NCAR Scientists View 21st As "Climate Century" At Geoconference

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"Boulder climate researcher Michael Glantz predicts that future historians will look back on the 21st century as the Climate Century. "Climate will dominate the news, now and then, throughout this century," Glantz said Sunday at a meeting of the Geological Society of America.

Food production, water resources, energy needs, infectious-disease outbreaks, wildfires and the frequency and severity of extreme weather events will be altered in unknown and surprising ways by climate changes, said Glantz, a social scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. And humans will help shape future climate by their actions - or by failing to act.

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During another Sunday session, three climate researchers explained how sea ice and glaciers are already responding to a warming world. For the third consecutive summer, extreme sea-ice losses were observed in the Arctic in 2004, said Mark Serreze of the University of Colorado's National Snow and Ice Data Center. Arctic sea ice is the floating mass of ice that covers the Arctic Ocean. It shrinks during the summer melt season, then expands again starting in the fall.

At the end of summer, Arctic ice normally covers a region the size of Australia. But in recent years, big summer losses have taken a huge bite from the Arctic ice. This year, the September sea-ice extent was 13.4 percent below the long-term average, a reduction in area nearly twice the size of Texas. The loss of Arctic sea ice worsens coastal erosion problems. "There are entire villages in coastal Alaska that are having to be moved because of the erosion," Serreze said Sunday. CU glaciologist Mark Meier said the global retreat of mountain glaciers is "perhaps the most visible evidence of global warming."

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http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/state/article/0,1299,DRMN_21_3312895,00.html

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1. Thanx for this info...

I worked at NCAR many years ago and occasionally got to hear Mickey Glantz speak at conferences and seminars. Great guy--VERY smart, good natured, passionate, and a self-described "bleeding heart liberal". Glad to hear that he's still fighting the good fight!

:loveya:

NCAR rocks!

:toast:

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2. It's one of my favorite climate sites

Along with National Ice Center, AMRC at Wisconsin and NSIDC - good stuff!