Scientists Warn of Melting Ice in Arctic

[Buzz Mills]

Scientists are somewhat astounded by the multitude of effects, that a mere rise of 1 degree, has created. They greatly underestimated the effects.

So much of New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas, Colorado, have enormous moisture deficits. Forests are tinder dry, and they expect many more fires this year. Parts of Africa, where the people are already starving from lack of food, are having droughts at a level never experienced before--this means many more deaths from starvation.

 

[Camper]

Before WE invented huge transport ships to carry goods across oceans to other peoples and other lands, before WE invented the airplane, before space travel was even thought of people were starving and having difficult times everywhere in remote areas of our planet. Heck everywhere was remote, cuz you had to walk to get there, er ride yer as- er mule.

The big difference then was that WE did not know of other people or their exact location. Now there is more of everything, more people, more airplanes, more ships. More people wanting things, and more people who are not willing to do anything for themselves unless they have help. Man has evolved in my view as being pretty much unable to think for themselves much farther than just past their immediate need.

In the beginning before the modern conveniences, the only equipment man had to accomplish much were rocks, trees, water, grasses, animals, seeds, fruits. Now if Betty Crocker didn't make it we don't like it. Plus there never was a real Betty Crocker.

Will archeologists in some distant time, dig through our garbage dumps, long buried, and wonder what WE were about?

If English continues to be on a path to be a vanishing language, what good will the National Geographics be that they dig up and cannot read anymore.

I also have at least three errands to handle before I get in my car and go bye bye. Conservation is key. All of my neighbors sit their large garbage containers out each week, I put mine out every other week. My next door neighbor is a widower, wife died last year, and his 59 year old son lives with him.

I do not drink canned drinks, bottled juices, beer, soda.

During WWII we saved our fat from cooking and gave it to the war effort. We smashed our tin cans flat with the ends tucked inside and collected for the war effort.


If Enron officials did not care about the people they hurt, how can we get people to care about conservation?

Talk should emanate from Cable TV on such things, rather than most of the dribble that comes screaming across every five minutes with a NEWS ALERT along with music of a tone to ALERT us as well, for something we just saw 8 minutes ago.

There needs to be large wake up calls for everyone. When we were in Germany in 1991, on every corner there were recycle containers and every one faithfully brought their recycles and placed them in the containers. Underground rail systems two levels underground, show the Germans were way ahead of us all in planning ahead for mass transit.

I think they are still digging in Boston, daughter living there.


.

 

[Marthatex]

Scientists are somewhat astounded by the multitude of effects, that a mere rise of 1 degree, has created. They greatly underestimated the effects.

So much of New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas, Colorado, have enormous moisture deficits. Forests are tinder dry, and they expect many more fires this year. Parts of Africa, where the people are already starving from lack of food, are having droughts at a level never experienced before--this means many more deaths from starvation.

From the cover of Time Magazine this week:

"Be worried. Be very worried. The climate is crashing, and global warming is to blame. Why the crisis will hit so soon--and what we can do about it."

See http://www.time.com

(the huge cyclone Larry that just hit Australia is but another manifestation of drastic changes in our weather and climate)

 

[Buzz Mills]

U.N. sees link between global warming and hurricanes

GENEVA (Reuters) - There is growing evidence of a link between global warming and natural disasters such as droughts and flooding, the head of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Friday.

But Michel Jarraud, secretary general of the United Nations weather agency, said more research was needed into the links between global warming and extreme conditions like hurricanes. Jarraud told a news briefing: "We know for certain that there is an intensification of the hydrological cycle, which translates into greater risk in some areas of a rain deficit and accentuated problems of drought linked to climate change." "In other regions there is a higher risk of flooding and in others a risk of greater frequency of heat waves," he said.

The WMO said last week that greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide -- blamed for global warming and climate change -- had reached their highest levels in the atmosphere. Scientists warn that greenhouse gas emissions must be slowed and reduced if the earth is to avoid climatic havoc with devastating heat waves, droughts, floods and rising sea-levels sinking low-lying island states and hitting seaboard cities.

Carbon dioxide, which the WMO says accounts for 90 percent of warming over the past decade, is largely generated by human activity involving the burning of fossil fuels.

http://tinyurl.com/fhbru

 

[Buzz Mills]

To be able to see these major climate changes in our lifetime, is an extreme awakening to the effects of our disregarding our own contribution to global warming.

