Economy Takes Another Hit: Home Foreclosures Go Up Nearly 17% Second Quarter Figures Reveal

The nation's economy suffered home foreclosure rates "jumped 16 percent to 2.9 percent of serviced mortgages;" results from the 2nd quarter of 2009 the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) publicized in newly released figures from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision.

The Washington Post reported that: "Completed foreclosures reached 106,007 during the second quarter, compared with 90,696 during the first three months of the year, according to the report by the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which regulates banks. Their quarterly report examines 64 percent of outstanding mortgages in the country.

"The increase was primarily the result of various government and industry foreclosure moratoriums," The Washington Post explained that the report said.

 “The mortgage data reported for the second quarter of 2009 continued to reflect negative trends influenced by weakness in economic conditions, including high unemployment and declining home prices in weak housing markets,” the federal report explained.

Reuters explained that: "The report covers mortgages serviced by most of the industry’s largest mortgage servicers, whose loans make up about 64 percent of all mortgages outstanding in the United States.

"The regulators said there was a lull in newly initiated foreclosures during the second quarter as mortgage servicers worked to implement the federal “Making Home Affordable” program.

"The $50 billion program, launched in March, is designed to stabilize the housing market by helping up to 9 million Americans reduce their monthly mortgage payments to more affordable levels.

"The OCC and OTS said the emphasis on the program contributed to a dramatic shift in the composition of home retention actions toward lowering payments. Previously, the vast majority of loan modifications either did not change or increased monthly payments."

It is no secret that the Obama economic team has been fighting a difficult battle to right a situation that originated because of lax involvement of the Bush administration to address the housing credit situation that arose during Bush's presidential terms. [E]xperts, from both political parties, say Mr. Bush’s early personnel choices and overarching antipathy toward regulation created a climate, that, if it did not set off the turmoil, almost certainly aggravated it." Many of the same "experts say the administration could have done even more to curb excesses in the housing market."

"Today, even some sympathetic to Mr. Bush say he cannot disentangle himself from a home-lending industry that ran amok or a banking industry that mortgaged its future on toxic loans.

“The crisis definitely happened on their watch,” said Kenneth S. Rogoff, a professor of economics at Harvard... This is eight years into the Bush administration. There was a lot of time to deal with it.” Some of the primary effects of the home foreclosure crisis has been an overall erosion of consumer wealth, the stability of bank balance sheets, plummeting home prices, and a deterioration of consumer confidence."

The Obama administration has made keeping families in their homes and the Making Home Affordable plan has been a centerpiece of their efforts to stabilize the housing sector of the economy. "Under that plan, lenders are paid to lower a borrower's monthly payments. Government data has shown that since the program was launched in March, nearly 400,000 borrowers have been helped. The Obama administration aims to complete 500,000 loan modifications by November.

"But even as that program ramps up, rising unemployment continues to hamper foreclosure prevention efforts. The level of foreclosure actions started during the quarter stayed steady, while the number of seriously delinquent borrowers -- those who had missed at least two payments -- increased 10 percent, according to the report.

"The mortgage data "continued to reflect negative trends influenced by weakness in economic conditions including high unemployment and declining home prices in weak housing markets," the report said.

"The report also reflected the risks still posed by hundreds of thousands of risky home loans known as option adjustable-rate mortgages, which reset to significantly higher payments. With these "option ARMs," also known as pick-a-pay loans, a borrower chooses how much to pay each month, often less than the interest due. But the payments on these mortgages eventually rise significantly, putting the borrower at risk of losing the home.

"The report also reflected the risks still posed by hundreds of thousands of risky home loans known as option adjustable-rate mortgages, which reset to significantly higher payments. With these "option ARMs," also known as pick-a-pay loans, a borrower chooses how much to pay each month, often less than the interest due. But the payments on these mortgages eventually rise significantly, putting the borrower at risk of losing the home.

"More than 15 percent of these types of loans were seriously delinquent during the second quarter, compared with 5.3 percent of all mortgages, according to the report, and 10 percent were in the process of foreclosure. "The risks of these loans and geographic concentration caused them to perform significantly worse than the overall portfolio," the report said.More than 15 percent of these types of loans were seriously delinquent during the second quarter, compared with 5.3 percent of all mortgages, according to the report, and 10 percent were in the process of foreclosure. "The risks of these loans and geographic concentration caused them to perform significantly worse than the overall portfolio," the report said.

 

Global Climate Change Threatens The Health of the Earth As Resource Depletion Caused by Human Consumption of Natural Material Wealth Increases the Rate of the Degradation of the Biosphere

Drawing on a blueprint provided in a recent article of the journal Nature that lists 9 interrelated environmental warning signs that are driving global climate change that has been exacerbated by human activities; has been predicted by a group of over two dozen leading scientific experts to pose a serious threat to the future of life on the Earth.

The often acknowledged difficulty with the recognition of warning signs or tipping points, as they are more popularly referred to today, is that they are rarely if ever identified until after they have taken place. But recently, scientists have noticed mathematical indicators that have demonstrated an unerring tendency of consistent results that points toward a possible emerging pattern in numerous models that demonstrate a comprehensive coalescence characteristics.

With the mathematical models that are being used to investigate global warming displaying an increasing reliance on a fundamental set of benchmark data. Scientists are well aware that ecological equilibrium is being stressed by greater pressure created by increasing consumption to acquire diminishing natural resources. They also realize that systems under stress first display a longer time to recover before a point is reached when regenerative events cease to exhibit an ability to recuperate.

Some of the leading mathematical and scientific experts who are investigating for indicators of tipping points having been reached, point to paying particular attention to factors involving desertification. These researchers have paid particular attention to grasslands, and the U.S. Geological Survey has been concentrating on "two sites in the Southwest" that they are investigating "by painstakingly measuring local conditions and experimentally setting fires, removing grasses and controlling the fall of water. But so far, the vegetation patterns that indicated tipping points in the Kalahari haven’t shown up here, though this may be due to poor image quality rather than bad theory. The researchers are now looking for signals in on-the-ground measurements of vegetation changes."

Summarizing the Nature account on the environmental warning signs behind global climate change, WIRED SCIENCE writer Brandon Keim reported that: "Climate change threatens to turn the planet into a stormy, overheated mess: That much we know. But according to 28 leading scientists, greenhouse gas pollution is but one of nine environmental factors critical to humanity’s future. If their boundaries are stretched too far, Earth’s environment could be catastrophically altered — and three have already been broken, with several others soon to follow.

"This grim diagnosis, published Wednesday in Nature, is the most ambitious assessment of planetary health to date. It’s a first-draft users’ manual for an era that scientists dub the “anthropocene,” in which nearly seven billion resource-hungry humans have come to dominate ecological change on Earth. The scientists’ quantifications are open to argument, but not the necessity of their perspective.

