Major sea level rise likely as Antarctic ice melts

The Southern Ocean is the world’s most important feeding ground for whales

Sea levels are likely to rise by about 1.4m (4ft - 6in) globally by 2100 as polar ice melts, according to a major review of climate change in Antarctica.

Conducted by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), it says that warming seas are accelerating melting in the west of the continent.

Ozone loss has cooled the region, it says, shielding it from global warming. Rising temperatures in the Antarctic Peninsula are making life suitable for invasive species on land and sea.

The report - Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment - was written using contributions from 100 leading scientists in various disciplines, and reviewed by a further 200.

Rising seas: A tale of two cities

SCAR’s executive director Dr Colin Summerhayes said it painted a picture of “the creeping global catastrophe that we face”.

“The temperature of the air is increasing, the temperature of the ocean is increasing, sea levels are rising - and the Sun appears to have very little influence on what we see,” he said.

“We are ruling out some of the more extreme sea level rises (forecast) for the next 100 years. Those are unrealistic in light of all we know about ice shelves.” Summerhayes added.

SCAR’s report comes 50 years to the day after the Antarctic Treaty, the international agreement regulating use of the territory, was opened for signing, and a week before the opening of the potentially seminal UN climate summit in Copenhagen.

High rise

Two years ago, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)projected that the global average sea level would probably rise by 28-43 cm (11-16in) by the end of the century.

But it acknowledged this figure was almost certainly too low, because it was impossible to model “ice dynamics” - the acceleration in ice melting projected to occur as air and water temperatures rise. The 2007 calculation also did not take into account the possible increasing melt of Greenland and Antarctica.

A study last week forecast global sea levels to rise by up to 2 meters by 2100.

Launching the SCAR report in London, lead editor John Turner from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) suggested that observations on the ground had changed that picture, especially in parts of the West Antarctic ice sheet. This report is the first comprehensive review of the impact of rapid global warming on Antarctica.

“Warmer water is getting under the edges of the West Antarctic ice sheet and accelerating the flow of ice into the ocean,” he said.

Glaciers: If the world’s mountain glaciers and icecaps melt, sea levels will rise by an estimated 0.5m

Thermal expansion: The expansion of warming oceans was the main factor contributing to sea level rise, in the 20th Century, and currently accounts for more than half of the observed rise in sea levels

Ice sheets: These vast reserves contain billions of tons of frozen water - if the largest of them (the East Antarctic ice sheet) melts, the global sea level will rise by an estimated 64m

By the end of the century, he said, the sheet will probably have lost enough ice alone to raise sea levels globally by “tens of centimeters”.

The remainder of the projected rise would come from melting of the Greenland cap, melting of mountain glaciers in the Himalayas and Andes, and the expansion of seawater as it warms.

A number of research teams have come up with similar projections.

But this is the first time that an international body such as SCAR has endorsed the likelihood that sea levels will rise enough to threaten some of the world’s biggest cities by the end of the century.

Cold store

The Antarctic Peninsula - the strip of land that points towards the southern tip of South America - has warmed by about 3C over the last 50 years, the fastest rise seen anywhere in the southern hemisphere, according to the report.

But the rest of the continent has remained largely immune from the global trend of rising temperatures.

Indeed, the continent’s largest portion, East Antarctica, appears to have cooled, bringing a 10% increase in the sea ice extent since 1980.

This image, from Sept. 24, 2006 the Antarctic ozone hole was equal to the record single-day largest area of 11.4 million square miles, reached on Sept. 9, 2000. The blue and purple colors are where there is the least ozone, and the greens, yellows, and reds are where there is more ozone. Credit: NASA

This report backs the theory that it has bucked the global trend largely because of ozone depletion - the chemical havoc wrought over 30 years by chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other agents in the stratosphere above the polar region.

“We used to have a big blanket of ozone, and when we took it away we saw a cooling,” said Professor Turner.

“The Antarctic has been shielded from the impacts of global warming.”

But, the report concludes, that will not last forever. The ozone hole is expected to repair itself in about 50 years, now that the Montreal Protocol has curbed the use of ozone-destroying substances.

As it does so, the SCAR team predicts that greenhouse warming will come to dominate the temperature change across Antarctica, as in other parts of the planet.

Doubling of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere would warm the continent by 3-4C, it says.

The majority of Antarctica is so cold that a rise of this magnitude in air temperature would have little impact. But more warming of the oceans would speed ice loss still further, the report concludes.

On the basis of declines seen around the Antarctic Peninsula, it would also be expected to bring significant reductions in the abundance of krill, a key foodstuff for baleen whales and other animals.

Among humankind, the frozen
continent was once a preserve
of explorers and scientists.

But now, about 30,000 tourists a year visit, some setting foot on outlying parts of the peninsula.

