Dear friends of Science and environment,

Many fears are just hypothetical, as Melting Ice is a buffer and absorbs lot of
heat to buffer the increase of environmental temperature and also Arctic is
ocean and floating Icecaps - if those Melts sea level remain unchanged because
of malting that arctic icecaps. (Glass of FULL of Ice melts and never overflow).
As 3.5 km thick ice cap has melted of half of the thickness in last 70 years and
not overflow the Arctic , similarly will not happen in this century and Do not
worry LONDON will not be under water!!

Instead if Earth temperature goes down as in Global Ice theory - or as in ICE
age - may be after next 12-13 thousand years when earth axis tilt in opposite
direction will cool the earth such an extent that if SEA water freeze to
increase volume by 10% so as to push the flood water on the Earth's Land area in
the NORTH.

Arctic heads into warmer future @
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3975805.stm

The Arctic is undergoing rapid and possibly irreversible change, according to a
new report prepared for the eight nations which rim the region. The Arctic
Climate Impact Assessment endorses recent warnings about melting ice, with
perhaps all ocean ice disappearing in summers by 2060-2100. The statement, to be
published next week, also highlights concerns about raised levels of ultraviolet
light. It says the coming years will challenge the region's ecosystems and
peoples.
The ACIA document recognises that the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the
rest of the planet. It records that permafrost is thawing, trees are moving
north and some species, such as polar bears, are having to adapt their ways to
survive the changing conditions.
Global impact

The report does not list simply the negatives that will come from a warmer
world. It also says agriculture may become easier in some areas, there should be
improved access to oil and gas deposits and new shipping lanes will open up. The
ACIA document is the work of about 250 scientists and six circumpolar indigenous
peoples' organisations and has taken four years to compile and has undergone a
rigorous peer-review process. It is perhaps the most detailed study ever of how
current warming trends are changing a single region of the Earth.


What happens [in the Arctic] has important consequences for the rest of the
world :- Prof Terry Callaghan

It was commissioned by the Arctic Council, the intergovernmental forum for
countries with territories inside the region's 30 million square km: Canada,
Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the US.
"The starting point for the assessment was the recognition that the Arctic was
vulnerable in many different ways to climate change, and also that the Arctic
played a fundamental role in regulating the Earth's climate," said Professor
Terry Callaghan, an Arctic ecologist who helped produce the assessment.
"What happens there is not just an isolated factor of local interest. What
happens there has important consequences for the rest of the world," the
researcher attached to the universities of Sheffield (UK) and Lund (Sweden) told
BBC News.
"There're vast stores of carbon in permafrost and in ocean sediments and if they
get warmer, they could significantly impact the rest of the world."
Model future

The report reviews current knowledge and considers "environmental, human health,
social, cultural and economic impacts and consequences, including policy
recommendations." Arctic sea ice has shrunk both in thickness and in extent.
Data collected by submarines shows there was about a 40% reduction in draught
between the 1960s and 1990s - by draught, researchers mean the ice that lies
between the surface of the ocean and the bottom of the ice pack. The melt seems
to have slowed somewhat in recent years and may slow further if a natural
climate phenomenon known as the Artic Oscillation switches its current phase and
prevents the drift of warmer waters into the region. Even so, says Professor
Peter Wadhams, an expert on Arctic sea ice, the trend will still be towards an
ice-free Arctic Ocean in summer months.

"The models give a spread of dates from about the 2060s and 2070s to 2100," the
polar ocean physicist from Cambridge University, UK, told BBC News. "There's
quite a big range of uncertainty but it should occur some time in the second
half of the century." He added: "In modelling, they're quite conservative; they
put in big error bars because they are concerned that there may be some new
physics that we don't know about." Ice reflects sunlight back into space. As it
disappears, the Earth will absorb more of the Sun's energy, so increasing the
rate of warming.

Carbon cuts

A warmer future will radically alter the ranges of the Arctic's animals and
plants. Currently, about 600 million birds are thought to breed annually in the
region. The Arctic's infrastructure will also have to be re-thought in some
instances. The foundations of some buildings will destabilise and vital winter
roads will become impassable as the permafrost melts. Campaign groups are
concerned the warnings in the report will be ignored by the Arctic Council
nations. The US, for example, has recently restated its opposition to the Kyoto
process to restrict emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main human-produced
gas thought by many scientists to be warming the planet at an unnatural rate.
"The big melt has begun," said Nicola Saltman, climate change programme leader
at WWF.

"Life on Earth will change beyond recognition with the loss of the ice sheet at
the North Pole and higher sea levels threatening major global cities such as
London and other coastal communities. "This report shows that climate change is
happening now and highlights the urgent need for immediate action, starting with
the Arctic governments, who must reduce their CO2



Forwarded By Dr.BHUDIA-Science Group Of INDIA.
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President:"Kutch Science Foundation".
Founder :"Kutch Amateurs Astronomers Club - Bhuj - Kutch".
Life Member:"kutch Itihaas Parishad".
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