Black carbon deposits on Himalayan ice threaten Earth's 'Third Pole'

(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) Black soot deposited on Tibetan glaciers has contributed significantly to the retreat of the world’s largest non-polar ice masses, according to new research by scientists from NASA and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Soot absorbs incoming solar radiation and can speed glacial melting when deposited on snow in sufficient quantities. Temperatures […]

2000-2010: A Decade of (Climate) Change

By John Roach for National Geographic News December 10, 2009 A decade ago, global climate change was largely considered a problem for the distant future. But it seems that future has come sooner than predicted. One of the most remarkable, and alarming, environmental changes to occur over the last decade is the melting of Antarctic […]

MSNBC Nightly News: Peru's melting water source

Perfect Storm: Unless the nation of Peru takes immediate action, the ancient Andean glaciers could disappear, taking with them the runoff that provides much of the water for the country’s most populous areas. NBC’s Anne Thompson reports. Posted: Tuesday, December 08, 2009 4:32 PMFiled Under: On AssignmentBy Anne Thompson, NBC News’ Chief Environmental Affairs Correspondent […]

Deforestation threatens Kilimanjaro ice cap

By Katrina MansonKILIMANJARO, TanzaniaTue Dec 8, 2009 8:02am EST KILIMANJARO, Tanzania (Reuters) – At the foot of Africa’s snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro, images of the mountain adorn the sides of rusting zinc shacks and beer bottle labels, but the fate of the real version hangs in the balance. As politicians and lobbyists try to thrash out […]

Melting Himalayan glaciers threaten 1.3 billion Asians

  By Staff WritersKathmandu (AFP) Dec 6, 2009 More than a billion people in Asia depend on Himalayan glaciers for water, but experts say they are melting at an alarming rate, threatening to bring drought to large swathes of the continent. Glaciers in the Himalayas, a 2,400-kilometre (1,500-mile) range that sweeps through Pakistan, India, China, […]

Vanishing glaciers imperil Bolivia

By David ShukmanEnvironment correspondent, BBC News, La Paz, Bolivia Fears are growing for the future of water supplies in one of Latin America’s fastest-growing urban areas – Bolivia’s sprawling city of La Paz and its neighbour El Alto. Scientists monitoring the glaciers high in the Andes mountains – a key source of water – say […]

Sundarbans water warming eight times faster than global average

IANS 1 December 2009, 10:20am IST NEW DELHI: In the Sundarbans, surface water temperature has been rising at the rate of 0.5 degree Celsius per decade over the past three decades, eight times the rate of global warming, says a new study. That makes the Sundarbans one of the worst climate change hotspots on the […]

Seas could rise 1.4m by 2100, warns Antarctic climate review

  A review of climate change in Antarctica forecasts that by 2100 the world’s seas will have risen to levels previously considered too extreme to be realistic. The review, Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment [pdf], was compiled by 100 scientists associated with the international Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research. Using 20 of the most […]

World's largest ice sheet melting faster than expected

East Antarctic sheet shedding 57bn tonnes of ice a year and contributing to sea level rises, according to NASA aerial survey By Ian Sample, science correspondentwww.guardian.co.uk, Sunday 22 November 2009 18.00 GMT  The world’s largest ice sheet has started to melt along its coastal fringes, raising fears that global sea levels will rise faster than […]

Rising CO2 will cause catastrophic sea level rise finds Antarctic study

Sea levels could rise by up to six metres if the world fails to get pollution under control according to the latest study in the Antarctic.   By Louise Gray, Environment CorrespondentPublished: 1:56PM GMT 18 Nov 2009 The British Antarctic Survey found that during past periods of high carbon dioxide, temperatures in Antarctica were up […]

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