CLIMATE CHANGE - HEADLINES
Scientists 'stunned' by Arctic ice behaviour
Margaret Munro , CanWest News Service
Published: Wednesday, October 03, 2007
http://www.canada.com/topics/technology/story.html?id=3b949429-a1ad-4b53
-849f-3b799f74d8a3&k=441
The giant Ayles Ice Island south of the North Pole has broken in
two, one of several "remarkable" occurrences in a year that has
seen a record-shattering retreat of the Arctic ice.
"We have people here in the ice service with over 40 years
experience and they're all stunned," says Doug Bancroft, director
of the Canadian Ice Service, of the extraordinary behaviour of
Arctic ice this summer.
"They've never seen anything like this."
View Larger Image
Handout picture captured 16 September 2007 collected by the
Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) Instrument
on NASA's Aqua satellite overlaid on the NASA Blue Marble
captures ice conditions at the end of the melt season in the Arctic.
Getty Images
Email to a friend
Printer friendly
Font:****The break-up of the ice island last month was just one
of several highlights of a summer season that also saw the
Northwest Passage open up for the second year in a row.
There has been the occasional summer in the past where the
passage was almost ice-free in late summer, making it possible to
navigate the fabled passage in a small vessel, says Bancroft.
But to see it happen two years in a row is unprecedented in four
decades of record-keeping, he says.
Just two per cent of the 2,300-kilometre-long passage had sea ice
at the peak of the ice retreat in mid-September this year, compared
to the normal 14 per cent, Bancroft says.
"Normally you'd encounter ice for 400 kilometres of that, this year
there was only 20 kilometres," he said.
The Ayles Ice Island, a Manhattan-sized chunk of ice that cracked
off an ancient ice shelf at the north end of Ellesmere Island in
2005, also had an incredible summer. After spending more than a
year struck in the pack ice at the north end of Ellesmere, the giant
slab started moving and sailed into a channel that is normally
blocked by ice year-round. The island, which hit a top speed of 10
nautical miles a day, cracked in half in early September and the
two pieces are now on opposite sides of a small island in the Arctic
archipelago. They are now about 360 nautical miles from where
they originated, says Bancroft.
The ice service uses satellites and a beacon to follow the islands,
which have now headed into a "graveyard" of multi-year ice far
from shipping lanes and oil, gas and mining operations. Bancroft is,
however, reluctant to say they won't break loose and become a
potential menace in future.
"2007 was such an usual summer in so many respects that people
aren't making forecasts about the fate and evolution of very large
chunks of ice such as this," says Bancroft, noting how the Arctic
ice is changing - and melting - much faster than climate models
predicted.
"If you look at what happened in the last three years, it closely
resembles the absolutely worst-case scenario, but about 20, 25
years ahead of schedule," he says, referring to models created by
international teams of scientists to predict the impact of global
warming on the north. They had forecast the Arctic could be free
of summer ice as early as 2050.
On Monday the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center issued a
seasonal wrap-up that said the Arctic sea ice hit the lowest level in
2007 since satellite measurements began in 1979. The average sea
ice extent for the month of September was 4.28 million square
kilometres, the lowest September on record, shattering the
previous record for the month, set in 2005, by 23 per cent. At the
end of the melt season, September 2007 sea ice was 39 per cent
below the long-term average from 1979 to 2000.
- - - - - -
Food riots to worsen without global action: U.N.
Food riots in developing countries will spread unless world leaders
take major steps to reduce prices for the poor, the head of the
United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said on
Friday.
Despite a forecast 2.6 percent hike in global cereal output this
year, record prices are unlikely to fall, forcing poorer countries'
food import bills up 56 percent and hungry people on to the
streets, FAO Director General Jacques Diouf said.
"The reality is that people are dying already in the riots," Diouf
told a news conference.
"They are dying because of their reaction to the situation and if we
don't take the necessary action there is certainly the possibility that
they might die of starvation. Naturally people won't be sitting dying
of starvation, they will react."
