lightblueline

The impacts of even temporary inundation of coastal areas can change the map. In this cyclone 100,000 people are feared dead.
Image source: NASA; Modis imagery.
Credit: NASA/MODIS Rapid Response Team
NASA Satellite Captures Image of Cyclone Nargis Flooding in Burma
05.06.08

Climate Discovery Online Courses for Educators

Roger Harrabin,BBC News environment analyst (April 4, 2008) reports on the effects of a major 'la nina' in the Pacific Ocean. This part of a multi-year fluctuation, and it's cooling the planet this year. These types of short-term fluctuations have been built into the climate models, which are still predicting a longer-term warming trend. Still, it's good to be cool! (Unless you live in Wisconsin, which gets enough cool every winter).

Global warming 'dips this year'

Here is an excerpt:

Source: CNN March 29, 2008 By Marsha Walton

Ice shelf collapse: What does it mean?

Scientists look at how reducing ice cover affects the entire food chain.
Here is an Excerpt:

" According to the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center, in the past 50 years, the western Antarctic peninsula has undergone the biggest temperature increase on Earth: up .9 degree Fahrenheit, or .5 degree Celsius, in each of the past five decades. How the ice is disappearing »

Source UNEP: February 2008
Cartographer: Hugo Ahlenius, UNEP/GRID-Arendal
Population, area and economy affected by a 1 m sea level rise (global and regional estimates, based on today's situation)

Citation:

Stefan Rahmstorf at Potsdam University (March 2007) discusses the IPCC sea level numbers:

You can read the whole analysis here:The IPCC sea level numbers

Excerpt below:
"
What is included in these sea level numbers?

Let us have a look at how these numbers were derived. They are made up of four components: thermal expansion, glaciers and ice caps (those exclude the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets), ice sheet surface mass balance, and ice sheet dynamical imbalance.

"The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have established that "Environmental literacy" is integral to NOAA's mission. It has a central role in its strategic plan by recognizing that "all of NOAA's long-term goals ultimately depend on the public's capacity to understand and react to Earth system science and ecosystem conditions." NOAA's Climate Program Office Education and Outreach team are developing the climate part of NOAA's environmental literacy priority through a partnership with NOAA's Office of Education, outside agencies and organizations.

The USGS fact sheet on Antartica:

Coastal-Change and Glaciological Maps of Antarctica

Excerpts below: