In this program we bypass the mainstream media machine to hear from the NASA scientists who say the melt of one Antarctic glacier set is now "unstoppable". We don't often get such certainty from science, or large government agencies.
REDRAW THE MAPS
A new study analysing an Antarctic Peninsula ice core has determined that there has been a ten fold increase in melt intensity over the last 600 years. I reported recently that the Antarctic Peninsula summer melt season prolonged by global warming according to research from the British Antarctic Survey.
The melt season on the Antarctic Peninsula has been getting much longer over the last 60 years, at some locations doubling in length according to the research lead by Dr Nick Barrand of the British Antarctic Survey. Increased melting season increases the melting stress of ice shelves which hold back significant glacier discharge and sea level rise.
Hobart as an important scientific hub and gateway for Antarctic and southern ocean marine research, not only for Australia but for other national scientific expeditions. That is the vision of a new policy initiative launched by the Greens today to boost the research and logistics capacity of Australian Antarctic, climate and marine scientists based in Hobart.
More ship collisions have occurred in the Southern ocean with the Nisshin Maru ramming the Bob Barker up against the fuel tanker Sun Laurel while blasting the ship with water cannon to try and flood their engines and exploding concussion grenades on the decks of the Bob Barker and the Sun Laurel.
Related: Sea Shepherd: Whaling Factory ship rams Korean Fuel Tanker and 3 activist ships | Video: Nisshin Maru whaling factory ship bearing down on Sea Shepherd Sam Simon | Whaling Fleet committed multiple breaches of international law says Sea Shepherd Director Bob Brown | Human rights of Tanker crew under question as Japan suspends Whaling in Antarctica
Notes thrown by crew from the South Korean owned Panama registered tanker, Sun Laurel, used for refueling the Japanese whaling fleet, indicate at least some of the crew were taken to Antarctica without their consent or foreknowledge and have been denied means of communication with their families and the International Maritime Organisation about violations of their labour rights.
Related: Sea Shepherd: Whaling factory ship rams Korean fuel tanker and 3 activist ships | Whaling Fleet committed multiple breaches of international law says Sea Shepherd Director Bob Brown
One of the Directors of Sea Shepherd Australia, Bob Brown conducted an interview Wednesday afternoon in which he called for the Australian Government to intercede directly with Tokyo over the Nisshin Maru ramming of 4 ships in the Southern Ocean and also called for an Australian naval presence to uphold international law in Antarctic waters. Bob Brown is a former leader of the Australian Greens and a former Tasmanian Senator.
Update 25 Feb 2013: Japanese Whalers escalate dangerous attacks on Sea Shepherd in refueling attempt
20 Feb 2013: In the Southern Ocean tempers are fraying over whaling with Sea Shepherd hindering all attempts to slaughter whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sancturay in their Zero Tolerance campaign this year being run from the Australian Sea Shepherd Organisation. A Major confrontation erupted today north of the Australian Casey Antarctic Base when Sea Shepherd used it's vessels to prevent the Nisshin Maru Whaling Factory Ship coming alongside the Panama registered Korean fuel supply ship the Sun Laurel.
Related: Whaling Fleet committed multiple breaches of international law says Sea Shepherd Director Bob Brown
Sea Shepherd celebrates a christmas for the whales having located the whaling fleet on Christmas eve and intercepted the fleet on Christmas day before a single whale has been killed this season.
UK Naturalist and documentary maker David Attenborough has warned about the implications of climate change melting ice sheets in the polar regions but emphasised the changes under way in Antarctica "is likely to have the most dramatic effects of all".
