Melting Of Ice Caps Research Articles

Island biogeography: Shaped by sea-level shifts.

An analysis of changes in island topography and climate that have occurred since the last glacial maximum 21,000 years ago shows how sea-level change has influenced the current biodiversity of oceanic islands. See Letter p.99 Our understanding of biodiversity on islands assumes that either they are the geologically static backgrounds for immigration and emigration, or that they are more dynamic, influenced by geological and tectonic change over millions of years. Neither model, however, accommodates the rapid change over the past 20,000 years or so, during which time the melting of ice caps has driven up sea levels by more than 100 metres, dividing up landmasses, making small islands smaller and more remote. Patrick Weigelt et al. find that such inundations have had a measurable effect on island plant biodiversity. In particular, islands that were larger during the Last Glacial Maximum have more endemic species today than one would expect from their current size and remoteness, whereas the number of native species is essentially the same.

A View from the Side: The Natural History Museum

A View from the SideThe Natural History Museum Jodi Dean (bio) THE ANAMORPHIC POLITICS OF CLIMATE CHANGE The challenge of politics in the Anthropocene is a matter of perspective: we can’t look at climate change directly. We look for patterns and estimate probabilities, relying on multiple disparate measurements. We see in parts: the melting ice caps, glaciers, and permafrost; the advancing deserts and diminishing coral reefs; the disappearing coastlines and the migrating species. Evidence becomes a matter of extremes as extremes themselves become evidence of an encroaching catastrophe that has already happened: the highest recorded temperatures, the hockey stick of predicted warming, sea-level rise, and extinction. Once we see it—the “it” of climate change encapsulated into a data point or disastrous image—it’s too late. For what and for whom remains un-said, unknowable.1 Climate change tethers us to a perspective that oscillates between the impossible and the inevitable, already and not yet, everywhere but not here, not quite. Slavoj Žižek reminds us that such oscillation indexes the “too much or too little” of enjoyment (jouissance). For psychoanalysis, particularly in Lacan’s teaching, enjoyment is a special substance, that intense pleasure/pain that makes life worth living and some things worth dying for. We will do anything to get what we think we will enjoy. We then discover after we get it that it wasn’t what we really desired after all. Enjoyment is what we want but can’t get and what we get that we don’t want.2 Currents of Left anthropocenic enjoyment circulate via evocations of unprecedented, unthinkable catastrophe: the end of the world, the end of the human species, the end of civilization.3 Prophetic Cassandras condemn all around them for our profligacy, even as they imply that there isn’t anything we can do. The damage has already been done. [End Page 74] The perfect storm of planetary catastrophe, species condemnation, and paralyzed incapacity lets the Left enjoy in ways that ongoing deprivation, responsibility, and struggle do not. Left anthropocenic enjoyment thereby feeds on the disaster capitalist enjoyment produces. More, more, more; endless circulation, dispossession, destruction, and accumulation; ceaseless, limitless death. Incapacitated by magnitude, boggled by scale, the Left gets off on moralism, complexity, and disaster—even as politics continues, the politics of a capitalist class determined to profit from catastrophe. If fascination with climate change’s anthropocenic knot of catastrophe, condemnation, and paralysis lures the Left into the loop of capitalist enjoyment, an anamorphic gaze can help dislodge us. “Anamor-phosis” designates an image or object that seems distorted when we look at it head on but that appears clearly from another perspective. Jacques Lacan (1998) emphasizes that anamorphosis demonstrates how the space of vision isn’t reducible to mapped space. It includes the point from which we see. Space can be distorted, depending on how we look at it. Apprehending what is significant, then, may require “escaping the fascination of the picture” by adopting another perspective, a partial or partisan perspective, the perspective of a part. From a partisan perspective, the whole will not appear as a whole. It will appear with a hole. The perspective from which the hole appears is that of the subject—that is, of the gap that the shift to a partisan perspective opens up. When we try to grasp climate change directly, we trap ourselves in distortions that fuel the reciprocal fantasies of planetary-scale geo-engineering and postcivilizational neoprimitivism. The immensity of the calamity of the changing climate—with attendant desertification, ocean acidification, and species loss—seemingly forces us into seeing all or nothing. If we don’t grasp the issue in its enormity, we miss it entirely. When we approach climate change indirectly, from the side, however, other openings, political openings, become visible. Rather than being ensnared by our fascination with an illusory anthropocenic whole, we cut across and through, gaining possibilities for collective action and strategic engagement. Here are some examples of approaching climate change from the side. Christian Parenti (2011) emphasizes the “catastrophic convergence” of poverty, violence, and climate change. He draws out the uneven and unequal impacts of planetary warming on areas already devastated...

Melting ice caps: implications for Asian trade with North America and Europe

Arctic ice caps have been melting at an increased pace and projections imply that the ice cover will be greatly reduced in the near future. This climatic phenomenon has important socio-economic implications, as it would open up shipping routes in the Arctic including the Northern Sea Route (NSR) and the North-West Route (NWR). The NSR connects North-east Asia with North-western Europe, while the NWR connects North-east Asia and the East Coast of the USA. In this paper, we analyse the commercial feasibility of the NWR and the economic impact of reducing the trade distances between Asia and the US East Coast. In particular, we examine the extent to which the NWR would compete with the Panama Canal for certain trade routes. Such competition has significant geopolitical implications linked to changes in trade flows and the global supply chains that currently link East Asia and the USA.

Melting ice caps: implications for Asian trade with North America and Europe

Arctic ice caps have been melting at an increased pace and projections imply that the ice cover will be greatly reduced in the near future. This climatic phenomenon has important socio-economic implications, as it would open up shipping routes in the Arctic including the Northern Sea Route (NSR) and the North-West Route (NWR). The NSR connects North-east Asia with North-western Europe, while the NWR connects North-east Asia and the East Coast of the USA. In this paper, we analyse the commercial feasibility of the NWR and the economic impact of reducing the trade distances between Asia and the US East Coast. In particular, we examine the extent to which the NWR would compete with the Panama Canal for certain trade routes. Such competition has significant geopolitical implications linked to changes in trade flows and the global supply chains that currently link East Asia and the USA.

Why Has Catastrophe Mitigation Failed in the U.S.?

Natural disasters and extreme weather events are common in North America. The U.S. in particular, is especially exposed to natural catastrophes, such as earthquakes, drought and fires on the Western Coast, recurring severe storms, tornados (in the Midwest), and hurricanes in the South-East, as well as flooding that follows these storms and strong precipitation. In historical terms the losses and damages caused by these events have taken place under specific national boundary conditions that significantly differ from those in many poorer countries that are prone to natural catastrophes; over the last century, the U.S. witnessed a steep increase in economic growth and wealth, especially after WWII, which made the country more prone to material losses but which could have also provided it with the necessary resources to successfully fight exposure to these catastrophes ”The rapid and fairly stable rise in prosperity formed a background against which the enormous suffering and considerable destruction caused by natural catastrophes played out.” (Werner 2017: 260) From the early 1990s on, events like Hurricane Andrew (1992) and later Hurricane Katrina (2005) drew a mark on the American public consciousness. Along with smaller and medium-size events, this led the public to suspect that the frequency and intensity of such natural catastrophes were increasing and were the consequence of climate change. Climate change, warming temperatures, melting ice caps, and elevated sea levels are most likely due to human influence in recent decades. Therefore, severe weather events as predicted by climate experts, are surely to blame for the ever increasing costs and damages from these weather events.

The imo Polar Code: The Emerging Rules of Arctic Shipping Governance

In the context of the melting icecap and the growing shipping activity in the Arctic, the International Maritime Organization (imo) spent several years preparing polar navigation rules aimed at providing appropriate safety and environmental protection standards. The rules underwent several transformations before emerging as the binding International Code for Ships Operating in Polar Waters (Polar Code). The Polar Code is expected to enter into force on 1 January 2017. This paper examines the formation and development of the Polar Code and its principles and provisions, expounds upon the unique characteristics of the Code, and discusses expected future practices.

Effects of NaCl and seawater induced salinity on survival and reproduction of three soil invertebrate species

The increase of global mean temperature is raising serious concerns worldwide due to its potential negative effects such as droughts and melting of glaciers and ice caps leading to sea level rise. Expected impacts on soil compartment include floodings, seawater intrusions and use of saltwater for irrigation, with unknown effects on soil ecosystems and their inhabitants. The present study aimed at evaluating the effects of salinisation on soil ecosystems due to sea level rise. The reproduction and mortality of three standard soil invertebrate species (Folsomia candida, Enchytraeus crypticus, Hypoaspis aculeifer) in standard artificial OECD soil spiked with serial dilutions of seawater/gradient of NaCl were evaluated according to standard guidelines. An increased sensitivity was observed in the following order: H. aculeifer≪E. crypticus≈F. candida consistent with the different exposure pathways: springtails and enchytraeids are exposed by ingestion and contact while mites are mainly exposed by ingestion due to a continuous and thick exoskeleton. Although small differences were observed in the calculated effect electrical conductivity values, seawater and NaCl induced the same overall effects (with a difference in the enchytraeid tests where a higher sensitivity was found in relation to NaCl). The adverse effects described in the present study are observed on soils not considered saline. Therefore, the actual limit to define saline soils (4000μScm−1) does not reflect the existing knowledge when considering soil fauna.

Climate change — Is it the cause or the effect?

Climate change and global warming are currently hot topics. There is no doubt that warming is taking place in some parts of the globe as evidenced by melting of ice caps and glaciers, sea level rises, temperature rises, among other changes. At the same time, skeptics are of the view that the issue is blown out of proportion, and that warming exists locally and that it is premature to conclude that it is a global phenomenon. Projections made into the future climate have many uncertainties. These include model uncertainties, data length and their representativeness, calibration and validation issues, and the logic of projecting into 100 years or more into the future with a relatively short window of observations. What is not made known to the public at large is a balanced view that highlights the real scientific evidence and limitations and uncertainties of their findings. As a result the general public do not get a balanced view of the issues and get to know only a partial truth and not the whole truth. In this paper, an attempt is made to revisit the issues in the light of available information, and to highlight the important role of increasing population, with the objective of giving a reasonably balanced view since opinions about the issues are either biased or divided.

The Possible Explanation for Secondary Microseisms Seasonal and Annual Variations

Annual drift is typical for microseisms. We propose a model based on thermoelastic wave generation that explains the highest microseisms during winter using higher stress level at the same time. If we remove the average influence of the background stress from the microseisms, we obtain the residual microseisms, which show the semiannual periods with maxima in March and October. The histogram of anomalous microseisms has the same form as the variations in Length of the Day (LOD). This phenomenon is recognized as a secondary order mechanism after the annual drift. The synoptic situations and earthquakes were recognized as imminent triggers of anomalous microseisms. This synoptic situation is consistent with the uplift of the northern part of Europe after ice cap melting.

Venice: Rising Water or Sinking Land?

AbstractThe recent paper by Bellfiore, Ghezzo, Tagliapietra and Umgiesser [1] gives us the opportunity to discuss the relative sea level rise in Venice (Venezia). They accept that the Venetian sea level rise will be part of a global rise caused by ocean thermal expansion and melting of icecaps caused in turn by global warming induced by anthropogenic carbon dioxide production. In reality the sea levels have been only oscillating during the last few decades. Theworldwide average sea level rise is free of any acceleration. This is also true for theVenice and Trieste tide gauges. The sea level records of Venice and Trieste are very different, and it is impossible for two places so close together to have such differences from a common rise in sea level. Venice is sinking relative to Trieste.

The Big Question

The Big Question

Coastal risk assessment of a micro-tidal littoral plain in response to sea level rise

This paper illustrates an index-based coastal risk assessment that was performed on a micro-tidal alluvial plain taking into account the relative sea level rise (RSLR) for the evaluation of coastal vulnerability and exposure. This process took into account both the inundation of inshore land and the beach retreat due to storm surge, calculated on the basis of geomorphological data (bathymetry, sedimentology and beach width) and wave climate. The evaluation process was conceived with reference to a low and high hazard, associated with a wave storm with 1 year and 50 years return period. For the latter case, the response to RSLR was calculated taking into account both isostatic response and ice cap melting due to global warming, while the vertical land movement was assessed taking into account the different its rates in the northern and southern coastal area. The exposure and the damage of the coastal assets were evaluated with a simplified conceptual framework, which uses land cover data and a statistical population dataset.The risk assessment procedure was applied to Sele coastal plain, which involves numerous properties and important infrastructures, and is strongly susceptible to marine inundations. A sensitivity analysis of the vulnerability and the risk relative to different hazards and to RSLR was performed. Moreover, the final risk assessment classification was validated with a conceptual framework based on the observed damage ranking related to the tested coastal area.The obtained results showed that the northern high density urban areas were characterized by the highest risk, followed by some central areas with strong localized erosive focus. On the contrary, the southern zones, with wider beaches and almost intact dunes, were characterized by the lowest risk level. The results of this study were used for the development of a coastal protection project which, in fact, provided a different scheme for the coastline northwards and southwards of the Sele river mouth, according to the different risk ranking established.

Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate in the Anthropocene / Chemia Atmosferyczna I Klimat W Antropocenie

Abstract Humankind actions are exerting increasing effect on the environment on all scales, in a lot of ways overcoming natural processes. During the last 100 years human population went up from little more than one to six billion and economic activity increased nearly ten times between 1950 and the present time. In the last few decades of the twentieth century, anthropogenic chlorofluorocarbon release have led to a dramatic decrease in levels of stratospheric ozone, creating ozone hole over the Antarctic, as a result UV-B radiation from the sun increased, leading for example to enhanced risk of skin cancer. Releasing more of a greenhouse gases by mankind, such as CO2, CH4, NOx to the atmosphere increases the greenhouse effect. Even if emission increase has held back, atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations would continue to raise and remain high for hundreds of years, thus warming Earth’s climate. Warming temperatures contribute to sea level growth by melting mountain glaciers and ice caps, because of these portions of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets melt or flow into the ocean. Ice loss from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets could contribute an additional 19-58 centimeters of sea level rise, hinge on how the ice sheets react. Taking into account these and many other major and still growing footprints of human activities on earth and atmosphere without any doubt we can conclude that we are living in new geological epoch named by P. Crutzen and E. Stoermer in 2000 - “Anthropocene”. For the benefit of our children and their future, we must do more to struggle climate changes that have had occurred gradually over the last century.

Modeling of Future Sea Level Rise Through Melting Glaciers

The aim of this paper is to project 21st century volume changes of all mountain glacier and ice caps and to provide systematic analysis of uncertainties originating from different sources in the and their contribution to sea level rise and the assessment of uncertainties. Trends in global climate warming and sea level rise are observed during the last 100-years which both, according to global climate models, will continue in the future Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) State-of-threat knowledge on climate, ocean and land processes identifies melting mountain glaciers and ice caps, after ocean thermal expansion, as the currently second major contributor to sea level rise. However, both the observations and models on sea level changes carry a variety of uncertainties. In this section, by following the question-answer concept, I will briefly present the importance of global sea level change for society, the current state of knowledge of sea level changes in response to climate change and the attempts to project future sea level changes until 2100 including discussion on related uncertainties. Melting mountain glaciers and ice caps (MG and IC) are the second largest contributor to rising sea level after thermal expansion of the oceans and are likely to remain the dominant glaciological contributor to rising sea level in the 21st century. The aim of this work is to project 21st century volume changes of all MG and IC and to provide systematic analysis of uncertainties originating from different sources in the calculation. I provide an ensemble of 21st century volume rojections for all MG and IC from the World Glacier Inventory by modeling the surface mass balance coupled with volume-area-length scaling and forced with temperature and precipitation scenarios from four Global Climate Models (GCMs). By upscaling the volume projections through a regionally differentiated approach to all MG and IC outside Greenland and Antarctica (514,380 km2) I stimated total volume loss for the time period 2001-2100 to range from 0.039 to 0.150 m sea level equivalent. While three GCMs agree that Alaskan glaciers are the main contributors to the projected sea level rise, one GCM projected the largest total volume loss mainly due to Arctic MG and IC.

Climate change and the effect of sea-level rise on the coastal fishing communities of Cross River Estuary: the concept of floating sustainable settlements as a solution

The effects of climate change are evident worldwide, from melting ice caps at the Poles to deforestation at the tropics, and to rising sea level along the world's coastal margins. The cause is due largely to atmospheric greenhouse activities. The anthropogenic emissions from fossil fuel have altered the compositional balance of carbon dioxide (an important greenhouse gas) in the atmosphere. The spread of climate change impact is wide and affect lands and peoples across national boundaries. Among the threatened are people who inhabit the vulnerable lands such as coastal barrier lands, troughs between highlands, marshlands, etc. For generations, the people who live by the coast of Cross River Estuary and the tributaries of Calabar, Imo and Great Kwa Rivers in Nigeria have practised their fishing occupation without serious hitches. This situation has changed of late due to uncertainties associated with unpredicted flooding attributed mainly to climate change. This paper examines a scenario of the likely effe...

Introduction to symposium on climate change

Contemporary climate change, and the efforts to mitigate it and adapt to it, may pose the most formidable challenges the world has ever faced. The fundamentals are well known. Since the beginning of the 19th century, the atmosphere is increasingly being filled with greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane that are produced by human endeavors dependent on carbon-based energy. Human beings have also been cutting down forests, which has the effect of releasing carbon into the atmosphere. The accumulation of greenhouse gases occurs because these gases stay in the atmosphere for long periods of time, in the case of carbon for many centuries. The effect of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is that the atmosphere traps heat that normally leaves the earth’s system. As a consequence of the gradual accumulation of greenhouse gases, the average temperature of the earth has been slowly but surely increasing. The most obvious effects of this warming have been the warming of the oceans and the consequent slow melting of the polar ice caps with the predictable consequence that the sea levels are raising slowly. This is a fairly general effect of global warming. Many other consequences are more localized. Deserts become hotter and drier, extreme weather events become more frequent and more violent, and agriculturally productive lands become less productive. As these consequences become more pronounced, conflicts over resources are likely to become more pronounced. What seems clear is that if human beings are to mitigate climate change, they will need to transform fundamentally the energy basis of the world economy in a relatively short period of time. This change is likely to require significant sacrifices on the part of the current generation and our near descendants. While an overwhelming majority agrees that if the world continues with business as usual for a long time, we are very likely courting disaster, there is still significant uncertainty and disagreement about the exact effects of climate change. Will there be some

Critical issues in homeland security: a casebook

Introduction PART I -- Legal and Policy Challenges in Homeland Security Chapter 1. Law and Policy Case 1.1: The Use of Drones in TCounterterrorism: The Case of Al-Awlaki, Tobias T. Gibson Case 1.2: Presidential Declaration of Disaster Decisions: The Case of Turndowns, Richard Sylves Chapter 2. Terrorism Case 2.1: The 1993 World Trade Center Bombing: A Success or a Failure for the FBI?, Linda Kiltz Case 2.2: Terrorist or Ecosaboteur? The Case of Briana Waters, Linda Kiltz Chapter 3. Environmental Security Case 3.1: Arctic Security: Oil, Polar Bears, Melting Ice Caps, and U.S. National Security, James Ramsay and John Lanicci Case 3.2: The Impact of Hurricane Katrina on the Environmental Security of the US Gulf Coast Region and Beyond, John Lanicci and James Ramsay PART II -- Operational Challenges in Homeland Security Chapter 4. Intelligence Case 4.1: The Attack on Mumbai, India, Steve Young Case 4.2: Using a Principal Agent in Intelligence Collection in Afghanistan, Steve Young Chapter 5. Critical Infrastructure Protection Case 5.1: Catastrophic Pandemic: Cases in Ethical Decision Making, Linda Kiltz Case 5.2: The Impact of Cyber-Security on Critical Infrastructure Protection: The Advanced Persistent Threat, Gary Kessler Chapter 6. Transportation Security Case 6.1: The Howard Street Tunnel Fire (Baltimore), Francis L. Edwards Case 6.2: The Impact of the 9/11 World Trade Center Attack on Transportation, Francis L. Edwards Chapter 7. Emergency Management Case 1: The San Bruno Gas Pipeline Explosion, David McEntire Case 2: Lessons Learned from the 2010 Haiti Earthquake, Joshua Kelly and David McEntire Conclusion

Evolution of the buried channel systems under the modern Yellow River Delta since the Last Glacial Maximum

A combined seismic survey and borehole analysis revealed a series of buried channels under the modern Yellow River Delta. These data also provide evidence for the evolutionary study of the paleo-channel system. Seismic units were correlated with the sedimentary facies along the borehole. Two sets of paleo-channels, phase I and phase II, are identified within different seismic units spanning the last deglaciation (∼13–8.5 ka B.P.). The phase I channels formed between the Last Glacial Maximum and the Last Deglaciation. Estimates of paleo-discharge and analysis of local depositary environment link the phase I channels with the main stream of the paleo-Yellow river. These channels were fed by melting ice caps and were abandoned with the rechanneling of the Yellow River. The phase II channels were formed during the early Holocene and exhibited a dendritic pattern. Further investigation is needed to fully understand the origin and evolution of the phase II channels.

Thermal Expansion, Melting Glaciers, and Rising Tides: The Public Trust in Mississippi

This Article explores the impact of rising tides on title to coastal property and suggests strategies to help state and private property owners deal with the far-reaching effects of climate change in the coming years. The continued melting of glacial and polar ice caps will add to rising sea water levels. This will not only have a major impact on private property owners as title to their property will revert to the state when it becomes subject to tidal influences under the public trust doctrine. This accession of land to the state would not require compensation to the private property owner under either the United States or the Mississippi Constitution. The state could convey the property back to the private owner, but in order to do so, the legislature must authorize the conveyance while recognizing that such a conveyance would contradict the public trust doctrine. Unfortunately, naturally rising tides are but one issue coastal states will face in the upcoming years. States will have to wrangle with property issues when rising tides are only indirectly caused by rising sea levels. For example, in efforts to prevent or reduce the impact of rising sea levels some coastal communities may build seawalls and dikes which displaces sea water. The resulting question will be whether the property flooded by the water displaced by artificial methods is subject to the public trust doctrine just as property flooded as a result of climate change. In light of these increasing concerns, coastal communities should take extra care in land use planning to incorporate the likelihood of sea-level rises into their planning decisions. In addition current and interested coastal land owners should recognize that their property may gradually be encroached upon by water.

Planning for Low Carbon Cities in India

With fast pace of urbanization across the world and in India, certain issues have augmented globally like climate change which in turn is leading to melting of ice caps, pollution of air, water and land, exhaustion of non renewable sources of energy like coal, petroleum. It has led to global efforts to find an alternate and sustainable way to make a move towards low energy consumption. The new concept of green cities, eco city, zero carbon city or low carbon city are upcoming each of which emphasizes low levels of all kinds of pollution, low discharge of green house gases. An attempt has been made through this article to study various concepts of low carbon cities, to identify the parameters of low carbon city across the world and its impacts. The article is an exploratory research kind where we have tried to incorporate various practices going across the world for a model low carbon city. The research article reviews various scenarios of urbanization across the world, in India and its causes. It also aim...