HONG KONG (Reuters) - It's autumn in Hong Kong but the island's beaches are still crowded with sun worshippers desperate to catch the last rays of sunshine before winter.
"I love the bronze color," says sunbather Richard Tong.
A growing trend in East Asia to soak up the sun either on beaches or in tanning salons is worrying dermatologists in the region who say they are seeing a rise in skin cancer, which is caused by cumulative over-exposure to the sun.
The number of cases is low compared to the United States and Australia but the tanning trend has raised concern of cancer risks in a region where a porcelain complexion was traditionally considered the ultimate sign of beauty and refinement.
"Asians, including South Koreans, used to think they were pretty safe from skin cancer.
However, due to increased outdoor activity, more (sun) exposure and sun tanning, there is an increasing incidence of skin cancer amongst younger people," said Ro Young-suck, head of the Korean Dermatologist Association.
"There has been a huge increase in skin cancer rates in Korean men in particular. We predict it's because while most Korean women usually wear sunscreen while putting on their makeup, men aren't used to this, aren't aware how dangerous it is, and so they don't bother to."
While incidences of skin cancer in most places in Asia are small compared to the United States and Australia, the number of cases have jumped markedly in recent years.
There were 1,712 new cases of skin cancer diagnosed in South Korea in 2005, up from 777 in 1995, according to the Korea Central Cancer Registry. Incidences in Hong Kong went up to around 650 in 2004 from 370 in 1995.
"People who are constantly exposed to UV (ultraviolet radiation in sunlight) won't get cancer immediately," said George Li, a plastic surgeon at Hong Kong's public Queen Mary Hospital.
"It takes a long time to cause skin damage, as people get older there is a high chance to develop skin cancer."
Skin cancer is one of the commonest forms of cancer and is linked to other risk factors like fair skin, light colored hair and eyes, a compromised immune system, genes and old age.
There are three major types of skin cancer: basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma. The first two are slow growing and highly treatable if discovered early.
Melanoma is the most lethal. It affects deeper layers of the skin and can quickly spread to other parts of the body. It causes 8 out of every 10 skin cancer deaths in the United States.
Caucasians are more susceptible to skin cancer and an average of one in three Caucasians gets skin cancer in their lifetime, according to the U.S. Skin Cancer Foundation.
TANNING SALONS
In Asia, sun worshippers don't just work on their tans on the beach or by the pool -- tanning salons are increasingly popular as beauty salons offering a range of treatments take off in a region that is enjoying unprecedented affluence.
A 15-20 minute session costs anywhere between S$35 and S$60 (US$24-US$41) in Singapore.
In Hong Kong, a 10-minute session costs about US$13.
Even in Australia, where one in two Australians develop skin cancers in their lifetime and 1,600 people die from skin cancers each year, a campaign to educate people to wear sunblock, sunglasses and shirts to reduce skin cancer risks does not seem to be making major dents in skin cancer rates.
Melanoma cases in Australia rose nearly 7 percent in women in the 10 years to 2003, and nearly 19 percent in men.
Although Cancer Council Australia president Professor Ian Olver expects skin cancer figures to flatten out when the young generation, educated to cover up from the sun, gets older.
"Caucasians migrated into an area where the sunshine is intense. In other countries, indigenous people have pigmented skin because of the climate they lived in over the years. We migrated to a country that didn't suit our skin color," Olver said.
In Hong Kong, Luk tries to educate locals by telling them to cut sun exposure, use sun-block rather than tanning creams and avoid sunbeads -- which use mainly ultraviolet A rays.
"UV-A is not completely innocent, we cannot completely disregard it. We are exposed to a lot of UV-A and because of its high wavelength, it penetrates deeper," he said.
(Additional reporting by Jessica Kim in Seoul, Koh Guiqing in Singapore, George Nishiyama in Tokyo)
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http://www.enn.com/health/article/24123
2007년 10월 29일 월요일
Argentina's first lady wins poll
Argentina's current first lady, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, has secured victory in the country's presidential election.
With most of the ballots counted, Mrs Kirchner had an unassailable lead with 44.6% of the votes.
Her nearest rival, former lawmaker Elisa Carrio, has admitted defeat, trailing on 22.6% of the vote.
With most of the ballots counted, Mrs Kirchner had an unassailable lead with 44.6% of the votes.
Her nearest rival, former lawmaker Elisa Carrio, has admitted defeat, trailing on 22.6% of the vote.
Mrs Kirchner will succeed her husband Nestor Kirchner and become Argentina's first elected female president.
"We've won by a wide margin," she told supporters in a speech at her campaign headquarters at a hotel in Buenos Aires.
"But this, far from putting us in a position of privilege, puts us instead in a position of greater responsibilities and obligations," she said.
As her husband, the outgoing president, stood at her side, she said she would build on his work.
"We have repositioned the country, fought poverty and unemployment, all these tragedies that have hit Argentines," she said, referring to the country's recovery from the 2001 economic crash.
Elisa Carrio, who performed well in the capital Buenos Aires, secured 23% of the overall vote, with ex-economy minister Roberto Lavagna in third place on 17%.
Eleven candidates split the rest of the ballots.
Mrs Kirchner needed more than 45% of the full vote, or 40% with a 10 point lead over the next nearest candidate, to win the presidency without facing a second round of voting.
Polling was extended by one hour in some parts of the country to 1900 local time (2200 GMT) to accommodate a late rush of voters.
Besides a new president, voters were choosing eight provincial governors, a third of the Senate and about half of the Chamber of Deputies.
Some 27 million people were eligible to vote.
Economy and crime
The economy and rising crime have been the two main issues in campaigning.
Mr Kirchner has overseen a return to stability and some prosperity since the economy collapsed six years ago, plunging thousands into poverty, the BBC's Daniel Schweimler reports from Buenos Aires.
But there are fears over how strong the economy really is and general scepticism over official statistics suggesting inflation is under control.
Mrs Kirchner's critics have attacked her for failing to outline exactly what her policies are, but voters who spoke to the BBC's Will Grant in Buenos Aires said the opposition had failed to offer any real alternative.
Surprise candidate
Just a few months ago, Mr Kirchner was riding high in the opinion polls and looked set to continue for a second term.
However, it was announced in July that his wife Cristina, senator for Buenos Aires province, would stand in his place. No explanation was given.
It is not clear what role, if any, Mr Kirchner will play in his wife's administration.
But Mrs Kirchner, candidate for the governing Front for Victory, has promised to continue her husband's centre-left policies.
