Global Meltdown

It's mid-March and while students should be buttoning up their winter jackets, many are taking them off. Climate changes are real and accelerating at an alarming pace - as evidenced by melting glaciers worldwide, glacier experts say.

Scientists have long warned society about global warming and the effects it may have on the world. It is now a reality that melting ice sheets and glaciers, caused by global warming, could eventually increase sea levels to a dangerous point, scientists contend. U.S. scientists have found that Alaskan glaciers are melting at a faster rate than originally thought. As the Earth is covered by more than 160,000 glaciers, numbers are dwindling due to warmer temperatures. Scientists say the melt rate has accelerated dramatically since the mid-1990s from factors including global warming.

Global warming refers to heat-trapping gases that force atmospheric temperatures to increase. The proccess is heavily influenced by how humasn are living life.

"Our use of fossil fuels-coal, oil, and natural gas-together with deforestation have increased the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping 'green-house' gas, by about 32 percent and thus begun the process of manmade climate change," according to James Gustave Speth, author of "Red Sky at Morning" and a professor of environmental policy and sustainable development at Yale University.

Speth, with his extensive understanding of the relationship among environmental, economic and developmental concerns, said he believes the United States should be doing more to stop a rise in temperature, to limit global warming.

According to Speth, the United States is emitting the same amount of greenhouse gases as 2.6 billion people living in 151 developing nations.

Speth said that if the trend continues the consequences could be devastating.

"In 50 years, the sea ice could disappear entirely during summers, possibly wiping out ice algae and most other organisms farther up the food chain, including polar bears," he said.

Robert M. Thorson, a geology professor at the University of Connecticut, said the pace of global warming in the Northern Hemisphere is alarming. He said at these latitudes we should not be seeing temperatures ranging to the 50s to 60s during the winter months.

"Evidence of global warming is compelling," Thorson said. "Glaciers may be the least visible evidence."

Evidence of global warming ranges from the loss of ice on glaciers to the record-high temperatures in January. According to the National Climatic Data Center, the United States had its warmest January on record, with an average temperature of 39.5 degrees, 8.5 degrees above the average temperature of January from 1895 through 2005. Scientists predict by the middle of the century, the Rockies, the Cascades and Glacier National Park will have lost almost all their ice.

Thorson said a big indicator of global warming is Alaska, where temperatures are not negative 40 degrees anymore. The effects are more dramatic in Alaska because of the temperature sensitive permafrost and glaciers. Permafrost refers to a soil in high latitudes that remains in a frozen state for more than two years.

"There's no greater threat to Alaska's ecosystems and indigenous cultures than global warming-period," said Deborah Williams, executive director of the Alaska Conservation Foundation. According to the foundation, an abundance of spruce forest around Homer and the Kenai Peninsula are brown because of an incredible beetle infestation linked to the warming climate. Snow levels have diminished steadily since 1938 and roads and buildings have collapsed because the permafrost seems to be thawing.

Two Inupiat Eskimo villages on the northwestern coastline, Shishmaref and Kivalina, have lost so much ground they are in danger of washing into the sea. Percy Nayokpuk, president of the Shishmaref Native Corp. said erosion on the island's northern edge is so severe that the village voted to move two years ago. Last year the federal government concluded that relocation will cost at least $180 million.

With an expected rise in sea level, the coming century could bring devastating flooding-enough to destroy low-lying islands and coastal areas. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency predicts that global sea level is likely to rise 15 cm by 2050 (about 3 mm per year) as a result of human-induced climate warming.

"Just small changes in sea level can cause very large incursions of water up along the coast and can destroy valuable property there," said glacier expert Anthony Arendt of the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. "It can move people away from their homes."

If current trends continue, consequences will not be just dangerous flooding. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council Web site, warmer sea surface temperatures will fuel more intense hurricanes in the southeastern Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Forests, farms and cities will face more mosquito-borne diseases and disruption of habitats such as coral reefs and alpine meadows could drive many plant and animal species to extinction.

Proposals to limit production of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping pollutants from America's largest sources-power plants, industrial facilities, and transportation fuels-are gaining support in Congress, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The Environmental Protection Agency web site suggests individuals help decrease global warming by recycling newsprint, cardboard, glass and metal to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 850 pounds annually. Buying fuel-efficient vehicles or carpooling also can help, as leaving the car at home two days a week can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 1,590 pounds a year.

"I am probably not as worried as I should be because I believe my generation will not face severe consequences of global warming, so why should I change my way of life?" said Jessica Olsen-Hoek, a 6th -semester education major at UConn.

"We live in the 21st century, but we live with the 20th century," Speth said. "My fondest hope is that this will be a book widely read by young people. If I were a young person being handed this problem by indulgent predecessors, I would be angry."

Referring to Earth's fate, he said, "the story's ending has not yet been written. There are two possible outcomes, one tragic and one not."

While scientists underestimated the problem by 50 years, Thorson said, "the issue is not that the globe is changing, because it's changing all the time and always has been. The issue is the human economic, political, and social adjustment to the rapid pace of global warming, knowing that we are causing much of it."