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[Phoenix]

OSLO, Norway (Reuters) -- Global warming is heating the Arctic almost twice as fast as the rest of the planet in a thaw that threatens millions of livelihoods and could wipe out polar bears by 2100, an eight-nation report said on Monday.

The biggest survey to date of the Arctic climate, by 250 scientists, said the accelerating melt could be a foretaste of wider disruptions from a build-up of human emissions of heat-trapping gases in the earth's atmosphere.

The "Arctic climate is now warming rapidly and much larger changes are projected," according to the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA), funded by the United States, Canada, Russia, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Norway and Finland.

Arctic temperatures are rising at almost twice the global average and could leap 4-7 Celsius (7-13 Fahrenheit) by 2100, roughly twice the global average projected by U.N. reports. Siberia and Alaska have already warmed by 2-3 C since the 1950s.

Possible benefits like more productive fisheries, easier access to oil and gas deposits or trans-Arctic shipping routes would be outweighed by threats to indigenous peoples and the habitats of animals and plants.

Sea ice around the North Pole, for instance, could almost disappear in summer by the end of the century. The extent of the ice has already shrunk by 15-20 percent in the past 30 years.

"Polar bears are unlikely to survive as a species if there is an almost complete loss of summer sea-ice cover," the report said. On land, creatures like lemmings, caribou, reindeer and snowy owls are being squeezed north into a narrower range.

Fossil fuels blamed

The report mainly blames the melt on gases from fossil fuels burnt in cars, factories and power plants. The Arctic warms faster than the global average because dark ground and water, once exposed, traps more heat than reflective snow and ice.

Klaus Toepfer, head of the U.N. Environment Programme, said the Arctic changes were an early warning. "What happens there is of concern for everyone because Arctic warming and its consequences have worldwide implications," he said.

And the melting of glaciers is expected to raise world sea levels by about 10 cm (4 inches) by the end of the century.

Source (and complete story)

 

[DarienA]

When do the super freezing eye containing but easily outrunnable super storms come?

 

[Tommie Hu$tle]

Global Warming does not exist. Global Warming does not exist. Global Warming does not exist. Global Warming does not exist. Global Warming does not exist. Global Warming does not exist. Global Warming does not exist. Global Warming does not exist.

 

[Zaptruder]

Global Warming does not exist. Global Warming does not exist. Global Warming does not exist. Global Warming does not exist. Global Warming does not exist. Global Warming does not exist. Global Warming does not exist. Global Warming does not exist.

Is that sarcasm? Or are you trying to heavily reiterate a point without backing?

I just can't tell anymore

 

[Tommie Hu$tle]

Is that sarcasm? Or are you trying to heavily reiterate a point without backing?

I just can't tell anymore

Sarcasm.

 

[Escape Goat]

Sell your cars, buy a boat. Its all over.

 

[DarienA]

WELL THAT ABOUT WRAPS IT UP FOR THE POLAR BEAR!

 

[Tommie Hu$tle]

Good to know we have national leadership that will jump on to the problem and take action to make sure that the US is doing it's part in perserving the enviroment.

 

[speedpop]

No surpises here. Global disasters have been happening way too rapidly in the past decade.

 

[Dan]

I figure we'll have moved past fossil fuels by 2100, so then a bunch of ignorant people can try and argue that human civilization had nothing to do with global warming. "We changed and this still happened!"

 

[aoi tsuki]

The polar ice caps pose an extremely slow-moving yet serious threat to the freedom-loving citizens of this great nation. We must bomb them!

 

[Azih]

See, the Arctic is terrorism, and freedom is marching all over it as we speak.

 

[SickBoy]

Global Warming does not exist. Global Warming does not exist. Global Warming does not exist. Global Warming does not exist. Global Warming does not exist. Global Warming does not exist. Global Warming does not exist. Global Warming does not exist.

No no... global warming does exist, but it's a natural cycle and therefore something we shouldn't worry or do anything about.