As well as facing comparisons with Eva Peron, Argentina's legendary former first lady, Mrs
Kirchner has been compared to former US First Lady Hillary Clinton, who is also a lawyer and senator seeking to become the first elected female president of her country.
"I don't want to be compared with Hillary Clinton or with Evita Peron, or with anybody," she said recently.
"There's nothing better than being yourself."
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2007년 10월 17일 수요일
Protesters attack bars in Bolivia
Hundreds of angry residents have attacked bars and brothels in Bolivia for a second day amid reports they were selling alcohol to underage drinkers.
Protesters armed with sticks and stones smashed windows and set furniture ablaze in at least 20 bars in El Alto, on the edge of the capital, La Paz.
They want local government to pass laws banning pubs and brothels near schools.
Municipal council chairman Gustavo Morales told Spain's Efe news agency such regulations were in the pipeline.
'Neighbourhoods unsafe'
The protesters - mostly families mobilised by the El Alto Parents' Federation - say the establishments are making their neighbourhood unsafe.
Local newspaper reports said some bars had hidden areas for underage alcohol consumption.
"We want to end this, because our children are here, our husbands, our brothers-in-law, all the males in the family spend their time here," local resident Justina Mamani told The Associated Press news agency.
Mr Morales said the new laws would extend the minimum distance between brothels and schools from 300m to 500m (330 to 550 yards) and limit business hours for all nightlife venues.
El Alto is one of the poorest areas of Bolivia.
Many of its one million residents were instrumental in bringing down the government of Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada amid violent protests in 2003.
---------------------------------
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7049155.stm
Protesters armed with sticks and stones smashed windows and set furniture ablaze in at least 20 bars in El Alto, on the edge of the capital, La Paz.
They want local government to pass laws banning pubs and brothels near schools.
Municipal council chairman Gustavo Morales told Spain's Efe news agency such regulations were in the pipeline.
'Neighbourhoods unsafe'
The protesters - mostly families mobilised by the El Alto Parents' Federation - say the establishments are making their neighbourhood unsafe.
Local newspaper reports said some bars had hidden areas for underage alcohol consumption.
"We want to end this, because our children are here, our husbands, our brothers-in-law, all the males in the family spend their time here," local resident Justina Mamani told The Associated Press news agency.
Mr Morales said the new laws would extend the minimum distance between brothels and schools from 300m to 500m (330 to 550 yards) and limit business hours for all nightlife venues.
El Alto is one of the poorest areas of Bolivia.
Many of its one million residents were instrumental in bringing down the government of Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada amid violent protests in 2003.
---------------------------------
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7049155.stm
2007년 10월 16일 화요일
Castro speaks live on Chavez show
Cuban President Fidel Castro has spoken live on television for the first time since handing over power last year as he underwent a serious operation.
Mr Castro spoke by phone on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's weekly chat show, being broadcast from Cuba.
Mr Chavez is in the country to mark the 40th anniversary of the killing of revolutionary icon
Ernesto Che Guevara.
Mr Castro phoned to discuss the Guevara legacy, and the two leaders laughed and joked together for several minutes.
Video footage from a meeting between Mr Chavez and the Cuban leader, said to have been filmed on Saturday, was also shown during the programme.
'Father of revolutionaries'
The BBC's Duncan Kennedy in Havana said Mr Castro's voice was strong and he sounded like he was on the road to recovery.
The Cuban leader has not appeared in public since surgery forced him to cede power to his brother, Raul, last year.
In the video footage, Mr Chavez is seen singing hymns to Mr Castro and calling him "father of all revolutionaries".
The Cuban leader said he was moved by the tribute, and went on to praise Che Guevara as a "harvester of ideas".
After the tape was aired, Mr Chavez spoke to Mr Castro on the phone and told him: "Everyone is electrified to hear you."
The programme was broadcast from Guevara mausoleum in the Cuban city of Santa Clara.
In September, pictures of Mr Castro were broadcast on Cuban TV, ending rumours that he had died or suffered a major relapse.
-------------------------------------------
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7043701.stm
Mr Castro spoke by phone on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's weekly chat show, being broadcast from Cuba.
Mr Chavez is in the country to mark the 40th anniversary of the killing of revolutionary icon
Ernesto Che Guevara.
Mr Castro phoned to discuss the Guevara legacy, and the two leaders laughed and joked together for several minutes.
Video footage from a meeting between Mr Chavez and the Cuban leader, said to have been filmed on Saturday, was also shown during the programme.
'Father of revolutionaries'
The BBC's Duncan Kennedy in Havana said Mr Castro's voice was strong and he sounded like he was on the road to recovery.
The Cuban leader has not appeared in public since surgery forced him to cede power to his brother, Raul, last year.
In the video footage, Mr Chavez is seen singing hymns to Mr Castro and calling him "father of all revolutionaries".
The Cuban leader said he was moved by the tribute, and went on to praise Che Guevara as a "harvester of ideas".
After the tape was aired, Mr Chavez spoke to Mr Castro on the phone and told him: "Everyone is electrified to hear you."
The programme was broadcast from Guevara mausoleum in the Cuban city of Santa Clara.
In September, pictures of Mr Castro were broadcast on Cuban TV, ending rumours that he had died or suffered a major relapse.
-------------------------------------------
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7043701.stm
2007년 10월 13일 토요일
Colombia mine collapse kills 24
At least 24 amateur gold prospectors have been killed in a mine collapse in south-west Colombia.
Some 18 people were injured and another 10 estimated to be missing after the accident near the town of Suarez, about 350km (220 miles) from Bogota.
Some 18 people were injured and another 10 estimated to be missing after the accident near the town of Suarez, about 350km (220 miles) from Bogota.
Local residents were mining for gold with few security measures in place.
Rescue efforts have been called off for the night and were hampered by the fact that there was no record of how many people had entered the mine.
Recent torrential rains had weakened the sides of the open cast mine, sparking a landslide of mud and rock on some 50 prospectors.
'No safety'
Cauca provincial Governor Juan Jose Chaux said the search had been suspended as darkness and bad weather had made the mine more unsafe.
A local policeman told AP news agency: "There are still a lot of people to rescue, and we don't know what conditions they're in."
Television pictures showed rescuers with heavy machinery wading through mud in an eight meter (25 feet) deep by 50 meter (160 feet) wide pit.
Mr Chaux said prospectors had entered the pit after rumours there were gold seams despite being warned it was unsafe by the Suarez mayor.
The site is owned by mining company Agromineros.
The BBC's Jeremy McDermott in Colombia says gold deposits abound in the region but few mining companies venture to operate there because warring factions control much of the country's rural parts.
