International Polar Year Kicks Off With Growing Worries About Rising Seas

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OSLO (Reuters) - More than 60 nations started the biggest scientific investigation of the Arctic and Antarctic on Thursday amid new evidence that global warming is thawing polar ice and raising sea levels.

About 3,000 children made slushy snowmen and waved banners saying "give us back the winter" in Oslo, scientists met in Paris and other experts gathered on a research vessel in Cape Town to mark the start of International Polar Year (IPY). "The polar year is important for everyone on the planet," Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told Reuters when asked if people living in places such as Africa or Asia should be interested in science at the icy ends of the earth.

"We are seeing climate change most clearly in the polar areas and research there can give us decisive knowledge in the fight against global warming," he said.

During the U.N.-backed year, about 50,000 experts will be involved in 228 projects such as studying marine life in the Antarctic, mapping how winds carry pollutants to the Arctic, or examining the health of people, polar bears or penguins

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http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL2869629020070301?&src=030107_16_DOUBLEFEATURE_environment_n_science