Alert: Climate 'Exorcism' needed? - HIV linked to AGW? - More fears collapse!

Researchers scale back forecast of sea level rise... 'half the previously predicted rise'

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Study seeks to link HIV to global warming – May 14, 2009
Excerpt: An ongoing research at the Kenya Meteorological Department seeks to correlate climate change and HIV. According to Pamela Kaithuru, Head of Counseling Unit Kenya Meteorological Department told Africa Science News Service that while it is still coincidental that highest rise in temperatures was in 1998, a year also that marked the peak of HIV prevalence, there was need for science to bring out the correlation. She said almost 90% of the worlds disasters today are climate related and it is the intention of this work to find out any correlation between climate change and HIV.
http://africasciencenews.org/asns/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1250&Itemid=1

7th grader wins global warming essay contest: 'We’re being haunted...We desperately need an exorcist' – May 14, 2009
Excerpt: We’re being haunted. Not by a restless spirit, but by something even more upsetting and much more real. We’ve awoken it, and unlike supernatural haunting, it’s our fault. Climate change. A fear, a promise that our lives (and world) will become drastically different in the years to come. We desperately need an exorcist, but in this case, it’s not as easy as mumbling incantations. We’ve dug and drilled (and drilled) ourselves into quite a big mess. I’m surprised the tilt of the earth hasn’t changed from all the natural cycles we’ve thrown off. We’re throwing off the nitrogen cycle so we can become fatter, and the carbon cycle so our newly fat selves can sit around all day, and not lose the weight we spent so much effort gaining.
http://www.theoutlookonline.com/sustainable/print_story.php?story_id=124216053846339200

More fear collapses! Researchers scale back forecast of sea level rise...'half the previously predicted rise' – Wash. Post – May 14, 2009
Excerpt: The global sea level will only rise about 10 feet if the West Antarctic ice sheet collapses. While that may not sound so great to residents of coastal cities like New York or Los Angeles, it's only about half the previously predicted rise. Researchers led by Jonathan L. Bamber of the University of Bristol in Britain report their recalculation of the hazard in Friday's edition of the journal Science. […] Previous studies had estimated that failure of the ice sheet, causing it to slide into the ocean, would raise global seas levels by 5-to-6 meters, or 16-to-19 feet. But Bamber's team calculated that the entire sheet would not collapse, with parts of it remaining grounded on the continent. Thus, they said, sea level rise would be only about 3 meters, or just under 10 feet. How fast this might happen was unclear, but an earlier study suggested the melting could take 500 years, which would mean a sea level rise of about a quarter-inch a year.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/14/AR2009051402486.html

Researchers scale back forecast of sea level rise
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
The Associated Press
Thursday, May 14, 2009 2:00 PM
WASHINGTON -- The global sea level will only rise about 10 feet if the West Antarctic ice sheet collapses.
While that may not sound so great to residents of coastal cities like New York or Los Angeles, it's only about half the previously predicted rise.
Researchers led by Jonathan L. Bamber of the University of Bristol in Britain report their recalculation of the hazard in Friday's edition of the journal Science.
However, they add, the maximum increase is expected along the East and West Coasts of the United States, where the water could rise as much as 25 percent more than in other regions.
The West Antarctic Ice Sheet can be unstable and has long concerned researchers who fear it could collapse as a result of global warming.
Previous studies had estimated that failure of the ice sheet, causing it to slide into the ocean, would raise global seas levels by 5-to-6 meters, or 16-to-19 feet.
But Bamber's team calculated that the entire sheet would not collapse, with parts of it remaining grounded on the continent. Thus, they said, sea level rise would be only about 3 meters, or just under 10 feet.
How fast this might happen was unclear, but an earlier study suggested the melting could take 500 years, which would mean a sea level rise of about a quarter-inch a year.
The melting would also redistribute the balance of mass between water and land on the planet, potentially affecting Earth's rotation and causing water to build up along the North American coasts and in the Indian Ocean.
The research was supported by the United Kingdom Natural Environment Research Council and the Colorado University Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science.
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-DDD