Scientists have discovered that in the last 30 years, there has been an increase in the number and size of different plant species in the Arctic tundra. Besides, a bigger area is now covered with plants. The conclusion made by the scientists is that the summers in the Arctic are becoming warmer. Moreover, the process is interdependent – the warming of the climate encourages the growth of plants, which, in turn, encourages changes in a number of natural processes, which cause the Earth’s climate to become warmer. This research was conducted by an international group of scientists, headed by Sarah Elmendorf from the University of British Columbia, based in Vancouver, Canada. The scientists studied the data supplied by 50 research stations, situated in various areas of the Arctic. In all these areas, the picture was virtually the same – dwarf shrub and the grass become taller and spread over increasingly greater areas in Alaska, on Spitsbergen, in Iceland, Greenland, in Canada’s arctic zone and in Scandinavia. The increased plants growth is caused, of course, by global warming. The ice which stayed frozen for many years, if not centuries, is now melting, and, after a while, plants will appear in its place. Scientists even believe that leaf-losing plants, which are more heat-loving that the ‘traditional’ dwarf trees growing in the tundra, could soon oust the latter. It would be wrong to suggest that the climate changes which are taking place in the Arctic tundra have no effect on other regions. Andrey Shmakin from the Institute of Geography says: “If the ice melts – and that is what we are witnessing now – bare land starts to absorb a greater amount of heat. This is the main process that causes the global warming.” “Using the example of what is happening in the tundra, one can see that the balance of heat exchange between the atmosphere, the soil and the plants is now changing,” Vladimir Onipchenko, who chairs the department of plant ecology at the Moscow Lomonosov University, says. “And this is affecting the whole planet. Our observations in the Arctic help us understand more about the mechanism of the greenhouse effect, which worsens as a result of melting Arctic sea ice.” “The melting of ice speeds up the processes of organic decomposition in the soil, and greater amounts of carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere,” Mr. Onipchenko says. “This causes even greater warming.” “If the pants of the Arctic tundra continue to grow taller and spread over a larger area, the tundra will start turning into a forest-tundra, where the climate is usually milder,” climate expert Andrey Shmakin says. “However, it’s a very slow process. The melting of sea ice could take many centuries, if not many thousands of years. Besides, it would be wrong to say that the ice is currently melting throughout the Arctic.” A lot of scientists agree that it is probably too early to make global conclusions – any moment, the planet’s climate could bring any surprise. After all, for thousands of years, the Earth has experienced warming and cooling many times – but life on Earth has survived.“Nothing catastrophic is happening,” Andrey Shmakin assures us. “The Earth is just entering a new period of evolution. Certain species of plants and animals might die off, others might come to change them – this is an eternal process.” Source: Voice of Russia
Global warming – an impeding catastrophe or a new stage of evolution?
West Antarctic ice melts twice as fast as believed – scientist
A research has been published this week saying that temperatures in the western part of Antarctica are rising almost twice as fast as previously believed. The discovery adds to growing concerns about the effects of climate changes.
The average annual temperature in the region has risen by 2.4C since the 1950s, which is three times higher than the average around the globe, David Bromwich, Professor of Geography at Ohio State University, who led the research, claims. The scientists claim that previously estimates, which are half of those they revealed, were based on faulty data, as one third of temperature observations had been missing for the past 60 years due to regular power outages and limited resources. There is a link between rising temperature and rising sea levels, the scientists remind. Even a minor temperature rise results in that huge blocks of ice slide into the ocean raising sea levels. The region contains enough ice to raise sea levels by at least 3.3m (10.8ft) if it all melted, a process that would likely take centuries. But, according to these findings, it is now the second largest contributor to global rises with 0.3mm per year to Greenland’s 0.7mm. Source: Voice of Russia
UFO mysteries
Files released from the National Archives at Kew today reveal that the Ministry of Defence in the UK took the threat of Unidentified Flying Objects very seriously. Under prime minister Tony Blair money and resources were devoted to checking whether any UFO was a reliable sighting. Dr David Clarke is a senior lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University and one of those involved in analysing the records. The Voice of Russia’s Tim Ecott asked Dr Clarke what lay behind the government's interest. Quite few were reports by credible witnesses, you know, pilots, aircrew, police officers that simply defy explanation on what they concluded might relate to very rare atmospheric phenomena – plasmas. And they were interested in this from the military point of view. Because they thought that they could harness these plasmas and use them. They could be useful on the battlefield.What is plasma? You know, like a lightning ball that aluminates sort of phenomena that appear and disappear. Now obviously there’s another serious aspect to this, because the Ministry of Defense were interested – I believe – in investigating some of these sightings because of the awareness that they could have been foreign aircraft, particularly from nations considered not so very friendly to Britain. That’s right, yes, and it’s a very detailed briefing in the files from 1995 by the intelligence officers saying that if these sighting are genuine – there’re serious national security implications. If foreign countries, presumably referring to Russia, China and US were able to set up flying without us knowing – then it’s something that is needed to be investigated. They didn’t rule out the possibility that there could be extra-terrestrials. If some of them are of extra-terrestrial origin then the reason they may be visiting include military reconnaissance, scientific exploration or even tourism. I wonder if this year’s wet summer reduces the number of aliens looking to come to Britain on holiday. I think you’ll probably find that likely. I mean most of the sightings that have been reported in recent years – if you look at them – orange lines, formations in the sky. The obvious explanation for those is release of these Chinese lanterns. For the public it’s quite amusing and interesting to hear some of the descriptions. I see amongst record are faceless humanoids in Wales, man in black in Lincoln chair, as well as these orbs in the sky. The one you mentioned from Wales – this was in the 1970s. Some of your listeners remember the Nude Triangle was popular around that time. And there were particularly lurid tabloid headlines, saying ‘We don’t need the Nude Triangle. We have a Welsh Triangle’. In this particular part of West Wales was a series of sightings there. There were sightings in the sky, people said that it seemed 7-foot-tall alien creatures in silver spacesuits prowling around at night. The MoD was inundated with account of these things. And we’re certainly to look into this. A man discovered that in a local shop window that being a fire-fighting suit on display that was used on a near-by oil refineries and this suit disappeared mysteriously for a few days during the period when people had reported these bizarre encounters. Putting two and two together he concluded that a practical joker had been at work. Something that always intrigues me: in the USA there is quite a wealth of anecdotes from people who claim to have been kidnapped by aliens for various purposes. They don’t seem to bother so much. No, really no. But there’s one counter of alien abduction from these files. From 8/17 Scotland, there were two people returning home late one night in 1994. And they saw the subject appear above their car and drop a curtain of light across the road. And then they lost a period of time, which are all classic symptoms of alien abduction. Where do you stand on this obviously from academic point of view? Do you have a personal view that you care to share on UFOs and aliens? My interest in this is from the point of view of being a folklorist, you know, when you go back in time, people believed in angels and fairies and goblins. And my view on this is that these believes are modern equivalent, like space-age folklore. You know, people have always got to have something to believe in, particularly in times of tension and war. People like to think that there is other intelligence in the universe, more advanced than us, which come along and sort our problems out. Source: Voice of Russia
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