“It’s a crude attempt to map the environmental space in which we can operate,” said Jon Foley, director of the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment and one of the paper’s lead authors. “We need to keep our activities in a certain range, or the planet could tip into a state we haven’t seen in the history of our civilization.”

"Thresholds for atmospheric carbon dioxide and ozone have already been described, and are widely known to the public. But the scientists say five other factors are just as important: ocean acidification, nitrogen and phosphorus pollution, land use, freshwater use and biodiversity. They say chemical pollution and atmospheric aerosols may also be essential, but can’t yet be quantified.

"Values for the proposed boundaries are still just estimates, and don’t account for how pushing one could affect another — how, for example, acidification that kills plankton could make it harder for the ocean to absorb CO2 and rebound from nitrogen pollution. Ecological models still can’t capture the entirety of Earth’s biological, geological and chemical processes, and it’s impossible to run whole-Earth experiments — except, arguably, for the experiment that’s going on now.

"Despite those uncertainties, one aspect of Earth’s behavior is becoming clear. Records of global transitions between geological ages, and of regional changes between environmental stages, suggest that planet-wide change could happen relatively quickly. It might not take thousands or millions of years for Earth’s environment to be altered. It could happen in centuries, perhaps even decades.

"Exactly what Earth would look like is difficult to predict in detail, but it could be radically different from the mild environment that has prevailed for the last 10,000 years. It was temperate stability that nurtured the rise of civilization, and it should continue for thousands of years to come, unless humanity keeps pushing the limits.

“The Earth of the last 10,000 years has been more recognizable than the Earth we may have 100 years from now. It won’t be Mars, but it won’t be the Earth that you and I know,” said Foley. “This is the single most defining problem of our time. Will we have the wisdom to be stewards of a world we’ve come to dominate?”

"Foley’s team put the atmospheric carbon dioxide threshold at 350 parts per million, a level the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change says should keep Earth’s average temperature from rising by more than four degrees Fahrenheit. Current atmospheric CO2 levels are already approaching 400 parts per million.

"Also exceeded are limits for species loss, which the scientists set at 10 per year per million species, and nitrogen use, pegged at 35 million tons per year. The current extinction rate is ten times higher than advised, ostensibly compromising the ability of ecosystems to process nutrients. The use of nitrogen — which is needed for fertilizer, but causes oxygen-choking algae blooms — is nearly four times higher than recommended.

"On the positive side, atmospheric levels of ultraviolet radiation-blocking ozone are safe, thanks to a 1987 ban on ozone-destroying chemicals. Total rates of ocean acidification, freshwater consumption and land use are also acceptable, but those thresholds are expected to be exceeded in coming decades.

"The seven boundary points are certain to be controversial, and Nature commissioned seven separate critiques by leading experts in each field.

"William Schlesinger, president of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, said the recommended nitrogen limit “seems arbitrary.” Echoing his words was Steve Bass of the International Institute for Environment and Development, who said the 15 percent cap on land devoted to agriculture could as easily be 10 or 20 percent.

"International Water Management Institute researcher David Molden said the 4,000 cubic kilometer ceiling on freshwater use — roughly one-third of all freshwater — “may be too high.” Myles Allen, an Oxford University climatologist, argued that CO2 emissions should be counted in a different way. Cristian Samper, director of the U.S. Natural History Museum, said that taxonomic family loss is a more relevant measure than species loss.

"According to Foley, who called his team’s threshold values a “cave painting” version of the true limits, the paper is less important for its details than its approach. And though the critics argued over the numbers, all agreed that exceeding them will be disastrous.

“Planetary boundaries are a welcome new approach,” wrote Molden. “It is imperative that we act now on several fronts to avert a calamity far greater than what we envision from climate change.”

"Peter Brewer, an ocean chemist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, criticized the paper’s lack of proposed solutions. Given the ongoing failure of governments and citizens to follow their scientists’ advice on climate change, more than dire warnings is clearly needed.

“Is it truly useful to create a list of environmental limits without serious plans for how they may be achieved?” Brewer wrote. “Without recognition of what would be needed economically and politically to enforce such limits, they may become just another stick to beat citizens with.”

“It’s unsatisfactory, I agree. We don’t answer the question of how to keep humanity from crossing the boundaries,” said Johan Rockstrom, director of the Stockholm Environment Institute and a lead author of the Nature paper. “That’s the next challenge. To stay within planetary boundaries, we need tremendous social transformation.”

Note: The Nature paper is an edited version of the full article, which is available from the Stockholm Resilience Institute.

Citations: “A safe operating space for humanity.” By Johan Rockström, Will Steffen, Kevin Noone, Asa Persson, F. Stuart Chapin, III, Eric F. Lambin, Timothy M. Lenton, Marten Scheffer, Carl Folke, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Björn Nykvist, Cynthia A. de Wit, Terry Hughes, Sander van der Leeuw, Henning Rodhe, Sverker Sörlin, Peter K. Snyder, Robert Costanza, Uno Svedin, Malin Falkenmark, Louise Karlberg, Robert W. Corell, Victoria J. Fabry, James Hansen, Brian Walker, Diana Liverman, Katherine Richardson, Paul Crutzen, Jonathan A. Foley. Nature, Vol. 461 No. 7263, September 24, 2009. “Early-warning signals for critical transitions.” By Marten Scheffer, Jordi Bascompte, William A. Brock, Victor Brovkin, Stephen R. Carpenter, Vasilis Dakos, Hermann Held, Egbert H. van Nes, Max Rietkerk & George Sugihara. Nature, Vol. 461, No. 7260, September 2, 2009.

Anchiornis huxleyi, Chinese Fossil Discovery Adds to the Understanding of the Relationship Between Form and Function in Dinosaurs and the Evolution of Flight

 The lithe creature, Anchiornis huxleyi which stood about 28 centimeters tall at the hip, is the oldest known to have sported feathers.-artist's representation

Recent fossil analysis of dinosaurs with feathers, often speculated to have been capable of flight , indicates an important discovery for the scientific "understanding of bird and flight evolution.that speculates that feathered dinosaurs were tree dwellers and consequently has "bolstering the notion that flight developed from the trees down, not from the ground up." Such is the opinion of Larry D. Martin, a paleontologist at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, who provided his opinion on Anchiornis huxleyi and said: : “No dinosaur could walk well with feathers on its feet like that.”

Anchiornis huxleyi -artist's representation

Anchiornis huxleyi was discovered in a region of northeastern China and has been estimated to be between 151 to 161 million years old or approximately "between 1 million and 11 million years older than Archaeopteryx, which scientists regularly refer to as the original bird of antiquity.

