Fishing Banned in Melting Arctic

Report adds 2 to 3 feet to global sea level prediction

(NEWSER) - Global sea levels are likely to raise two or three feet more than previously predicted this century, because the Arctic is melting significantly faster than expected, scientists conclude in a new report being presented to international officials today. The report, which examined the past six years' worth of data, predicts a 35- to 63-inch rise over 1990 levels by 2100. That's a drastic departure from a 2007 climate change report by the UN that predicted a 7- to 23-inch rise in sea levels, MSNBC reports. More»

Ice sheets could send sea level up 6 inches by 2050

(NEWSER) - The ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are melting significantly faster than previously estimated, according to a new international report led by scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Unless the trend is reversed, the melting ice sheets will push global sea levels up six inches by 2050, the scientists found. More»

Widespread bleaching expected in weeks to come

(NEWSER) - This year is set to be the hottest on record and scientists warn that could spell disaster for coral reefs. Reefs around the world are bleaching—expelling the algae that give them their color—on a scale only ever seen once before, in 1998. An estimated 16% of the world's shallow-water reefs died that year and researchers believe this year could be even worse. More»

Climate change opens north to shipping, tourism, resource development

(NEWSER) - Climate change is melting away the main barrier to business in the Arctic—ice—but the US lags behind other countries seeking to exploit the region, the Anchorage Daily News reports. As receding ice opens the area to shipping, resource exploitation, and tourism, it's Russia and Canada who have established transport rules and studied the ocean floor. "It's like the new Strait of Gibraltar," says a Coast Guard captain of the Bering Strait. More»

(NEWSER) - Three major glaciers in Alaska and Washington state have rapidly shrunk over the last 50 years due to global warming—and the melting is accelerating as the climate changes, notes a government study released yesterday. The glaciers, chosen as "benchmarks" because their conditions closely parallel those of thousands of others, are in different climates and elevations but all have lost large amount of ice as conditions become warmer and drier, the Los Angeles Times reports. More»