Local residents have taken the opportunity to set up illegal mining operations which respect no safety regulations, according to our correspondent.
In February a gas explosion at a coal mine in north-eastern Colombia killed 32 miners.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7043516.stm
Gore shares Nobel win with U.N. climate panel
OSLO (Reuters) - Former Vice President Al Gore and the U.N. climate panel won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their part in galvanizing international action against global warming before it "moves beyond man's control".
Gore and the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) won "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change", the Norwegian Nobel Committee said.
They were chosen to share the $1.5 million prize from a field of 181 candidates.
"He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted," the committee said of Gore.
"The IPCC has created an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming," it said.
"Action is necessary now, before climate change moves beyond man's control," the citation said of rising temperatures that could bring more droughts, floods, rising seas.
It was the second prize to a leading Democrat during the presidency of Republican George W. Bush.
The 2002 prize went to former President Jimmy Carter, which the Nobel committee head at the time called a "kick in the legs" to the U.S. administration over preparations to invade Iraq.
But chairman Ole Danbolt Mjoes said the prize to Gore was not meant as criticism of Bush. "A peace price is never criticism of anyone, a peace price is a positive message and support to all fighting for peace in the world."
Since leaving office in 2001 Gore has lectured extensively on the threat of global warming and last year starred in his own Oscar-winning documentary film "An Inconvenient Truth" to warn of the dangers of climate change and urge action against it.
It was the first Nobel Peace Prize to climate campaigners, though the 2004 prize went to Kenya's Wangari Maathai for her work to get women across Africa to plant trees -- an earlier expansion of the concept of peace to environmental work.
OVERWHELMED
Gore and the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) won "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change", the Norwegian Nobel Committee said.
They were chosen to share the $1.5 million prize from a field of 181 candidates.
"He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted," the committee said of Gore.
"The IPCC has created an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming," it said.
"Action is necessary now, before climate change moves beyond man's control," the citation said of rising temperatures that could bring more droughts, floods, rising seas.
It was the second prize to a leading Democrat during the presidency of Republican George W. Bush.
The 2002 prize went to former President Jimmy Carter, which the Nobel committee head at the time called a "kick in the legs" to the U.S. administration over preparations to invade Iraq.
But chairman Ole Danbolt Mjoes said the prize to Gore was not meant as criticism of Bush. "A peace price is never criticism of anyone, a peace price is a positive message and support to all fighting for peace in the world."
Since leaving office in 2001 Gore has lectured extensively on the threat of global warming and last year starred in his own Oscar-winning documentary film "An Inconvenient Truth" to warn of the dangers of climate change and urge action against it.
It was the first Nobel Peace Prize to climate campaigners, though the 2004 prize went to Kenya's Wangari Maathai for her work to get women across Africa to plant trees -- an earlier expansion of the concept of peace to environmental work.
OVERWHELMED
Gore, age 59, said he was deeply honored to win and said he would donate his share of the prize money to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a bipartisan non-profit organization.
"This award is even more meaningful because I have the honor of sharing it with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- the world's preeminent scientific body devoted to improving our understanding of the climate crisis -- a group whose members have worked tirelessly and selflessly for many years."
IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri said he was overwhelmed.
"I can't believe it, overwhelmed, stunned," Pachauri told reporters and co-workers after receiving the news on the phone at his office in New Delhi.
"I feel privileged sharing it with someone as distinguished as him," he added, referring to Gore.
The IPCC groups 2,500 researchers from more than 130 nations and issued reports this year blaming human activities for climate changes ranging from more heat waves to floods. It was set up in 1988 by the United Nations to help guide governments.
In the run-up to the announcement, speculation that Gore could win the Nobel prize prompted questions about whether it could lead Gore to join the 2008 race for the White House.
Monica Friedlander, founder of the group www.draftgore.com seeking to get Gore to run, said it would now "be very difficult for him to say no".
"He's in a position to make a big difference," she said.
The scope of the prize established by the 1895 will of Swedish philanthropist and inventor of dynamite Alfred Nobel has expanded over the decades from its roots in peacemaking and disarmament to human rights from the 1960s, to work for the environment and the fight against poverty.
Congratulations poured in from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barros, U.N. Environment Program chief Achim Steiner, environmental groups and others.
The Nobel prize is worth 10 million Swedish crowns ($1.54 million) and will be handed out in Oslo on December 10.
--------------------------------
2007년 10월 6일 토요일
Climate Campaigners Tipped for Nobel Peace Prize
OSLO - Former Vice President Al Gore and other campaigners against climate change lead experts' choices for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, an award once reserved for statesmen, peacemakers and human rights activists.
If a campaigner against global warming carries off the high world accolade later this month, it will accentuate a shift to reward work outside traditional peacekeeping and reinforce the link between peace and the environment.
The winner, who will take $1.5 million in prize money, will be announced in the Norwegian capital on October 12 from a field of 181 nominees.
Gore, who has raised awareness with his book and Oscar-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth", and Canadian Inuit activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier, who has shed light on how global warming affects Arctic peoples, were nominated to share the prize by two Norwegian parliamentarians.
"I think they are likely winners this year," said Stein Toennesson, director of Oslo's International Peace Research Institute (PRIO) and a long-time Nobel Peace Prize watcher.
"It will certainly be tempting to the (Nobel) committee to have two North Americans -- one the activist that personifies the struggle against climate change, raising awareness, and the other who represents some of the victims of climate change."
Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, agreed the award committee could establish the link between peace and the environment.
"I think the whole issue of climate change and the environment will come at some point and reflect in the prize," Egeland told reporters last week.
"There are already climate wars unfolding ... And the worst area for that is the Sahel belt in Africa."
There has been a shift to reward work away from the realm of conventional peacemaking and human rights work.
IN WITH A CHANCE
Toennesson said others with a chance included former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, a perennial nominee for decades of peace mediation work, and dissident Vietnamese monk Thich Quang Do for his pro-democracy efforts.
The secretive five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee does not disclose the names of nominees, though some who make nominations go public with their candidates.
Toennesson said by giving the award to those fighting climate change, the committee would thrust itself into the public debate ahead of a key U.N. climate conference in Bali, Indonesia, in December.
If Gore is seen as too political, the committee could opt instead for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) -- the scientists who advise the United Nations and produce key reports on the climate problem, Toennesson said.
To give it a face, the prize could be shared by the IPCC's Indian chairman Rajendra Pachauri, experts said, though Pachauri told Reuters in London he did not think he stood a chance.
