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Politics : The Environmentalist Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: maceng2 who wrote (12569)	5/16/2007 5:54:36 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 36921

California-Sized Area of Ice Melts in Antarctica LiveScience Staff LiveScience.com Warm temperatures melted an area of western Antarctica that adds up to the size of California in January 2005, scientists report. Satellite data collected by the scientists between July 1999 and July 2005 showed clear signs that melting had occurred in multiple distinct regions, including far inland and at high latitudes and elevations, where melt had been considered unlikely. “Antarctica has shown little to no warming in the recent past with the exception of the Antarctic Peninsula,” said Konrad Steffen of the University of Colorado, Boulder. “But now large regions are showing the first signs of the impacts of warming as interpreted by this satellite analysis.” Changes in the ice mass of Antarctica, Earth's largest freshwater reservoir, are important to understanding global sea level rise. Large amounts of Antarctic freshwater flowing into the ocean also could affect ocean salinity, currents and global climate. NASA’s QuikScat satellite detected snowmelt by radar pulses that bounce off of ice that formed when snowmelt refroze (just as ice cream turns to ice when it is refrozen after being left out on the counter too long.) Maximum high temperatures of 41 degrees Fahrenheit that persisted for about a week in Antarctica caused a melt intense enough to create an extensive ice layer. Evidence of melting was found up to 560 miles inland from the open ocean, farther than 85 degrees south (about 310 miles from the South Pole) and higher than 6,600 feet above sea level. Water from the melted snow can penetrate cracks and the ice, lubricating the continent’s ice sheets, sending them toward the ocean faster and raising sea levels, the scientists said. “Increases in snowmelt, such as this in 2005, definitely could have an impact on larger scale melting of Antarctica’s ice sheets if they were severe or sustained over time,” Steffen said. No further melting has been detected through March 2007. Video: Goldilocks and the Greenhouse Antarctica Losing Ice, Contrary to Expectations Top 10 Surprising Results of Global Warming Original Story: California-Sized Area of Ice Melts in Antarctica

To: maceng2 who wrote (12569)	5/16/2007 1:21:29 PM
From: Thomas A Watson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 36921

One more compelling example of a Pearly_Button idiot identification que. Can Pearly_Button identify any poster who claims "that humans do have an effect on the environment."

To: maceng2 who wrote (12569)	5/17/2007 2:47:26 PM
From: average joe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 36921

De Beers buys Namco undersea mining tool ONE of the failing Namco diamond mining group's most important assets, its NamSSol 11 undersea mining crawler, has been bought by its main competitor in the marine diamond mining industry, De Beers Marine Namibia. De Beers Marine Namibia announced the deal in terms of which it is buying the equipment - consisting of the seabed crawler and a treatment plant and related assets on board the MV Ya Toivo - for US$20 million this week. The deal had been in the pipeline for weeks, with the High Court in Windhoek having been informed of it some four weeks ago already, when local liquidators of some Namco subsidiaries informed the court of the proposed transaction. The equipment at the centre of the transaction was owned by Namco Mark 11, an England-based company that has also, like the rest of the Namco group, been placed in liquidation. The group went into liquidation in December last year, experiencing a severe cash flow crisis while its debts to banks stood at some US$50 million, debts to a major shareholder, LL Mining Corporation BV, which is connected to the Israel-based Leviev group, amounted to some US$12,6 million, and debts to other lenders stood at some US$9,4 million. According to a statement released by De Beers Marine Namibia the company has also entered into a new charter agreement with the owners of MV Ya Toivo, which Namco had chartered to be used as a base for the NamSSol 11 (also referred to as the Nam 11) equipment. MV Ya Toivo has left Luederitz for Cape Town, where the mining system will undergo "extensive maintenance and recommissioning" before returning to Namibia to start production in Namdeb's marine diamond mining area, the company stated. A spokesperson of De Beers Marine Namibia, Daniel Kali, yesterday added on enquiry that the company is carrying out mining for Namdeb in the latter's marine mining area, which covers some 6 000 square kilometres off Namibia's southern coast. De Beers Marine Namibia produced some half a million carats of diamonds last year. Because the company is still discussing how best to utilise its newly-bought equipment it would be difficult to make a definite assessment at this stage on how the addition of the NamSSol 11 equipment will affect its production, Kali said. Namco's underwater mining equipment had been regarded as some of the most technologically advanced of its kind in the marine mining industry. Namco's diamond production topped some 273 700 carats in 1999, by when it had emerged as Namibia's second largest ocean diamond producer, after the De Beers group. Only two years later, though, the Namco group was hit hard when one of its underwater mining rigs was damaged, delivering a blow to its production levels from which the group appears never to have fully recovered. namibian.com.na