 

[Pochacco]

I blame SUV-driving soccermoms.

 

[Overseer]

Hmmm...... Global Warming causing a flood.

I see another Ben Afleck moving coming.

 

[Miguel]

Dammit, all the good "it's all over" and "that about wraps it up" and "Day after tomorrow" jokes are taken.

 

[SFA_AOK]

This thread is great (the news isn't)!

 

[Drensch]

Let's face it, this is junk science. We should be studying how Jesus and Dinosaurs coexisted.

 

[jiggle]

We still need more proof. Our economy comes first.

 

[DarthWoo]

I blame SUV-driving soccermoms.

Sure, they're bad enough. What about the idiots who need to drive an H2 to get just their own big ass from point A to point B, which is maybe 5 blocks away, and do this all day?

 

[xsarien]

I'm sure George Bush will take the initiative on this and immediately try to ban gay marriage.

 

[MetatronM]

Let's face it, this is junk science. We should be studying how Jesus and Dinosaurs coexisted.

Dude, Jesus was a dinosaur.

 

[Kon Tiki]

Dude, Jesus was a dinosaur.

A black dinosaur.

 

[sprsk]

I'm sure George Bush will take the initiative on this and immediately try to ban gay marriage.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...564&e=1&u=/nm/20041107/ts_nm/bush_agenda_dc_3

 

[xsarien]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...564&e=1&u=/nm/20041107/ts_nm/bush_agenda_dc_3

I have a theory, and stop me if you've heard this one:
Bush wants to have marriage defined in the Constitution so when the state bans inevitably reach the Supreme Court, the justices will have no choice but to deem them legal. If they get to the SCOTUS before the ban is put into the constitution, the states that have passed amendments will have no choice but to go back and either repeal the amendments, or rework them significantly.

Because as they stand now, they fly in the face of equal rights provisions.

 

[3phemeral]

Talk about cosmic irony. Global Warming could melt the polar ice caps and provide easier access to oil which, in turn, is partially the reason why global warming is such an issue today. Burn oil, destroy the world, get more oil!

 

[Tommie Hu$tle]

No no... global warming does exist, but it's a natural cycle and therefore something we shouldn't worry or do anything about.

Indeed, every few thousand years the polar caps melt to slushy and then reform it's all part of the natural cycle.

 

[fennec fox]

Man, someone needs to adjust Mr. Hu$tle's sarcasm valve!

 

[Alcibiades]

 

[Hitokage]

Efralope: Spare us the Art Bell pseudoscience.

 

[Future Trunks]

Maybe I'm thinking too hard....and I'm not deny global warming or anything, but....

Thermodynamically speaking would not a cold climate see a greater temp flux than hot or even moderate ones when it comes to global warming? Wouldn't this piece of data be a little misleading - indicative of something, yes, but a tad sensationalized? I mean, to say it's heating at twice the global rate is like: "Duh. How could it not be going at a faster rate than the rest of the planet?"

Of course, global warming is a problem, no one can deny that though.

 

[Azih]

Dude that's the exact part of the world we DON"T want heating up and it's getting hotter than a stereo in the back of someone's van. Plus it's right underneath the god damn hole in the ozone layer

How come we stopped talking about the hole in the ozone layer.

WE PUT A HOLE IN THE OZONE LAYER!

 

[Phoenix]

Dude that's the exact part of the world we DON"T want heating up and it's getting hotter than a stereo in the back of someone's van. Plus it's right underneath the god damn hole in the ozone layer

How come we stopped talking about the hole in the ozone layer.

WE PUT A HOLE IN THE OZONE LAYER!

Everyone who looks up at the hole to examine it is immediately blinded and thus there have been no new reports about the hole

 

[Exis]

Efralope: Spare us the Art Bell pseudoscience.

Did you read the book the Coming Global Superstorm?

Hardly pseudoscience, an iceage did occur what is the think it will not happen again?


-Exis