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Antarctica Conference In Sweden To Focus On Environment, Climate Change
Stockholm, Sweden (AFP) May 31, 2005 Representatives of 50 governments, researchers and experts will meet for a two-week conference in Stockholm to discuss the Antarctic, especially environmental and climate change issues, the Swedish hosts said on Tuesday. The conference, which runs from June 6 to 17, comes amid fresh warnings from scientists about the effect of climate change on Antarctica, the fifth largest continent in the world, which contains more than 90 percent of the world's ice. Sweden hopes that the meeting will result in a special protocol on responsibility and insurance in the case of major accidents in the Antarctic, such as oil spills, chief organizer Folke Loefgren said at a news briefing. Other topics are the environmental impact of increasing tourism in the Antarctic, he said. Recognizing the special role the Antarctic plays for the world's climate, a treaty was signed by 12 nations in 1959 stipulating that it is in "the interest of all mankind that Antarctica shall continue for ever to be used exclusively for peaceful purposes and shall not become the scene or object of international discord". The treaty now has 44 signatories, of which 27 are full members controlling the decision-making process. A number of countries, including Argentina, Chile and Britain, claim territory in Antarctica as their own, but the treaty calls for sovereignty issues to be put aside, and they will not be discussed at the conference. "That's the beauty of the treaty. It favours cooperation, not confrontation," Marie Jacobsson, principal legal advisor on international law in Sweden's foreign ministry, told AFP. Last month, scientists again sounded an alarm bell on the effect of global warming on Antarctica, saying that more than 200 coastal glaciers are in retreat because of higher temperatures. Of the 244 marine glaciers that drain inland ice on the Antarctic peninsula, a region previously identified as vulnerable to global warming, 87 percent have fallen back over the last half century, according to research by British experts. It is unclear whether the man-made "greenhouse effect", caused by the burning of fossil fuels, is entirely to blame, they said. If even a small part of this cap melts, rising sea levels could drown low-lying island states, cities and deltas, they warned. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express Nuclear Space Technology at Space-Travel.com
Rewriting Glacial History In Pacific North America
Edmonton AB (SPX) Jan 10, 2006Although the story on glacier fluctuations in northwestern North America over the last 10,000 years has remained largely unchanged for decades, new evidence discovered by a University of Alberta researcher will rewrite that glacial history and offer clues about our climate history during the last several thousand years. |
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