Community | December 15, 2009 | 6 comments

A Billion Could Lose Clean Water To Ice Melt, Says Al Gore

source: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/world/a-billion-could-lose-clean-water-to-ice-melt-say...

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http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/world/a-billion-could-lose-clea...

guru Al Gore warned UN climate talks today that record melting of Polar and Himalayan ice could deprive more than a billion people of access to clean water.

Adding to an avalanche of bad scientific news over the past two years, the former US vice-president cited new research showing the Arctic ice cap may have shrunk to record-low levels last year.

"2008 had a smaller minimum, probably, than 2007," Mr Gore said at the release of a report he co-sponsored with the Norwegian foreign minister, Jonas Gahr Store, called Melting Snow and Ice: A call for Action.

"These figures are fresh, I just got them yesterday," Mr Gore said, alluding to work led by Wieslaw Maslowski of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.

"Some of the models suggest to Dr Maslowski that there is a 75 per cent chance that the entire polar ice cap during some of summer months could be completely ice-free within five to seven years," Mr Gore said.

"There are more than a billion people on the planet who get more than half of their drinking water - many of them all of their drinking water - from the seasonal melting of snow melt and glacier ice."

Scientists reported last September that Arctic ice cover - which helps beat back the sun's heat-delivering rays back into space - had reversed course after 2007, when it had shrunk to its smallest size ever.

But when measured by volume, the 4.5 million sq km area in 2008 was actually smaller than the year before.

The Arctic ice cover does not affect sea levels, but is a critically important barrier to global warming.

Intact, its white surface acts as a mirror, but when the ice disappears it becomes a sponge.

"Instead of 85 per cent of the solar energy being reflected, 85 is absorbed in the Arctic Ocean," Mr Gore, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for his work on warning of the threat posed by climate change, said.
  1. groups:
    Community,   Green,   Science
  2. tags:
    Water,  Ignorance,  Oh Shit!
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6 comments // A Billion Could Lose Clean Water To Ice Melt, Says Al Gore

  • brit50
  • arosso
  • waaaaaaaaaaaa
    • 0
      waaaaaaaaaaaa  

    • Waaaa! The inventor of the internet says people won't have water to drink. Waaa! He was nowhere to be seen when his documentary crew was nabbed by North Korea putting our 2 counties in a tense situation - but we should listen to him now. Waaa! This article starts off by calling him a guru, I'm sure it's a mistake - didn't they intend to call Mr. Gore a god?! Waaa!

    • 3 years ago
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  

    • He is correct. A billion people live at the foot of the Himalayas and would most certainly lose access to freshwater for crops and survival considering what is being lost is not being replaced through snowpack due to erratic rainfall patterns disrupting agricultural cycles. Many crops are already failing, desertification encroaches, and people are feeling the effects of glacier melt as well through flooding due to glacier lakes, which are not serene little streams, but forces that can and (have) bury villages. Unfortunately, ignorant political hacks don't know enough about the real world and what is going on in it to even comment coherently on the reality. All they know is their hate for Al Gore (or following their orders from the people who hired them to permeate the Internet with their garbage) and will say anything to show that in a response. Even Dr. Vandana Shiva speaking in Copenhagen admitted forcefully the very same thing in regards to their glaciers melting. This has also been quoted by many others regarding the rapacious melting of not only the Himalayas, but the Alps, the glaciers of South America particularly in Bolivia where their capitol city is now in danger already of losing water, Africa (particularly Rwenzori) and even here in the US regarding Glacier National Park and the glaciers of Washington state. It is truly getting monotonous to post here in Green seeing the same people latching onto anything with Al Gore's name in it just to regurgitate ignorance in it without any knowledge. The man is accurate regarding glacier melt as he was in repeating Maslowski's predictions which he did make. It may well turn out that the numbers he quoted are the true ones since humans don't seem too smart regarding seeing the oncoming train. It is also obvious from the fact that he is not backing down from stating those numbers that he is not part of the US govt trying to stop action to curb emissions for their benfactors in collusion with a media all too willing to keep us uninformed. The world as a whole is now in some form of drought state on every continent but Antarctica. I think it would behoove certain individuals to actually take the time to read what is going on instead of just hanging around here pouncing on their targets just for the hell of it.

    • 3 years ago
  • bushama
  • spacemikey
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