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New article about climate change

Submitted by Kara on Tue, 09/18/2007 - 1:30pm.
This year, there has definitely been a lot more attention given to the issue of climate change: its realities, predictions, mitigation and potential solutions. There's a lot to say on the subject and I thought it would be interesting to start a discussion on the different facets of it. I would be happy to just post some interesting articles on the subject or we could have an ongoing discussion. To start us off, today I am posting an article I came across while doing research at work. I have a google alert set up for various environmental topics and this popped up. There was a lot of media earlier in the year when the first pieces of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report came out. This article discusses a new report which warns that the warming process is going faster than models predicted and that we need to prepare for certain consequences, particularly in Africa. I don't have any particular response to this article except that it affected me because it comes on the heels of the news that the polar bear population is going to decrease rapidly in the next decades. Anyhoo, here it is: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/sep/18/climatechange.internat...
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Climate Change

Submitted by robert d on Tue, 09/18/2007 - 8:31pm.
Your comments were most interesting. We do need to prepare for the consequences. Unfortunately, my generation's legacy for yours is not good, in this arena. It was striking to see how much the glacier in the Athabaska Ice Field had receded from the time we first saw it in 1976 to 2004. We observed a similar shocking change in the Mendenhall Glacier near Juno, Alaska from 1989 to 2001. In 1989, the face was a vertical sheer wall several hundred feet high with lots of deep blue beautiful coloration in the ice. In 2001, the vertical wall was completely gone and it was an unimpressive looking pile of ice. We were told in 1989 that Alaska's Sawyer Glacier was receding at a rate of 245 feet per year. And we have all heard about the fate of the glaciers in the Alps.
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Carbon footprints

Submitted by Mark on Tue, 09/18/2007 - 6:54pm.
I have been noticing increasing references to carbon footprints. I don't pretend to know much about this area but was interested to see that the program I am using for this site allows one to set up carbon accounts to track your personal carbon footprint. Then you can decide what you need to do, if anything, to reduce your carbon usage or create an offset to your carbon usage. I am willing to implement these carbon accounts on this web site for family use if anyone is interested in this issue. Please let me know.
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footprints

Submitted by Kara on Wed, 09/19/2007 - 3:59pm.
Tools and calculators for carbon footprints are rarely complete or accurate. Their use is not to truly measure a person's carbon footprint, but to get them engaged in the issue and interested in potential reduction measures. There are many calculators and some of them will show, for example, how many Earth's it would take to support you, and even if you fill in the lowest amounts for every option, you will still be told that you consume 4 Earths worth of carbon or would need 4 Earths to support your way of life. Most everyone needs to reduce their carbon footprint, but especially most Americans. Our society is one of high consumption and activities such as: driving, flying, eating meat, and buying things - all result in carbon dioxide emissions because they require fuel and energy. There is also a great amount of debate about the legitimacy of carbon offsets. There are efforts to create an authority that would be able to evaluate and certify offsets. This would certainly be desirable as many consumers are gravitating towards the idea of offsetting their driving or flying. While I think this is great, because any progress must be encouraged, I try to remember the Recycling mantra - and how it begins with REDUCE.
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