Climate Change

NASA scientists say they have discovered an astonishing algae bloom in the Arctic Ocean. When a team of NASA scientists pushed a hole through three feet of ice, they found waters richer in the microscopic marine plants known as phytoplankton than in any other ocean region on Earth. They have equated their discovery as one being 'as dramatic and unexpected as finding a rainforest in the middle of a desert'. The discovery bodes well for the planet, as fast-growing phytoplankton consume large amounts of carbon dioxide.

On the other hand, a group of international scientists suggest that the Earth is reaching a "tipping point" in climate change that will lead to increasingly rapid and irreversible destruction of the global environment unless its effects are controlled by concerted international action.

In their report in Nature, the scientists say their research shows that many combined factors are thrusting the world toward the tipping point they foresee. Among the problems are these:

-- The rapid growth in the world's human population - to 9 billion or more by 2050 and possibly as many as 27 billion by the end of the century - is quickly consuming available resources.

Fossil fuels are being burned at a rapidly increasing rate, increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by 35 percent since the industrial revolution began. At the same time, ocean acidity has risen by 5 percent in the past 20 years.

-- Ocean productivity is being diminished by vast "dead zones" where no fish swim, while 40 percent of Earth's land mass that was once "biodiverse" now contains far fewer species of crop plants and domestic animals.

-- More animal species than ever are becoming extinct, and many plant and animal species are being forced by global warming to seek new ranges that could place them at risk of extinction, as well.

-- Within the next 60 years, the average global temperature "will be higher than it has been since the human species evolved."

However, as with many climate change models, there remains an element of uncertainty in their predictions . . . .