We don't have to look back very far to see the long-lasting effects of pollution in our own country. Fortunately there were tough laws passed to combat that situation, but there is still an immense amount of pollution unchecked, and the EPA, and this administration, has backed off on many regulations concerning pollution. In major developing countries, such as China, and Third World countries, they don't have regulations on pollution, or the use of their natural resources.

Our administration's position on global warming is an embarassment. How anyone can choose to ignore global warming, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, is beyond comprehension.

 

[Buzz Mills]

From the cover of Time Magazine this week:

"Be worried. Be very worried. The climate is crashing, and global warming is to blame. Why the crisis will hit so soon--and what we can do about it."

See http://www.time.com

(the huge cyclone Larry that just hit Australia is but another manifestation of drastic changes in our weather and climate)

From the Times article:

It's at the north and south poles -- where ice cover is crumbling to slush -- that the crisis is being felt the most acutely.

Late last year, for example, researchers analyzed data from Canadian and European satellites and found that the Greenland ice sheet is not only melting, but doing so faster and faster, with 53 cubic miles draining away into the sea last year alone, compared to 23 cubic miles in 1996.

One of the reasons the loss of the planet's ice cover is accelerating is that as the poles' bright white surface disappears it changes the relationship of the Earth and the sun. Polar ice is so reflective that 90 percent of the sunlight that strikes it simply bounces back into space, taking its energy with it. Ocean water does just the opposite, absorbing 90 percent of the light and heat it receives, meaning that each mile of ice that melts vanishes faster than the mile that preceded it.

This is what scientists call a feedback loop, and a similar one is also melting the frozen land called permafrost, much of which has been frozen -- since the end of last ice age in fact, or at least 8,000 years ago.

 

[Reader]

Thanks for all the links and good information on this subject, Buzzm1, I learned a lot.

The science proves that global warming is happening, and I think the increase in hurricanes and their strength, is one of the results we are already experiencing.

It's a shame this administration goes so far as taking out or changing scientific reports, from their own experts, to downgrade the problem.

But a few of Bush's supporters are in oil (gasp!) and he probably doesn't want to have to make them pay for the pollution upgrades. They might have to miss their $20 million bonus for the year!

 

[Toby]

If the theories prove true, the polar caps will melt due to the warming trend presently seen by many. At the end of this melting period, some theories contend, the Earth will be thrust into a cooling period where another ice age will be witnessed by humans who moved to higher ground.

 

[Buzz Mills]

SNIP

But a few of Bush's supporters are in oil (gasp!) and he probably doesn't want to have to make them pay for the pollution upgrades. They might have to miss their $20 million bonus for the year!

Thanks Reader, I would say many of GWB's supporters..........................Pollution upgrades would cost many major corprorations many millions of dollars. No reason for GWB to cost his supporters money. Due to their very high profits, we should, instead, grant them some tax breaks using the Energy Bill. Windfall Profits, that's synomonous with Bush Economics. They also found a new way to funnel money out of the country legally, and bring it back in, all laundered, by paying major corporations to run the army commissaries, and the food mess, in Iraq, along with so many functions formerly handled "inexpensively" by the enlisted men. Now KBR, a subsidiary of Hallibiurton handles the feeding of the U.S. Army in Iraq. $20 a plate, flat rate--how many plates of food can a soldier eat in one day--at least 4-5, I would think. Now multiply the number of troops X 5 plates a day X $20/plate. Of course you would have to deduct the expense of the actual cost of the food. Oh, and I forgot to mention, a litle incidental, KBR gets paid for the number of plates of food it prepares, not by the number of plates of food that are consumed. That's just the food end. They have another company, also a subsidiary of Halliburton, that is supplying security to most of the private contractors in the area. Does this sound like a lucrative way to do business, or what??? All, I might add, at our expense.

 

[Maybe So]

Thanks for all the links and good information on this subject, Buzzm1, I learned a lot.

The science proves that global warming is happening, and I think the increase in hurricanes and their strength, is one of the results we are already experiencing.

It's a shame this administration goes so far as taking out or changing scientific reports, from their own experts, to downgrade the problem.

But a few of Bush's supporters are in oil (gasp!) and he probably doesn't want to have to make them pay for the pollution upgrades. They might have to miss their $20 million bonus for the year!

Just curious, what did the last administration do to stop global warming? or the one before that? After all if it's caused by man (which I don't agree with) it certainly didn't start anytime during this administration.

 

[Reader]

Clinton and global warming:
http://www.cnn.com/EARTH/9710/22/greenhouse.adv/

Administration sources tell CNN Clinton will pledge that the U.S. will return emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants to their 1990 level by about 2010. His new proposal, sources say, is for a staggered process that will level out between 2008 and 2010.