Archaeopteryx (meaning "ancient wing") is a very early prehistoric bird, dating from about 150 million years ago during the Jurassic period, when many dinosaurs lived. It is one of the oldest-known birds.-artist's representation

"Archaeopteryx seemed to be part bird and part dinosaur. Unlike modern-day birds, it had teeth, three claws on each wing, a flat sternum (breastbone), belly ribs (gastralia), and a long, bony tail. Like modern-day birds, it had feathers, a lightly-built body with hollow bones, a wishbone (furcula) and reduced fingers. This crow-sized animal may have been able to fly, but not very far and not very well. Although it had feathers and could fly, it had similarities to dinosaurs, including its teeth, skull, lack of a horny bill, and certain bone structures. Archaeopteryx had a wingspan of about 1.5 feet (0.5 m) and was about 1 foot ( 30 cm) long from beak to tail. It probably weighed from 11 to 18 ounces (300 to 500 grams).

Archaeopteryx were highly non symmetrical; and their tail feathers were rather broad. "This implies that the wings and tail were used for lift generation. In 1868, Thomas Henry Huxley interpreted the Archaeopteryx fossil to be a transitional bird having many reptilian features. Using the fossils of Archaeopteryx , Huxley argued that birds and reptiles were descended from common ancestors. Decades later, Huxley's ideas fell out of favor, only to be reconsidered over a century later (after much research and ado) in the 1970's.

Researchers have also determined that feathers have had non-flight purposes and according to an article that appeared in Nature and reported on by Alexis Madrigal of WIRED SCIENCE have elaborated that: "Form can precede function, at least when it comes to mate-attracting feathers."

Madrigal explained: "A part-bird, part-dinosaur described in the journal Nature this week didn’t have feathers for flying, but did possess ostentatious ornamental plumage, including four tailfeathers three times longer than its pigeon-sized body.

"Epidexipteryx ("display" + "wing, feather") lived during the middle-to-late Jurassic, predating the famed Archaeoptryx, and represents an alternative evolutionary pathway from dinosaurs to birds," Madrigal continued.

"The discovery by the Chinese Academy of Sciences adds complexity to the presumed road from T-rex to turkey vulture because the creature looks like a mythological chimera." Madrigal discusses. "And that, in the words of the authors of the paper,  is "bizarre".

"In 1986, J. A. Gauthier looked at over 100 characteristics of birds and dinosaurs and showed that birds belonged to the clade of coelurosaurian dinosaurs. [Gauthier, J.A., 1986. Saurischian monophyly and the origin of birds, in: The Origin of Birds and the Evolution of Flight, California Academy of Sciences Memoir No. 8]"

"Paleontologists think that Archaeopteryx was a dead-end in evolution and that coelurosaurian theropods (a group of dinosaurs that included the Dromaeosaurs Deinonychus, Utahraptor, and Velociraptor) led to the birds," Sid Perkins of ScienceNews has written.

Dromaeosaurs Deinonychus-artist's representation

Dromaeosaurs Utahraptor-artist's representation

 

Dromaeosaurs Velociraptor-artist's representation

The Anchiornis huxleyi has been described as being covered abundantly with two types of feather materials; “dino-fuzz,” resembles a frayed bundle of filaments. The other type, similar in overall structure to the feathers of modern-day birds, consists of small filaments that branch from a larger shaft-like filament."

Sid Perkins writes: "The "dino-fuzz" decorates the creature’s head and neck" an occurrence that was quite common among dinosaurs and suggests "that feathers evolved for purposes unrelated to flight." About two dozen of the shafted feathers adorn each forelimb, and a similar number embellish each lower leg and foot, the researchers report. Unlike most feathered dinosaurs described previously, which have the longest forelimb feathers near the tip of the limb.

"Anchiornis’ longest forelimb feathers are on the wrist, Xing Xu of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing said. Feathers on the legs and feet appear to have overlapped each other, creating aerodynamic surfaces that would have, in essence, given Anchiornis a wing on each of its four limbs. A similar configuration has been seen in other feathered dinosaurs, including Microraptor (SN: 1/27/07, p. 53) and Archaeopteryx (SN: 9/23/06, p. 197)."

Perkins, summarized remarks made by vertebrate paleontologist James M. Clark of George Washington University in Washington, D.C.:"With so many species with this arrangement, the four-winged configuration must have been an important phase in the evolutionary transition from dinosaurs to birds."

Writer, Perkins provided a summary of the prevalent view among many researchers who "scoff at the suggestion that the filamentary structures found on some dinosaurs, especially those unearthed in China in recent years, represent nascent feathers. But those creatures lived many millions of years after Archaeopteryx, which had feathers indistinguishable from those on modern-day birds." 

Vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Bristol in England, Mike Benton is paraphrased by Perkins: "The new find is important because it undoubtedly includes the oldest known feathers on any creature."

“These exceptional fossils provide us with evidence that has been missing until now,” Xu said. “Now it all fits neatly into place, and we have tied up some of the loose ends.” 

New Study Supported by Aarhus University, The Danish Polar Center and the U.S. National Science Foundation Finds the Changes That Have Taken Place in the Arctic May be Irreversible

An adult female caribou and her newborn calf in Greenland during 2008-2009. Caribou numbers have been declining as a result of climate change. Credit: Eric Post, Penn State University. Source: LiveScience.

Arctic fox near Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. Arctic foxes are being displaced by red foxes, previously confined to lower, warmer latitudes. Credit: Eric Post, Penn State University. Source: LiveScience.

Cotton grass near Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. Grasses are expanding in some areas of the Arctic as a result of climate change. Credit: Eric Post, Penn State University. Source: LiveScience.

"Andrea Thompson, of LiveScience has written: "The dramatic changes sweeping the Arctic as a result of global warming aren't just confined to melting sea ice and polar bears — a new study finds that the forces of climate change are propagating throughout the frigid north, producing different effects in each ecosystem with the upshot that the face of the Arctic may be forever altered.

"The Arctic as we know it may be a thing of the past," said Eric Post of Penn State, who led an international team that brought together research on the effects of climate change from ecosystems across the Arctic.

"The study, detailed in the Sept. 11 issue of the journal Science, is one of the first to knit together and bring light to the details of the multitude of changes from across the region.

"Usually, when people talk about declines in the Arctic, they show a figure with declining sea ice extent and then show a picture of a polar bear. This study tries to move beyond such recourse by citing the wide array of papers that quantify ecological decline in the Arctic," said Ken Caldeira of Stanford University, who was not involved in the study. "I know of no similar paper that brings together such a wealth of scholarship on the state of Arctic ecosystems."

Arctic amplification

"While the Earth on average has warmed by about 0.7 degrees Fahrenheit (0.4 degrees Celsius) over the past 150 years, the Arctic has warmed by two to three times that amount.

"This amplification of the global warming signal in the Arctic is partly the result of a self-feeding cycle: As sea ice melts, the oceans absorb more heat from the sun's rays, causing less ice to re-form come winter.

"In the last two to three decades alone, the amount of ice covering the Arctic at the summer minimum has declined by about 17,000 square miles (45,000 square kilometers, or about the size of Vermont and New Hampshire combined) a year, the researchers say, in addition to breaking up earlier in the season and freezing back later.

