'Best estimate' for impact of melting ice on sea level rise Researchers say they now have the most accurate estimate yet for the impact of the melting of ice sheets. Researchers have published their most advanced calculation for the likely impact of melting ice on global sea levels. The EU funded team say the ice sheets and glaciers could add 36.8 centimetres to the oceans by 2100. Adding in other factors, sea levels could rise by up to 69 centimetres, higher than previous predictions. The researchers say there is a very small chance that the seas around Britain could rise by a meter. “The previous IPCC identified this gap in our knowledge, we've addressed that gap and what we've found is not scary” Prof Tony Payne, University of Bristol The last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report was highly detailed about many aspects of Earth's changing climate in the coming decades, Advanced models While they estimated that sea levels could rise by 18-59 centimetres by 2100, they were very unsure about the role played by the melting of ice sheets and mountain glaciers. To fill the void, the EU funded experts from 24 institutions in Europe and beyond to try and come up with more accurate figures on the melting of ice sheets and glaciers in Antarctica and Greenland and how this might swell the oceans. Called Ice2sea, the group of scientists have made what they term the "best estimate" yet of the impact of melting based on a mid-range level of carbon emissions that would increase global temperatures by 3.5C by the end of this century.

Arctic Ocean 'acidifying rapidly' Photo1: Saunders Island and Wolstenholme Fjord with Kap Atholl in the background is shown in this picture taken during an Operation IceBridge survey flight in April 2013. Photo 2: arctic volcano. The Arctic seas are being made rapidly more acidic by carbon-dioxide emissions, according to a new report. Scientists from Norway's Center for International Climate and Environmental Research monitored widespread changes in ocean chemistry in the region. They say even if CO2 emissions stopped now, it would take tens of thousands of years for Arctic Ocean chemistry to revert to pre-industrial levels. Many creatures, including commercially valuable fish, could be affected. They forecast major changes in the marine ecosystem, but say there is huge uncertainty over what those changes will be. It is well know that CO2 warms the planet, but less well-known that it also makes the alkaline seas more acidic when its absorbed from the air.

Oil sands' toxins accumulate in freshwater ecosystems

Toxic pollutants released by oil

There have been a few times in the history of mankind when we nearly died out as a species. Anthropologists call these events “bottlenecks”, times when the population of humans shrank – perhaps to as few as 2,000 people over 50,000 years ago. At those levels, we would be categorised as an endangered species on the IUCN Red List, existing in even fewer numbers than wild tigers do today. We survived, and in fact we’ve thrived, mainly because we adapted our environment to suit our needs. But to what degree has the survival and triumph of our species changed our planet? The best people to answer this could well be those who have the grandest perspective. Geologists can take a 4.5-billion-year step back and look at the human impact on our planet in the context of its long history – they can identify changes in the rock record within layers of deposited sediments that build up and are compressed over time.