that Greenland is lagging behind rest of the northern hemisphere’s warming trend and that it’s bound to catch up soon.

Air temperatures have been rising steadily in the northern half of the planet since about 1975, when scientists think the effects of human-induced global warming began to dominate the climate.

But, Greenland was left behind, perhaps kept cool when dust released from the eruptions of Mount St. Helens, El Chicon and Mt. Pinatubo reduced the amount of sunlight hitting the ice.

Around 1985, the icy island started to thaw, and has continued apace ever since.

Climate scientists have been alarmed by the speed of the melting, watching as glaciers recede and meltwater pools in lakes on top of the ice.

Now, according to a report in Discovery News, in an analysis of temperature records in Greenland from 1840 until 2007, Jason Box of Ohio State University and a team of researchers found that the ice sheet remains between 1.0 and 1.5 degrees Centigrade behind the rest of the northern hemisphere.

They also determined that it should catch up in the coming decades.

“The temperature increase could be three to four times what we’ve seen already. If that holds it will be far above anything we’ve seen before,” said David Bromwich of Ohio State University. “The ice will continue melting and probably accelerate in the future,” he added.

If Greenland’s ice sheet ever melts entirely, the results would be catastrophic.

The water unleashed into the ocean would be enough to raise sea level 6.5 meters (21.3 feet), jeopardizing the homes and lives of hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

Though that’s not likely to happen any time soon, Greenland is already starting to look slushy, and an additional degree or two of warming could be dangerous.

“We’ve said (in a previous study) that if you sustain between 2 and 7 degrees (3.6 to 12.6 Fahrenheit) of warming, Greenland’s ice will be gone,” said Richard Alley of Pennsylvania State University.

“It’s already warmed a good chunk of one degree, so if you add another 1-1.5 on top of that, you’re at the low end of really worry, and a lot closer to the upper end, too,” he added. (ANI)

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184 mm of sea level rise predicted in next 100 years

February 26, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Feb 26 (ANI): It has been suggested in a new study that at least 184 mm (7.2 inches) of sea level rise will occur in the next 100 years through melting of the world’s mountain glaciers and ice caps, even if climate does not continue to warm.

Glaciers and ice caps can be split into regions where snow is accumulated and regions where snow and ice melt. If more snow accumulates than melts, the glacier will advance and grow larger.

Currently, accumulation areas for mountain glaciers are very small. Melting rates are surpassing accumulation rates, leading to glacier thinning and retreat.

By analyzing mass balance data from 86 mountain glaciers and ice caps from around the world, David B. Bahr from the Department of Physics and Computational Sciences, Regis University, US, found that given current accumulation areas and climate regimes, glaciers will lose about 27 percent of their volume before attaining equilibrium, a state where accumulation equals loss.

As a result, at least 184 mm (7.2 inches) of sea level rise will occur in the next 100 years through melting of the world’s mountain glaciers and ice caps even if climate does not continue to warm.

However, if the climate continues to warm along current trends, at least 373 mm (14.6 inches) of sea level rise over the same period is expected as glaciers and ice caps lose at least 55 percent of their volume. (ANI)

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Glaciers in China are melting at a “worrisome speed”, say scientists

February 7, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Feb 5 (ANI): Scientists have determined that glaciers that serve as water sources on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau in Southwestern China are melting at a “worrisome speed”, having receded 196 square km over the past 40 years.

The decline is equal to about one-fourth of the size of New York City.

According to Xin Yuanhong, senior engineer in charge of a three-year field study of glaciers in the region, glaciers at the headwaters of the Yangtze, China’s longest river, cover 1,051 square km, down from 1,247 square km in 1971.

“The reduction means more than 989 million cubic meters of water melted away,” said Xin, whose team surveyed the glaciers between June 2005 and August 2008.

That much water would fill Beijing’s largest reservoir.

The team found the glacier tongue of Yuzhu Peak of Kunlun Mountain fell by 1,500 meters over the past nearly 40 years.

The retreat rate is close to that of the Quelccaya Glacier in Peru, the world’s largest tropical ice mass.

The eastern side of the glaciers in the Tanggula Mountain Pass saw the fastest melt rate, with the front receding 265 m annually. The average annual retreat speed was 7.57 m when compared with the figures for 1970.

Xin attributed the accelerated melting to global warming.

“Melting glacier water will replenish rivers in the short run, but as the resource diminishes, drought will dominate the river reaches in the long term,” he said.

Xin explained that the uplift of the plateau has blocked warm, humid air over the Indian Ocean from flowing over the towering Himalayas and Tanggula Mountain to the Yangtze River reaches.

According to Li Lin, the head of Conservation Strategies at the World Wide Fund for Nature China, warmer weather in the area is attracting more cattle and sheep herders, adding pressure on the ecosystem.

Xin said the team has just finished its report.

The data will be used by the China Geological Survey Institute under the Ministry of Land and Resources to draft water-preservation policies. (ANI)

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Rising sea levels could spark conflict over energy and food reserves

January 8, 2009 By Rajiv Gupta Leave a Comment

London, Jan 8 (ANI): The Australian military has claimed that rising sea levels caused by climate change are threatening to destabilize island nations and spark conflict across the world over energy and food reserves.

According to a report in the Telegraph, a report by the Australian military revealed that “environmental stress” had increased the risk of conflicts over food and resources in the region.

It predicted warmer temperatures would change the location of South East Asian fishing grounds, leading to conflict over fishing rights, and lead to an increase in climate refugees fleeing the Pacific’s sinking atolls.

Environmental changes would “reinforce existing concerns regarding land availability, economic development and control over resources”, the report added, multiplying the threats faced by fragile states and increasing the chance they would fail.

But, the biggest threat to global security was the melting Arctic ice caps, which would give rise to a potentially dangerous international race for valuable sea oil and gas deposits, the report said.

“The Arctic is melting, potentially making the extraction of undersea energy deposits commercially viable. Conflict is a remote possibility if these disputes are not resolved peacefully,” it added.

Climate change has already been linked to the escalating fight for the world’s natural resources, including an increasingly precious commodity – dry land.

In November 2008, the newly elected president of the Maldives announced his country would begin to set aside a portion of its billion-dollar annual tourist revenue to buy a new homeland because rising seas were threatening to turn the 300,000 islanders into environmental refugees.

Also, resource-hungry nations are already snapping up large tracts of agricultural land in poor Asian and African nations.

High global oil and commodity prices, the biofuels boom and the economic downturn are prompting import-reliant countries to take action to protect their sources of food.

China and South Korea, which are both short on arable land, have signed up the rights to swathes of territory in Asia and Africa.

The report, into the effects of climate change by Australia’s Defence Force, predicted that disputes over access to scarce food resources could mean increasing the country”s navy in the seas to its north.

It added that climate change would “increase demands for the Australian Defence Force to be deployed on additional stabilization, post-conflict reconstruction and disaster relief operations in the future”. (ANI)

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