glaciers
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‘Mountain tsunamis’ are a thing; threaten Himalayas
The kingdom of Bhutan, famous for maximizing "Gross National Happiness" rather than GDP, is sitting under a gigantic time bomb of water that could burst at any moment, flooding its villages and putting a major damper on all that good cheer. Bhutan has 2,674 glacial lakes, 24 of which are considered unstable. When the ice […]
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Atlas error overstates Greenland's (still significant!) ice loss
Here's the good news: Greenland did not lose 15 percent of its ice cover in the last 10 years, as the Times [Usually] Comprehensive Atlas of the World said it did. This is, in fact, really good news, since this amount of melting would raise sea levels three to five feet. The publisher, HarperCollins subsidiary Collins Geo, has retracted the 15 percent figure but says it's "reviewing" the map -- but in the meantime, a whole bunch of scientists went "whoa whoa whoa there."
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This is what global warming looks like
Polar scientists visited a glacier to see how much ice it'd lost in two years due to global warming. The results were dramatic.
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Glacier National Park to be devoid of glaciers by 2020
In the 19th century, there were 150 glaciers in Glacier National Park, and now there are just 25. By 2020, even those will be gone, says Daniel Fagre, coordinator of climate change and glacial geology studies in the park.
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Ice crisis: How disappearing glaciers devastate communities [VIDEO]
Upcoming documentary Glacial Balance shows the human consequences of glaciers receding faster than we'd like to think about.
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Rising Temperatures Melting Away Global Food Security
Heat waves clearly can destroy crop harvests. The world saw high heat decimate Russian wheat in 2010. Crop ecologists have found that each 1-degree-Celsius rise in temperature above the optimum can reduce grain harvests by 10 percent. But the indirect effects of higher temperatures on our food supply are no less serious. Rising temperatures are […]
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Melting glaciers make it more likely the coasts will be toast
Researchers working in Greenland and Antarctica say the meltdown of ice sheets in both places is only accelerating.
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Ten green stories you probably missed this week
The big story of the week, of course, is that BP, after almost three miserable months, may have finally stopped its Gulf gusher. (Emphasis on “may.”) But chances are you missed these greener tales — from the beauty of pond scum to the bendable bike to the regenerative power of beer. Flasks of algae waiting […]
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Going Under (Video)
Tuvalu, Mauritius, Kiribati, Bangladesh. Every nation sitting at sea level is going to lose in its own way if oceans rise, but these four will be especially affected…and none are major contributors to the sources behind the rise in sea level. The average carbon footprint of a person living in Bangladesh is about 1.1 tons […]