Glaring gaps in Gangotri glacial melt study Science seems to have been the casualty in the study on glacial retreat in Gangotri, source of the Ganga. The Uttarakhand government had commissioned a study to an expert committee in 2006. The committee came out with a report in December 2007, which scientists said was dated and

As the world heats up, the sea levels are rising. Many experts warn that dramatic sea-level rise is global warming's biggest danger. Two main factors are behind this: thermal expansion of the ocean and melting Ice.

First, as the ocean gets wanner from global warming, its volume expands. This is basic science: water expands as it heats up. Thermal expansion has raised the oceans about 10 to 20 centimeters (4 to 8 inches), according to the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

environment Jaipur halts limestone mining The Rajasthan government has denotified the region in and around Jaisalmer for limestone mining. Though the reason behind denotification is not clear, the move comes days after the government rejected applications by leading cement companies for mining lease in the region. Companies such as Mangalam Cement, Sanghi Industries, Birla Cement

Rivers of melting ice form on the Sermeq Kujalleq Glacier in Ilulissat, Greenland, pictured in October 2007

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Sometimes you just wish you were a photographer. I simply do not have the words to describe the awesome majesty of Greenland's Kangia Glacier, shedding massive icebergs the size of skyscrapers and slowly pushing them down the Ilulissat Fjord until they crash into the ocean off the west coast of Greenland. There, these natural ice sculptures float and bob around the glassy waters near here. You can sail between them in a fishing boat, listening to these white ice monsters crackle and break, heave and sigh, as if they were noisily protesting their fate.

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Greenland Ice Sheet,

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
Thomas L. Friedman

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Two chunks of ice together measuring almost 20 square kilometres have broken off an Arctic ice shelf, the biggest break-up of Arctic ice in three years, Canadian officials announced.

Two floating islands of ice - measuring four to five square kilometres and 14 square kilometres - formed after the chunks broke from the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf off Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, officials said.

"The first broke off sometime around July 22 and the second in the night of July 23 to 24," Luc Desjardins, a senior iceberg forecaster for Environment Canada's Ice Service, said.

Listening to the earth scientists at the Tallberg Forum speaking about the likely calamities caused by global warming, I had the sensation of entering a parallel universe. It is a universe where an adaptive and inventive human race has grown to over six billion people, created bountiful and rich civilisations built on fossil fuels, and has emerged as the most important specie to geologically alter the planet. Man-made greenhouse gas has placed the earth in a slow cooker. In this parallel universe, the phrase