Accelerating Greenland ice melt observed

A collaborative team of scientists from Denmark’s National Space Institute and US-based University of Colorado at Boulder have observed a melting of ice that is spreading at a rapid pace from Greenland’s south to its northwest coast.

To complete their findings, the international team compared data from a US National Aeronautics and Space Administration satellite with GPS measurements from the ice sheet’s coastal edge.

Study co-author and physicist, Dr. John Wahr of the University of Colorado at Boulder, stated: “The ice mass loss has been very dramatic… Our speculation is that some of the big glaciers in this region are sliding downhill faster and dumping more ice in the ocean.”

Such vast Greenlandic ice loss could in turn lead to sea levels rising up to 80 centimeters by 2100, according to oceanographer Dr. John Church of Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO).

Dr. John Church (M): One of the important things to realize about the ice sheets is that our lack of understanding means that sea level rise could be substantially larger than we currently estimate, but not substantially smaller.

We need to recognize the importance and the seriousness of this issue. Society needs to call on our governments to show leadership to ensure that we reduce our emissions; we reduce them substantially and urgently.

VOICE: Dr. Church, Dr. Wahr and esteemed associates at the National Space Institute and the University of Colorado at Boulder, we appreciate your careful work in revealing more about the perilous warming of our planet.

Let us heed such cautionary findings by living sustainably so that all may continue to enjoy the Earth’s bounteous beauty.

Supreme Master Ching Hai has often conveyed her concern about the dire implications of climate change as well as hope for humanity, as during a March 2009 videoconference in California, USA.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Before, the United Nations predicted that one meter sea level rise would be very catastrophic already and causing a lot of people to lose their homes. But scientists have learned that Greenland and western Antarctica and eastern Antarctica are all melting now which had not been a factor before. Based on these findings, one scientist says:

If all Antarctica were to melt, then the sea level could rise up to 70 meters! So, there’s no way we can run away from this except we turn to a virtuous way of life; then we are connected with Heaven because Heaven is virtuous and love and blessing.

I see no other way we can protect ourselves at all.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36007220/ns/us_news-environment/
http://sify.com/news/greenland-ice-sheet-losing-mass-on-northwest-coast-news...
http://cires.colorado.edu/people/wahr/
http://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile.cfm?faculty_id=5518

Studies show warming oceans driving Greenland ice loss

With melting of the country’s massive ice sheet having more than doubled in the last decade, a study led by scientist Dr. Fiammetta Straneo of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, USA found that warmer waters coming into Greenland’s fjords are eroding the foundation of their glaciers, causing them to descend more quickly into the ocean.

While such an effect is known in the Antarctic, this is the first time it has been indicated in Greenland as well. Senior research scientist Eric Rignot of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the USA conducted a similarly-timed study, which found that up to 75% of Greenland’s ice loss was due to these warming waters.

Climatologists have stated that the melting of Greenland’s ice sheet could rise sea levels by 7 meters, which would cause low-lying coastal cities and deltas worldwide to vanish.

Thank you Drs. Straneo, Rignot and colleagues for your work that shows more of the alarming effects of global warming. May we swiftly turn to eco-actions and kinder deeds to restore our Earth’s balance.

Supreme Master Ching Hai, who has frequently spoken of the actions needed to alleviate our planetary crisis, again addressed the urgency of the situation during an August 2009 videoconference in Thailand.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Everything is heating up so quickly, as we can see from the scientists’ reports on such alarming upheaval, such as rising sea levels and glaciers melting. So we must work quickly to avoid such unwanted outcomes. And the most effective way, as I have mentioned, is the organic vegan diet, organic vegetable farming.

This is also the fastest way to reverse the increased warming climate to prevent further damage and disaster. The more people who understand and change, the more chance our world will be saved in time.

http://www.france24.com/en/20100214-greenland-ice-loss-driven-warming-seas-study
http://news.oneindia.in/2010/02/15/globalwarming-taking-giant-bites-out-of-underbellies-ofgre.html

Seven-foot sea level rises ‘inevitable’

Authors Orrin Pilkey and Rob Young have written a book called “The Rising Sea” that forecasts much higher sea levels than previously suggested. Dr. Pilkey is Professor emeritus at Duke University in the USA and Dr. Young is Professor of geosciences at Western Carolina University. Through their combined expertise, they point out, for instance, that although the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimated a two-foot rise by the end of the century, this did not include ice melt from Greenland or the Antarctic.

Moreover, in the two years since the IPCC report was released, increasing evidence points to accelerating melt in both those locations, with many climate scientists now saying that the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet will be one of the main drivers of sea level rise during this century.

Drs. Pilkey and Young go on to state that the ramifications of rising oceans are enormous: Agriculture will be disrupted, water supplies salinized, storms and flood waters will reach ever further inland, along with the creation of millions of environmental refugees.

Drs. Pilkey and Young, our thanks for this updated forecast, despite its dire implications. May governments realize the gravity of lobal warming and act now to save our planet.

During a March 2009 videoconference for the Juice Fast for Peace in California, USA, Supreme Master Ching Hai addressed the emerging crisis of rising sea levels, highlighting the most effective and indeed only solution.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Where are we going with this kind of rising levels? Even if we dig a hole… Nowadays, they have something like the tube ready for you, like a room, and then you can put it in the earth to protect yourself from climate change, from gases and all that, but how can we protect ourselves in this case when the sea level rises 70 meters and buries everything in its wake? And no more food, no more agriculture, nothing! No animals even to eat. Even if we want to eat meat, there will be nothing left for us. We have to change to a vegan diet, animal-free diet. Animal industry must be out. That’s it.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jan/15/sea-level-climate-change
http://islandpress.org/bookstore/details.php?prod_id=1760

Alarming climate science presented in Copenhagen forum

In a side conference held during the United Nations Climate Change Summit in Denmark, former US Vice President Al Gore joined Arctic Council leader and Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and scientists to address delegates and media on the updated status of the world’s ice caps. Supreme Master Television’s correspondent in the Danish capital has more from Copenhagen.

