Salon.com > Michael Casey

Area of Arctic sea ice larger than US melted this year

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 22:03:00 +0000

DOHA, Qatar (AP) -- An area of Arctic sea ice bigger than the United States melted this year, according the U.N. weather agency, which said the dramatic decline illustrates that climate change is happening "before our eyes."

In a report released at U.N. climate talks in the Qatari capital of Doha, the World Meteorological Organization said the Arctic ice melt was one of a myriad of extreme and record-breaking weather events to hit the planet in 2012. Droughts devastated nearly two-thirds of the United States as well western Russia and southern Europe. Floods swamped west Africa and heat waves left much of the Northern Hemisphere sweltering.

But it was the ice melt that seemed to dominate the annual climate report, with the U.N. concluding ice cover had reached "a new record low" in the area around the North Pole and that the loss from March to September was a staggering 11.83 million square kilometers (4.57 million square miles) - an area bigger than the United States.

"The alarming rate of its melt this year highlighted the far-reaching changes taking place on Earth's oceans and biosphere," WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said. "Climate change is taking place before our eyes and will continue to do so as a result of the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which have risen constantly and again reached new records."

Italy pledges around $600 million to Libyan rebels

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 12:57:00 +0000

Italy pledged almost $600 million for Libya's cash-strapped rebels Thursday and encouraged other countries supporting NATO action against Moammar Gadhafi to also offer support.

Maurizio Massari, a spokesman for the Italian Foreign Ministry, said from $438 million to $584 million will be provided in the form of soft loans and to pay for fuel. He says the money will help pay for the "day-to-day needs" of the Libyan rebels' National Transitional Council.

"We hope that as many countries will follow this path because we need to provide the TNC as soon as possible with financial help," Massari told The Associated Press.

The pledge provides a much needed boost to Libya's rebel national council, which has complained for weeks of dwindling funds and has been desperately seeking to secure loans and financial backing from its Western supporters to help shore up its finances.

Massari said that "timing is of the essence," and stressed that the rebels "don't need help in six months because at the end of the day, Libya is a rich country."

"When oil production starts, they won't need this help. They need this help now. We hope that our example will be followed by other countries of the contact group," he said.

Defiant Brit struts through Dubai mall in a bikini

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 15:28:00 +0000

A British woman stripped down to her bikini and strutted defiantly through a swanky Dubai mall after an Emirati woman covered head-to-toe in black confronted her for wearing a low-cut shirt, police said Thursday.

Mall security detained both women and took them to a police station for questioning Wednesday. They were released later in the day after the Emirati woman lodged a complaint for public indecency against the Briton, said a police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Police said the British woman, whose name was not released, was shopping in the five-star Dubai Mall when the Emirati woman approached her and criticized her for wearing a shirt she felt violated the conservative dress code followed by most women in this Muslim country.

The two argued, then the Briton stripped down to her bikini and walked through the mall filled with luxury shops and near hotels with swimming pools.

Sharks lose fight to protect them at UN meeting

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 12:19:29 +0000

Asian nations on Tuesday blocked U.S.-backed proposals to protect the heavily fished hammerhead and oceanic whitetip sharks on concerns that regulating the booming trade in fins could hurt poor coastal nations.

Japan, which successfully campaigned against an export ban on Atlantic bluefin tuna and regulations on the coral trade, led the opposition to the shark proposal at the 175-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

China, Indonesia and other nations that benefit from the trade in fins joined the opposition to the proposals arguing that trade restrictions were not the answer and would be difficult to apply.

"This is not about trade issues but fisheries enforcement," Masanori Miyahara, chief counselor of the Fisheries Agency of Japan, told delegates. "Poaching is a big problem. Small-scale long liners are chasing sharks all over the world."

But the United States supported by Europe, Australia and many Arab countries argued that the unregulated trade has led to widespread illegal fishing and has caused the populations of the endangered scalloped hammerhead, great hammerhead and the threatened smooth hammerhead to plummet by as much as 85 percent.