"I have a feeling it will go to Al Gore, and I think he deserves it. He certainly has done a remarkable job of creating awareness on the subject and has become a crusader," he said.
Watt-Cloutier told Reuters she was flattered to be mentioned as a possible winner but did not expect to win.
Toennesson said Ahtisaari deserves the prize most for helping to bring peace to the Aceh region of Indonesia in 2005.
(Additional reporting by Alister Doyle)
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http://www.enn.com/climate/article/23645
Che: The icon and the ad
By Stephanie Holmes BBC News It is perhaps the most reproduced, recycled and ripped off image of the 20th Century.
Che Guevara, his eyes framed by heavy brows, a single-starred beret pulled over his unruly hair, stares out of the shot with glowering intensity.
It's now 40 years since the Argentine-born rebel was shot dead, so any young radicals who cheered on his revolutionary struggles in Cuba and Bolivia are well into middle age.
But the image has been infinitely repeated - emblazoned on T-shirts and sprayed on to walls, transformed into pop art and used to wrap ice-creams and sell cigarettes - and its appeal has not faded.
"There is no other image like it. What other image has been sustained in this way?" asks Trisha Ziff, the curator of a touring exhibition on the iconography of Che.
"Che Guevara has become a brand. And the brand's logo is the image, which represents change.
It has becomes the icon of the outside thinker, at whatever level - whether it is anti-war, pro-green or anti-globalisation," she says.
Its presence - everywhere from walls in the Palestinian territories to Parisian boutiques - makes it an image that is "out of control", she adds.
"It has become a corporation, an empire, at this point."
The unchecked proliferation of the picture - based on a photograph by Alberto Korda in 1960 - is partly due to a political choice by Korda and others not to demand payment for non-commercial use of the image.
Birth of an icon
Jim Fitzpatrick, who produced the ubiquitous high-contrast drawing in the late 1960s as a young graphic artist, told the BBC News website he actively wanted his art to be disseminated.
"I deliberately designed it to breed like rabbits," he says of his image, which removes the original photograph's shadows and volume to create a stark and emblematic graphic portrait.
"The way they killed him, there was to be no memorial, no place of pilgrimage, nothing. I was determined that the image should receive the broadest possible circulation," he adds.
"His image will never die, his name will never die."
For Ms Ziff, Che Guevara's murder also marks the beginning of the mythical image.
"The birth of the image happens at the death of Che in October 1967," she says.
"He was good-looking, he was young, but more than that, he died for his ideals, so he automatically becomes an icon."
The story of the original photograph, of how it left Cuba and was carried by admirers to Europe before being reinterpreted in Mr Fitzpatrick's iconic drawing, is a fascinating journey in its own right.
Alberto Korda captured his famous frame on 5 March 1960 during a mass funeral in Havana.
A day earlier, a French cargo ship loaded with ammunition had exploded in the city's harbour, killing some 80 Cubans - an act Fidel Castro blamed on the US.
Korda, Fidel Castro's official photographer, describes Che's expression in the picture, which he labelled "Guerrillero Heroico" (the heroic fighter), as "encabronadao y dolente" - angry and sad.
The picture was one of only two frames taken. The original shot includes palm fronds and a man facing Che, both subsequently cropped out.
Unpublished for a year, the picture was seen only by those who passed through Korda's studio, where it hung on a wall.
Poster boy
One man who brought the image to Europe was the leftist Italian publisher and intellectual, Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, who distributed posters across Italy in 1967.
After that, Korda's photograph made an appearance in several European magazines. Mr Fitzpatrick first came across it in the German weekly, Stern.
"One of the images was Korda's but it was so tiny that when I blew it up all I got was a dot matrix pattern. From this I did a quasi-psychedelic, sea-weedy version of Che," he said.
Only months later, when he finally got his hands on a larger version of the photograph, was he able to produce the image that has such universal appeal.
"I'd got an original copy of the image sent to me by a guy involved with a group of Dutch anarchists, called the Provo."
This underground movement was in turn rumoured to have been given the image by French philosopher and radical Jean-Paul Sartre, who was present at the Havana funeral when it was taken.
Capitalism and Catholicism
After Che Guevara's death, an outraged Mr Fitzpatrick furiously reprinted originals of the poster and sent it to left-wing political activist groups across Europe.
Part of his anger stemmed from vivid memories working behind a bar in Ireland as a teenager, and seeing Che walk in.
The revolutionary was briefly exploring the homeland of his Irish ancestors - the full family name was Guevara-Lynch - during a stopover on a flight to Moscow.
"I must have been around 16 or 17," Mr Fitzpatrick remembers. "It was a bright, sunny morning and light was streaming into the windows of the bar. I knew immediately who he was. He was an immensely charming man - likeable, roguish, good fun and very proud of being Irish."
Mr Fitzpatrick's version of Che arrived on the continent as many countries were in a state of flux, says Ms Ziff.
"His death was followed by demonstrations, first in Milan and then elsewhere. Very soon afterwards there was the Prague Spring and May '68 in France. Europe was in turmoil. People wanted change, disruption and rebellion and he became a symbol of that change."
As time went on, the meaning and the man represented by the image became separated in the western context, Ms Ziff explains.
It began to be used as a decoration for products from tissues to underwear. Unilever even brought out a Che version of the Magnum ice cream in Australia - flavoured with cherry and guava.
"There is a theory that an image can only exist for a certain amount of time before capitalism appropriates it. But capitalism only wants to appropriate images if they retain some sense of danger," Ms Ziff says.
But in Latin America, she points out, Che Guevara's face remains a symbol of armed revolution and indigenous struggle.
Indeed, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez often appears wearing a Che T-shirt and visitors to the offices of Bolivia's leader, Evo Morales, are reportedly greeted with a version of the iconic image fashioned from coca leaves.
Combining capitalism and commerce, religion and revolution, the icon remains unchallenged, Ms Ziff says.
"There is no other image that remotely takes us to all these different places."
A film produced by Trisha Ziff on the iconography of Che Guevara, Chevolution, is expected to be released in early 2008. Her exhibition is due to open at Barcelona's Palacio Virreina museum on 25 October 2007.
-------------------------------
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7028598.stm
2007년 9월 26일 수요일
Argentine boy sex change approved
By Daniel Schweimler BBC News, Buenos Aires
A court in the central Argentine province of Cordoba has for the first time agreed that a sex change operation can be carried out on a minor.
The case concerns a 17-year-old male called Nati who wants to be a woman.
The decision ends a long-running legal process for Nati, who suffers from the transsexual disorder known as Harry Benjamin Syndrome.
The judge insisted that Nati receive counselling after the operation, which will take place in the next few days.