They also say Clinton will propose economic incentives to U.S. industries to begin the process earlier. He will also propose $5 billion in U.S. government spending to promote new clean fuel technologies.
-------------------------------------------------------
Clinton's global warming plan:
http://www.usmayors.org/uscm/sustainable/global.htm

President Clinton Announces Global Warming Plan
On October 22nd, President Clinton outlined a package of incentives and targets for countering global warming. Key elements of President Clinton's climate change proposal are:

Binding Targets to Reach 1990 Emissions Levels by 2008-2012 and Reductions below 1990 Levels in the 5-Year Period that Follows. A critical component of the President's comprehensive framework is a realistic, achievable, and binding target of reducing greenhouse emissions to 1990 levels by 2000-2012, and then reductions below 1990 levels in the 5-year period that follows.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Clinton on global warming and Clean Water Act:
http://www.uswaternews.com/archives/arcpolicy/8precli2.html

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton is proposing new initiatives to protect public health, preserve Americans natural resources, and protect our global environment while creating jobs and strengthening the economy, according to the White House. These initiatives build on five years of aggressive efforts to clean the nation's air and water, protect communities against toxics, and save American's natural treasures for future generations, Clinton said.
----------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/environment/july-dec97/gw_12-10.html

JIM STEINBERG, Deputy National Security Adviser: Newshour interview on Clinton/Gore efforts to get an agreement on global warming.
---------------------------------------------------------------
President George H.W. Bush on global warming:

http://history.acusd.edu/gen/20th/1990s/bush.html

Bush refused to join 178 nations signing treaties at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro June 14 to prevent global warming; although Clinton signed in 1993 at the urging of pro-environmentalist Al Gore who wrote Earth in the Balance, the Senate did not ratify.
----------------------------------------------------
Part of President George H.W. Bush's great speech on environment and pollution in Montana:
http://www.rep.org/news/GEvol8/ge8.1_Bush41.html

We’re working hard to clean up America, but we can’t stop there. We’ve got to work with the rest of the world to preserve the planet. We’ve already taken action. To preserve the ozone layer, we’re going to ban all release of CFCs into the atmosphere by the year 2000. To prevent pollution of the world’s oceans, we’re going to end virtually all ocean dumping of sewage and industrial wastes by 1991.

And after that, anyone who continues to pollute is going to pay for it with stiff fines. And we’re going to join forces with other nations.

In February, the United States will host the plenary meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In July, when I visited Poland and Hungary, I pledged America’s help in tackling the increasingly serious pollution problems those two nations face. At the Paris economic summit, we helped the environment achieve the status that it deserves at the top of the agenda for the seven major industrial democracies. And I mean to keep it right there at the top of the agenda.

America spends more than any other nation in the world on environmental research, and we’re going to continue this pioneering effort to protect the environment and put that environmental expertise to work in the developing world as well. We cannot pollute today and postpone the cleanup until tomorrow.

We have got to make pollution prevention our aim. And sharing our expertise with the world is one way to do exactly that.

Today I want to announce a new environmental initiative—one that will bring the Environmental Protection Agency and the Peace Corps together in a joint venture in the service of the global environment.
--------------------------------------------------
George W. Bush's statement on global warming:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/environment/jan-june01/warming_3-28.html
[This site also has a lot of good information/links on global warming]

SPENCER MICHELS: President Bush joined the doubters when he recently decided not to press for a reduction in CO2 produced by American coal and natural gas power plants, reversing a campaign pledge.

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: We got an energy crisis in America that we have to deal with in a common sense way.

SPENCER MICHELS: His turnabout followed intense pressure from the coal and utilities industries, which say reducing emissions would increase energy costs. In a letter to four Senators, the president said: "This is especially true given the incomplete state of scientific knowledge of the causes of and solutions to global climate change, and the lack of commercially available technologies for removing and storing carbon dioxide."

 

[Reader]

http://www.gcrio.org/ipcc/qa/05.html

How Do We Know that the Atmospheric Build-up of Greenhouse Gases Is Due to Human Activity?

Four lines of evidence prove conclusively that the recent buildup of carbon dioxide arises largely from human activities.

