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Published online 11 January 2008 | Nature | News Antarctic ice loss speeding upShrinking continent is losing ice faster today than a decade ago.
Rising sea levels and melting polar ice-sheets are at upper limits of projections, leaving some human population centres already unable to cope, top world scientists say as they analyse latest satellite data.
Antarctic glaciers surge to ocean
By Martin Redfern Rothera Research Station, Antarctica
Ice coring (BBC) The UK work is discovering just how fast the ice is moving UK scientists working in Antarctica have found some of the clearest evidence yet of instabilities in the ice of part of West Antarctica.
If the trend continues, they say, it could lead to a significant rise in global sea level.
The new evidence comes from a group of glaciers covering an area the size of Texas, in a remote and seldom visited part of West Antarctica.
The "rivers of ice" have surged sharply in speed towards the ocean.
Antarctic shelf 'hangs by thread'
25 March 2008 A chunk of ice the size of the Isle of Man has started to break away from Antarctica in what scientists say is further evidence of a warming climate. Satellite images suggest that part of the ice shelf is disintegrating, and will soon crumble away. The Wilkins Ice Shelf has been stable for most of the last century, but began retreating in the 1990s. Six ice shelves in the same part of the continent have already been lost, says the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). Professor David Vaughan of BAS said: "Wilkins is the largest ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula yet to be threatened. "I didn't expect to see things happen this quickly. The ice shelf is hanging by a thread - we'll know in the next few days or weeks what its fate will be."
View the video of this ice shelf breaking apart
Is Growing? By Denny Burbeck 10January,2008 The climate change deniers never miss a chance to tell us that research is showing the Antarctic ice sheet is actually growing. That sounds like the total amount of ice is increasing and things are just fine......the globe isn't heating up if it's not happening there......right? That IS enough to make some people disbelieve the climate scientists because, after all, no one wants to think the climate is going to steadily get worse. We all secretly hope that the deniers are right. Yes, the Antarctic ice sheet is growing in height in the central region, but making just that one point is very misleading and quite dishonest. There is an enormous amount of research that has been conducted on the poles and there is much more to the story than just the increase in snow in the middle of the continent. Indeed the coast is where the real action is. The leading U.S. climate scientist Dr. James Hansen responded via email saying "The most precise data on the mass of the ice sheets, from the gravity satellite, show that, overall, Antarctica is losing mass, as is Greenland, even though East Antarctica is gaining a small amount of mass." "All of the models, and the observations, have the central parts of Greenland and Antarctica growing faster because of global warming. This is a consequence of warmer air holding more moisture, thus increasing snowfall. But the net effect of warming on both continental ice sheets is mass loss, the increased melting being a larger effect than the increased snowfall.
Antarctica losing ice faster, study finds Expert: 'Ice sheets are responding faster' to warming than anticipated (See the video)
Antarctic Ice Loss Speeds Up, Nearly Matches Greenland Loss
January 23, 2008 PASADENA, Calif. – Ice loss in Antarctica increased by 75 percent in the last 10 years due to a speed-up in the flow of its glaciers and is now nearly as great as that observed in Greenland, according to a new, comprehensive study by NASA and university scientists. To infer the ice sheet's mass, the team measured ice flowing out of Antarctica's drainage basins over 85 percent of its coastline. They used 15 years of satellite radar data from the European Earth Remote Sensing-1 and -2, Canada's Radarsat-1 and Japan's Advanced Land Observing satellites to reveal the pattern of ice sheet motion toward the sea. These results were compared with estimates of snowfall accumulation in Antarctica's interior derived from a regional atmospheric climate model spanning the past quarter century.
Loss of Antarctic ice has soared by 75 per cent in just 10 yearsBy Steve Connor, Science EditorPublished: 14 January 2008Parts of the ice sheets covering Antarctica are melting faster than predicted, with the net loss of ice probably accelerating in recent years because of global warming, a study has found. A satellite survey between 1996 and 2006 found that the net loss of ice from Antarctica rose by about 75 per cent as the movement of glaciers towards the sea speeded up. Scientists estimate that that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet lost about 132 billion tons of ice in 2006, compared with a loss of 83 billion tons in 1996. In addition, the Antarctic peninsula lost about 60 billion tons of ice in 2006. "To put these figures into perspective, 4 billion tons of ice is enough to provide drinking water for the whole UK population for one year," said Professor Jonathan Bamber, of the University of Bristol. "We think the glaciers of the Antarctic are moving faster to the sea. The computer models of future sea-level rise have not really taken this into account."
