Polar ice melting faster

From an article in Deutsche Welle:

For 20 years satellites have been monitoring earth’s biggest ice shields on Greenland and in the Antarctic, using different technologies from radar to gravity measurements. In the past, the uncoordinated publication of individual one-off measurements led to confusion, especially with regard to the state of the Antarctic ice. A new study, supported by NASA and European Space Agency ESA combines the data from different satellite missions.

 

“Thanks to the accuracy of our data set, we are now able to say with confidence that Antarctica has lost ice for the whole of the past 20 years. In addition to the relative proportions of ice that have been lost in the northern and southern hemispheres, we can also see there’s been a definitive acceleration of ice loss in last 20 years. So together Antarctica and Greenland are now contributing three times as much ice to sea levels as they were 20 years ago,” says the Professor of Earth Observation.

Global Warming is melting ice faster

From Natural Resources Defense Council:

Average temperatures in the Arctic region are rising twice as fast as they are elsewhere in the world. Arctic ice is getting thinner, melting and rupturing. For example, the largest single block of ice in the Arctic, the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, had been around for 3,000 years before it started cracking in 2000. Within two years it had split all the way through and is now breaking into pieces.

 

The polar ice cap as a whole is shrinking. Images from NASA satellites show that the area of permanent ice cover is contracting at a rate of 9 percent each decade. If this trend continues, summers in the Arctic could become ice-free by the end of the century.

There is no time to waste. We can act now to fix our climate

From Brave New Climate:

Solving climate change is a huge international challenge. Only a concerted global effort, involving the governments of all nations, will be enough to avert dangerous consequences. But that said, the individual actions of everyday people are still crucial. Large and complex issues, like climate change, are usually best tackled by breaking down the problem into manageable bits.

For carbon emissions, this means reducing the CO₂ contribution of each and every one of the six and a half billion people on the planet. But what can you, as an individual person or family, do that will most make a difference to the big picture? Here are my top ten action items, which are both simple to achieve and have a real effect. They are ranked by how much impact they make to ‘kicking the CO₂ habit’.

 

From the Union of Concerned Scientists:

In order to effectively address global warming, we must significantly reduce the amount of heat-trapping emissions we are putting into the atmosphere.

The good news is that we have the technology and practical solutions at hand to accomplish it.

As individuals, we can help by taking action to reduce our personal carbon emissions. But to fully address the threat of global warming, we must demand action from our elected leaders to support and implement a comprehensive set of climate solutions.

A Comprehensive Set of Smart Solutions to Reduce Emissions

• Expand the use of renewable energy and transform our energy system to one that is cleaner and less dependent on coal and other fossil fuels.
• Increase vehicle fuel efficiency and support other solutions that reduce oil use.
• Place limits on the amount of carbon that polluters are allowed to emit.
• Build a clean energy economy by investing in efficient energy technologies, industries, and approaches.
• Reduce tropical deforestation and its associated global warming emissions.
• Implement effective national and regional climate policies.