Warming Arctic Is Taking a Toll

[WhiteTara]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/14/AR2006041401368.html
By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 15, 2006; Page A07

The rapid melting of Arctic sea ice appears to be separating walrus young from their mothers, leaving them likely to die at sea, a team of researchers said.

During a two-month cruise off northern Alaska in 2004, a Coast Guard icebreaker came across nine lone walrus calves swimming in the deep waters -- what the scientists called a highly unusual sighting.


This walrus pup alone in the Arctic Ocean, separated from its mother, was a troubling sight for researchers in 2004. (By Phil Alatalo -- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

They report in the journal Aquatic Mammals that the pups most likely fell into the sea when a shelf of sea ice that they lived on with their mothers collapsed because of an influx of unusually warm water.


I hate it that we are killing everything else in our mad rush to suicide. :cry:

[Erika]

1. Yet W refuses to act on global warming

I guess he thinks he and the wealthy are going to live life with the greatest perks, and so what if we are damned. He and they will enjoy life.

[Uncle Joe]

5. Bush has no empathy which of course means he has no courage.

He is incapable of making the tough decisions that will be required to save the planet.

[saigon68]

11. Pass the Moet and Caviar

Demanded the upper crust CHIMPANZEE

[Coventina]

2. Yep. We deserve whatever is coming. Unfortunately, the other creatures

will suffer alongside us.

:cry:

[Tripper11]

12. Sorry but WE don't deserve it...

..."they", the ones who don't care, the ones who would deny...they are the ones that deserve whatever is coming!

[sasha031]

3. this is so heartbreaking

the worlds beautiful creatures are dying because of what man has inflicted on the planet!:cry:

[twaddler01]

4. I hate to say this

but it will only get worse with time until nature "undo's" what has been done...

[shanti]

14. it's probably not possible

to "undo" these changes. :cry:

[gordianot]

6. While we trifle, the planet may have found a cure for our kind.

[Delphinus]

8. Uh huh.

Shaking us off her back like fleas.

[0007]

18. The birds may have the answer for us soon!

Perhaps the birds will save the world?

[gordianot]

19. I wouldn't be surprised if those who have access to bunkers will carry on.

Just think a world of neo cons without many servants.

[lovuian]

7. Poor things... 6 degrees warmer??? this is incredible

there is something more here than just Global warming... something accelerating the Artic heating up...

It doesn't look like a 100 years it looks like 50 years and maybe sooner...

[Delphinus]

9. There have been so many articles

laterly, talking about the environmental problems caused with Global Climate Change - most of them saying ten years and we'll be at the Tipping Point. I don't think we have ten years - I think we're already in it - we're already at or beyond the tipping point. What we do about it, how we die, and how we try to alleviate the suffering of ALL of Earth's inhabitants and future generations, is where we are. And I guess it's just us individuals - not governments - who are going to step up to the plate.

[CrispyQ]

13. I agree we are beyond the point of no return.

All we can do now is damage control. I think in just 5 more years the increase in weather related deaths & destruction will make today's pale in comparison.

Back in the late 90's I saw a special on PBS about the environment. At the end of the show they interviewed the scientists who had contributed to the special. All but one scientist agreed that we had to do something drastic within 30 years. I remember thinking that in context of what they had just presented, 30 years seemed very optimistic to me. However, that one scientist stood out from the others & said she thought we had less than 20 years.

[GCP]

10. This is so heartbreaking

The harm we've done the planet is immeasurable. :cry:

[henslee]

15. walrus calves crying is a horrible thought.

[Bonobo]

16. The Real "Ice Age: The Meltdown"...

[rainbow4321]

17. 200,000 dead tulips at Dallas Arboretum because of "Mother Nature"

http://www.kvue.com/news/state/stories/040706kvuetulips-cb.11e2bf46.html

"Everything was going along and the tulips looked fantastic, and then one day, we came in and they didn’t look so good," said Karen Vassar, spokeswoman for the arboretum. "The tulips have expired."

The tulip tragedy is forcing arboretum officials to hustle to replace the dead flowers with 25,000 gorgeous, late-spring annuals for the final week of the arboretum’s most popular festival, Dallas Blooms.

Who's to blame for the blooming blight? Mother Nature. A mild winter — January had the warmest high temperatures on record — befuddled tulips, irises and daffodils this year, tricking them into peaking their heads above ground weeks early.

Things that bloom early, die early — including the tulips the arboretum had planted as the traditional stars of Dallas Blooms, which runs through April 17.