This increased human traffic, plus the warming on land and sea, are going to change the region’s ecology, according to Julian Gutt, allowing organisms to enter and survive that were previously excluded through climate or simple geography.

“A good candidate is the stone crab (aka king crab) such as those found throughout Norwegian waters - they’re more than a meter across from toe to toe.

“There are hints of it hopping across from South America - and that could completely change the ecosystem on the sea floor,” said the Alfred Wegener Institute researcher.

About one third of one percent of Antarctica’s land surface is ice-free; but already, non-native species are competing with native mosses for this meagre resource, Dr Gutt noted.

Source:
BBC News, “Major sea level rise likely as Antarctic ice melts“, accessed December 2, 2009
Reuters, “W. Antarctic melt to have big impact on rising sea“, accessed December 2, 2009

Former President Mandela Sends Greeting to Glittering World Cup Draw inCape Town

Mandela sends greeting to glittering World Cup draw

Reuters, Friday December 4 2009
By Barry Moody

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Dec 4 (Reuters) - South Africa staged a slick and glitzy ceremony on Friday for the World Cup draw and Nelson Mandela said his country was humbled to host the soccer spectacular for the first time on the continent.

Africa’s biggest economy has shrugged off persistent scepticism about its ability to stage the world’s most watched sporting event and it pulled out all the stops for the draw, which will decide the first round matches among the 32 teams.

Organisers fielded three Nobel Prize winners including Mandela, Africa’s most respected statesman, while its famous actress, Oscar winner Charlize Theron, hosted the draw.

International soccer greats, including England’s David Beckham and former players Eusebio of Portugal, Roger Milla of Cameroon, Germany’s Franz Beckenbauer and France’s Michel Platini, who is the UEFA president, were also present.

As promised, the ceremony, watched by an estimated world television audience of 250 million from 200 countries, had a distinctly continental flavour with African dance troupes and singers fronted by Angelique Kidjo from Benin.

SINGULAR HONOUR

The programme included a video apparently showing lions, elephants and other wild animals playing soccer in the bush.

Theron, dressed in a bright red ball gown, said she was proud to come home from America where she lives most of the time.

Mandela, now a frail 91-year-old and who spent 18 years on the bleak Robben Island prison offshore from Cape Town under white rule, sent a video message from his home in Johannesburg.

“We feel privileged and humbled that South Africa has been given the singular honour” of holding Africa’s first World Cup, he said.

“We must strive for excellence… to ensure the event leaves a lasting legacy for all our people,” added Mandela, who became South Africa’s first post-apartheid president in 1994 after spending 27 years in jail.

Current President Jacob Zuma, who also took part in the ceremony, said “We are very proud as South Africans and Africans” to host the World Cup, adding that everything was ready and on schedule for the tournament.

Zuma was sure the trophy would remain in Africa at the end of the month-long tournament, starting on June 11 next year. African teams are tipped to make their strongest challenge at the 2010 finals, with Ivory Coast and Ghana leading the charge.

(Editing by Ken Ferris)
To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)
((barry.moody@thomsonreuters.com; +44 20 7542 3321; Reuters messaging: barry.moody.reuters.com@reuters.net; For the new Reuters sports blog Left Field go to: http://blogs.reuters.com/sport/))

Black Unemployment ‘a Serious Problem’

Black unemployment ‘a serious problem’

Despite falling unemployment rates overall, African-Americans face the biggest uphill battle in their search for employment.

By David Goldman, CNNMoney.com staff writer
Last Updated: December 4, 2009: 3:17 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — While the overall unemployment rate for Americans fell in November, the jobless gap between African-Americans and all other races actually rose, continuing a disturbing trend that has many lawmakers up in arms.

The black community has suffered the hardest during the economic downturn, with an unemployment rate that currently stands at 15.6%. That’s a much higher rate than for all of the other races that the Labor Department tracks, including Hispanics (12.7%), whites (9.3%) and Asians (7.3%).

The jobless rate for blacks has also grown much faster than for other races.

The difference between the unemployment rates for blacks and whites fell to an all-time low of 3.5 percentage points in August 2007. As the economy fell into a recession, that gap rapidly grew. By April 2009, the gap hit a 13-year high, doubling to a staggering 7 percentage points.

Though the separation between white and black jobless rates has narrowed slightly since the spring, it is still trending higher, rising to 6.3 percentage points in November from 6.2 points in the previous month.

Washington’s solution

The trend has many in Washington heated.

“We’re so focused on ‘too big to fail’ that we’re treating this issue as ‘too little to matter,’” said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus’ jobs task force. “We have a serious problem, and the army of the unemployed is growing darker by the month.”

Cleaver said the main reason for such a high rate of black unemployment is a lack of opportunities for proper job training in urban communities. That’s an issue that the Obama administration says it is working on with stimulus money and other government-funded programs.

