A
50-year study of the ice cap on Devon Island in Canada’s High Arctic
has revealed ice growth that alternated with melting prior to 1985.
However, since that time the ice volume and area have both been in
steady decline.
According lead study author Dr. Sarah Boon of
Canada’s University of Lethbridge, this past decade also saw four
particularly warm summers that have accelerated the melting, with the
now-exposed soil and gravel on the ice cap’s edges absorbing more heat
and speeding the melt rate even more.
In addition, melt water
forming beneath the ice also causes entire chunks to slide more quickly
into the ocean, which in turn raises sea levels, one of the major
concerns with melting glaciers around the globe.
Our heartfelt thanks
Dr. Boon and dedicated Canadian colleagues for sharing these factual
observations, despite their disturbing nature.
May we all respond to the urgent situation by adopting sustaining lifestyles to save our planet.
In
a June 2009 video message, Supreme Master Ching Hai spoke of this
predicament and how to solve the concerns of the melting Arctic.
Supreme Master Ching Hai:
The Arctic, or North Pole, may be ice-free by 2012, 70 years ahead of
IPCC estimations. Without the protective ice to reflect sunlight, 90
percent of the sun's heat can enter the open water, thus accelerating
global warming. Now, many of these areas where we are seeing such
devastating effects of climate change, such as Arctic melt, are all
directly related to the Earth’s temperature increasing.
So, we must
cool the planet, first and foremost.To cool the planet most quickly, we
have to stop consuming meat in order to stop the livestock raising
industry.
If everyone in the world would adopt this simple but
most powerful practice of an animal-free diet, then we could reverse the
effect of global warming in no time.
http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2010/04/14/decades-of-research-show-massive-arctic-ice-cap-is-shrinking.htmlhttp://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/04/melting-of-canadian-arctic-ice-sheet-accelerating-study-finds.html