Ban: Warm Antarctica temps show eco-issues

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said warmer temperatures in Antarctica highlight the dangers of climate change and the need to address them.

Ban, the first United Nations secretary-general to visit the southern polar continent, said in a news release Sunday the landscape on Antarctica is "rare and wonderful" but also deeply disturbing as the ice melts at a fast pace.

Ban has made climate change a priority issue and is seeking international commitments to counter it as an international conference in Bali next month draws closer.

"It is here where our work, together, comes into focus," Ban said in a statement issued from New York. "We see Antarctica's beauty -- and the danger global warming represents, and the urgency that we do something about it."

To bolster his point, Ban said glaciers on King George Island have shrunk by 10 percent, recalled the collapse and disappearance of the "Larsen B ice sheet" several years ago, and warned that the Western Antarctic Ice Shelf is at risk.

"It is all floating ice, one fifth of the entire continent. If it broke up, sea levels could rise by ... 18 feet," he said.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International

   

• NotParker - Nov 13, 2007
  • Rank: 1 / 5 (2)
  Antarctic ice is at record levels.
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• rubberman - Nov 13, 2007
  • Rank: 4 / 5 (1)
  Both of the above statements are equally meaningful and intelligent.
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• NotParker - Nov 13, 2007
  • Rank: 1 / 5 (1)
  "While the news focus has been on the lowest ice extent since satellite monitoring began in 1979 for the Arctic, the Southern Hemisphere (Antarctica) has quietly set a new record for most ice extent since 1979.
  
  This can be seen on this graphic from this University of Illinois site The Cryosphere Today, which updated snow and ice extent for both hemispheres daily. The Southern Hemispheric areal coverage is the highest in the satellite record, just beating out 1995, 2001, 2005 and 2006. Since 1979, the trend has been up for the total Antarctic ice extent."
  
  http://icecap.us/...e_extent
  
  When con artists (like the UN) claim the exact opposite of the facts, you know they are trying to steal more money than they did in the UN Oil For Palaces and Bribes scandal.
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• rubberman - Nov 14, 2007
  • Rank: 1 / 5 (1)
  Now the first statement is much more intelligent than the second one, excellent clarification.
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