“Traditionally, these groups are most impacted when there’s a recession,” Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis told CNNMoney.com.

Solis said that through stimulus and Labor Department grant programs, the government has targeted job training in communities with high unemployment, particularly heavily urban communities with high concentrations of African-Americans and Latinos.

“We have had some success in doing that, but of course we have a long way to go,” Solis said.

But Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., argued that many of those programs are wasted money. She said a large amount of government dollars are spent on funding private post-secondary schools that are targeted to urban communities, and she believes the schools are “rip-offs.”

“They’re soliciting people to sign up for training on job titles that don’t widely exist like ‘nurses assistants,’” said Waters, also a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. “That money should be used for training for jobs that will be around in the new economy like green jobs and new technologies.”

Furthermore, Rep. Cleaver noted that 50% of the nation’s foreclosures are on homes owned by African-Americans, which makes the jobs situation for blacks all the more urgent.

“If you’re in a training program and you have a notice that you’ll be kicked out of your house if you don’t make your payment in two weeks, chances are high that you’re going to quit the training program,” Cleaver said. “We need some immediate help from a program where the government funds municipalities and non-profits to hire individuals to do real work right now.”

That theme was echoed by entrepreneur and former basketball great Magic Johnson, who attended President Obama’s jobs summit on Thursday. Johnson said that training is key to narrowing the unemployment gap, but the government must create plans that are targeted to specific racial and ethnic communities that have different labor issues.

“We have to find a way to give these [African-American] people a skill to put them to work,” Johnson told CNN’s Larry King on Thursday. “We have to come up with a general plan, a Latino plan and an African-American plan because that general plan won’t affect our community.”

The problem of racism

Training is not the only hurdle that needs to be crossed in order to narrow the jobless gap among races, Education presents another challenge. There remains a high degree of inequality in employment for blacks and whites who have received equal education.

The rate of unemployment for whites with a college degree is 4.3%, but for blacks, it is 5.8%. For those with a high school diploma but no college, the unemployment rate is 9.1% for whites and 15% for blacks.

“We don’t like to talk about it, but there’s still discrimination in our society,” said Waters. “Black college graduates can’t get professional jobs as easily as whites. We have blacks disguising their voices on the telephone or trying to hide their blackness in responding to job announcements. It’s real.”

Waters said that when Obama became the first African-American president, there was a great hope in the black community that some myths and stereotypes about blacks would cease. But racism isn’t something that can be easily overcome, Waters said.

However, there are steps that African-Americans can take take to improve their job situation, the Congresswoman added. For example, she encourages the unemployed members of the black community who have been unable to find work in their fields to take risks in their job searches.

She suggested some people opt for less desirable jobs, even if they consider the jobs “beneath them,” so they can look for work while still earning a paycheck.

For others, she urged people to interview for jobs slightly above their qualifications and offer to take less money while they are in training. Lastly, she encouraged African-Americans to consider moving if there are no jobs in their areas.

“You have to survive, you have to keep going,” Waters said. “Be persistent in what you do, and take a chance. A lot of that really works.”

First Published: December 4, 2009: 2:20 PM ET
Find this article at:
http://money.cnn.com/2009/12/04/news/economy/black_unemployment/index.htm

President Hifikenpunye Pohamba of Namibia Wins Re-election

Saturday, December 05, 2009
02:13 Mecca time, 23:13 GMT

Namibia president re-elected

SWAPO has been in power since Namibia achieved independence from South Africa in 1990

Namibia’s ruling party has won the majority of votes in the country’s parliamentary polls, final results have shown.

South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) won 75.27 per cent of the vote and returned President Hifikepunye Pohamba for the second term in office after securing 76.4 per cent of the presidential vote, according to official results released on Friday.

The Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP), the ruling party’s nearest rival, won 11.31 per cent of the vote.

The vote, which consisted of 107 contested constituencies, resulted from a final count of 811,143 votes, revealing a 54-seat win for SWAPO out of 72 possible seats in the National Assembly, just one less than its previous victory in 2005.

The RDP, which broke away from the ruling party in 2007, took eight seats.

Election results rejected

Earlier on Friday, the RDP and seven other opposition parties rejected the results of the elections and said they would file a court challenge.

The parties instructed their legal teams to institute proceedings against the Electoral Commission of Namibia “for contravening the electoral law of the country,” they said.

While African observers of the elections have pronounced them free and fair, opposition parties also complained about not being adequately informed about the vote verification process.

Hifikepunye Pohamba, Namibia’s re-elected president, has been in power since 2005 but his SWAPO party has maintained a majority of seats in parliament since the country received its independence from South Africa in 1990.