Supreme Master Television COP15 Correspondent: This week, world government ministers and heads of state are arriving to help seal the agreement seen as the last chance to prevent runaway global warming.

Karel de Gucht – EC Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid: We are now arriving at the point where negotiations really start.

Supreme Master Television COP15 Correspondent: Just as the world’s environment ministers held their first meeting, two new reports were presented about the immensely rapid changes occurring in the Arctic, Greenland and Antarctica.

Jonas Gahr Støre – Minister of Foreign Affairs, Denmark (M): The update paints a very gloomy picture of how the ice sheet is out of balance and of the consequences stemming from a melting Greenland.

It carries a clear message from the scientific community relating to climate change that we need to act and we have to act now.

Supreme Master Television COP15 Correspondent: Danish ice scientist Dr. Dorthe Dahl-Jensen and the respected former US Vice President and 2007 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Al Gore, explained how quickened ice loss in the Antarctic, and even doubled melt rates in the Greenland ice sheet, are raising sea levels.

Al Gore – Former US Vice President, Nobel Peace Prize laureate (M): Roughly speaking, each one meter of sea level rise generates 100 million climate refugees.

Supreme Master Television COP15 Correspondent: Based on this report, Minister Støre emphasized the need – and timely advantage – of addressing non-CO2 warming substances such as methane and black carbon. This is due in part to their extremely high heating effect in contrast to CO2, which has been found to accelerate ice melt in the Himalayas, the Arctic, and Antarctica. Yet fortunately, they also disappear from the atmosphere many times faster than CO2.

Jonas Gahr Støre - Minister of Foreign Affairs, Denmark (M): If there is one positive message from this report, it’s that doing something about that, if not easy, is manageable. So while we wait for the results of curbing CO2 emissions, we need to address the issue of methane, ozone, black carbon, swiftly.

Supreme Master Television COP15 Correspondent: Now, it happens that the number one source of human-caused methane is the livestock industry, while vast quantities black carbon are released from forests being burned to clear land for livestock grazing as well as grow animal feed crops.

Parallel to the leaders’ summit, various workshops have been held at Copenhagen on the climate impacts of meat production. Encouraged by Supreme Master Ching Hai’s dedicated example, our Association members have been actively participating as speakers and panelists to raise awareness of this most urgent factor
in global warming.

Our Association member (F): Methane – it’s very very potent but it also goes away very very fast.

Supreme Master Television COP15 Correspondent: In addition, members of The Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association created public service announcements on the vegan solution for climate change, which are being aired on the leading Danish television station TV2 Denmark, broadcast to over one million viewers during this crucial week. This is Supreme Master Television in Copenhagen, Denmark.

VOICE: We are grateful to Minister Støre, former Vice President Gore and all participating scientists for this important updated report. Our faith and prayers that the courageous governments of this landmark summit may seize this opportunity of the vegan diet solution and thus truly make history by saving the planet.

On many occasions leading up to the Copenhagen conference, Supreme Master Ching Hai has shared her heartfelt thoughts in response to public requests, as in this October 2009 videoconference in Frankfurt, Germany.

Videoconference with Supreme Master Ching Hai “Be Vegan, Go Green, Protect God’s Creations in Nature” Frankfurt, Germany – October 18, 2009

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Prince Charles said to the European Parliament, “The lives of billions of people depend on your response and none of us will be forgiven by our children and grandchildren if we falter and fail.”
I’m sorry to say, but I cannot even guarantee that our grandchildren will have a chance to be born to say that, if the Copenhagen climate change conference leaders don’t agree together to stop the meat industry and talk directly to the subject, not talk around it. It’s really that urgent. I pray the world leaders will awaken to this reality, immediately, and act properly, now.

Study of ancient coral reef shows catastrophic rise in sea levels.

According to a recent study by Dr Paul Blanchon, marine scientist from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, rapid ice melt of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets could lead to sea level rises of several meters, which would inundate international cities like London in the United Kingdom; New York, USA; Tokyo, Japan, and Calcutta, India. With research that focused on fossilized Gulf of Mexico coral reefs dating back 121,000 years, Dr. Blanchon found that warmer temperatures at the time led to the disintegration of the same ice sheets now concerning scientists, causing a rapid jump in sea level at that time. With today’s fast melting of ice in the Antarctic and Greenland, this study on ancient coral reefs warns of the current potential for a disastrous sea-level rise if climate change is not mitigated.

Our sincere thanks, Dr. Blanchon and colleagues for your study that confirms humanity’s precarious situation and the need for all of us to act now to save our planetary home.

In a December 2008 videoconference held in California, USA, Supreme Master Ching Hai called on all global citizens to adopt a more caring lifestyle that halts devastating consequences such as these, thus conserving our lives and the planet.

Videoconference with Supreme Master Ching Hai
California, USA – December 12, 2008

Supreme Master Ching Hai: So many islands have sunk under water already. Many coastal cities’ land has been eroded. Two thousand more islands are sinking, and 18 islands–for what we have known, maybe more, but we don’t know—18 islands including small nation islands already gone, disappeared under water, sometimes 6 meters under water already, and another 40 are or at risk of sinking, or uninhabitable or begins to be uninhabitable because they cannot cultivate anymore because the land became inundated with salty water already.

I want to plead with all the planet people. Please stop killing animals. Please have compassion. Please turn to vegetarian diet. Please be vegan. That is to save yourselves and your children.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: So, organic vegan diet is the answer.