Guardian UK: Climate change: scientists warn it may be too late to save the ice caps

[marmar]

Climate change: scientists warn it may be too late to save the ice caps


David Adam, environment correspondent
Monday February 19, 2007
The Guardian


A critical meltdown of ice sheets and severe sea level rise could be inevitable because of global warming, the world's scientists are preparing to warn their governments. New studies of Greenland and Antarctica have forced a UN expert panel to conclude there is a 50% chance that widespread ice sheet loss "may no longer be avoided" because of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Such melting would raise sea levels by four to six metres, the scientists say. It would cause "major changes in coastline and inundation of low-lying areas" and require "costly and challenging" efforts to move millions of people and infrastructure from vulnerable areas. The previous official line, issued in 2001, was that the chance of such an event was "not well known, but probably very low".

The melting process could take centuries, but increased warming caused by a failure to cut emissions would accelerate the ice sheets' demise, and give nations less time to adapt to the consequences. Areas such as the Maldives would be swamped and low-lying countries such as the Netherlands and Bangladesh, as well as coastal cities including London, New York and Tokyo, would face critical flooding.

The warning appears in a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which assesses the likely impacts of global warming and will be published in April. A final draft of the report's summary-for-policymakers chapter, obtained by the Guardian, says: "Very large sea level rises that would result from widespread deglaciation of Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets imply major changes in coastlines and inundation of low-lying areas, with greatest effects in river deltas. .......(more)

The complete article is at: http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,2016243,00.html

[kestrel91316]

1. Read it and weep, people. With the news of the lakes underneath

all the main Antarctic ice sheet and this article, I know all I need to know.

It's been nice knowing you. It's been a beautiful little planet, this place we call home. Too bad we totally fucked it up.

[wtmusic]

3. Giving up?

:shrug:

[kestrel91316]

8. Oh, no. I'll never give up. But I can see what's coming.

I'm one of those kind of people who will fight 'til the bitter end. I just think it's sort of like the Alamo - a lost cause.

[Erika]

2. W needs to grow the balls to fight global warming

But his big interest is still in the Tball court at the WH. The idiot has his priorites.

[Mojorabbit]

4. I cringe when I read these types of reports

because they always start with centurys then up the speed of the changes a few months later it seems. I am worried about the feedback loops and that the change will be quicker than they think.

[ConcertSOS]

5. reality

The reality is we have been neglecting it for too long... I am not one of thos people that think it
is too late though. We just need to get the right message out and bring about positive change!

[gulfcoastliberal]

6. We've just unleashed hundreds of millions, if not billions of years worth of fossil carbon

into the atmosphere over a a very short period. The changes already underway measured in terms of geologic time can only be seen as an enormous catastrophe. I sure hope not though.

[OneBlueSky]

7. "greenhouse gas emissions running into hundreds of millions of tonnes have not been disclosed . . .

by Britain's biggest businesses, masking the full extent of the UK's contribution to global warming." . . .

if British industry is concealing "hundreds of millions of tonnes" of greenhouse emissions, can you imagine what American corporations are concealing? . . .

talk about mind-boggling . . .