1/The nuclei of carbon atoms in carbon dioxide emitted by burning coal, oil, and natural gas (fossil fuels) differ in their characteristics from the nuclei of carbon atoms in carbon dioxide emitted under natural conditions.
-------------------------------------
Forty years ago scientists provided the first direct evidence that combustion of fossil fuels was causing a buildup of carbon dioxide and thereby diluting radioactive carbon in the atmosphere by measuring the decreasing fraction of radioactive carbon-14 captured in tree rings, each year between 1800 and 1950.

2/Secondly, scientists began making precise measurements of the total amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, and at the South Pole in the late 1950s. They have since expanded their observations to many other locations. Their data show convincingly that the levels of carbon dioxide have increased each year worldwide. Furthermore, these increases are consistent with other estimates of the rise of carbon dioxide emissions due to human activity over this period.

3/A third line of evidence has been added since 1980. Ice buried below the surface of the Greenland and Antarctic ice caps contains bubbles of air trapped when the ice originally formed.
---------------------------------------
But the older parts of the cores show that carbon dioxide amounts were about 25% lower than today for the ten thousand years previous to the onset of industrialization, and over that period changed little (Figure 5.1).

4/The final line of evidence comes from the geographic pattern of carbon dioxide measured in air. Observations show that there is slightly more carbon dioxide in the northern hemisphere than in the southern hemisphere. The difference arises because most of the human activities that produce carbon dioxide are in the north and it takes about a year for northern hemispheric emissions to circulate through the atmosphere and reach southern latitudes.
-------------------------------------------
Summary:
As a result of this natural balance, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere would have changed little if human activities had not added an amount every year. This addition, presently about 3% of annual natural emissions, is sufficient to exceed the balancing effect of sinks. As a result, carbon dioxide has gradually accumulated in the atmosphere, until at present, its concentration is 30% above pre- industrial levels.
-------------------------------------------
In addition, ice core data are available for methane and for nitrous oxide that demonstrate that the atmospheric concentrations of these gases began to increase in the past few centuries, after having been relatively constant for thousands of years. Chlorofluorocarbons are absent from deep ice cores because they have no natural sources and were not manufactured before 1930.

 

[tennessee]

Not to worry, it's probably only a matter of life and death that we stop doing things to contribute to global warming. In other words, even if it is part of a climate change, we shouldn't be doing things geared towards seeing how fast we can accelerate the change.

All scientists/meteorologists, are all now very surprised at HOW FAST THE RATE OF CHANGE of global warming IS INCREASING. It is much faster than they had previously all theorized.

All I was doing was asking a question. I freely admitted I haven't researched the subject.

I support efforts to lower emissions by industry and finding alternative energy resources. Although it is something our family cannot afford at present, we are researching the use of solar panels for our own home. We live in a rural environment and cannot use public transportation or walk to the nearest store for groceries. However, I do limit my trips out. I prefer to wait until the weekend when we make a trip to the grocery store, Target, Lowe's and anywhere else we need to go all in one day.

It is disgusting to look skyward and see pollution hanging over cities. So is being condescended toward for asking a question.



JMHO

 

[Marthatex]

Clinton and global warming:
http://www.cnn.com/EARTH/9710/22/greenhouse.adv/

Administration sources tell CNN Clinton will pledge that the U.S. will return emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants to their 1990 level by about 2010. His new proposal, sources say, is for a staggered process that will level out between 2008 and 2010.

They also say Clinton will propose economic incentives to U.S. industries to begin the process earlier. He will also propose $5 billion in U.S. government spending to promote new clean fuel technologies.
-------------------------------------------------------
Clinton's global warming plan:
http://www.usmayors.org/uscm/sustainable/global.htm

President Clinton Announces Global Warming Plan
On October 22nd, President Clinton outlined a package of incentives and targets for countering global warming. Key elements of President Clinton's climate change proposal are:

Binding Targets to Reach 1990 Emissions Levels by 2008-2012 and Reductions below 1990 Levels in the 5-Year Period that Follows. A critical component of the President's comprehensive framework is a realistic, achievable, and binding target of reducing greenhouse emissions to 1990 levels by 2000-2012, and then reductions below 1990 levels in the 5-year period that follows.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Clinton on global warming and Clean Water Act:
http://www.uswaternews.com/archives/arcpolicy/8precli2.html

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton is proposing new initiatives to protect public health, preserve Americans natural resources, and protect our global environment while creating jobs and strengthening the economy, according to the White House. These initiatives build on five years of aggressive efforts to clean the nation's air and water, protect communities against toxics, and save American's natural treasures for future generations, Clinton said.
----------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/environment/july-dec97/gw_12-10.html

