US
scientists have noted minimal ice formation this winter in the Arctic,
with only 34,000 square kilometers’ growth per day in January compared
to more than twice that rate in the 1980s.
Warmer temperatures
were observed to be a contributing factor in the slowed ice growth. US
National Snow and Ice Data Center Director Dr. Mark Serreze cautioned
that such a winter phenomenon would likely mean a bigger summer melt,
stating that this year’s winter ice would create only a thin layer that
takes less energy to melt the following summer.
This process in
turn exposes additional areas of darker ocean waters, which absorb more
heat than the reflective ice and accelerate melting even further.
Dr.
Mark Serreze: We will probably see, for example, an accelerated
hydrologic cycle, because we were talking earlier that you warm it up,
you put more water vapor into the atmosphere. Well water vapor fuels
storms. So you would have, for example, more and more severe weather
events.
Many thanks, Dr. Serreze and colleagues at the US
National Snow and Ice Data Center, for this vital information about the
disappearing Arctic ice. As we all realize the danger of the Earth’s
changing climate, let us make united steps toward lifestyles that return
stability to our planet.
Speaking as on previous occasions with
concern for our planet’s urgent state, Supreme Master Ching Hai
emphasized during a September 2009 videoconference in Japan the dangers
posed by such melting, while offering the most effective solution.
Supreme Master Ching Hai:
I think we’d better heed the warning of the scientists because
otherwise it’s not just the ice melt, maybe we will melt also. I hope
not. I hope not! And we are working frantically toward saving the
planet. So if we be vegetarian, our good karma of saving lives will in
turn reward us with our lives saved. That’s all I can say.
And
the more vegetarian people join us, the more time we will have. That is
the thing. Well, green technology, planting trees does help, but this is
very secondary, very little. But the vegetarian diet will help stop 80%
of the global warming and save our lives.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE6135TD20100204