samadhisoft.com

Glaciers are quickly disappearing from the Alps and will be all but gone by 2050, a climate expert said Monday. That’s 50 years earlier than a July 2006 study predicted.

The loss would change the supply of drinking and irrigation water, lead to more falling rocks, and cripple the European ski industry.

On average about 3 percent of Alpine glacial ice is lost each year, said Roland Psenner, a fresh water scientist at the University of Innsbruck in Austria. That corresponds to about 3.3 feet (1 meter) of ice thickness.

Ten percent was lost in the record-breaking heat of 2003. Seven percent was lost in 2006, Psenner said.

“If the melting goes on at this pace, glaciers will be gone by 2030 to 2050—except some high-altitude sites in the French, Swiss, and Italian Alps,” he wrote in an email to National Geographic News.

Psenner’s research was discussed Monday at an annual conference on the Alps in the Austrian mountain resort of Alpbach.

More… ➡

– This is an interesting story because it shows that the geopolitical balance of power is shifting.  China, for some years now, has been pouring much of its trade surplus money into upgrading its military.  The US has largely ‘owned’ the high ground of space and that’s a potent factor in any potential future conflict.  China’s new-found ability to bring satellites down, shows that its ability as a first rate military power is growing and that the US advantage in space is eroding.  This blog makes no judgments of on the rightness or wrongness of these changes – indeed, there is none – change has always and will always happen.   But, large shifts of power in the world have seldom been accomplished smoothly and for those attuned to the Perfect Storm Hypothesis, these changes are food for thought.

– I’ve pulled stories on this from five different publications and they are all here: ➡, ➡, ➡, ➡ and ➡

– The text from below is from the BBC but I could have chosen any of the sources.   Altogether, they make for a thoughtful read. 

——————————————–

China is facing international criticism over a weapons test it reportedly carried out in space last week. Japan has expressed concern, as have the US and Australia.

It is thought that the Chinese used a ground-based medium-range ballistic missile to destroy a weather satellite that had been launched in 1999.

Correspondents say this is the first known satellite intercept test for more than 20 years. China’s foreign ministry refused to confirm or deny the report.

WASHINGTON, DC, January 12, 2007 (ENS) – The minute hand of the Doomsday Clock will be moved closer to midnight on January 17, the first such change to the clock since February 2002. The Doomsday Clock has become a universally recognized indicator of the world’s vulnerability to nuclear weapons and other threats.

The move was announced today by the Board of Directors of the magazine “The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.”

It reflects growing concerns about what the board calls a “Second Nuclear Age” marked by grave threats, including nuclear ambitions in Iran and North Korea, unsecured nuclear materials in Russia and elsewhere, and the continuing “launch-ready” status of 2,000 of the 25,000 nuclear weapons held by the U.S. and Russia.

The board also cited “escalating terrorism, and new pressure from climate change for expanded civilian nuclear power that could increase proliferation risks.”

More… ➡