Food riots have broken out in several African countries, Indonesia,
the Philippines and Haiti, the FAO said. Thirty-seven countries
face food crises, it said in its latest World Food Situation report.
"I am surprised that I have not been summoned to the U.N.
Security Council as many of the problems being discussed there
would not have the same consequences on peace, security and
human rights (without the food crisis)," Diouf said.
Increased food demand from rapidly developing countries such as
China and India, the use of crops for biofuels, global stocks at
25-year lows and market speculation are all blamed for pushing
prices of staples like wheat, maize and rice to record highs.
While people in richer countries have noticed higher supermarket
prices, the effect is far more pronounced in developing countries
where 50-60 percent of income goes to food compared with just
10-20 percent in the developed world.
FOOD CRISIS SUMMIT
Diouf called on heads of state and government to attend a food
crisis summit at FAO headquarters in Rome on June 3-5.
He said the priority was a "massive seed transfer" -- to ensure
farmers in poor countries could buy seeds, fertilizer and feed at
prices they could afford.
Other necessary measures include creating financial mechanisms to
ensure poorer food importing countries could continue to buy the
food they need and give a larger proportion of aid budgets to
agriculture, Diouf said.
The comments echoed those of British Prime Minister Gordon
Brown, who called this week for a coordinated response to the
food crisis which would include reaching a deal on the Doha trade
talks and the possible use of market-based risk management
instruments to avert food price volatility.
Diouf said it was normal to expect developing countries to put
controls on food exports, even if that exacerbated global food
prices. The price of rice jumped 40 percent in three days recently
when India and Vietnam banned exports, an FAO official said.
"Export bans are a normal reaction for any government that has a
prime responsibility to its people," he said.
Expanded crop plantings this year should mean a 2.6 percent
increase in cereal output, with wheat up 6.8 percent on last year,
FAO has forecast. But with only a small proportion of that
reaching the open market, the effect on prices will be negligible as
other prices pressure remain, it said.
(Editing by Chris Johnson)
(c) Reuters 2008. All rights reserved. Republication or
redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or
similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written
consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are
registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of
companies around the world.
Margaret Munro , CanWest News Service
Published: Wednesday, October 03, 2007
http://www.canada.com/topics/technology/story.html?id=3b949429-a1ad-4b53
-849f-3b799f74d8a3&k=441
The giant Ayles Ice Island south of the North Pole has broken in
two, one of several "remarkable" occurrences in a year that has
seen a record-shattering retreat of the Arctic ice.
"We have people here in the ice service with over 40 years
experience and they're all stunned," says Doug Bancroft, director
of the Canadian Ice Service, of the extraordinary behaviour of
Arctic ice this summer.
"They've never seen anything like this."
View Larger Image
Handout picture captured 16 September 2007 collected by the
Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) Instrument
on NASA's Aqua satellite overlaid on the NASA Blue Marble
captures ice conditions at the end of the melt season in the Arctic.
Getty Images
Email to a friend
Printer friendly
Font:****The break-up of the ice island last month was just one
of several highlights of a summer season that also saw the
Northwest Passage open up for the second year in a row.
There has been the occasional summer in the past where the
passage was almost ice-free in late summer, making it possible to
navigate the fabled passage in a small vessel, says Bancroft.
But to see it happen two years in a row is unprecedented in four
decades of record-keeping, he says.
Just two per cent of the 2,300-kilometre-long passage had sea ice
at the peak of the ice retreat in mid-September this year, compared
to the normal 14 per cent, Bancroft says.
"Normally you'd encounter ice for 400 kilometres of that, this year
there was only 20 kilometres," he said.
The Ayles Ice Island, a Manhattan-sized chunk of ice that cracked
off an ancient ice shelf at the north end of Ellesmere Island in
2005, also had an incredible summer. After spending more than a
year struck in the pack ice at the north end of Ellesmere, the giant
slab started moving and sailed into a channel that is normally
blocked by ice year-round. The island, which hit a top speed of 10
nautical miles a day, cracked in half in early September and the
two pieces are now on opposite sides of a small island in the Arctic
archipelago. They are now about 360 nautical miles from where
they originated, says Bancroft.
