"The ice is melting but the problem is ignored"

"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most
intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."
-Charles Darwin

If it were to be an animal it would be doomed. But wait, maybe it is,
what, a warmongering lion, a hungry dinosaur?

Keep the SUVs rolling and the war going so the beast is fed. What an
unromantic way for humanity to end, huh?


Group Passes on Addressing Global Warming

By BART CAMERON, Associated Press Writer

REYKJAVIK, Iceland - Although faced with fresh evidence of global
warming, the United States and other members the Arctic Council on
Wednesday failed to make any recommendations to combat a problem most
scientists say is causing sea ice to melt and temperatures to rise.

The council met to consider a new scientific report suggesting the
Arctic is warming up much faster than the rest of the planet.

Some delegates on the council, a respected international panel that
advises governments on Arctic issues, seemed to blame their group's
inaction on America's rejection of the Kyoto Protocol (news - web
sites), which requires industrial nations to reduce emissions of
greenhouse gases. The Bush administration prefers voluntary measures
to save the environment.

"We no sooner leave the science proper than we enter into politics,"
said Bryndis Kjartansdottir, speaking on behalf of the Icelandic
ministry which chaired the one-day meeting.

The study, compiled by 300 scientists and released earlier this month,
said the Arctic is particularly vulnerable to warming from industrial
greenhouse gases. One reason is that when snow and ice melt, the
exposed, bare ground absorbs more heat.

It projects that some animals could become extinct and people living
in the region could be threatened by the thinning sea ice, melting
glaciers and thawing permafrost.

Sea ice in the Arctic has already decreased about 8 percent in 30
years, resulting in the loss of 386,100 square miles of sea ice,
according to the report.

Delegates said the findings will help inform governments about global
warming, but declined to make any specific recommendations in a
declaration adopted Wednesday.

Paula Dobriansky, the U.S. under secretary of global affairs, told the
council's closing news conference that she was happy with that
decision. She said America's participation in the council is just one
part of the Bush administration's $5.2 billion spent for environmental
projects such as renewable energies.

But anger from other delegates over the U.S. position on global
warming seemed evident during the news conference, particularly the
Bush Administration's rejection of the Kyoto Protocol in 2001.

The U.N.-sponsored accord, which was negotiated in 1997 in Kyoto,
Japan, requires industrial nations to reduce emissions of greenhouse
gases below 1990 levels.

When Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja said, "It is the best
possible declaration that could be adopted today," other delegates
exploded in laughter.

The council is comprised of eight nations --Canada, Denmark, Finland,
Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States-- and six
indigenous peoples of the Arctic, including the Saami Peoples of
Norway and Finland and the Inuit Circumpolar Conference.

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