Excellent BBC Science/Nature Compendium On Condition Of Ice Worldwide

[hatrack]

Predictions vary from the catastrophic to the cataclysmic.

Glaciers are melting, the ice caps disappearing into the oceans. Sea levels may rise by many metres as a consequence.

Indigenous Arctic peoples will find their food stocks gone, while fresh water supplies in Asia and south America will disappear as the glaciers which provide them melt away; penguins, polar bears and seals will find their habitats gone, their traditional lives unliveable.

But how realistic is this picture? Is the world's ice really disappearing, or is it unscientific hot air?

Europe's new spacecraft Cryosat has been lost, but one day a satellite should provide some definitive answers. In the meantime, here is our global snapshot.

The Antarctic
The Arctic
The temperate zones

EDIT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4315968.stm

Truly excellent summary here.

[philb]

1. Its already documented; its real and catastrophic

http://www.flcv.com/green.html