Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption
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tahir
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Arctic MeltdownRadio 4 Tuesday 11:00 Arctic Meltdown
For years, climate models have been predicting that global warming will show up first, and most severely, in the Arctic regions. Now evidence is accumulating that the problem will be even worse than we had feared.
Richard Hollingham explores the evidence that the ice cap could be the first casualty of climate change. But what will the environmental, social and economic consequences be?
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dougal
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| Quote: | The world's largest frozen peat bog is melting, which could speed the rate of global warming, New Scientist reports.
The huge expanse of western Siberia is thawing for the first time since its formation, 11,000 years ago.
The area, which is the size of France and Germany combined, could release billions of tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
This could potentially act as a tipping point, causing global warming to snowball, scientists fear.
The situation is an "ecological landslide that is probably irreversible and is undoubtedly connected to climatic warming," researcher Sergei Kirpotin, of Tomsk State University, Russia, told New Scientist magazine.
The whole western Siberian sub-Arctic region has started to thaw, he added, and this "has all happened in the last three or four years". |
Quote from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4141348.stm 11 August 05
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