"Snow cover over land has also decreased in the northernmost latitudes, as well as melting earlier come spring.

"These physical changes to the environment are having a profound impact on the flora and fauna that dwell in the Arctic.

"Species on land and at sea are suffering adverse consequences of human behavior at latitudes thousands of miles away," Post said. "It seems that no matter where you look — on the ground, in the air or in the water — we're seeing signs of rapid change."

Ice melt and migrations

"Arctic species that are dependent on the stability and persistence of the ice sheet — of which the polar bear is the most widely-recognized example — are particularly feeling the brunt of climate change. The loss of sea ice is causing a rapid decline in the number of ivory gulls, Pacific walrus, ringed seals, hooded seals, narwhals, and of course, polar bears.

"Polar bears and ringed seals both give birth in lairs or caves under the snow. If these refuges collapse in unusually early spring rains, the newborn pups end up lying exposed on the ice, where they die from hypothermia or predation.

"Other species are being threatened by the northward migrations of species once confined to more hospitable lower latitudes. One of the most visible invaders is the red fox, which is displacing the native Arctic fox.

"The winter moth, which defoliates mountain birch forests, has also been marching poleward, as have Low Arctic trees and shrubs, which affect the dynamics of an ecosystem. Adding more shrubs and trees to the landscape promotes deeper snow accumulation, which increases winter soil temperatures. Warmer soils mean more microbial activity, which makes the habitat even more suitable for shrubs.

"The addition of shrubs also propagates changes throughout the ecosystem and affects the ability of the tundra (or frozen soil) to store carbon: While more shrubs may lengthen the period of the growing season when the soil acts as a carbon sink, it also provides more food for grazing musk oxen and reindeer, who limit the carbon-soaking ability as they trim the plants. Grazing, trampling and defecation by herbivores also promote the growth and spread of grasses, which attract geese. Geese, in turn, can influence the productivity of lakes where they rest and graze.

Good for me, bad for you

"The changes in Arctic ecosystems can have opposing impacts on different species, with some even benefiting from them.

"The study found that wild reindeer on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard benefit from earlier snow melt. With less snow on the ground and a longer growing season, the nonmigratory reindeer can take advantage of an explosion in plant abundance. The result is more reindeer, as they are more able to reproduce and less likely to die.

"On the losing side of the equation are migratory caribou in Low Arctic Greenland, whose numbers the researchers find are declining. The caribou haven't been able to adjust their calving season to keep in step with the change in plant season, so new mothers in need of more food have less available and more calves die. Hotter summers may also bring more insects and parasites to prey on the caribou.

"The reduction in caribou numbers in turn impacts the local indigenous human populations: "Inuit hunters at my study site in Greenland have all but given up on hunting caribou there," Post said.

Forecasting the future

"Understanding why some ecosystems benefit or are less impacted by climate change while others are on the brink of collapse is one area that the researchers say needs more attention.

"Documenting the changes in this region is also key to developing any conservation plans, particularly because there are relatively few species in the Arctic.

"There is little functional redundancy among species in Arctic ecosystems," Post said. "Therefore, relatively small shifts in species ranges or abundances may cause fundamental changes in a unique ecosystem that also is important for tourism and traditional cultures."

"The rapid changes in the Arctic also provide a way for scientists to tackle a long-standing problem in climate research, predicting what will happen to ecosystems in a warming world, Caldeira said. While some predictions, such dipping polar bear numbers from sea ice melt, are more predictable, others, such as the dynamics between shrub growth and grazing, are harder to predict.

"The Arctic is, unfortunately, a good early laboratory in which to test our predictions of ecosystem response to global change," Caldeira told LiveScience.

"To better understand the changes taking place in the Arctic — and the Earth as a whole — the team proposes a series of studies across the region to monitor the drivers of climate change and the biological responses to them over the long term.

"We've seen a great deal of emphasis recently on the melting of Arctic ice," Post said. "The broad, rapid, and in some cases devastating changes documented in this paper remind us of why it's important to give consideration to the consequences of rising temperatures."

"The study was supported by Aarhus University, The Danish Polar Center and the U.S. National Science Foundation."

    * Arctic News, Images and Information

    * North vs. South Pole: 10 Wild Differences

    * The Science of Global Warming

09/26/09 President Barack Obama Weekly Radio Address

 Recorded on his way back from the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh, the President discusses how engagement produced tangible results in several areas.

 read the transcript

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26TH, 2009 AT 12:30 AM
Weekly Address: Progress with the G-20 in Pittsburgh

Posted by Jesse Lee
"Recorded literally on his way back from the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh, the President uses his Weekly Address to recap the progress made during the intensive discussions with world leaders. From an historic agreement to reform the global financial system, to groundbreaking commitments on reducing subsidies to fossil fuels worldwide, to unity in standing against threats to world peace -- engagement produced tangible results in several areas."

President Obama also addressed the reduction of nuclear weapons: "The United States is meeting our responsibilities by pursuing an agreement with Russia to reduce our strategic warheads and launchers. And just as we meet our responsibilities, so must other nations, including Iran and North Korea.

"Earlier this year, we imposed tough, new, sanctions on North Korea to stop their efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction. And we will continue to stand with our allies and partners to press North Korea to move in a new direction.

"This week, we joined with the United Kingdom and France in presenting evidence that Iran has been building a secret nuclear facility to enrich uranium. This is a serious challenge to the global nonproliferation regime, and continues a disturbing pattern of Iranian evasion. That is why international negotiations with Iran scheduled for October 1st now take on added urgency.

"My offer of a serious, meaningful dialogue to resolve this issue remains open. But Iran must now cooperate fully with the International Atomic Energy Agency, and take action to demonstrate its peaceful intentions.

"On this, the international community is more united than ever before. Yesterday, I stood shoulder-to-shoulder with our European allies in condemning Iran’s program. In our meetings and public statements, President Medvedev of Russia and I agreed that Iran must pursue a new course or face consequences. All of the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, and Germany, have made it clear that Iran must fulfill its responsibilities.

"Iran’s leaders must now choose – they can live up to their responsibilities and achieve integration with the community of nations. Or they will face increased pressure and isolation, and deny opportunity to their own people.

"These are the urgent threats of our time. And the United States is committed to a new chapter of international cooperation to meet them. This new chapter will not be written in one week or even one year. But we have begun. And for the American people and the people of the world, it will mean greater security and prosperity for years to come."


The Associated Press reported that: "The White House responded to the development by urging Iran's complete and immediate cooperation with the IAEA. ''After hiding this site from the international community for years, full transparency is essential, and it is time for Iran to play by the rules like everyone else,'' White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said.

Obama said in his address that evidence of Iran's building the underground plant ''continues a disturbing pattern of Iranian evasion'' that jeopardizes global nonproliferation.

"Ahead of Thursday's international talks with Iran in Geneva, Obama said the world ''is more united than ever before'' on this issue. Those negotiations, he said, ''now take on added urgency.''

