Antarctic Peninsula ice sheets melting at worrying rate

US Geological Survey (USGS) researchers who have been conducting a first ever survey of Antarctica’s entire coastline coasts are now reporting that the southern portion of the Antarctic Peninsula, which is its coldest, has been retreating for sixty years, with the biggest changes occurring since 1990.

The scientists report that this condition is likely suggestive of the situation across all of Antarctica, whose ice sheet contains 91% of the world’s glacial water and could cause a 60 to 73 meter sea level rise if all the land-based ice were to melt.

As noted by environmental experts, even one meter of sea level rise would jeopardize food supplies across the world. USGS scientist Jane Ferrigno stated, “The loss of ice shelves is evidence of the effects of global warming.

We need to be alert and continually understand and observe how our climate system is changing." We thank Dr. Ferrigno and associate scientists at the US Geological Survey for your careful monitoring of the Antarctic.

Let us act now to restore the planet-cooling balance of our world’s ice caps by choosing lifestyles in greater harmony with nature.

As mentioned on previous occasions, Supreme Master Ching Hai spoke again during a November 2009 videoconference in Washington, DC, USA of the most direct way to avert the potentially catastrophic consequences of global warming.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Greenland is shedding 85 million tons of icebergs each day due to warming, and at a rate that is increasing by 7 percent each year. The West Antarctic Ice Shelf is also melting, with 3.3 meter sea level rises forecast that would threaten cities like New York, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco.

And if all of Antarctica and Greenland were to melt – meaning the ice – then the sea levels could rise to as much as 70 meters, which would be deadly or disastrous to most lives on Earth.

You may ask, what is the main cause of this damage and destruction to the environment?

It’s methane, which is produced primarily by the livestock industry.

NASA announced that methane actually contributes much more to global warming than previously understood and it traps 100 times the atmospheric heat over 20 years. And the largest source of methane is? You know - livestock.

So, to solve this, we do need to move quickly, and of course we know what to do, right?

Yes? Be vegan.

http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0223-hance_antpen.html
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/enviornment/ice-shelves-on-antarctic-peninsula...
http://www.earth-policy.org/index.php?/books/pb4
http://www.springerlink.com/content/h28l707685463333/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/may/31/cattle-trade-brazil-greenpeace...

Ancient plant extinctions came from global warming

A report recently published in the journal Science details findings that the loss of up to 80% of plant biodiversity in Greenland 200 million years ago occurred at lower levels of greenhouse gases causing climate change at that time.

This collaborative effort of international scientists from University College Dublin in Ireland, The Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC, USA and Oxford University in the UK concluded that the public must seriously consider the current atmospheric warming before history repeats itself and small increases in greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide lead to massive and sudden collapses in biodiversity.

Lead researcher Dr. Mc Elwain from University College Dublin cautioned, “If we continue with the current intensive use of fossil fuel energy, some estimates calculate that carbon dioxide levels in the earth’s atmosphere will reach 900 parts per million by the year 2100.

This is exactly the same levels at which our study identified the mass biodiversity collapse in ancient Greenland.” International researchers, many thanks for your valued work in studying our planet’s climate history. May your insightful findings be the catalyst of change in our call to action for the sake of planetary sustainability.

Supreme Master Ching Hai has often caringly warned of the effects of human activities on global warming, as in the following excerpt from an October 2008 videoconference in Thailand.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: What is in the atmosphere if we do not continue the way we are living our life right now and we will not continue to overload the atmosphere, then it will decrease with time, maybe long time, but it will decrease. And what is important is not to create any more, or not so overwhelmingly that nature cannot handle.

Nature can help to absorb some of the carbon dioxide but we overload nature, so we have problems right now and we’ll continue to have problems if we are not doing anything to prevent further destruction of the planet.

And any new technology takes so long to develop and to be in the market. The best solution, the quickest, the most benevolent that can change everything from black to white immediately is the vegetarian diet because compassion begets compassion.


Reference
http://www.physorg.com/news165508154.html