10.04.2005
The Independent
October 2, 2005
Melting Planet: Species are Dying Out Faster Than We Have Dared Recognize, Scientists Will Warn This Week
The erosion of polar ice is the first break in a fragile chain of life extending across theplanet, from bears in the north to penguins in the far south.
By Andrew Buncombe in Anchorage and Severin Carrell in London
...under unprecedented threat...disappearing with alarming speed...driven by starvation into human settlements - to be shot...drowning in large numbers...their corpses floating on seas once coated in a thick skin of ice.
"The ice is moving further and further north," said Charlie Johnson, 64, an Alaskan Nupiak from Nome, in the state's far west. "In the Bering Sea the ice leaves earlier and earlier. On the north slope, the ice is retreating as far as 300 or 400 miles offshore."
Last year, hunters found half a dozen bears that had drowned about 200 miles north of Barrow, on Alaska's northern coast. "It seems they had tried to swim for shore ... A polar bear might be able to swim 100 miles but not 400."
...alarming testimony... a threat unparalleled since the last ice age...the intricate web of habitats, food supplies and weather conditions which, for some species, can stretch for 6,500 miles. Every link of that chain is slowly but perceptibly altering....
also given little chance of survival... threatened by "multiple climate change impacts"... nowhere left to go ... "We can see, very clearly, that most migratory species are drifting towards the poles."...
...up to 37 per cent of terrestrial species could become extinct by 2050....
And the clash between nature and human need - a critical issue across Africa - is likely to worsen....
"Are we fighting a losing battle? Yes, we probably are."
"A long-term decline is under way."
"There is an earlier break-up of ice, a later freeze-up. Now it's more rapid. Something is happening."
(indeed.)
October 2, 2005
Melting Planet: Species are Dying Out Faster Than We Have Dared Recognize, Scientists Will Warn This Week
The erosion of polar ice is the first break in a fragile chain of life extending across theplanet, from bears in the north to penguins in the far south.
By Andrew Buncombe in Anchorage and Severin Carrell in London
...under unprecedented threat...disappearing with alarming speed...driven by starvation into human settlements - to be shot...drowning in large numbers...their corpses floating on seas once coated in a thick skin of ice.
"The ice is moving further and further north," said Charlie Johnson, 64, an Alaskan Nupiak from Nome, in the state's far west. "In the Bering Sea the ice leaves earlier and earlier. On the north slope, the ice is retreating as far as 300 or 400 miles offshore."
Last year, hunters found half a dozen bears that had drowned about 200 miles north of Barrow, on Alaska's northern coast. "It seems they had tried to swim for shore ... A polar bear might be able to swim 100 miles but not 400."
...alarming testimony... a threat unparalleled since the last ice age...the intricate web of habitats, food supplies and weather conditions which, for some species, can stretch for 6,500 miles. Every link of that chain is slowly but perceptibly altering....
also given little chance of survival... threatened by "multiple climate change impacts"... nowhere left to go ... "We can see, very clearly, that most migratory species are drifting towards the poles."...
...up to 37 per cent of terrestrial species could become extinct by 2050....
And the clash between nature and human need - a critical issue across Africa - is likely to worsen....
"Are we fighting a losing battle? Yes, we probably are."
"A long-term decline is under way."
"There is an earlier break-up of ice, a later freeze-up. Now it's more rapid. Something is happening."
(indeed.)