The ice service uses satellites and a beacon to follow the islands,
which have now headed into a "graveyard" of multi-year ice far
from shipping lanes and oil, gas and mining operations. Bancroft is,
however, reluctant to say they won't break loose and become a
potential menace in future.
"2007 was such an usual summer in so many respects that people
aren't making forecasts about the fate and evolution of very large
chunks of ice such as this," says Bancroft, noting how the Arctic
ice is changing - and melting - much faster than climate models
predicted.
"If you look at what happened in the last three years, it closely
resembles the absolutely worst-case scenario, but about 20, 25
years ahead of schedule," he says, referring to models created by
international teams of scientists to predict the impact of global
warming on the north. They had forecast the Arctic could be free
of summer ice as early as 2050.
On Monday the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center issued a
seasonal wrap-up that said the Arctic sea ice hit the lowest level in
2007 since satellite measurements began in 1979. The average sea
ice extent for the month of September was 4.28 million square
kilometres, the lowest September on record, shattering the
previous record for the month, set in 2005, by 23 per cent. At the
end of the melt season, September 2007 sea ice was 39 per cent
below the long-term average from 1979 to 2000.
- - - - - -
Food riots to worsen without global action: U.N.
Food riots in developing countries will spread unless world leaders
take major steps to reduce prices for the poor, the head of the
United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said on
Friday.
Despite a forecast 2.6 percent hike in global cereal output this
year, record prices are unlikely to fall, forcing poorer countries'
food import bills up 56 percent and hungry people on to the
streets, FAO Director General Jacques Diouf said.
"The reality is that people are dying already in the riots," Diouf
told a news conference.
"They are dying because of their reaction to the situation and if we
don't take the necessary action there is certainly the possibility that
they might die of starvation. Naturally people won't be sitting dying
of starvation, they will react."
Food riots have broken out in several African countries, Indonesia,
the Philippines and Haiti, the FAO said. Thirty-seven countries
face food crises, it said in its latest World Food Situation report.
"I am surprised that I have not been summoned to the U.N.
Security Council as many of the problems being discussed there
would not have the same consequences on peace, security and
human rights (without the food crisis)," Diouf said.
Increased food demand from rapidly developing countries such as
China and India, the use of crops for biofuels, global stocks at
25-year lows and market speculation are all blamed for pushing
prices of staples like wheat, maize and rice to record highs.
While people in richer countries have noticed higher supermarket
prices, the effect is far more pronounced in developing countries
where 50-60 percent of income goes to food compared with just
10-20 percent in the developed world.
FOOD CRISIS SUMMIT
Diouf called on heads of state and government to attend a food
crisis summit at FAO headquarters in Rome on June 3-5.
He said the priority was a "massive seed transfer" -- to ensure
farmers in poor countries could buy seeds, fertilizer and feed at
prices they could afford.
Other necessary measures include creating financial mechanisms to
ensure poorer food importing countries could continue to buy the
food they need and give a larger proportion of aid budgets to
agriculture, Diouf said.
The comments echoed those of British Prime Minister Gordon
Brown, who called this week for a coordinated response to the
food crisis which would include reaching a deal on the Doha trade
talks and the possible use of market-based risk management
instruments to avert food price volatility.
Diouf said it was normal to expect developing countries to put
controls on food exports, even if that exacerbated global food
prices. The price of rice jumped 40 percent in three days recently
when India and Vietnam banned exports, an FAO official said.
"Export bans are a normal reaction for any government that has a
prime responsibility to its people," he said.
Expanded crop plantings this year should mean a 2.6 percent
increase in cereal output, with wheat up 6.8 percent on last year,
FAO has forecast. But with only a small proportion of that
reaching the open market, the effect on prices will be negligible as
other prices pressure remain, it said.
(Editing by Chris Johnson)
(c) Reuters 2008. All rights reserved. Republication or
redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or
similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written
consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are
registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of
companies around the world.
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