Nati knew from an early age that she had been born with the wrong body.
The decision by the court in Cordoba, the first of its kind in Argentina, means that that can now be put right.
Legal fight
After the operation Nati will also be able to officially change her name and apply for new documentation.
I'm very happy, she said, that my real identity has been recognised.
Her parents and friends have supported the 17-year-old during a long and often tortuous legal process that saw some decisions go against her.
The president of the Argentine homosexual community, Cesar Cigliutti, was one of those supporters.
"Not only the operation has been authorised but also the necessary changes to her birth certificate," he said.
"What's important and unusual about this case is that Natalie is a minor - she is not yet 18 years old - and this has become an emblematic case for people who have a gender identity different to their biological one."
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7013579.stm
A court in the central Argentine province of Cordoba has for the first time agreed that a sex change operation can be carried out on a minor.
The case concerns a 17-year-old male called Nati who wants to be a woman.
The decision ends a long-running legal process for Nati, who suffers from the transsexual disorder known as Harry Benjamin Syndrome.
The judge insisted that Nati receive counselling after the operation, which will take place in the next few days.
Nati knew from an early age that she had been born with the wrong body.
The decision by the court in Cordoba, the first of its kind in Argentina, means that that can now be put right.
Legal fight
After the operation Nati will also be able to officially change her name and apply for new documentation.
I'm very happy, she said, that my real identity has been recognised.
Her parents and friends have supported the 17-year-old during a long and often tortuous legal process that saw some decisions go against her.
The president of the Argentine homosexual community, Cesar Cigliutti, was one of those supporters.
"Not only the operation has been authorised but also the necessary changes to her birth certificate," he said.
"What's important and unusual about this case is that Natalie is a minor - she is not yet 18 years old - and this has become an emblematic case for people who have a gender identity different to their biological one."
---------------------------
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7013579.stm
Hyundai to Unveil Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle
SEOUL, South Korea - Hyundai Motor Corporation will unveil the i-Blue Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle at the 2007 Frankfurt International Motor Show on September 13. The all-new i-Blue platform is tailored to incorporate Hyundai's third-generation fuel cell technology, currently being developed at Hyundai's Eco-Technology Research Institute in Mabuk, Korea.
"The i-Blue is Hyundai's first-ever model designed from the ground up to incorporate fuel cell technology, marking a tremendous leap forward for our R&D program," said Dr. Hyun-Soon Lee, president of research and development. "Our engineering team has successfully designed a more compact fuel cell vehicle, while still realizing the safety, comfort, convenience and driving range of a traditional internal combustion engine vehicle."
In keeping with this year's show theme, "See What's Driving the Future," which focuses on sustainability and climate protection, the i-Blue signifies a major step towards the commercialization of Hyundai fuel cell vehicles. Unlike its predecessors which were built on SUV platforms, the i-Blue features a new 2+2 crossover utility vehicle (CUV) body type.
Hyundai's new hydrogen-powered, zero-emission concept, the i-Blue Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle was developed at Hyundai's Design and Technical Center in Chiba, Japan.
Hyundai is making tremendous efforts to reach mass production of hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles a reality in the next decade.
-------------------
http://www.enn.com/energy/article/22588
"The i-Blue is Hyundai's first-ever model designed from the ground up to incorporate fuel cell technology, marking a tremendous leap forward for our R&D program," said Dr. Hyun-Soon Lee, president of research and development. "Our engineering team has successfully designed a more compact fuel cell vehicle, while still realizing the safety, comfort, convenience and driving range of a traditional internal combustion engine vehicle."
In keeping with this year's show theme, "See What's Driving the Future," which focuses on sustainability and climate protection, the i-Blue signifies a major step towards the commercialization of Hyundai fuel cell vehicles. Unlike its predecessors which were built on SUV platforms, the i-Blue features a new 2+2 crossover utility vehicle (CUV) body type.
Hyundai's new hydrogen-powered, zero-emission concept, the i-Blue Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle was developed at Hyundai's Design and Technical Center in Chiba, Japan.
Hyundai is making tremendous efforts to reach mass production of hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles a reality in the next decade.
-------------------
http://www.enn.com/energy/article/22588
2007년 9월 20일 목요일
Scores ill in Peru 'meteor crash'
Hundreds of people in Peru have needed treatment after an object from space - said to be a meteorite - plummeted to Earth in a remote area, officials say.
They say the object left a deep crater after crashing down over the weekend near the town of Carancas in the Andes.
People who visited the scene have been complaining of headaches, vomiting and nausea after inhaling gases.
But some experts have questioned whether it was a meteorite or some other object that landed in Carancas.
"Increasingly we think that people witnessed a fireball, which are not uncommon, went off to investigate and found a lake of sedimentary deposit, which may be full of smelly, methane rich organic matter," said Dr Caroline Smith, a meteorite expert at the London-based Natural History Museum.
"This has been mistaken for a crater."
A team of scientists is on its way to the site to collect samples and verify whether it was indeed a meteorite.
Geologists have called on the authorities to stop people going near the crash site.
A local journalist, Martine Hanlon, told the BBC experts did not believe the meteor would make anybody sick, but they did think a chemical reaction caused by its contact with the ground could release toxins such as sulphur and arsenic.
An engineer from the Peruvian Nuclear Energy Institute told AFP news agency that no radiation had been detected from the crater. He ruled out any possibility that the fallen object might be a satellite.
Afraid
Nestor Quispe, the mayor of the municipality to which Carancas belongs, told the BBC that many residents had been affected.
"Lots of people from the town of Carancas have fallen ill. They have headaches, eye problems, irritated skin, nausea and vomiting," he said.
"I think there's also a certain psychological fear in the community."
Local resident Heber Mamani said a bull and some other animals had become ill.
"That is why we are asking for an analysis, because we are worried for our people. They are afraid," he said.
Another local villager, Romulo Quispe, said people were worried that the water was no longer safe to drink.
"This is the water we use for the animals, and for us, for everyone, and it looks like it is contaminated," he said.
"We don't know what is going on at the moment, that is what we are worried about."
The incident took place on Saturday night, when people near Carancas in the remote Puno region, some 1,300km (800 miles) south of the Peruvian capital, Lima, reported seeing a fireball in the sky coming towards them.
The object then hit the ground, leaving a 30m (98ft) wide and 6m (20ft) deep crater.
The crater spewed what officials described as fetid, noxious gases.
Jorge Lopez, a health director in Puno, told Reuters news agency he had an irritated throat and itchy nose after visiting the site.
