AND THE WORLD CHARGES AHEAD, BLITHELY IGNORANT

Two bad new stories on the environment yesterday, one of which only appeared in the Canadian media, the other only in the American media, so the irony of the two stories appearing the same day was lost on everyone.

In the first story, scientists report that the Ward Hunt ice shelf, the largest and most Northerly in Canada, has broken apart for the first time in thousands of years. Researchers, who are writing a detailed report on the implications of the collapse, warn that it is is a sign “the climate in the area is changing too quickly”. The collapse drained a large freshwater lake and, along with it, cold-tolerant freshwater marine communities scientists had been studying to understand how life survived the ice ages. Climate change had already been blamed for the collapse of the ice shelves in the Western Antarctic. Only 2.5% of Earth’s water is fresh (non-saline) and 70% of that is in the Arctic and Antarctic.

anwr In the second story, the Republican Party is pushing ahead to include drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in its omnibus energy bill. Heedless of the miniscule impact the reserves in the refuge would have on global supply, their spokesman said “It will reduce our growing, dangerous dependence on foreign oil and will help to ensure affordable and abundant energy supplies in the future.” The Republicans are attempting to get enough votes to push through the bill by tieing approval of ANWR drilling to the approval of ethanol and other energy-conservation measures in the same bill.

4 Responses to AND THE WORLD CHARGES AHEAD, BLITHELY IGNORANT

Stentor says:

September 25, 2003 at 10:47

The ice shelf story was reported in the US: by the Washington Post, CNN, NY Times, and USA Today, among others.
Dave Pollard says:

September 25, 2003 at 11:27

Thanks, Stentor, I’m delighted that they finally picked it up. There’s even an editorial on it in the Times today.
Stentor says:

September 26, 2003 at 13:19

Finally? The CNN and USA Today stories are from Monday, the day the report came out. The Post and Times were both Tuesday, the same day as the CBC story you linked to, which is a typical turnover time for the print media.
Ashley Osborne says:

October 8, 2003 at 08:34

I believe my 10 year old brother could write a web site better than this one! The story on Bush is just rediculos. He is doing a great job! If you want something to worry about go to these 3rd world countries and see how the people are treated. The liberals need to get a life instead of bashing Bush all the time. They pick on stupid subjects the should worry about big problems instead of over analyzing the president. They didn’t say a word about Clinton. He was a sorry excuss of a president and he no morals. Which is what the world today really needs.