Iran's failure to comply with international inspectors raised the potential of tougher economic penalties, although Obama and administration officials did not rule out military action.

''My offer of a serious, meaningful dialogue to resolve this issue remains open,'' Obama said, urging Tehran to ''take action to demonstrate its peaceful intentions.''

"Evidence of the clandestine facility was presented Friday by Obama and the leaders of Britain and France at the G-20 economic summit in Pittsburgh. The news overshadowed developments on regulating financial markets and reducing fossil fuel subsidies.

"Soon after, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, at his own news conference, urged Iran to cooperate, as did Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei. He, however, did not endorse penalties against Tehran.

"At a news conference in New York, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his country had done nothing wrong and Obama would regret his actions.

''What we did was completely legal, according to the law. We have informed the agency, the agency will come and take a look and produce a report and it's nothing new,'' he said.

"Ahmadinejad said the plant -- which Iranian officials say was reported to nuclear authorities as required -- wouldn't be operational for 18 months. But he sidestepped a question about whether Iran had sufficient uranium to manufacture a nuclear weapon."

Vice President Biden Increases His Involvement in Advocating Health Care Reform

Vice President Biden has increased active involvement with administration attempts to reform health care. This past Tuesday Mr. Biden met with state insurance commissioners to advocate tighter regulation of the health care must be implemented "to protect consumers and slow the spiraling cost of medical coverage."

Biden explained to the commissioners that the Obama plan will increase efficiency within the health care industry and in turn would have two immediate, positive effects; bringing about more competition and give consumers a wider range of choices, and in addition, would bring more consumers into the health care marketplace by tapping into the large number of Americans who do not currently have health insurance coverage.

Speaking to the overall positive effect of the Obama plan, Biden explained: "So, the profits might not be as high per person they cover, but there will be a much larger pool of paying customers."

Biden made his remarks advocating change in the current way that the health care industry operates based on the administration's contention that the nation faces an explosion in health care costs that threatens the ability of Americans to keep pace with escalating health care costs to the "National Association of Insurance Commissioners at National Harbor in Prince George's County," Maryland.

The next day, Biden spoke to senior citizens at a town hall meeting in Silver Spring, Maryland.



At the town hall meeting, Vice President Joe Biden joined with Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to tout the administration's issuance of a new document, "Health Insurance Reform and Medicare: Making Medicare Stronger for America's Seniors."

The Vice President tells seniors that the myths they've heard about health reform are "malarkey," as a new report shows how seniors and Medicare will benefit.

  
Biden was relaxed and at ease with the assembled crowd of seniors at Leisure World, a suburban Maryland retirement community, to reassure seniors about their Medicare coverage. He even took time to explain "about having to disabuse his own mother of myths being spread around about "death panels" and reduced Medicare benefits, getting laughs at the line: "I said, 'Mom, I'm trying to kill you," before explaining to her that it was a "bunch of malarkey."

Vice President Joe Biden speaks to seniors during a healthcare town hall meeting at Leisure World in Silver Springs, Maryland, Wednesday, September 23, 2009. Also in attendance were Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, and Director of the White House Office of Health Reform Nancy Ann De Parle.

“Nobody is going to mess with your benefits,” said Biden, who was joined by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and White House health adviser Nancy-Ann DeParle. “All we do is make it better for people on Medicare.”

White House health adviser Nancy-Ann DeParle (l.), Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (c.) and Vice President Joe Biden, answer questions from seniors about the proposed health care reforms on Wednesday, at Leisure World in Silver Spring, Maryland.
(Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

The White House announced that: "The new report out of HHS addresses some of the common questions American seniors have about health insurance reform: How will reducing subsidies to Medicare Advantage plans affect me? How will health insurance reform make my care more affordable? Will health insurance reform actually improve my care? Will I have a choice of doctor? Will Medicare be there for me in the future?

"For each of these questions," the report details "the problems with the status quo and discusses the solutions provided by the President’s health insurance reform plan.  Some of the solutions listed in the report include:

    * Preserving and strengthening Medicare
    * Cutting high prescription drug costs
    * Making preventive services free
    * Ending overpayments to private insurance companies that cost all Medicare beneficiaries
    * Improving quality and patient safety
    * Making long term care services more affordable" 

Vice President Joe Biden greets seniors after holding a healthcare town hall meeting at Leisure World in Silver Springs, Maryland, Wednesday, September 23, 2009. Also in attendance were Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, and Director of the White House Office of Health Reform Nancy Ann De Parle.

President Barack Obama Makes His First Address to the United Nations General Assembly

In his first address to the UN General Assembly, the President denounces reflexive anti-Americanism and calls on the world's leaders to recognize the common challenges we face.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23RD, 2009 AT 1:23 PM
"Real Change is Possible"
Posted by Jesse Lee

"In this morning's speech to the United Nations General Assembly, President Obama covered a range of topics—all under the umbrella of his desire for leaders to recognize the "common future" of a world in which "the interests of peoples and nations are shared."

(President Barack Obama addresses the General Assembly of the UN in New York, Wednesday,
September 23, 2009.   Official White House photo by Samantha Appleton.)

"He took the opportunity to reflect upon his first nine months in office, highlighting his administration's priorities and looking forward to challenges ahead:

"On my first day in office, I prohibited -- without exception or equivocation -- the use of torture by the United States of America.  (Applause.)  I ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed, and we are doing the hard work of forging a framework to combat extremism within the rule of law.  Every nation must know: America will live its values, and we will lead by example.

"We have set a clear and focused goal:  to work with all members of this body to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda and its extremist allies -- a network that has killed thousands of people of many faiths and nations, and that plotted to blow up this very building.  In Afghanistan and Pakistan, we and many nations here are helping these governments develop the capacity to take the lead in this effort, while working to advance opportunity and security for their people.

"In Iraq, we are responsibly ending a war.  We have removed American combat brigades from Iraqi cities, and set a deadline of next August to remove all our combat brigades from Iraqi territory.  And I have made clear that we will help Iraqis transition to full responsibility for their future, and keep our commitment to remove all American troops by the end of 2011.

"I have outlined a comprehensive agenda to seek the goal of a world without nuclear weapons.  In Moscow, the United States and Russia announced that we would pursue substantial reductions in our strategic warheads and launchers.  At the Conference on Disarmament, we agreed on a work plan to negotiate an end to the production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons.  And this week, my Secretary of State will become the first senior American representative to the annual Members Conference of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

"Upon taking office, I appointed a Special Envoy for Middle East Peace, and America has worked steadily and aggressively to advance the cause of two states -- Israel and Palestine -- in which peace and security take root, and the rights of both Israelis and Palestinians are respected.