---------------------
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7001897.stm
Soil degradation issues 'swept aside', say experts
Soil scientists have called for more targeted research and strict guidelines to stop what they say is the massive degradation of land and soil around the world, which is contributing to climate change and threatening food security.
The proposal is the outcome of five days of discussions at the International Forum of Soils, Society and Global Change in Selfoss, Iceland, which concluded last week.
"The soils of the world are degrading," Zafar Adeel, director of the UN University's International Network on Water, Environment and Health, told SciDev.Net.
There is a strong link between soil and land degradation, and climate change, he says.
The forum heard that at least a quarter of the excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has come from changes in land use — such as deforestation — in the last century.
And without the cover of vegetation, land becomes more reflective, heating up the air above it, and potentially contributing to global warming. It also loses fertility and the capacity to support vegetation and agricultural crops.
By addressing soils and protecting the land cover and vegetation, you can get a "much bigger bang for the buck" in terms of mitigating climate change, Adeel says, but recognition of this link "is not there at the international level".
The forum is currently drafting a set of guiding principles on land care, and will collate methods and lessons learnt on land care to be made available globally.
It has also proposed that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change develops a special report on the link between land degradation and climate change.
Forum participants also called for a better understanding of and capacity for carbon sequestration in soil, recognising the potential to put back 1”“2 billion tons [sic] of carbon by restoring degraded ecosystems.
Boshra Salem, from the Department of Environmental Sciences at Egypt's University of Alexandria told SciDev.Net that degradation of soil and land in already marginally productive land is a significant issue for many developing countries, particularly in northern Africa, the Sahara region and parts of Asia, including China.
Salem said that many of these regions have fragile ecosystems. "Any human interventions, for example grazing livestock, can lead to serious degradation."
"There needs to be more collaboration, especially between countries who share the same land degradation problems," Salem added.
--------------------
http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/22831
The proposal is the outcome of five days of discussions at the International Forum of Soils, Society and Global Change in Selfoss, Iceland, which concluded last week.
"The soils of the world are degrading," Zafar Adeel, director of the UN University's International Network on Water, Environment and Health, told SciDev.Net.
There is a strong link between soil and land degradation, and climate change, he says.
The forum heard that at least a quarter of the excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has come from changes in land use — such as deforestation — in the last century.
And without the cover of vegetation, land becomes more reflective, heating up the air above it, and potentially contributing to global warming. It also loses fertility and the capacity to support vegetation and agricultural crops.
By addressing soils and protecting the land cover and vegetation, you can get a "much bigger bang for the buck" in terms of mitigating climate change, Adeel says, but recognition of this link "is not there at the international level".
The forum is currently drafting a set of guiding principles on land care, and will collate methods and lessons learnt on land care to be made available globally.
It has also proposed that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change develops a special report on the link between land degradation and climate change.
Forum participants also called for a better understanding of and capacity for carbon sequestration in soil, recognising the potential to put back 1”“2 billion tons [sic] of carbon by restoring degraded ecosystems.
Boshra Salem, from the Department of Environmental Sciences at Egypt's University of Alexandria told SciDev.Net that degradation of soil and land in already marginally productive land is a significant issue for many developing countries, particularly in northern Africa, the Sahara region and parts of Asia, including China.
Salem said that many of these regions have fragile ecosystems. "Any human interventions, for example grazing livestock, can lead to serious degradation."
"There needs to be more collaboration, especially between countries who share the same land degradation problems," Salem added.
--------------------
http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/22831
2007년 9월 13일 목요일
Experts: Climate change puts sea at risk
ROME --Climate change is affecting Europe faster than the rest of the world and rising temperatures could transform the Mediterranean into a salty and stagnant sea, Italian experts said Wednesday.
Warmer waters and increased salinity could doom many of the sea's plant and animal species and ravage the fishing industry, warned participants at a two-day climate change conference that brought together some 2,000 scientists and officials in Rome.
"Europe and the Mediterranean are warming up faster than the rest of the world," said climatologist Filippo Giorgi. "It's a climate change hot spot, one of the areas where we actually see the change happening."
Scientists still don't know why the region is more sensitive to climate change, but Giorgi said that in the next decades, temperature increases hitting Europe during the summer months could be 40 percent to 50 percent higher than elsewhere.
Giorgi said the effects would be similar to those felt during the deadly summer of 2003, when the extraordinary heat was blamed for the deaths of tens of thousands of people in Europe and millions of dollars in agricultural losses.
"That was a one-in-a-million freak event, but in the future it will be the norm for the summer," said Giorgi, who is a top official in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a U.N. network of 2,000 scientists.
The change is also being felt at sea level, with a surface temperature increase of 1 degree every decade, said Vincenzo Ferrara, an Italian government adviser on climate.
"The Mediterranean is becoming warmer and saltier" due to increased evaporation, Ferrara told the conference, which was held at the Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.
Ferrara said this could disrupt the flow at the Strait of Gibraltar, a key gateway to the Mediterranean. The higher salt concentration in the Mediterranean would cause water to flow out into the Atlantic Ocean, as opposed to Atlantic water coming into the Mediterranean, which serves as the sea's lifeline.
Even more worrying, a study conducted by ICRAM, Italy's marine research institute, indicates the temperature increases are creeping into the cold depths of the Mediterranean.
Measurements conducted last winter off Italy's western coast at a depth of up to 300 feet showed temperatures were about 3.6 degrees above average.
Temperature differences between the sea's layers create the currents that allow the Mediterranean's waters to mix and bring up fresh nutrients to feed the algae that form the basic diet of most fish species, according to the study.
These temperature rises could wipe out "up to 50 percent of the species," the study said. The decline in the algae population measured last winter also reduced by 30 percent the sea's ability to absorb carbon dioxide, one of the gases blamed by scientists for heating the atmosphere like a greenhouse.
---------------------------
http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/23016
Warmer waters and increased salinity could doom many of the sea's plant and animal species and ravage the fishing industry, warned participants at a two-day climate change conference that brought together some 2,000 scientists and officials in Rome.
"Europe and the Mediterranean are warming up faster than the rest of the world," said climatologist Filippo Giorgi. "It's a climate change hot spot, one of the areas where we actually see the change happening."
Scientists still don't know why the region is more sensitive to climate change, but Giorgi said that in the next decades, temperature increases hitting Europe during the summer months could be 40 percent to 50 percent higher than elsewhere.
Giorgi said the effects would be similar to those felt during the deadly summer of 2003, when the extraordinary heat was blamed for the deaths of tens of thousands of people in Europe and millions of dollars in agricultural losses.
