Melting ice could lead to massive waves of climate refugees

October 14th, 2009 Explorers: North Pole summers ice free in 10 yearsLONDON — The North Pole will turn into an open sea during summer within a decade, according to data released Wednesday by a team of explorers who trekked through the Arctic for three months The Catlin Arctic Survey team, led by explorer Pen Hadow, measured the thickness of the ice as it sledged and hiked through the northern part of the Beaufort Sea in the north Pole earlier this year during a research project. Their findings show that most of the ice in the region is first-year ice that is only around 1.8 meters (six feet) deep and will melt next summer.

October 13th, 2009 Experts warn glaciers in Indian Kashmir meltingSRINAGAR, India — Indian Kashmir's glaciers are melting fast because of rising temperatures, threatening the water supply of millions of people in the Himalayan region, a new study by Indian scientists says. The study by Kashmir University's geology and geophysics department blamed the effect on climate change, and said it endangered the livelihoods of two-thirds of the region's nearly 10 million people engaged in agriculture, horticulture, livestock rearing and forestry.

September 17th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen have mapped the history of the melting of the Greenland ice sheet. Numerous drillings have been made through both Greenland's ice sheet and small ice caps near the coast.

September 2nd, 2009 Study: 1.6 billion face water, food threat in AsiaKATMANDU, Nepal — Effects of climate change including the melting of Himalayan glaciers threaten water and food security for more than 1.6 billion people living in South Asia, according to a study released Wednesday. India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Nepal will be most vulnerable to falling crop yields caused by glacier retreat, floods, droughts and erratic rainfall, said the study financed by the Asian Development Bank.

August 30th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new report from the National Wildlife Federation and Physicians for Social Responsibility, US, has determined that global warming is bringing more frequent and severe heat waves and the result will be serious for vulnerable populations. "That means air pollution in urban areas could get worse, bringing increased risk of heart attacks, strokes and asthma attacks.

June 24th, 2009 Key farm-state lawmaker supports climate billWASHINGTON — The chairman of the House Agriculture Committee says farmers can support a proposed Democratic bill to limit greenhouse gases and combat global warming. Democratic Rep.

June 16th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The US is already being struck by the effects of climate change and the threats will only grow if the world does not speed up its efforts to reduce pollutants blamed for rising temperatures, the US government warned Tuesday. In a much-anticipated report that was compiled over years by US agencies and independent scientists, the government painted a broad picture of the threats that the United States faces from climate change.

June 13th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has determined that the Greenland ice sheet is melting faster than expected, and is consequently responsible for nearly 25 percent of global sea rise in the past 13 years. The study, carried out by Sebastian H.

May 27th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Large-scale agricultural burning in Russia, Kazakhstan, China, US, Canada and Ukraine is having a much greater impact on the melting of Arctic ice than previously suspected, according to latest research. A singular threat is springtime burning to remove crop residues for new planting or clear brush for grazing - because the black carbon or soot produced by the fires can lead to accelerated melting of snow and ice.

May 22nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has determined that it's now possible to hear the rise of global warming, in the form of more larger and more intense storms, which are signs of climate change. For decades, seismologists have been filtering out the sounds of massive, storm-driven ocean waves crashing into coastlines.

May 19th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has suggested that sediments deposited in the ocean by major Arctic rivers may hold clues to understand how Earth's climate will change in the next few decades. The study was carried out by geoscientists at The University of Texas at Austin and Texas A and M University, US.

May 4th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Siberia's Lake Baikal, the world's largest freshwater lake, faces severe ecological threats due to climate change, a new study has found. The planet's most biologically diverse water body, Lake Baikal is considered a treasure trove for biologists.

May 1st, 2009 WASHINGTON - An analysis by a joint US-Russian team has determined that Siberia's Lake Baikal, the world's largest and most biologically diverse lake, faces the prospect of severe ecological disruption as a result of climate change. The analysis was done by Marianne V.

April 24th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Prime Minister's special envoy on climate change issues, Shyam Saran, will lead the Indian delegation to a preparatory meeting of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate here April 27-28. The preparatory sessions will support a Major Economies Forum leaders' meeting hosted by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in LaMaddalena, Italy, in July 2009.

March 19th, 2009 WASHINGTON - New evidence has emerged which determines that even a slight rise in atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, one of the gases that drives global warming, affects the stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS). The massive WAIS covers the continent on the Pacific side of the Transantarctic Mountains.