Global Warming

  
It's called an "ivus" and it is one of the worst kind of natural disaster to hit an arctic coastal environment. Likened to a frozen Tsunami, these events drive 'car-sized' blocks of ice ashore crushing anything in their way, and its happened twice this year, as late as Jan 28th, 2006.  Witnesses said the northernmost ridge was about 20 feet high as it plowed into the shore.

Feb 2, 2006, amid what could only be described by Lynda Giguere of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation as "extreme" ice conditions, an oil tanker carrying nearly 5 million gallons of oil and gasoline was struck by an ice floe and ran aground causing a spill.

At this time, says an Tesoro Corp. oil refinery representative, there is no estimate of how much oil and gasoline were released into the environment.

 

 TWO major glaciers in Greenland have recently begun to flow and break up more quickly in the past 2 years, after a decade of sedentary movement.   In a report from the University of Swansea's School of the Environment and Society, two glaciers were studied, and it was noted that "the two major outflow glaciers had shown the same sudden acceleration despite being more than 300km apart" and this suggested that the cause was "not local but more likely climatic or oceanic in origin."

The ice sheet contains one-tenth of the world's freshwater reserves, which could swamp saline ocean systems should the glaciers melt.

Scientists predict that global average temperatures will rise by between one and six degrees Celsius this century, and even a 3 degree rise could signal catastrophic loss of life by adding up to seven metres to the height of the world's oceans. *

 * See below for citations
   
* Citations for "Global Warming"  

http://www.wxii12.com/news/6682984/detail.html?rss=gws&psp=nationalnews
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060202/ts_nm/environment_tanker_dc
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/01/28/ap/tech/mainD8FDIFOO3.shtml
 
 

 

 

Special Interest Sections  
Dan's Statements about Global Warming 1991 and 1995 were not taken seriously a decade ago, but now the calls to increase public awareness are being taken up by former Vice President Gore, in his struggle to make the bring information about the potential environmental crisis to the wider public.






Former Vice President Al Gore's website can be accessed at:
http://www.climatecrisis.net

 

 

 

 

 

(c)  M. McDowell, Ph.D., and  D. Burisch, Sc.D., including original print and electronic text and graphic elements (1997, 1998 and 2002) plus additional new materials (2006).