"That was a one-in-a-million freak event, but in the future it will be the norm for the summer," said Giorgi, who is a top official in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a U.N. network of 2,000 scientists.
The change is also being felt at sea level, with a surface temperature increase of 1 degree every decade, said Vincenzo Ferrara, an Italian government adviser on climate.
"The Mediterranean is becoming warmer and saltier" due to increased evaporation, Ferrara told the conference, which was held at the Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.
Ferrara said this could disrupt the flow at the Strait of Gibraltar, a key gateway to the Mediterranean. The higher salt concentration in the Mediterranean would cause water to flow out into the Atlantic Ocean, as opposed to Atlantic water coming into the Mediterranean, which serves as the sea's lifeline.
Even more worrying, a study conducted by ICRAM, Italy's marine research institute, indicates the temperature increases are creeping into the cold depths of the Mediterranean.
Measurements conducted last winter off Italy's western coast at a depth of up to 300 feet showed temperatures were about 3.6 degrees above average.
Temperature differences between the sea's layers create the currents that allow the Mediterranean's waters to mix and bring up fresh nutrients to feed the algae that form the basic diet of most fish species, according to the study.
These temperature rises could wipe out "up to 50 percent of the species," the study said. The decline in the algae population measured last winter also reduced by 30 percent the sea's ability to absorb carbon dioxide, one of the gases blamed by scientists for heating the atmosphere like a greenhouse.
---------------------------
http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/23016
Forgotten, But Not Gone
A tour guide at the legendary ruins of Palenque in Chiapas, Mexico, likes to tell the story. A tourist, after staring in awe at the towering pyramids, turned to the guide and said, "The buildings are beautiful, but where did all the people go?" "Of course, she was talking to a Maya," the guide says, shaking his head at the irony. "We're still here. We never left." The exchange illustrates a living paradox at the heart of the Maya puzzle: even as scientists continue to investigate the mysterious eclipse of the classic Maya empire, the Maya themselves are all around them. An estimated 1.2 million Maya still live in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, and nearly 5 million more are spread throughout the Yucatan Peninsula and the cities and rural farm communities of Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Ethnically, they are derived from the same people who created the most exalted culture in Mesoamerica. Yet the thousands of visitors who come each year to admire the imposing temples of Palenque might be shocked to know the ignominious fate of the Maya's modern-day descendants.
Centuries of persecution and cultural isolation have turned the Maya into impoverished outcasts in their own land. At best, they are often reduced to tourist attractions; for a little money, Mexico's Lacandon Indians, for instance, will display their traditional white cotton shikur and long black hair. But condescension is the mildest of the abuses suffered by today's Maya. In a 1992 report on the indigenous peoples of the Americas, Amnesty International cited dozens of human-rights violations carried out by Mexican authorities against the Maya people of Chiapas: they include an incident in 1990 when 11 Maya were tortured after being arrested during a land dispute, and another one two years ago when 100 Maya were beaten and imprisoned for 30 hours without food or medical attention. In Guatemala's 30-year-old civil war, it has been the Maya who have been the primary victims of the military's antiguerrilla campaigns in the highlands, which have left 140,000 Guatemalans dead or missing. In some cases, government troops have burned entire Maya villages.
The systematic subjugation of the Maya dates back to the Spanish Conquest of the early 16th century, when Catholic missionaries outlawed the Maya religion and burned all but four of their sacred bark-paper books. Indians who were not killed in battle or felled by European diseases were forced to work on colonial plantations, often as slaves. Bands of Maya rebels, known to be ferocious fighters, resisted pacification for almost 400 years, first under the Spanish occupation and then under the Mexican army after Mexico became independent.
Despite this history of defiance -- or maybe, in some cases, because of it -- the Maya continued to be targets of abuse even after being incorporated into the family of Central American nations. As recently as 20 years ago, Maya peasants carrying chickens or peanuts to the town market in San Cristobal de las Casas were in danger of having their wares snatched away by non-Indian women, or "Black Widows." And though the town's economy depended on trade with the Indians, Maya found walking the streets at night would be thrown into jail and fined.
Today, despite government decrees that guarantee equal rights for Indians and the new presidency in Guatemala of human-rights champion Ramiro de Leon Carpio, indigenous peoples like the Maya remain at the bottom rung of the political and economic ladder. In Chiapas, where the natives speak nine different languages, literacy rates are about 50%, compared with 88% for Mexico as a whole. Infant mortality among the Maya is 500 per 1,000 live births, 10 times as high as the national average. And 70% of the Indians in the countryside lack access to potable water.
In these sorry conditions, many Maya have seized on their old ways to make sense of their modern lives. In the remote highlands of Guatemala and Mexico, where the rugged terrain has held the outside world at bay, contemporary Maya still practice many of the same rituals that were performed by their ancestors 4,000 years ago. Maya weavers embroider their wares with diamond motifs that are virtually identical to the cosmological patterns depicted on the lintels of ancient temples at Yaxchilan and other Maya sites. By marking their clothing with the symbols of their ancestors, the Maya artisans build a material link to pre-Columbian gods -- and the indelible spirit of their cultural past. "Depictions of everyday life do not occur in the weaving," notes Walter F. Morris Jr., a Seattle-based anthropologist and author of Living Maya. "It's always something supernatural, something dreamt, something you can only see in dreams."
With reporting by Laura Lopez/San Cristobal de las Casas
----------------------
2007년 9월 7일 금요일
Venezuela's Chavez Challenges U.S. with Energy Summit
Venezuela's Chavez Challenges U.S. with Energy Summit
http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/6375
PORLAMAR, Venezuela -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will seek to use oil wealth to consolidate regional support for his anti-U.S. politics as he hosts an energy summit of South American leaders Monday.
But the meeting on the Caribbean tourist island of Margarita comes as rifts have emerged across the continent over ethanol, with Brazil working with Washington to promote the fuel in an effort Chavez says will increase world hunger.
Chavez, who governs atop the hemisphere's largest oil reserves and wins political influence with subsidized exports to neighbors, wants the 12-nation conference to focus on regional integration as a counterweight to the United States.
"Gradually the U.S. empire will end up a paper tiger and we the peoples of Latin America will become true tigers of steel," Chavez said on the eve of the summit.
Security is tight for almost a dozens heads of state.
In the last few days, gray military vessels have churned through crystalline waters and helicopters have clattered above sunbathers on the resort island that is popular with Venezuelan vacationers for its white-sand beaches and VAT-free stores.
Local authorities have also been sprucing up the island, repainting street markings and replacing roadside lampposts.
