13 Nations Send Message to World:

melting ice shelves trigger calls for action The third in the Global Warming series of aerial images produced by Los Angeles environmental artist and activist John Quigley took shape in Antartica in mid-February. The series began with an image in the Artic last spring, in which the Inuit took part. The second image was produced in London in September.The Antartica image appeared simultaneously with a report on the rapidly accelerating meltdown of Greenland’s glaciers. The expedition was sponsored by Santa Monica-based Global Green USA, in conjunction with Green Cross Argentina, an affiliate of Gorbachev’s Green Cross International, the crew of Ice Lady Patagonia and Asociación Buque Austral Patagónico.In an email to the Mirror, Quigley wrote, “Antarctica is a fascinating and mysterious place. At each of the research stations we visited, we heard comments such as ‘It never used to rain here’ (Port Lockroy) or ‘This area used to be covered year-round with ice,’ as they pointed to large areas of barren land with no ice cover (Jubany station). “The average temperature in the Antarctic Peninsula has risen 4.5 degrees since 1945.“My air travel emissions for this were offset through www.carboncounter.org, which enables people to contribute to programs that offset their yearly CO2 emissions.” “The pollution we dump into the atmosphere a hemisphere away takes only a year to travel to the land of the penguins,” said Stephen H. Schneider, a Biological Sciences Professor at Stanford University. “Our emissions contribute to warming trends that wreak havoc with weather patterns and sea levels far north of the south polar region.”Matt Petersen, President of Global Green USA, added. “We must insist upon clean renewable energy sources and dramatically improved energy efficiency in our cars, homes and businesses.”The warming of the Antarctic Peninsula by 4.5 degrees since 1945 has resulted in a reduction in the Adelie Penguin population of 33 percent in the past 25 years, as well as rising sea levels.Helping to issue this latest global warning were : Guillermo and Jorge May, Hernan AlvarezForn, Marcelo Marienhoff, