This is the 33rd issuance of the annual assessment now known as State of the Climate, published in the Bulletin since 1996. As a supplement to the Bulletin, its foremost function is to document the status and trajectory of many components of the climate system. However, as a series, the …
on february 2, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (ipcc) released its much awaited Fourth Assessment Report. With an unprecedented confidence of 90 per cent, it asserted that climate change is result of human activities. The panel's 2001 Third Assessment Report had put the probability of climate change resulting from …
The last letters written by Antarctic explorer Robert Scott to his wife and young son before the adventurer died on his South Pole expedition are to go on display for the first time. On January 17, they went on display at Scott Polar Research Institute, which was established at Cambridge …
On Decmber 22, 2006, sculptor Lita Albuquerque put up for view, an artist's conception of the realities of vast time and space in an unlikely gallery: a corner of Antarctica. Stellar Axis, a 182 metre installation, consisting of 99 blue fiberglass spheres of varying sizes in a pattern mirroring the …
Seen from the outside, Antarctica is a desert, frozen and all but lifeless. Dig below the surface, however, and you will find deep secrets. Thousands of metres beneath Antarctica's forbidding facade, at the place where ice meets rock, lies a land that is exotic, dynamic and above all, wet. Water …
oceans have cooled substantially during some of the warmest years in recent times, claims a study. During the years 2003 and 2005, which saw the highest global average surface temperatures in more than a century, the top 750 metres of the oceans lost around one-fifth of the heat accumulated over …
The recovery of the depleted ozone layer may take 5-15 years more than that estimated earlier, says a recent study. It found that the regeneration of the protective layer will be pushed back from 2044 to 2049 over the mid-latitudes (300-600 North and South) and from 2050 to 2065 over …
The recovery of the depleted ozone layer may take 5-15 years more than that estimated earlier, says a recent study. It found that the regeneration of the protective layer will be pushed back from 2044 to 2049 over the mid-latitudes (30 0 -60 0 North and South) and from 2050 …
Scientists and policy-makers at a 10-day Antarctic Treaty consultative meeting, held in Edinburgh, have agreed upon new measures to reduce the risk of non-native species being introduced into both marine and terrestrial ecosystems in Antarctica. The meeting, which ended on June 23, decided not to allow ships operating in the …
scientists have found how a fish species survives the freezing Antarctic waters. The Antarctic notothenioids produce an "antifreeze protein' that keeps their body fluids from turning into crystals. The study analysed tissue from notothenioids and found the pancreas and stomach are the main sources of fish antifreeze
scientists have discovered rivers as large as the Thames flowing kilometres below the Antarctica ice shelf. The rivers were accidentally spotted by uk researchers examining data on the changes in thickness of the layer of surface ice. The chance discovery assumes significance because of global warming. Runaway melting of polar …
researchers in Canada have proved that persistent toxic fluorochemicals used in industrialised parts of the world land up in the blood of humans and animals in pristine areas far away, such as the Arctic region. The chance detection of the derivatives of fluorotelomer alcohols, which are carcinogenic, in the cells …
singing iceberg: Scientists monitoring earth movements in Antarctica believe they have found a singing iceberg. Sound waves from the iceberg had a frequency of around 0.5 Hertz, too low to be heard by humans, but by playing them at higher speed, the iceberg sounded like a swarm of bees or …
A vast ecosystem recently discovered below Antarctica's floating ice shelves could offer a completely new understanding of the origin of life in extreme environments. The sunless habitat was found beneath the collapsed Larsen Ice Shelf in northwestern Weddell Sea. "This is definitely the biggest thing I've ever been involved with …
Amajor breakthrough has been achieved in the efforts to tackle environmental emergencies in Antarctica. At the 28th conference on the Antarctica Treaty, which concluded in Stockholm, Sweden on June 17, 2005, around 300 experts finalised after 13-14 years of negotiations a "liability annex' to the existing Protocol on Environmental Protection …
The ozone layer over northern Europe will likely witness a severe thinning in the coming weeks, predict scientists from the European Ozone Research Coordinating Unit, located in the Cambridge University, UK, campus. They have spotted unusual weather conditions over the Arctic, which is witnessing its coldest winter in 50 years …
Antarctica has mostly cooled over the last 30 years. But this trend is likely to rapidly reverse, according to computer simulations of the us National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA). The study indicates that the South Polar region is expected to warm during the next 50 years. At present, depleted …
