lightblueline

Roger Harrabin,BBC News environment analyst (April 4, 2008) reports on the effects of a major 'la nina' in the Pacific Ocean. This part of a multi-year fluctuation, and it's cooling the planet this year. These types of short-term fluctuations have been built into the climate models, which are still predicting a longer-term warming trend. Still, it's good to be cool! (Unless you live in Wisconsin, which gets enough cool every winter).

Global warming 'dips this year'

Here is an excerpt:

Source: CNN March 29, 2008 By Marsha Walton

Ice shelf collapse: What does it mean?

Scientists look at how reducing ice cover affects the entire food chain.
Here is an Excerpt:

" According to the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center, in the past 50 years, the western Antarctic peninsula has undergone the biggest temperature increase on Earth: up .9 degree Fahrenheit, or .5 degree Celsius, in each of the past five decades. How the ice is disappearing »

Source UNEP: February 2008
Cartographer: Hugo Ahlenius, UNEP/GRID-Arendal
Population, area and economy affected by a 1 m sea level rise (global and regional estimates, based on today's situation)

Citation:

The USGS fact sheet on Antartica:

Coastal-Change and Glaciological Maps of Antarctica

Excerpts below:

The USGS hosts an informational site about the relationship between climate and sea level:

Sea Level and Climate

Excerpts below:

The Rock Ethics Institute at Penn. State University is hosting the website for the Program on the Ethical Dimensions of Climate Change, with discussions on the ethics of climate change science and policy:

ClimateEthics.org

Source: Christian Science Monitor, October 18, 2007. Peter Spotts, staff writer.

Climate models can be more reliable than weather forecasts simply because the long term situation has less uncertainty than the fluctuations of weather patterns. How can you predict global warming if you can't predict rain? explains the increasing certainty that climate scientists expect from their models.
Here is an excerpt:

Teachers: You can download an educational version of one of the climate models that NASA uses and run this in your classroom.
Here is the website at Columbia University: Educational Global Climate Modeling