Polar bears can be saved from extinction by emission cuts

WASHINGTON: Polar bears and its Arctic habitat can be saved if we cut global greenhouse emissions, according to scientists.

Polar bears were added to the threatened species list nearly three years ago when their icy habitat showed steady, precipitous decline because of a warming climate.

But it appears the Arctic icons aren't necessarily doomed after all, according to results of the new study.

The findings indicate that there is no "tipping point" that would result in unstoppable loss of summer sea ice when greenhouse gas-driven warming rises above a certain threshold.

Scientists from several institutions, including the US Geological Survey (USGS), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the University of Washington, have found that if humans reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly in the next decade or two, enough Arctic ice is likely to remain intact during late summer and early autumn for polar bears to survive.

"Our current research provides strong evidence that it's not too late to save polar bears from extinction," said George Durner of the USGS Alaska Science Center, an atmospheric scientist.

The study has been published in this week's issue of the journal Nature.

Source: Times of India, 16-12-2010

Indian scientific mission hoists Tricolour at South Pole New Delhi

Almost three decades after unfurling the Indian Flag in Antarctica, an eight-member scientific team hoisted the Tricolour at the South Pole at 1310 hours on Monday, firmly establishing India’s presence in the icy continent.

“I am on top of the world though actually I am at the bottom of the world. There is nothing here except miles and miles of snow everywhere,” team leader Rasik Rabindra said jubilantly over his Iridium satellite phone, hours after reaching the South Pole.

The 62-year-old glaciologist , who came out from his tent to use his satellite phone, said temperature at the southern-most point of the planet was hovering around minus 70 degrees Celsius. Rabindra heads the National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research in Goa.

The team took almost 10 days to reach the pole from Maitri—the Indian station on the edge of the continent—traversing about 2,350 km through an icy terrain. The scientists encountered five crevasses en route to the pole and collected ice cores and scientific data.

However, science was not the real objective behind India’s maiden expedition to the South Pole. It is the global geopolitics.

Antarctica is one of the world’s biggest reserve for natural resources, which nobody can access at the moment due to the United Nations Antarctic Treaty that describes it as the common heritage for the mankind.

But the international treaty will be open and up for negotiation in 2040. And countries are trying to anticipate what kind of conditions may come up when discussion starts on on resource sharing. A presence at the South Pole could be one such condition.

Antarctica holds 75 per cent of the world’s fresh water. It is also estimated to hold very large deposits of minerals, oil (about 45,000 million barrels and roughly 115 trillion cubic feet of gas) and coal (about 11 per cent of the world’s total deposits).

Since a lot is at stake, India is not willing to leave a blank at the South Pole. But it does not have any plan to go again.

“We may not have another South Pole expedition in near future,” said Shailesh Nayak, secretary in the ministry of earth sciences that has been conducting Antarctica expeditions since 1981.

Even though an Indian Navy team reached the South Pole two years ago and an Army team is on its way to reach the pole on January 15, these are considered “adventure sports” and may not add any value to Indian’s claim on the negotiation table.

The Indian expedition was undertaken at a time when the polar region has sunlight for 24 hours. The team will start their return journey on Wednesday and hope to reach Maitri on the first week of December.

Source: Deccan Herald, 22-11-2010