"To confront climate change, we have invested $80 billion in clean energy.  We have substantially increased our fuel-efficiency standards.  We have provided new incentives for conservation, launched an energy partnership across the Americas, and moved from a bystander to a leader in international climate negotiations.
To overcome an economic crisis that touches every corner of the world, we worked with the G20 nations to forge a coordinated international response of over $2 trillion in stimulus to bring the global economy back from the brink.  We mobilized resources that helped prevent the crisis from spreading further to developing countries.  And we joined with others to launch a $20 billion global food security initiative that will lend a hand to those who need it most, and help them build their own capacity.

"We've also re-engaged the United Nations.  We have paid our bills.  We have joined the Human Rights Council.  (Applause.)  We have signed the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.  We have fully embraced the Millennium Development Goals.  And we address our priorities here, in this institution  -- for instance, through the Security Council meeting that I will chair tomorrow on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, and through the issues that I will discuss today.

"This is what we have already done.  But this is just a beginning.  Some of our actions have yielded progress.  Some have laid the groundwork for progress in the future.  But make no mistake:  This cannot solely be America's endeavor.  Those who used to chastise America for acting alone in the world cannot now stand by and wait for America to solve the world's problems alone.  We have sought -- in word and deed -- a new era of engagement with the world.  And now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges.

"The President also outlined the "Four Pillars" he believes are "fundamental to the future that we want for our children": "non-proliferation and disarmament; the promotion of peace and security; the preservation of our planet; and a global economy that advances opportunity for all people." 

(President Barack Obama addresses the General Assembly of the UN in New York, Wednesday,
September 23, 2009.   Official White House photo by Samantha Appleton.)

"In closing, the President offered a fresh take on the crucial choice that faces the international body:

"In short, the United Nations can be an institution that is disconnected from what matters in the lives of our citizens, or it can be an indispensable factor in advancing the interests of the people we serve.

"We have reached a pivotal moment.  The United States stands ready to begin a new chapter of international cooperation -- one that recognizes the rights and responsibilities of all nations.  And so, with confidence in our cause, and with a commitment to our values, we call on all nations to join us in building the future that our people so richly deserve." 

All text and photos provided by the White House

The White House on Health Care Reform: The "Obama Plan in Four Minutes"

The White House has unveiled a new video, culled from President  Obama's recent address before Congress that is claimed to explain the president's health care reform plan in four minutes:

"In an address to a joint session of Congress, President Obama explained how health insurance reform will provide more security and stability to those who have health insurance, coverage for those who don’t, and will lower the cost of health care for our families, our businesses, and our government."

• Read the full transcript of the President's remarks.
• Watch the full video of the President's remarks.
• Read the full plan for health insurance reform.
• Download a concise, printable version (pdf).

"I suffer no illusions that this will be an easy process. It will be hard. But I also know that nearly a century after Teddy Roosevelt first called for reform, the cost of our health care has weighed down our economy and the conscience of our nation long enough. So let there be no doubt: health care reform cannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another year."

– President Barack Obama, February 24, 2009

Progress

• The President signed the Children’s Health Insurance Reauthorization Act on February 4, 2009, which provides quality health care to 11 million kids – 4 million who were previously uninsured.
• The President’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act protects health coverage for 7 million Americans who lose their jobs through a 65 percent COBRA subsidy to make coverage affordable.
• The Recovery Act also invests $19 billion in computerized medical records that will help to reduce costs and improve quality while ensuring patients’ privacy.
• The Recovery Act also provides:
  • $1 billion for prevention and wellness to improve America’s health and help to reduce health care costs;
  • $1.1 billion for research to give doctors tools to make the best treatment decisions for their patients by providing objective information on the relative benefits of treatments; and
  • $500 million for health workforce to help train the next generation of doctors and nurses.
   
  

Guiding Principles

"President Obama is committed to working with Congress to pass comprehensive health reform in his first year in order to control rising health care costs, guarantee choice of doctor, and assure high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans."

• Learn about the fundamental health insurance consumer protections included in reform.

"Comprehensive health care reform can no longer wait. Rapidly escalating health care costs are crushing family, business, and government budgets. Employer-sponsored health insurance premiums have doubled in the last 9 years, a rate 3 times faster than cumulative wage increases. This forces families to sit around the kitchen table to make impossible choices between paying rent or paying health premiums. Given all that we spend on health care, American families should not be presented with that choice. The United States spent approximately $2.2 trillion on health care in 2007, or $7,421 per person – nearly twice the average of other developed nations. Americans spend more on health care than on housing or food. If rapid health cost growth persists, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that by 2025, one out of every four dollars in our national economy will be tied up in the health system. This growing burden will limit other investments and priorities that are needed to grow our economy. Rising health care costs also affect our economic competitiveness in the global economy, as American companies compete against companies in other countries that have dramatically lower health care costs.

"The President has vowed that the health reform process will be different in his Administration – an open, inclusive, and transparent process where all ideas are encouraged and all parties work together to find a solution to the health care crisis. Working together with members of Congress, doctors and hospitals, businesses and unions, and other key health care stakeholders, the President is committed to making sure we finally enact comprehensive health care reform.

"The Administration believes that comprehensive health reform should:

• Reduce long-term growth of health care costs for businesses and government
• Protect families from bankruptcy or debt because of health care costs
• Guarantee choice of doctors and health plans
• Invest in prevention and wellness
• Improve patient safety and quality of care
• Assure affordable, quality health coverage for all Americans
• Maintain coverage when you change or lose your job
• End barriers to coverage for people with pre-existing medical conditions

"Please visit www.HealthReform.gov http://www.HealthReform.govto learn more about the President’s commitment to enacting comprehensive health reform this year."

The Obama Plan: Stability & Security

for all Americans

"It will provide more security and stability to those who have health insurance. It will provide insurance to those who don’t. And it will lower the cost of health care for our families, our businesses, and our government."

– President Barack Obama

If You Have Health Insurance

More Stability and Security

• Ends discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions. Over the last three years, 12 million people were denied coverage directly or indirectly through high premiums due to a pre-existing condition.  Under the President’s plan, it will be against the law for insurance companies to deny coverage for health reasons or risks. 
• Limits premium discrimination based on gender and age. The President’s plan will end insurers’ practice of charging different premiums or denying coverage based on gender, and will limit premium variation based on age. 
• Prevents insurance companies from dropping coverage when people are sick and need it most.  The President’s plan prohibits insurance companies from rescinding coverage that has already been purchased except in cases of fraud.  In most states, insurance companies can cancel a policy if any medical condition was not listed on the application – even one not related to a current illness or one the patient didn’t even know about. A recent Congressional investigation found that over five years, three large insurance companies cancelled coverage for 20,000 people, saving them from paying $300 million in medical claims - $300 million that became either an obligation for the patient’s family or bad debt for doctors and hospitals.
• Caps out-of pocket expenses so people don’t go broke when they get sick.  The President’s plan will cap out-of-pocket expenses and will prohibit insurance companies from imposing annual or lifetime caps on benefit payments. A middle-class family purchasing health insurance directly from the individual insurance market today could spend up to 50 percent of household income on health care costs because there is no limit on out-of-pocket expenses.
• Eliminates extra charges for preventive care like mammograms, flu shots and diabetes tests to improve health and save money. The President’s plan ensures that all Americans have access to free preventive services under their health insurance plans. Too many Americans forgo needed preventive care, in part because of the cost of check-ups and screenings that can identify health problems early when they can be most effectively treated. For example, 24 percent of women age 40 and over have not received a mammogram in the past two years, and 38 percent of adults age 50 and over have never had a colon cancer screening.
• Protects Medicare for seniors. The President’s plan will extend new protections for Medicare beneficiaries that improve quality, coordinate care and reduce beneficiary and program costs.  These protections will extend the life of the Medicare Trust Fund to pay for care for future generations. 
• Eliminates the "donut-hole" gap in coverage for prescription drugs.  The President’s plan begins immediately to close the Medicare "donut hole" - a current gap in its drug benefit - by providing a 50 percent discount on brand-name prescription drugs for seniors who fall into it.  In 2007, over 8 million seniors hit this coverage gap in the standard Medicare drug benefit.  By 2019, the President’s plan will completely close the "donut hole".  The average out-of-pocket spending for such beneficiaries who lack another source of insurance is $4,080.

