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	September 24, 2003

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. 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. 11:57:45 AM  trackback []  comment []

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