Melting of Glaciers Requires Urgent Action (Southern Hemisphere)

[Emillereid]

by Gustavo Gonzalez


SANTIAGO - The melting of glaciers in the Patagonian region at the southern tip of Latin America requires urgent international action, without waiting for the United States to sign the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, Chilean environmentalists and government experts are saying.

The glacial retreat in Patagonia, a region shared by Argentina and Chile, was highlighted by a recent month-long expedition by a team of 25 scientists and activists on the Greenpeace vessel Arctic Sunrise.

The expedition, which ended in mid-February, set out from Amsterdam and toured Patagonia, observing the Perito Moreno and Upsala glaciers in Argentina, as well as six other glaciers on the Chilean side after passing through the Strait of Magellan.

Chilean experts joined the Arctic Sunrise for that part of the journey, whose mission was to document the state of the glaciers and the damages caused by climate change, a phenomenon blamed on the greenhouse effect caused by emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other gases resulting from the burning of fossil fuels. ...


http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0301-10.htm

More bad news about global warming and the failure of the US to do its part.

[everythingsxen]

1. There is no such thing as Global Warming..

it is all a giant lie by tree-hugging hippies. Bush told me so. He owuld never lie.

ROFL

[emetzl]

2. global warming for cold feet

Thanks for the inspiring words

[everythingsxen]

3. Wow.. post number 1

Welcome to DU.

[mobuto]

4. Screw the Southern Hemisphere

What did it ever do for me?

[Cronus Protagonist]

5. If they can't vote, who cares?

/sarcasm

"FUCK BUSH" Buttons, Stickers & Magnets

[jus_the_facts]

6. It's all over but the screamin' death and destruction that's to follow....

....I've resigned m'self to this truth as I see nothing at all bein' done to slow any of this down...much less STOP it! :evilfrown:

[Piperay]

7. Yeah, I'm resigned too...

it is all but too late to do anything now to reverse it even if we get a Democratic administration in. :cry:

[SoCalDem]

8. What will * do?? Tell them to stop melting??

It's almost too late to make any real difference .. We "knew" about this 30 years ago, and just kept on polluting and building and driving big cars..

The earth is getting (collectively) what it "deserves"..

google.... vanuatu... They have nowhere to live anymore.. We have literally sunk their island ..

There are lots of island people who cannot live like they always have, because of reef destruction, fish depletion, changed sea levels, storm track deviations.. These people have lives for generations, and yet in a 50 year span, they are now forced to leave their homes, and becoome "city people"..:(

[OneBlueSky]

9. too late to do anything now . . .

stopping (never mind reversing) global warming will take decades at least . . . if the glaciers are melting, there's no short-term fix that can stop the process . . . all the folks down there can do is set about adapting to a new reality in their lives . . . much as the US will have to adapt as the oil runs out . . .

[TreasonousBastard]

10. That's South America...

But Alpine, Russian, and Chinese villages have already been wiped out by rapid glacial melt.

As we speak, teams of specialists are climbing the Alps looking for glacial dams that may break at any moment, and issuing warnings to those downstream.

[booksenkatz]

11. Urgent action?

But... but there's Janet Jackson's teat to investigate and Kobe and Scott and I'm sure there's another shark attack coming this summer... who has time to be worried about glaciers melting in Patagonia? No one I know lives in Patagonia, so it has nothing to do with me.
/right wing-style spew