Antarctica Heating Up, "Ignored" Satellite Data Show
Anne Minard January 21, 2009 Temperatures are warming throughout Antarctica, especially in winter and spring, according to new weather station and satellite data. The evidence contradicts studies showing that only the Antarctic Peninsula was warming while the rest of the continent has cooled.
The previous data has, in a least one case, fueled skepticism about global warming. The new study also reveals that western Antarctica may actually be warming faster than the Antarctic Peninsula, "the biggest surprise" to study lead author Eric Steig, a climate researcher at the University of Washington.
Southern Ocean rise due to warming, not ice melts Sun Feb 17, 2008 2:14pm EST By Michael Byrnes SYDNEY (Reuters) - Rises in the sea level around Antarctica in the past decade are almost entirely due a warming ocean, not ice melting, an Australian scientist leading a major international research program said. The 15-year study of temperature and salinity changes in the Southern Ocean found average temperatures warmed by about three-tenths of a degree Celsius. Satellites also measured a rise of about 2 centimeters (about an inch) in seas in the southern polar region over an area half the size of Australia, Rintoul told Reuters. "The biggest contribution so far has been from warming of the oceans through expansion," said Steve Rintoul, Australian leader of an Australian-French-U.S. scientific program.
Climate change starting to bite in South America
El Alto and its sister city of La Paz, the world's highest capital, water supply is in peril. They depend on glaciers for at least a third of their water - more than any other urban sprawl. And those glaciers are rapidly melting because of global warming.
Scientists predict that all the glaciers in the tropical Andes will disappear by mid-century. The implications are dire not just for La Paz-El Alto but also for Quito, Ecuador, and Bogota, Colombia. More than 11 million people now live in the burgeoning cities, and El Alto alone is expanding at five per cent a year.
October 23, 2006 (Runs 9:10) CBC Video The earth is warming. Glaciers are melting. Are prairie farms on the verge of a devastating drought? Margo McDiarmid reports
Glaciers melt 'at fastest rate in past 5,000 years'
The world's glaciers are melting faster than at any time since records began, threatening catastrophe for hundreds of millions of people and their eco-systems.
Melting glaciers start countdown to climate chaos
For centuries, writers, painters and photographers have been drawn to the wild and seemingly indestructible beauty of glaciers. More practically, they are a vital part of the planet's system for collecting, storing and delivering the fresh water that billions of people depend on for washing, drinking, agriculture and power. Now these once indomitable monuments are disappearing. And as they retreat, glacial lakes will burst, debris and ice will fall in avalanches, rivers will flood and then dry up, and sea levels will rise even further, say the climate experts. Communities will be deprived of essential water, crops will be ruined and power stations which rely on river flows paralyzed .
Shrinking Himalayan ice fields could affect more than 500 million people on the Indian subcontinent
by Andrei Kislyakov Even today, one of six people, or more than a billion people worldwide, are short of fresh water to some extent.
Here's the 411 on the water situation
As any third-grader knows, the earth is covered 75% with water and 25% with land. That sometimes makes it hard for many to even consider the fact that the world is facing widespread water shortages. But drilling down on the contents of that 75% water make-up makes it a little easier to understand. You see, 97.5% of the water we have here on earth is saltwater, leaving only 2.5% as usable freshwater. Of that tiny 2.5%, 79% is perpetually frozen in the form of polar ice caps and glaciers, making it inaccessible, even at high costs. Another 20% is groundwater, some in the form of aquifers, which we've been tapping successfully for some time via wells and mains and such. And the remaining 1% is surface water, or the lakes, rivers and streams that dot landscapes around the globe. It also doesn't help that we've constantly polluted the tiny fraction of surface water we have for years with the dumping of chemicals, fertilizers, sewage and other pollutants. So that's the water side of things in a nutshell. We aren't getting any more of it.