JIM STEINBERG, Deputy National Security Adviser: Newshour interview on Clinton/Gore efforts to get an agreement on global warming.
---------------------------------------------------------------
President George H.W. Bush on global warming:

http://history.acusd.edu/gen/20th/1990s/bush.html

Bush refused to join 178 nations signing treaties at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro June 14 to prevent global warming; although Clinton signed in 1993 at the urging of pro-environmentalist Al Gore who wrote Earth in the Balance, the Senate did not ratify.
----------------------------------------------------
Part of President George H.W. Bush's great speech on environment and pollution in Montana:
http://www.rep.org/news/GEvol8/ge8.1_Bush41.html

We’re working hard to clean up America, but we can’t stop there. We’ve got to work with the rest of the world to preserve the planet. We’ve already taken action. To preserve the ozone layer, we’re going to ban all release of CFCs into the atmosphere by the year 2000. To prevent pollution of the world’s oceans, we’re going to end virtually all ocean dumping of sewage and industrial wastes by 1991.

And after that, anyone who continues to pollute is going to pay for it with stiff fines. And we’re going to join forces with other nations.

In February, the United States will host the plenary meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In July, when I visited Poland and Hungary, I pledged America’s help in tackling the increasingly serious pollution problems those two nations face. At the Paris economic summit, we helped the environment achieve the status that it deserves at the top of the agenda for the seven major industrial democracies. And I mean to keep it right there at the top of the agenda.

America spends more than any other nation in the world on environmental research, and we’re going to continue this pioneering effort to protect the environment and put that environmental expertise to work in the developing world as well. We cannot pollute today and postpone the cleanup until tomorrow.

We have got to make pollution prevention our aim. And sharing our expertise with the world is one way to do exactly that.

Today I want to announce a new environmental initiative—one that will bring the Environmental Protection Agency and the Peace Corps together in a joint venture in the service of the global environment.
--------------------------------------------------
George W. Bush's statement on global warming:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/environment/jan-june01/warming_3-28.html
[This site also has a lot of good information/links on global warming]

SPENCER MICHELS: President Bush joined the doubters when he recently decided not to press for a reduction in CO2 produced by American coal and natural gas power plants, reversing a campaign pledge.

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: We got an energy crisis in America that we have to deal with in a common sense way.

SPENCER MICHELS: His turnabout followed intense pressure from the coal and utilities industries, which say reducing emissions would increase energy costs. In a letter to four Senators, the president said: "This is especially true given the incomplete state of scientific knowledge of the causes of and solutions to global climate change, and the lack of commercially available technologies for removing and storing carbon dioxide."

Thanks for the info. Reader; it's interesting to see the marked difference in attitude between George H.W. Bush and his son.

Also to be reminded of the policies of Clinton/Gore and how much further along we might be had Gore continued with the Presidency.

We have gone back into the dark ages as far as the environment and respect for scientific knowledge are concerned.

 

[Cypros]

Al Gore's film, "An Inconvenient Truth," is receiving good reviews from the scientific community. I have not seen it and will probably wait until it comes out on DVD (as I do with virtually every film) but I am eager to see this presentation.


Climate experts: Gore's movie gets the science right
The nation's top climate scientists are giving "An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore's documentary on global warming, five stars for accuracy.
...
"Excellent," said William Schlesinger, dean of the Nicholas School of Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University. "He got all the important material and got it right."

Robert Corell, chairman of the worldwide Arctic Climate Impact Assessment group of scientists, read the book and saw Gore give the slideshow presentation that is woven throughout the documentary.

"I sat there and I'm amazed at how thorough and accurate," Corell said. "After the presentation I said, 'Al, I'm absolutely blown away. There's a lot of details you could get wrong.' ... I could find no error."
...
While more than 1 million people have seen the movie since it opened in May, that does not include Washington's top science decision makers. President Bush said he won't see it. The heads of the Environmental Protection Agency and NASA haven't seen it, and the president's science adviser said the movie is on his to-see list.

"They are quite literally afraid to know the truth," Gore said. "Because if you accept the truth of what the scientific community is saying, it gives you a moral imperative to start to rein in the 70 million tons of global warming pollution that human civilization is putting into the atmosphere every day."

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/06/27/gore.science.ap/index.html

 

[Buzz Mills]

On Sunday, July 16, at 9:00PM on the Discovery Channel, there is going to be a special on Global Warming. Watch for more information on the program.

Global Warming: What You Need To Know, With Tom Brokaw

Sunday, July 16 from 9-11 p.m. ET/PT (120 min.)

