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["Alessandro Gimona" <agimona@hotmail.com>]

Notizia climatica, alquanto allarmante

Alessandro Gimona

                 Polar meltdown's terrifying
                 pace

                 Washington: Melting is taking place on a vast and
                 unprecedented level in the Arctic sea ice, the
                 Antarctic and in dozens of mountain and
                 sub-polar glaciers, and the rate has accelerated
                 tremendously in the past decade, a US
                 environmental watchdog group has reported.

                 The Worldwatch Institute in Washington says the
                 shrinkage of the Earth's ice cover could have
                 profound changes on the global climate, and
                 rising sea levels could spark regional flooding.

                 Melting of mountain glaciers could also threaten
                 urban water supplies and the habitats of plant and
                 animal species in fragile environments, the report
                 added.

                 The melting has been particularly noticeable in the
                 past three decades, and scientists suspect it is the
                 result of human behaviour and the build-up of
                 carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

                 The Antarctic ice cover, which averages 2.3
                 kilometres thick and represents 91 per cent of
                 the world's ice, is also melting. Ice to the west of
                 the Antarctic Peninsula decreased by some 20
                 per cent between 1973 and 1993.

                 The main front of New Zealand's Tasman Glacier
                 has retreated 1.5 kilometres since 1982, the
                 report said.

                 The Arctic sea ice has shrunk by 6 per cent since
                 1978, with a 14 per cent loss of the thickest
                 year-round ice. The average thickness has
                 dropped from 3.1 metres to 1.8 metres - a
                 decline of nearly 40 per cent in the past three
                 decades.

                 The Greenland Ice Sheet, which comprises 8 per
                 cent of the world's ice, has thinned by more than
                 a metre per year on average since 1993 on its
                 southern and eastern edges.

                 The world's mountain glaciers are now shrinking
                 faster than they are growing. Scientists predict
                 that a quarter of global mountain glacier mass
                 could disappear by 2050.

                 Within the next 35 years, the Himalayan glacial
                 area is expected to shrink by one-fifth, to just
                 100,000 kilometres.

                 In Glacier National Park, in the US Rocky
                 Mountains, the number of glaciers has dropped
                 from 150 to fewer than 50, Worldwatch says.

                 The report predicts that the remaining glaciers
                 could disappear in 30 years.

                 Deutsche Press-Agentur
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