If You Don't Have Insurance

Quality, Affordable Choices for All Americans

• Creates a new insurance marketplace – the Exchange – that allows people without insurance and small businesses to compare plans and buy insurance at competitive prices.  The President’s plan allows Americans who have health insurance and like it to keep it.  But for those who lose their jobs, change jobs or move, new high quality, affordable options will be available in the exchange.  Beginning in 2013, the Exchange will give Americans without access to affordable insurance on the job, and small businesses one-stop shopping for insurance where they can easily compare options based on price, benefits, and quality. 
• Provides new tax credits to help people buy insurance. The President’s plan will provide new tax credits on a sliding scale to individuals and families that will limit how much of their income can be spent on premiums.  There will also be greater protection for cost-sharing for out-of-pocket expenses.
• Provides small businesses tax credits and affordable options for covering employees. The President’s plan will also provide small businesses with tax credits to offset costs of providing coverage for their workers.  Small businesses who for too long have faced higher prices than larger businesses, will now be eligible to enter the exchange so that they have lower costs and more choices for covering their workers.
• Offers a public health insurance option to provide the uninsured and those who can’t find affordable coverage with a real choice.   The President believes this option will promote competition, hold insurance companies accountable and assure affordable choices. It is completely voluntary.  The President believes the public option must operate like any private insurance company – it must be self-sufficient and rely on the premiums it collects. 
• Immediately offers new, low-cost coverage through a national "high risk" pool to protect people with preexisting conditions from financial ruin until the new Exchange is created.  For those Americans who cannot get insurance coverage today because of a pre-existing condition, the President’s plan will immediately make available coverage without a mark-up due to their health condition. This policy will offer protection against financial ruin until a wider array of choices become available in the new exchange in 2013.

For All Americans

Reins In the Cost of Health Care for Our Families, Our Businesses, and Our Government

• Won’t add a dime to the deficit and is paid for upfront.  The President’s plan will not add one dime to the deficit today or in the future and is paid for in a fiscally responsible way.   It begins the process of reforming the health care system so that we can further curb health care cost growth over the long term, and invests in quality improvements, consumer protections, prevention, and premium assistance.  The plan fully pays for this investment through health system savings and new revenue including a fee on insurance companies that sell very expensive plans.
• Requires additional cuts if savings are not realized. Under the plan, if the savings promised at the time of enactment don’t materialize, the President will be required to put forth additional savings to ensure that the plan does not add to the deficit.
• Implements a number of delivery system reforms that begin to rein in health care costs and align incentives for hospitals, physicians, and others to improve quality.  The President’s plan includes proposals that will improve the way care is delivered to emphasize quality over quantity, including:  incentives for hospitals to prevent avoidable readmissions, pilots for new "bundled" payments in Medicare, and support for new models of delivering care through medical homes and accountable care organizations that focus on a coordinated approach to care and outcomes.
• Creates an independent commission of doctors and medical experts to identify waste, fraud and abuse in the health care system.   The President’s plan will create an independent Commission, made up of doctors and medical experts, to make recommendations to Congress each year on how to promote greater efficiency and higher quality in Medicare.  The Commission will not be authorized to propose or implement Medicare changes that ration care or affect benefits, eligibility or beneficiary access to care.  It will ensure that your tax dollars go directly to caring for seniors.
• Orders immediate medical malpractice reform projects that could help doctors focus on putting their patients first, not on practicing defensive medicine.  The President’s plan instructs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to move forward on awarding medical malpractice demonstration grants to states funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality as soon as possible.
• Requires large employers to cover their employees and individuals who can afford it to buy insurance so everyone shares in the responsibility of reform.   Under the President’s plan, large businesses – those with more than 50 workers – will be required to offer their workers coverage or pay a fee to help cover the cost of making coverage affordable in the exchange. This will ensure that workers in firms not offering coverage will have affordable coverage options for themselves and their families.  Individuals who can afford it will have a responsibility to purchase coverage – but there will be a "hardship exemption" for those who cannot.

All information provided by the White House

Extraordinary Images of Glaciers Photographed by Astronauts and Satellites Impressively Detail the Effects of Global Warming

From time to time, WIRED SCIENCE provides its readers with an impressive array of photos that visually present a compelling scientific issue. In the case concerning glaciers, they have a very important role in carving out and shaping the surface landscape features of the Earth. Because they are thousands of years old, glaciers provide scientists with access to the actual conditions of Earth's ancient atmospheres. Contemporary issues of global warming are witnessed by scientists who monitor the melting of glacial formations. Such is the case with the presentation on glaciers that follows:

Bear Glacier, Alaska

"This image taken in 2005 of Bear Glacier highlights the beautiful color of many glacial lakes. The hue is caused by the silt that is finely ground away from the valley walls by the glacier and deposited in the lake. The particles in this “glacial flour” can be very reflective, turning the water into a distinctive greenish blue. The lake, eight miles up from the terminus of the glacier, was held in place by the glacier, but in 2008 it broke through and drained into Resurrection Bay in Kenai Fjords National Park.

"The grey stripe down the middle of the glacier is called a medial moraine. It is formed when two glaciers flow into each other and join on their way downhill. When glaciers come together, their lateral moraines, long ridges formed along their edges as the freeze-thaw cycle of the glacier breaks off chunks of rock from the surrounding walls, meet to form a rocky ridge along the center of the joined glaciers."

Image: GeoEye/NASA, 2005

Heiltskuk Ice Field, British Columbia

"Covering nearly 1,400 square miles, the vast Heiltskuk Ice Field lies in the southern Coast Mountains of British Columbia. Taken by an astronaut on the International Space Station, this photo captures the snow-covered mountain slopes as well as several of the ice field’s valley glaciers, which are wide swaths of slowly flowing ice and debris. As these glaciers creep downhill, they carve out large U-shaped valleys that will remain long after the glacier melts. In fact, scientists use these characteristic valleys to identify regions that were once covered in ice but are now glacier-free.

