From: "Jill Watkins" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Worldwatch: Ice Cover Melting Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2000 11:25:19 -0400 Hello to all in LEAD: Although I am not completely up to date on the issue of global warming (though I did some climate research in the '80s during my Ph.D.), my current understanding is that the global climate is certainly warming, and there is little disagreement among scientists about that. There is less agreement, however, as to whether this warming is caused by human activities or by natural causes. Recall the world has experienced ice ages and similar extreme periods in the past, due to natural causes. Bear in mind that official record keeping has only been taking place over the last century or so (perhaps a bit longer in some parts of the world), and that this is very short blip in the passage of the life of the world. Here in Canada, particularly northern Canada, the effects of global warming are becoming quite apparent (the polar bear example below is just one). There are are projects underway to document changes to climate and resulting effects (including changes to snow fields, melting dates of lake ice, animal migration routes etc.) in northern Canada as observed by Aboriginal peoples and compared to the traditional knowledge on climate handed down from earlier generations (beyond the time frames of conventional record keeping). Such work provides a different dimension to the climate change issue. I am only in the early stages of becoming more involved in this work myself but would be happy to try to answer questions or direct you to people really in the middle of this work, if anyone is interested. Perhaps this would be something for the Climate Change Interest Group, which I did not manage to link up with in the end in Brazil, but hope to in the future! Jill Watkins Canada - Cohort 8 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Mulai langganan: kirim e-mail ke [EMAIL PROTECTED] Stop langganan: kirim e-mail ke [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archive ada di http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