Global Warming: What You Need To Know, With Tom Brokaw is a two-hour special that moves beyond the debate to present the facts about climate change. Trusted newsman Tom Brokaw joins leading scientists on the front lines of global warming research around the world to reveal the realities of climate change and the future of the planet. Viewers learn what is fact and what is fiction, how the average person contributes to global warming, and what our future world may look like in the face of global warming, using new state of the art computer models. Finally, viewers will go away armed with the knowledge to do something about it. (Genres: Arts & Education, Human Interest, Science & Technology)

Discovery Channel
Global Warming: Are We Melting the Planet

Sunday, July 17 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT (120 min.)

Some leading scientists on the subject of global warming believe what we are doing to our planet may define our very existence in the near future unless we quickly and effectively curb the production of greenhouse gasses. To help illustrate the urgency, we will travel to Patagonia where glacial ice caves are receding in never-before-seen ways; we will journey to the Amazon where clear evidence exists the jungle may be drying out, vastly reducing the Earth's ability to absorb carbon-dioxide; and we'll examine an enormous iceberg to measure the rate at which the poles are melting away. Tom Brokaw will host. (Genres: Human Interest, Science & Technology)

 

[Toby]

...we will journey to the Amazon where clear evidence exists the jungle may be drying out, vastly reducing the Earth's ability to absorb carbon-dioxide; and we'll examine an enormous iceberg to measure the rate at which the poles are melting away. Tom Brokaw will host. (Genres: Human Interest, Science & Technology)

which iceberg? does it matter, or is there a special iceberg which is a keynote speaker for all icebergs?

 

[Buzz Mills]

On Sunday, July 16, at 9:00PM on the Discovery Channel, there is going to be a special on Global Warming. Watch for more information on the program.

Global Warming: What You Need To Know, With Tom Brokaw

Sunday, July 16 from 9-11 p.m. ET/PT (120 min.)

Global Warming: What You Need To Know, With Tom Brokaw is a two-hour special that moves beyond the debate to present the facts about climate change. Trusted newsman Tom Brokaw joins leading scientists on the front lines of global warming research around the world to reveal the realities of climate change and the future of the planet. Viewers learn what is fact and what is fiction, how the average person contributes to global warming, and what our future world may look like in the face of global warming, using new state of the art computer models. Finally, viewers will go away armed with the knowledge to do something about it. (Genres: Arts & Education, Human Interest, Science & Technology)

Discovery Channel
Global Warming: Are We Melting the Planet

Sunday, July 17 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT (120 min.)

Some leading scientists on the subject of global warming believe what we are doing to our planet may define our very existence in the near future unless we quickly and effectively curb the production of greenhouse gasses. To help illustrate the urgency, we will travel to Patagonia where glacial ice caves are receding in never-before-seen ways; we will journey to the Amazon where clear evidence exists the jungle may be drying out, vastly reducing the Earth's ability to absorb carbon-dioxide; and we'll examine an enormous iceberg to measure the rate at which the poles are melting away. Tom Brokaw will host. (Genres: Human Interest, Science & Technology)

Tonight:

On Sunday, July 16, at 9:00PM on the Discovery Channel, there is going to be a special on Global Warming. Watch for more information on the program.

Global Warming: What You Need To Know, With Tom Brokaw

Sunday, July 16 from 9-11 p.m. ET/PT (120 min.)

Global Warming: What You Need To Know, With Tom Brokaw is a two-hour special that moves beyond the debate to present the facts about climate change. Trusted newsman Tom Brokaw joins leading scientists on the front lines of global warming research around the world to reveal the realities of climate change and the future of the planet. Viewers learn what is fact and what is fiction, how the average person contributes to global warming, and what our future world may look like in the face of global warming, using new state of the art computer models. Finally, viewers will go away armed with the knowledge to do something about it. (Genres: Arts & Education, Human Interest, Science & Technology)

 

[Cypros]

Blackouts seem to be a popular headline this summer, Queens, New York, now London....

London hit by power blackout

A large area of central London was without power on Thursday after a high-voltage transfer station failed, utility officials said.

The blackout began in the Soho district, according to EDF, the energy company.

The problem followed four unrelated faults in the system in recent days, the company said.

EDF blamed unusually high temperatures and increased use of air conditioning for the most recent outage, and predicted more people would be without power later in the day.

...

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/07/27/london.blackout/index.html

 

[Cypros]

And there have been 81 heat-related deaths in California in just 10 days...

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/07/27/heatwave.ap.ap/index.html