At the two-day summit, Chavez will promote a much-heralded project to build a 5,000-mile natural gas pipeline linking the OPEC nation's gas reserves to nations such as Brazil and Argentina.
While Chavez will seek to show unity with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, taking him on a tour early Monday of a petrochemical plant, the conference is unlikely to avoid the controversy of ethanol.
Aides to Lula say it is his "obsession" despite being labeled "genocidal" by Cuban leader Fidel Castro, Chavez's political mentor.
Venezuela, the fifth-largest exporter of oil to the United States, has urged Latin America to pass over ethanol and instead rely on its oil reserves and cooperate in developing ways to reduce energy consumption.
Power outages have traditionally blighted Margarita island, and particularly its main city Porlamar.
But with Cuban help, the government has installed millions of power-saving light bulbs in recent months that Chavez -- who often speaks in apocalyptic terms about the environment -- said can serve as an inspiration at the summit.
"This planet is in danger, the human race is is danger," he said after railing about high U.S. energy demand. "Let's do what we have to do to save mankind."
(With additional reporting by Fabian Andres Cambero in Caracas)
Source: Reuters
Contact Info:
http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/6375
Antarctic Melting May Be Speeding Up, Scientists Say
Antarctic Melting May Be Speeding Up, Scientists Say
HOBART -- Rising sea levels and melting polar ice-sheets are at upper limits of projections, leaving some human population centres already unable to cope, top world scientists say as they analyse latest satellite data.
A United Nations report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in February projected sea level gains of 18-59 centimetres (7-23 inches) this century from temperature rises of 1.8-4.0 Celsius (3.2-7.8 Farenheit).
"Observations are in the very upper edge of the projections," leading Australian marine scientist John Church told Reuters.
"I feel that we're getting uncomfortably close to threshhold," said Church, of Australia's CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research said.
Past this level, parts of the Antarctic and Greenland would approach a virtually irreversible melting that would produce sea level rises of metres, he said.
There has been no repeat in the Antarctic of the 2002 break-up of part of the Larsen ice shelf that created a 500 billion tonne iceberg as big as Luxembourg.
But the Antarctic Peninsula is warming faster than anywhere else on Earth, and glaciers are in massive retreat.
"There have been doomsday scenarios that west Antarctica could collapse quite quickly. And there's six metres of sea level in west Antarctica," says Tas van Ommen, a glaciologist at the Hobart-based Australian Antarctic Division.
Doomsday has not yet arrived.
But even in east Antarctica, which is insulated from global warming by extreme cold temperatures and high-altitudes, new information shows the height of the Tottenham Glacier near Australia's Casey Base has fallen by 10 metres over 15-16 years.
MELTING POLES
Scientists say massive glacier retreat at Heard Island, 1,000 km (620 miles) north of Antarctica, is an example of how fringe areas of the polar region are melting.
The break-up of ice in Antarctica to create icebergs is also opening pathways for accelerated flows to the sea by glaciers.
Church pointed out that sea levels were 4-6 metres higher more than 100,000 years ago when temperatures were at levels expected to be reached at the end of this century.
Dynamic ice-flows could add 25 percent to IPCC forecasts of sea level rise, van Ommen said.
Australian scientist John Hunter, who has focused on historical sea level information, said that to keep the sea water out, communities would need to begin raising sea walls.
"There's lots of places where you can't do that and where you'll have to put up with actual flooding," he said.
This was already happening in the south of England, where local councils and governments could not afford to protect all areas from sea water erosion as land continued to sink.
About 100 million people around the world live within a metre of the present-day sea level, CSIRO Marine Research senior principal research scientist Steve Rintoul said. "Those 100 million people will need to go somewhere," he said.
Worse, every metre of sea level rise causes an inland recession of around 100 metres (300 feet) and more erosion occurs with every storm.
"You can't just say we'll just put sea walls," Hunter said.
Source: Reuters
Contact Info:
Website :
------------------------
http://www.enn.com/climate/article/6242
HOBART -- Rising sea levels and melting polar ice-sheets are at upper limits of projections, leaving some human population centres already unable to cope, top world scientists say as they analyse latest satellite data.
A United Nations report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in February projected sea level gains of 18-59 centimetres (7-23 inches) this century from temperature rises of 1.8-4.0 Celsius (3.2-7.8 Farenheit).
"Observations are in the very upper edge of the projections," leading Australian marine scientist John Church told Reuters.
"I feel that we're getting uncomfortably close to threshhold," said Church, of Australia's CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research said.
Past this level, parts of the Antarctic and Greenland would approach a virtually irreversible melting that would produce sea level rises of metres, he said.
There has been no repeat in the Antarctic of the 2002 break-up of part of the Larsen ice shelf that created a 500 billion tonne iceberg as big as Luxembourg.
But the Antarctic Peninsula is warming faster than anywhere else on Earth, and glaciers are in massive retreat.
"There have been doomsday scenarios that west Antarctica could collapse quite quickly. And there's six metres of sea level in west Antarctica," says Tas van Ommen, a glaciologist at the Hobart-based Australian Antarctic Division.
Doomsday has not yet arrived.
But even in east Antarctica, which is insulated from global warming by extreme cold temperatures and high-altitudes, new information shows the height of the Tottenham Glacier near Australia's Casey Base has fallen by 10 metres over 15-16 years.
MELTING POLES
Scientists say massive glacier retreat at Heard Island, 1,000 km (620 miles) north of Antarctica, is an example of how fringe areas of the polar region are melting.
The break-up of ice in Antarctica to create icebergs is also opening pathways for accelerated flows to the sea by glaciers.
Church pointed out that sea levels were 4-6 metres higher more than 100,000 years ago when temperatures were at levels expected to be reached at the end of this century.
Dynamic ice-flows could add 25 percent to IPCC forecasts of sea level rise, van Ommen said.
Australian scientist John Hunter, who has focused on historical sea level information, said that to keep the sea water out, communities would need to begin raising sea walls.
"There's lots of places where you can't do that and where you'll have to put up with actual flooding," he said.
This was already happening in the south of England, where local councils and governments could not afford to protect all areas from sea water erosion as land continued to sink.
About 100 million people around the world live within a metre of the present-day sea level, CSIRO Marine Research senior principal research scientist Steve Rintoul said. "Those 100 million people will need to go somewhere," he said.
Worse, every metre of sea level rise causes an inland recession of around 100 metres (300 feet) and more erosion occurs with every storm.
"You can't just say we'll just put sea walls," Hunter said.
Source: Reuters
Contact Info:
Website :
------------------------
http://www.enn.com/climate/article/6242
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