"The two largest valley glaciers shown here are the Silverthrone Glacier and the Klinaklini Glacier, which merge with each other at the top of the photo. The dark lines of rock and detritus of the lateral and medial moraines along the edges and middle of the glaciers are clearly visible."

Image: NASA, 2009.

 

 

Erebus Ice Tongue, Antarctica

"The saw-shaped projection jutting out from this glacier is known as the Erebus Ice Tongue, a long, narrow sheet of ice almost 7 miles long and 33 feet high. This peculiar structure is formed as the Erebus glacier in Antarctica flows rapidly down Mount Erebus and into the McMurdo Sound. During the summer, when the rest of the sea ice in McMurdo melts, the ice tongue floats on the water without thawing. As waves of sea water crash over the sides of the tongue, they carve elaborate shapes and sometimes create deep caves along the edges of the ice sheet. Occasionally, sections of the ice tongue calve off to form small icebergs.

"Data for this false-color landscape was captured by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite, and the image was created by combining data in various wavelengths."

Image: NASA/ASTER, 2001

Western Greenland Valley

"This natural-color image captured in August shows several small glaciers spilling into a mostly dry valley in western Greenland that itself was formed by a glacier in the past. Ground up rock from past glaciations has collected in the valley, giving the pools of water at the snouts of the current glaciers a turquoise color.

"The photo was aqcuired by the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite."

Image: NASA, 2009

 

 

Grey Glacier, Chile

"Part of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field of Chile and Argentina, Grey Glacier covered 104 square miles when it was measured in 1996. By 2007, when this photograph was taken by astronauts from the International Space Station, the glacier had shrunk considerably, as seen in a comparative false-color image. Scientists think increased regional temperatures and changes in the amount of precipitation have led to more ice calving off as free-floating chunks, and less ice being replenished each year.

"In the natural-color image above, Grey Glacier looks pale blue because ice absorbs red wavelengths of light and scatters blue. The rough surface of this part of the glacier is caused by vertical cracks in the surface called crevasses, which are formed near the ends of glaciers as the flow of ice at the bottom speeds up relative to the brittle ice on top."

Image: NASA, 2007.

Eugenie Glacier, Dobbin Bay in the Canadian Arctic

"This stunning shot of the Eugenie Glacier in the Canadian Arctic was taken by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) satellite, which takes high-resolution images designed to detect even minute changes in the extent and features of the world’s glaciers.

"This image highlights the fact that glaciers are flowing much like water but at a far slower pace. Smaller glaciers flow down valleys like river tributaries into larger glaciers. The bottom of Eugenie Glacier is floating on the surface of Dobbin Bay; a close-up of the tongue shows extensive surface cracks and calving of small icebergs into the bay."

Image: NASA/ASTER, 2000

Retreat of the Helheim Glacier, Greenland

"Glaciers stay intact as long as the ice thickness and water depth allow them to stay firmly attached to the ground. But when the ice becomes too thin or the water gets too deep, the tip of a glacier starts to float and rapidly cracks into icebergs, creating what’s called a “calving edge.” This photograph, captured by NASA’s Terra satellite in 2003, shows the calving edge of the Helheim Glacier in Greenland. Comparing similar images from 2001 and 2005 reveals that the solid portion of the glacier has been shrinking rapidly. Measurements from NASA reveal that in just four years, the glacier’s margin retreated 4.7 miles and its flow speed increased from 5 to 7.5 miles per year. Between 2001 and 2003, the thickness of the glacier also shrunk by about 131 feet.

"Unfortunately, the entire Greenland Ice Sheet has been undergoing similar shrinkage, thinning by tens of yards in the past decade. While warmer temperatures have certainly caused some of the thinning, scientists also think that the retreat of the ice margin has played a role: With less grounded ice to slow the ice sheet down, it’s moving out to sea at a faster rate."

Image: NASA ASTER, 2003.

Ellesmere Island National Park Reserve

"This false-color composite image shows a tidewater glacier in the Greely Fjord that extends out over the sea water for a short distance and breaks off into icebergs, which can be seen floating away. The dark spots on the glaciers are likely melt ponds. The pond water is darker than the surface of the glacier and consequently absorbs more heat, which melts more ice and causes the ponds to grow. Sometimes, water from glacial melt ponds will flow through cracks in the glacier to the base, lubricating the surface and causing the glacier to flow more quickly."

Image: NASA/ASTER, 2003.

Mt. Rainier, Washington

"At 14,411 feet, Mt. Rainier is the tallest volcano in the Cascade Range and has a 1,280 foot-wide summit crater. On its eastern slope, it hosts Emmons Glacier, the largest glacier in the lower 48 states. Rainier is an active volcano that is continuously monitored by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Cascade Volcano Observatory. And though it last erupted in 1840, it is considered the most hazardous volcano in the country, in part because of the risk of flooding from melting glaciers in the event of an eruption. This photo was captured on a rare clear day by astronauts on the International Space Station."

Image: NASA, 2005

Upsala Glacier, Patagonian Argentina

"Upsala Glacier is the third largest glacier of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field at around 300 square miles and ends in Lake Argentino. Patagonian glaciers have been retreating rapidly in recent decades, some as much as 2.5 miles between the late 1960s and mid 1990s, making them a target for International Space Station crew observations. Upsala appears to still be retreating with visible changes between this photo taken in 2004 and another from 2000."

Image: NASA, 2004

Byrd Glacier, Antarctica

"The Byrd Glacier near McMurdo Station in Antarctica runs 100 miles through a steep 15-mile-wide valley in the Transatlantic Mountains. This fast-flowing glacier moves ice toward the Ross Ice Shelf at the rate of one half mile a year and adds more ice to the ice sheet than any other glacier. Images such as this one from the U.S. Geological Survey’s Landsat-7 satellite have been combined to form the Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica. The mosaic incorporates more than 1,000 images."

Image: USGS, 1999

Pasterze Glacier, Austria

European glaciers have been rapidly retreating in recent years, due to higher summer temperatures and lower winter precipitation. Pasterze Glacier has been shrinking since 1856. Satellite data such as this image is used by scientists to keep track of the movement of glaciers around the world.

Image: NASA, 2001.

 

 

Bering Glacier, Alaska

Bering Glacier, combined with the ice field that feeds it, is the largest glacier in North America at 2,000 square miles, as well as the longest at 118 miles. This glacier has retreated around 7.5 miles and thinned by several hundred yards over the last century, though it is still around 2,500 feet thick in some places. Scientists think the shrinking of Alaskan glaciers such as Bering has reduced the pressure on the boundary between tectonic plates beneath them and consequently increased the number of earthquakes in the region.

Image: NASA/USGS, 2002