| UK. Chief scientist to share his Antartic visit online |
|
|
|
| Friday, 06 January 2006 | |
|
Environmental news: Visitors to Defra's website will be able to go on a virtual voyage with Chief Scientific Adviser Professor Howard Dalton from Monday (January 9th) when he travels to the Antarctic. Prof Dalton will record and share his 10-day expedition through a live blog as he visits the sites of some of the most dramatic evidence of climate change on the planet. Antarctica is the most isolated place on earth and yet the climate there is changing as a result of human activities. These changes are stark and dramatic - even changes like our shift to unleaded petrol can be detected in the chemicals in the ice. As well as witnessing this evidence for himself and finding out more about the work that the scientists at the British Antarctic Survey are doing to measure and tackle climate change, Prof Dalton will investigate sustainable operations in the Antarctic to find out what they can teach us about living sustainably at home. Prof Dalton said: "As Chief Scientific Adviser in the government department responsible for tackling climate change and sustainability, I want to see for myself the impact that we are all having on this most isolated place on earth. "But is seems that I'm not the only one - almost everyone I've met recently has said that they'd like to come too. Sadly I can't take everyone to Antarctica, but I bring Antarctica to everyone, through the Internet." During the expedition, funded and organised by the British Antarctic Survey, Professor Dalton will: Consider at first hand research being done to assess the stability of the ice sheets Examine the effects of climate change on animal life Find out about the BAS's sustainable operations and minimum waste strategy, which leaves nothing behind except human waste. Explore an ice crevasse and witness the latest research on ice cores, which shows that levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere responsible for global warming are higher now than at any time in the past 650,000 years. Discover how the sustainability of fishing in the South Atlantic is affected by climate change. Howard Dalton's blog will be available at http://www.defra.gov.uk from Monday 9th January 2006. |
|
| Last Updated ( Friday, 06 January 2006 ) |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|