Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 24. Juli 2012 / Time Line July 24, 2012
Version 3.007/24/2012
Satellites See Unprecedented Greenland Ice Sheet Melt
By NASA
- http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/greenland-melt.html
Extent of surface melt over Greenland's ice sheet on July 8,
2012 (left) and July 12, 2012 (right). Measurements from three
satellites showed that on July 8, about 40 percent of the ice sheet
had undergone thawing at or near the surface. In just a few days,
the melting had dramatically accelerated and an estimated 97
percent of the ice sheet surface had thawed by July 12. In the
image, the areas classified as "probable melt" (light pink)
correspond to those sites where at least one satellite detected
surface melting. The areas classified as "melt" (dark pink)
correspond to sites where two or three satellites detected surface
melting. Image credit: Jesse Allen, NASA Earth Observatory and
Nicolo E. DiGirolamo, SSAI and Cryospheric Sciences
Laboratory
PASADENA, Calif. - For several days this month, Greenland's surface
ice cover melted over a larger area than at any time in more than
30 years of satellite observations. Nearly the entire ice cover of
Greenland, from its thin, low-lying coastal edges to its
2-mile-thick (3.2-kilometer) center, experienced some degree of
melting at its surface, according to measurements from three
independent satellites analyzed by NASA and university
scientists.
On average in the summer, about half of the surface of Greenland's
ice sheet naturally melts. At high elevations, most of that melt
water quickly refreezes in place. Near the coast, some of the melt
water is retained by the ice sheet, and the rest is lost to the
ocean. But this year the extent of ice melting at or near the
surface jumped dramatically. According to satellite data, an
estimated 97 percent of the ice sheet surface thawed at some point
in mid-July.
Researchers have not yet determined whether this extensive melt
event will affect the overall volume of ice loss this summer and
contribute to sea level rise.
"The Greenland ice sheet is a vast area with a varied history of
change. This event, combined with other natural but uncommon
phenomena, such as the large calving event last week on Petermann
Glacier, are part of a complex story," said Tom Wagner, NASA's
cryosphere program manager in Washington. "Satellite observations
are helping us understand how events like these may relate to one
another as well as to the broader climate system."
Son Nghiem of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
was analyzing radar data from the Indian Space Research
Organisation's (ISRO) Oceansat-2 satellite last week when he
noticed that most of Greenland appeared to have undergone surface
melting on July 12. Nghiem said, "This was so extraordinary that at
first I questioned the result: was this real or was it due to a
data error?"
Nghiem consulted with Dorothy Hall at NASA's Goddard Space Flight
Center in Greenbelt, Md. Hall studies the surface temperature of
Greenland using the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
(MODIS) on NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites. She confirmed that
MODIS showed unusually high temperatures and that melt was
extensive over the ice sheet surface.
Thomas Mote, a climatologist at the University of Georgia, Athens;
and Marco Tedesco of City University of New York also confirmed the
melt seen by Oceansat-2 and MODIS with passive-microwave satellite
data from the Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder on a U.S. Air
Force meteorological satellite...
07/24/2012
A
Threatened Global Catastrophe
By John Scales
Avery
Possibly as early as this autumn, Israel may start a large-scale
war in the Middle East and elsewhere by bombing Iran. The
consequences are unforeseeable, but there are several ways in which
the conflict could escalate into a nuclear war, particularly if the
US supports the Israeli attack, and if Pakistan, Russia and China
become involved.
Why is the threat especially worrying? Because of the massive
buildup of US naval forces in the Persian Gulf. Because of a recent
incident in which a US Navy ship fired on an unarmed Indian fishing
boat, killing one person and injuring three others (small incidents
have often escalated into large-scale wars). Because of Benjamin
Netanyahu's rush to blame Iran for the Bulgarian bus explosion,
before any evidence was available. Because of Netanyahu's
government's stated intention to attack Iran, despite opposition
from the people of Israel. Because of President Obama's
declarations of unconditional support for Israel; and because
Pakistan, a nuclear power, would probably enter the war on the side
of Iran.
Most probably, a military attack on Iran by Israel would provoke an
Iranian missile attack on Tel Aviv, and Iran might also close the
Strait of Hormuz. The probable response of the US would be to bomb
Iranian targets, such as shore installations on the Persian Gulf.
That might well provoke Iran to sink one or more US ships by means
of rockets, and if that should happen, the US public would demand
massive retaliation against Iran.
Meanwhile, in Pakistan, the unpopularity of the US-Israel alliance,
as well as the memory of numerous atrocities, might lead to the
overthrow of Pakistan's less-than-stable government. Israel's
response might be a preemptive nuclear attack on Pakistan's nuclear
installations. One reads that Russia has already prepared for the
conflict by massing troops and armaments in Armenia, and China may
also be drawn into the conflict.
In this tense situation, there would be a danger that a much larger
nuclear exchange could occur because of a syystems failure or
because of an error of judgment by a military or political leader.
A large-scale nuclear war would be a global environmental disaster,
damaging agriculture throughout the world, spreading dangerous and
long-lasting radioactive contamination, and resulting in hundreds
of millions of deaths, also in neutral countries.
Can we not avoid this threatened disaster by refusing to follow the
suicidal and perhaps genocidal whims of Netanyahu and his
government? In the film “Dr. Strangelove”, global
disaster was caused by the insanity of a person in a position of
power. Perhaps today, that insane person is Benjamin Netanyahu.
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