-It takes, for example, 4 barrels of water to produce just one barrel of oil. This could be water used for well-injection, cooling or a variety of other applications -The Canadian tar sands use more water than the entire population of Alberta (where they're located) on an annual basis -In the U.S., the transportation and purification of water consumers 4% of all electricity -In California, water consumes 19% of the state's electricity and 31% of its natural gas 50%-80% of desalination costs are for energy
Interactive video Vital Signs of a Warming World
Climate change might lead to water crisis in future
DEVELOPMENT: Climate ChangeDeepening World Water CrisisBy Thalif DeenUNITED NATIONS, Mar 19 (IPS) - When U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last January, his primary focus was not on the impending global economic recession but on the world's growing water crisis."A shortage of water resources could spell increased conflicts in the future," he told the annual gathering of business tycoons, academics and leaders from governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations."Population growth will make the problem worse. So will climate change. As the global economy grows, so will its thirst. Many more conflicts lie just over the horizon," he warned.Great Lakes key front in water warsPotentially huge battles over water are looming in the Great Lakes region as cities, towns and states near and far fight for access to the world's largest body of fresh surface water, all of it residing in the five Great Lakes.With fresh water supplies dwindling in the West and South, the Great Lakes are the natural-resource equivalent of the fat pension fund, and some politicians are eager to raid it. The lakes contain nearly 20 percent of the world's surface fresh water.
Global warming affecting North America’s northernmost lake
Drought worsens carbon dioxide levels
Scientists expect Prairie droughts will get worseThe Canadian Press
CALGARY -- Researchers from Canada and the United States are sharing ideas this week in hopes of discovering better ways to predict the droughts that devastate crops across the Prairies -- dry spells that may get even worse as the climate changes. "I think it's inevitable there will be some changes in droughts in the future," Rick Lawford, a professor at the University of Manitoba, said Thursday. "The warmer it is, the larger the transevaporation losses and the faster the water is sucked out of the soil and groundwater system," he said. "I think what might happen is more severe
Greenhouse effect has 'significantly dried' the western United States
Stop development in southwestern states, say researchers.
Published online 31 January 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2008.545 Michael Hopkin
Human activity is largely to blame for the worsening water shortages in the western United States over the past half-century, a new study shows. The analysis of climate trends that influence the availability of freshwater shows that humans are responsible for 60% of the observed changes.
Dust Bowl 2.0: Is the Southwest Drying Up?New research shows that the current drought plaguing the American West is likely the beginning of a new trend brought on by global warming.
16 November, 2007
The Great American Water Crisis The US drought is now so acute that, in some southern communities, the water supply is cut off for 21 hours a day. In Chattanooga, Tennessee, a once-lush region where the American dream has been reduced to a single four-letter word: rain.
Drought emergency declared in vital California farmland
by Staff Writers San Francisco (AFP) June 12, 2008
Schwarzenegger earlier Thursday declared a state of emergency in a coastal county south of San Francisco as wildfires threatened thousands of homes in the state's rain-starved north.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency Thursday to help the state's Central Valley farm region deal with a severe drought.
"Central Valley agriculture is a 20-billion-dollar a year industry," Schwarzenegger said in a statement. "If we don't get them water immediately the results will be devastating."
"Food prices, which are already stretching many family budgets, will continue to climb and workers will lose their jobs -- everyone's livelihood will be impacted in some way," he said.
Across the United States, severe to extreme drought conditions continued throughout much of the Southeast region, the western U.S., and some areas in the northern Great Lakes region
The governors of Georgia, Alabama and Florida are meeting in Tallahassee to figure out how to break the decade-long water-usage impasse between the three states, during a record-breaking drought.
Tallahassee Talks in Water Wars Video
The Georgia Drought and Global Warming Video
Australia faces the 'permanent dry,' as do weDrought predicted to spread across Australia and the United StatesPosted by Joseph Romm at 4:09 PM on 06 Sep 2007
The story of Australia's worst dry spell in a thousand years continues to astound. Last year we learned, " One farmer takes his life every four days." This year over half of Australia's agricultural land is in a declared drought.
Parts of Australia to get hotterby 5 degrees by 2070Australia's epic drought:The situation is grimBy Kathy Marks in SydneyPublished: 20 April 2007Australia has warned that it will have to switch off the water supply to the continent's food bowl unless heavy rains break an epic drought - heralding what could be the first climate change-driven disaster to strike a developed nation.
· Drought land “will be abandoned” · Drought in southern Australia declared ‘worst on record’ · Sorry, delayers & enablers, Part 2: Climate change means worse droughts for SW and world · Dry me a River: Climate change and drought · Australia faces the “permanent dry” — as do we · Warming Will Worsen Water Wars · 2007: A record-setting U.S. drought year
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