Just a few reasons why College Students Should Become more Green

Melting Glaciers and Ice Sheets Contribute to Global Sea-Level Rise
The Steffen research group assesses the annual and interannual variability of cyrospheric parameters in the Arctic in response to climate perturbation. One example of our research projects - the Greenland ice sheet - is highlighted below.
The total volume of land-based ice in the Arctic has been estimated to be about 3,100,000 cubic kilometers, which corresponds to a sea-level equivalent of about eight meters. Most arctic glaciers and ice caps have been in decline since the early 1960s, with this trend speeding up in the 1990s. A small number of glaciers, especially in Scandinavia, have gained mass as increased precipitation outpaced the increase in melting in few areas.
The Greenland Ice Sheet dominates land ice in the Arctic. Maximum surface-melt area on the ice sheet increased on the average by 16% from 1979-2002 (Steffen et al., 2004), an area roughly the size of Sweden, with considerable variability from year to year, The total area of surface melt on the Greenland Ice Sheet broke all records in 2002, with extreme melting reaching up to 2000 meters in elevation. Satellite data show an increasing trend in the melt extent since 1979. This trend is interrupted in 1992, following the eruption of the Mt. Pinatubo, which created a short-term global cooling as particles spewed from the volcano reduced the amount of sunlight that reached the earth.

Seasonal surface melt extent on the Greenland Ice Sheet has been observed by satellite since 1979 and shows an increasing trend. The melt zone, where summer warmth turns snow and ice around the edges of the ice sheet into slush and ponds of meltwater, has been expanding inland and to record high elevations in recent years (source: Arctic Impacts of Arctic Warming, Cambridge Press, 2004).

cires.colorado.edu/.../melt1992-2002.jpg

Massive California Fires Consistent With Climate Change, Experts Say
ScienceDaily (Oct. 24, 2007) — The catastrophic fires that are sweeping Southern California are consistent with what climate change models have been predicting for years, experts say, and they may be just a prelude to many more such events in the future -- as vegetation grows heavier than usual and then ignites during prolonged drought periods.
"This is exactly what we've been projecting to happen, both in short-term fire forecasts for this year and the longer term patterns that can be linked to global climate change," said Ronald Neilson, a professor at Oregon State University and bioclimatologist with the USDA Forest Service.
"You can't look at one event such as this and say with certainty that it was caused by a changing climate," said Neilson, who was also a contributor to publications of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a co-recipient earlier this month of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
"But things just like this are consistent with what the latest modeling shows," Neilson said, "and may be another piece of evidence that climate change is a reality, one with serious effects."
The latest models, Neilson said, suggest that parts of the United States may be experiencing longer-term precipitation patterns -- less year-to-year variability, but rather several wet years in a row followed by several that are drier than normal.
"As the planet warms, more water is getting evaporated from the oceans and all that water has to come down somewhere as precipitation," said Neilson. "That can lead, at times, to heavier vegetation loads popping up and creation of a tremendous fuel load. But the warmth and other climatic forces are also going to create periodic droughts. If you get an ignition source during these periods, the fires can just become explosive."
The problems can be compounded, Neilson said, by El Niño or La Nina events. A La Niña episode that's currently under way is probably amplifying the Southern California drought, he said. But when rains return for a period of years, the burned vegetation may inevitably re-grow to very dense levels.
"In the future, catastrophic fires such as those going on now in California may simply be a normal part of the landscape," said Neilson.
Fire forecast models developed by Neilson's research group at OSU and the Forest Service rely on several global climate models. When combined, they accurately predicted both the Southern California fires that are happening and the drought that has recently hit parts of the Southeast, including Georgia and Florida, causing crippling water shortages.
In studies released five years ago, Neilson and other OSU researchers predicted that the American West could become both warmer and wetter in the coming century, conditions that would lead to repeated, catastrophic fires larger than any in recent history.
At that time, the scientists suggested that periodic increases in precipitation, in combination with higher temperatures and rising carbon dioxide levels, would spur vegetation growth and add even further to existing fuel loads caused by decades of fire suppression.
Droughts or heat waves, the researchers said in 2002, would then lead to levels of wildfire larger than most observed since European settlement. The projections were based on various "general circulation" models that showed both global warming and precipitation increases during the 21st century.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071024103856.htm

Climate Change Threatens Human Health, According To Australian Report
ScienceDaily (Nov. 1, 2007) — Australians face increasingly large-scale health risks from our expanding impact on the natural environment, ranging from increases in weather extremes and dengue fever to obesity, diabetes and mental health.
Twelve of Australia's top health and medical researchers have contributed to a new report which concludes that rapid environmental and climatic changes pose increasing risks to the health of Australians.
Released by Research Australia, the 'Healthy Planet, Places and People' Report found that:
•Deaths from heart attacks, strokes and respiratory disease, from increases in heatwaves, could double or triple by 2050;
•Asthma -- already affecting 3 in 20 children and 1 in 10 adults -- is likely to increase in some groups;
•The incidence and geographic range of some mosquito-borne infectious diseases will increase;
•Food poisoning -- with 5.4 million cases reported each year -- is also likely to rise;
•Viral infections such as avian flu and SARS will spread more readily as population density, people movement, trade and land clearing increase.
Professor Tony McMichael of the Australian National University, who led the report and is part of the Nobel Prize winning UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said that researchers are just beginning to recognise the health implications of a warmer planet.
"Our rapidly expanding impact on the natural environment is casting a huge shadow over the health of future generations," Prof McMichael said.
"It is not just a warmer planet and weather disasters -- climate change is one of many environmental changes. Our health is also endangered by depleted water flows, land degradation, disrupted ecosystems and acidified oceans. We need better understanding of these risks, and how to reduce them, through new research."
2007 Australian of the Year, Prof Tim Flannery said it is hardly surprising that human health will be strongly influenced by climate change.
"From water availability and quantity to temperature and food, our changing climate will influence all of the fundamentals of life," Prof Flannery said. Proudly supported by
"To ignore climate change in terms of human health would be a bit like treating the fish in a fishbowl, while refusing to change their ever more polluted water."
Prof McMichael said health and medical research has long been based on the premise that the natural world around us is essentially constant.
"Today, human actions are inadvertently impairing the working of the world. We need to understand more about how human-induced changes to climate and global environment are affecting, and will affect, our lives," Prof McMichael said.
The report was launched by Research Australia CEO, Rebecca James, who said the report's findings highlight the importance of health and medical research in helping Australians adapt to the changing environment.
"We are only beginning to recognise the health implications of a warmer planet. More research is needed to understand its full impact on our health, and how we can adapt," Ms James said. "The potential health impacts of climate change are significant. Without the work of medical researchers to address health risks, the impact on our health, economy and society could be dramatic."
Adapted from materials provided by Australian National University.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071030094648.htm

Posted by Krista Helder