[Reader-list] new island

[Nagraj Adve]

So islands won't just disappear due to global warming, new ones may also get
formed. Nice.
Might make some idiot sceptic like Montek Singh Ahluwalia say, so what's the
big deal, you win some, you lose some.
Naga


 New atlas shows extent of climate change

The world's newest island makes it on to the map as the Arctic Uunartoq
Qeqertaq, or Warming Island, is officially recognised

   -  John Vidal <http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/johnvidal>, environment
   editor
   - guardian.co.uk <http://www.guardian.co.uk/>, Thursday 15 September 2011
   11.46 BST
   - Article history<http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/sep/15/new-atlas-climate-change#history-link-box>
    [image: Greenland ice cover in Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World]
   In Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World, Greenland has lost around 15%
   of its ice cover between 10th edition (1999) (left) and 13th edition (2011)
   (right). Photograph: Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World

   If you have never heard of Uunartoq
Qeqertaq<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uunartoq_Qeqertaq>,
   it's possibly because it's one of the world's newest islands, appearing in
   2006 off the east coast of
Greenland<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/greenland>,
   340 miles north of the Arctic
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/arctic>circle when the ice retreated
because of global warming. This Thursday the
   new land – translated from Inuit as Warming Island – was deemed permanent
   enough by map-makers to be included in a new
edition<http://www.timesatlas.com/TimesAtlasRange/Pages/AtlasDetail.aspx?IDNumber=63021>of
the most comprehensive atlas in the world.

   Uunartoq Qeqertaq joins Southern Sudan and nearly 7,000 other countries
   and places added or changed since the last edition of the Times
   Comprehensive Atlas of the
World<http://www.timesatlas.com/Pages/default.aspx>,
   reflecting political change in Africa, administrative changes in China,
   burgeoning cities in developing countries, climate
change<http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/climate-change>,
   and large infrastructure projects which have changed the flow of
rivers<http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/rivers>,
   lakes and coastlines.

   The world's biggest physical changes in the past few years are mostly
   seen nearest the poles where climate change has been most extreme. Greenland
   appears considerably browner round the edges, having lost around 15%, or
   300,000 sq km, of its permanent ice cover. Antarctica is smaller following
   the break-up of the Larsen
B<http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2002/mar/20/globalwarming.physicalsciences>and
Wilkins
   ice shelves<http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/mar/26/poles.antarctica?intcmp=239>
   .

   But the Aral Sea in central Asia, which had previously shrunk to just 25%
   of its size only 80 years ago, is now larger than it was only five years
   ago, thanks to Kazakhstan redirecting
water<http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/water>into it. Elsewhere
in Asia, islands are appearing off the mouths of the
   Ganges and the Yangtze rivers as the amount of silt brought down from the
   Himalayas and inland China changes.

   Sections of the Rio Grande, Yellow, Colorado and Tigris rivers are now
   drying out each summer. In Mongolia, the Ongyin Gol has been redirected to
   allow gold mining, while the Colorado river these days does not reach the
   sea most years. "We are increasingly concerned that in the near future
   important geographical features will disappear for ever. Greenland could
   reach a tipping point in about 30 years," said Jethro Lennox, editor of the
   atlas.