{"id":713,"date":"2013-11-03T18:45:04","date_gmt":"2013-11-03T18:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iccinet.org\/?p=713"},"modified":"2013-11-03T18:45:04","modified_gmt":"2013-11-03T18:45:04","slug":"october-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iccinet.org\/sv\/october-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"October 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

Message from the Cryosphere<\/strong><\/p>\n

The On T<\/em><\/strong>hin Ice<\/em><\/strong> report<\/a>, co-produced by ICCI and the World Bank, is a message of caution, and of hope.<\/p>\n

Caution because rapid changes in the earth\u2019s regions of snow and ice \u2013 the \u201ccryosphere\u201d \u2013 daily increase the risk of changes to our global environment: changes not seen in the span of human existence.\u00a0 Hope, because the tools to decrease that risk are available now and would improve the lives and futures of some of the world\u2019s most vulnerable populations.<\/p>\n

First the caution: the cryosphere is changing fast as a result of climate change, it is changing today, and those changes bring increased risk to ecosystems and human societies.\u00a0 P\u00e5 tunn is <\/em><\/strong>documents how that pattern is repeated throughout the cryosphere, whether the Arctic, the Antarctic, the Himalayan \u201cThird Pole,\u201d or the Andes:\u00a0 temperatures rising at twice or more the global average, glaciers receding, ice sheets showing signs of instability, permafrost thawing. \u00a0The cryosphere is on an accelerated warming path, and some of those changes may drive global climate change faster and further than we are currently prepared to handle.\u00a0 If warming continues unabated, the risks from continuing sea-level rise, flooding, and water resource disruption rise dramatically.\u00a0 So too will the risk of large CO2<\/sub> and methane releases from permafrost, potentially eclipsing global efforts to reduce carbon pollution. \u00a0The window to slow some of these processes may be closing rapidly.<\/p>\n

Yet this report also carries hope, because a suite of air pollution management tools are available that can slow these cryosphere changes and at the same time bring economic benefits: improved health, higher crop yields, and greater access to energy. \u00a0Anti-pollution measures aimed at sources such as cookstoves; coal and wood heating stoves; diesel; alternatives to crop burning; and capture of biogas from landfills offer direct benefits to those communities making them happen, and they are eminently achievable.\u00a0 Though global decreases in CO2<\/sub> cannot and should not be replaced, many communities have it in their power to at least slow snow and glacier loss nearby.\u00a0 The tools discussed in this report reflect a truly global solution, with actions available for both the developed and developing world: improved woodstoves for heating in Scandinavia and improved stoves for cooking in Nepal both help preserve nearby snow and ice.<\/p>\n

The P\u00e5 tunn is<\/em><\/strong> modeling shows a special need to focus more urgently on cookstove pollution.\u00a0 Introduction of advanced cookstoves proved the one measure with recognizable climate benefits in every<\/em> cryosphere region of the world, including Antarctica.\u00a0 The human costs of inaction are enormous: four million people die annually from cookstove pollution, greater than the annual toll of HIV\/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined. \u00a0It is time to consider a commensurate push to replace these polluting, health-damaging stoves using the same tools that turned around the global AIDS crisis — coordinated public\/private efforts, strict monitoring and evaluation, and nimble programs adapted to local conditions.<\/p>\n

The modeling also demonstrates how methane and black carbon emissions associated with the \u201cfront end\u201d of fossil fuel extraction warm the earth, alongside the \u201ctailpipe\u201d CO2<\/sub> emissions from fossil fuel burning, underscoring the need for transition to low-carbon economies in the near future.<\/p>\n

The result is an imperative for both protecting the cryosphere and supporting human development.\u00a0 Implementing these air quality measures sooner rather than later will improve the quality of life for many millions of people each year, while decreasing risks from sea-level rise and other impacts of rapid cryosphere change. \u00a0Yet it cannot be overemphasized that, to realize these gains, the air quality actions modeled in this study must be accompanied by action on CO2<\/sub>.<\/p>\n

This then is the cryosphere\u2019s message of caution and hope — the new cryosphere and development imperative.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Message from the Cryosphere The On Thin Ice report, co-produced by ICCI and the World Bank, is a message of caution, and of hope. Caution because rapid changes in the earth\u2019s regions of snow and ice \u2013 the \u201ccryosphere\u201d \u2013 daily increase the risk of changes to our global environment: changes not seen in the […]\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ice-blog"],"modified_by":"admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iccinet.org\/sv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iccinet.org\/sv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iccinet.org\/sv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iccinet.org\/sv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iccinet.org\/sv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=713"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/iccinet.org\/sv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":716,"href":"https:\/\/iccinet.org\/sv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713\/revisions\/716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iccinet.org\/sv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iccinet.org\/sv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iccinet.org\/sv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}