Drought removes rice from Australia.
Following six years of continuous drought, southeastern Australia’s Deniliquin Mill, once the largest in the Southern hemisphere, has closed. With the mill having produced grain for up to 20 million people, its closure is considered a significant factor in the recent steep in grain prices. The drought that led to its closure is said to be due to global warming.
We convey our gratitude, scientists, for bringing to light this urgent matter and for your hard work in alleviating this worldwide emergency. May God bless your dedicated efforts with success in mitigating this universal food shortage.
Record global temperatures measured in March.
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that in March, a recorded 1.83 degree Celsius increase in average global land surface temperatures was the highest ever since 1880. With land and ocean temperatures averaged, March 2008 had the second highest temperature in almost 130 years of record keeping.
Esteemed scientists, we appreciate your providing this irrefutable global warming data that highlights our need to act now, and quickly, to halt further calamities. May Heaven guide us in wisdom to be good stewards of the planet.
Canadian ice shelves undergo global warming.
The past 5 years have seen substantial losses for the last remaining ice shelves in Canada. The most recent change was the splitting of the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, which is the largest in the northern hemisphere. Dr. Derek Mueller from Canada’s Trent University and his team of polar scientists are concerned that these losses are leading to the complete disappearance of the ice shelves that have existed for several thousand years in the Arctic.
Supreme Master Television speaks with Dr. Derek Mueller to better understand the significance of the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf event.
Dr. Derek Mueller Roberta Bondar Fellow in Northern and Polar Studies
Trent University, Canada
For more information on Dr. Mueller’s research, please visit: www.cen.ulaval.ca
We understand that a very large ice shelf in northern Canada split into three pieces, can you tell us what happened?
Dr. Derek Mueller: These changes come on the heels of an initial fracture in 2002 when the ice shelf split into two pieces, visible on satellite imagery and also during an over-flight that I did earlier in March. And finally confirmed by people on the ground.
Dr. Derek Mueller: In terms of global significance, what these ice shelves represent are a unique feature of the landscape that is disappearing. There are only 900 square km of these ice shelves left in Canada. There used to be 10 times as much at the turn of the last century.
The Ward Hunt Ice Shelf loss has also caused the disappearance of a freshwater lake it had helped to create, which has affected the region’s natural habitats.
Dr. Derek Mueller: In those lakes, we’ve found some very interesting microbial communities. And these ecosystems are disappearing as the ice shelves are disappearing.
The nearby Petersen Ice Shelf lost over one-third of its surface area in recent years. These rapid trends evidence the irreversible consequence of global warming.
Dr. Derek Mueller: It signals that these ice shelves are really out of equilibrium with the climate and are just going to reduce and not re-grow.
Scientists acknowledge other natural periods of warming in the Earth’s history. However, Dr. Mueller notes that the agent responsible for the climate change can vary, and that the primary agent today is human.
Dr. Derek Mueller: Global warming is just one symptom of our inability to being sustainable. We have to realize that humans can impact the climate on a global scale, and come to grips with that and deal with that in our own way. It’s an ethical dilemma as much as anything. We have to understand that we have an impact on the planet.
We thank, Dr. Mueller and his colleagues, for sharing their important findings in the northern hemisphere. May we all share this ethical responsibility and do our part to stop further human-induced global warming.