As Release Of Full Arctic Report Nears, US Opposes GHG Action

OSLO, Norway — A thaw of the Arctic icecap is accelerating because of global warming, but nations in the region including the United States are deadlocked about how to stop it. Due for publication on Nov. 8, an eight-nation report compiled by 250 scientists says the Arctic is warming almost twice as fast as the rest of the planet due to a buildup of heat-trapping gases, and the trend is set to continue.

"We are taking a risk with the global climate," said Paal Prestrud, vice-chair of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) report, which says emissions of gases from cars, factories, and power plants are mostly to blame. The Arctic icecap has shrunk by 15-20 percent in the past 30 years and the contraction is likely to accelerate, Prestrud said. The Arctic Ocean could be almost ice-free in summer by the end of the century.

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Diplomats said governments in nations around the Arctic rim — the United States, Russia, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland — disagree about what to do, with the United States most opposed to any drastic action. Arctic nations are meant to agree policy recommendations based on the report at a meeting of foreign ministers in Iceland on Nov. 24.

"U.S. negotiators say 'we already have a policy on global warming; we can't have a new one just for the Arctic'," one European diplomat said. Government negotiators will try to break deadlock with a new round of talks in mid-November. U.S. President George W. Bush pulled out of the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol on global warming in 2001, arguing it was too expensive and wrongly excluded developing nations."

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http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=300

Maybe if you can call "ignoring it" a policy.

If it Sounds like Science, even if the Greening Earth Society is writing and funding it, it's good enough for us!!

Can't wait for the Pipeline to buckle and collapse. Oh, Susanna.

don't include projections for catastrophic climate change.

How much did this last hurricane season cost us? If Bush doesn't manage to bankrupt us through other means, this will.

The Pentagon studied this not too long ago. They're well aware of the implications.

Thanks for reminding me about that. I'd forgotten that the Pentagon had produced that report. Maybe Bush is counting on the Rapture to beat out any impending environmental chaos.

...everytime I remember what a horrible, screwed-up situation we've driven the planet into! I live in Finland and arctic climate change is VERY REAL to me and the rest of us here.

We're depending on the Golf stream to convey warmth to these latitudes. The Pentagon report someone mentioned actually expects the Golf stream to stop altogether when the climate warming progresses. Then what? Well, then it's goodbye to cultivating some of the food plants in here. It means warming up the houses for longer periods during a year. And that my fellows, means using more energy!!!And that, thanks to our government, probably isn't gonna come from renewable energy resources.

I'm so fucking sad, pissed-off and desperate!

In a few weeks time I'm supposed to go to a college the students about climate change, it's effects worldwide and how to fight it back. I'm just afraid I'll break in front of them and admit there's no use in what they do, cause money-greedy bastards all-over the world don't give a shit about this planet!! I hate rich, ignorant and pure evil people who obviously think that being gay is the biggest sin of all and destroying the very creation is nothing at all. God, Jesus and Mother Mary help us all!

-Johanna