Namibia has enjoyed political stability and economic growth, but is struggling in the face of rising poverty, unemployment and widening cracks in its once highly regarded health care and school systems, further exacerbated by the global recession.

Source: Agencies

US Marines Launch Offensive in Afghanistan

US Marines launch offensive in Afghanistan

By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU, Associated Press Writer

KABUL – U.S. Marines swooped down behind Taliban lines in helicopters and Osprey aircraft Friday in the first offensive since President Barack Obama announced an American troop surge.

About 1,000 Marines and 150 Afghan troops were taking part in “Operation Cobra’s Anger” in a bid to disrupt Taliban supply and communications lines in the Now Zad Valley of Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, the scene of heavy fighting last summer, according to Marine spokesman Maj. William Pelletier.

Hundreds of troops from the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines and the Marine reconnaissance unit Task Force Raider dropped by helicopters and MV-22 Osprey aircraft in the northern end of the valley while a second, larger Marine force pushed northward from the main Marine base in the town of Now Zad, Pelletier said.

A U.S. military official in Washington said it was the first use of Ospreys, aircraft that combine features of helicopters and fixed wing aircraft, in an offensive involving units larger than platoons.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to detail the operation, said that Ospreys have previously been used for intelligence and patrol operations.

Combat engineers used armored steamrollers and explosives to force a corridor through Taliban minefields — known as “IED Alley” because of the huge number of roadside bombs, known as improvised explosive devices, and land mines, Pelletier said.

Roadside bombs and mines have become the biggest killer of American troops in Afghanistan.

There were no reports of U.S. or Afghan government casualties. The spokesman for the Afghan governor of Helmand province, Daood Ahmadi, said at least four Taliban fighters had been killed and their bodies recovered.

He said more than 300 mines and roadside bombs had been located in the first day of the operation.

Pelletier said insurgents were caught off guard by the early morning air assault.

“Right now, the enemy is confused and disorganized,” Pelletier said by telephone from Camp Leatherneck, the main Marine base in Helmand. “They’re fighting, but not too effectively.”

The offensive began three days after Obama announced that he was sending 30,000 reinforcements to Afghanistan to help turn the tide against the Taliban and train Afghan security forces to take responsibility for defending against the militants.

America’s European allies will send an estimated 7,000 more troops to Afghanistan next year “with more to come,” NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen announced Friday.

Most of the new troops are expected to be sent to southern Afghanistan, including Helmand, where Taliban influence is strongest.

Friday’s fighting was taking place in one of the most challenging areas of the country for the U.S.-led NATO force, which has been trying for years to break the Taliban grip there.

Now Zad used to be one of the largest towns in Helmand, the center of Afghanistan’s lucrative opium poppy growing industry.

However, three years of fighting have chased away Now Zad’s 30,000 inhabitants, leaving the once-thriving market and commercial area a ghost town. Instead the area has become a major supply and transportation hub for Taliban forces that use the valley to move drugs, weapons and fighters south toward major populations and to provinces in western Afghanistan.

British troops who were once stationed there left graffiti dubbing the town “Apocalypse Now-Zad,” a play on the title of the 1979 Vietnam War movie “Apocalypse Now.” The British base was nearly overrun on several occasions, with insurgents coming within yards (meters) of the protection wall. The area was handed over in 2008 to the Marines, who have struggled to reclaim much of the valley.

In August, the Marines launched their first large-scale offensive in the barren, wind-swept valley, which is surrounded by steep cliffs with dozens of caves providing cover to Taliban units.

Although only about 100 hardline insurgents are believed to operate in the area, their positions are so strong that a fixed front line runs just a few hundred yards (meters) north of the Marines’ base, according to Associated Press reporters who were with the Marines there last summer.

Elsewhere in Helmand, the leader of Britain’s opposition Conservative Party warned that NATO had one “last chance” to succeed in Afghanistan and that patience was running out in countries that have provided troops to the NATO-led mission.

“We can’t be here for another eight years,” David Cameron told the British Broadcasting Corp. after touring a public market in Nad Ali, well south of Friday’s fighting. “I think following President Obama’s speech and the increase in American and British forces we have a chance, probably our last chance, to get it right, but we do have a chance.”

In London, the Sun newspaper said the son of the Helmand governor is seeking asylum in Britain because of fears for his safety.

The newspaper said Barai Mangal, 25, applied for sanctuary in Britain at an immigration office in Liverpool in July. Britain’s Home Office declined to discuss the asylum application.

His father, Gov. Gulab Mangal, would not confirm the report but told The Associated Press on Friday that his son was the target of an attempted kidnapping last summer.

“I have an armored car, I have security guards, but my family has no such possibility of security,” the governor said.
____
Associated Press Writers Amir Shah in Kabul, David Stringer in London and Pauline Jelinek in Washington contributed to this report.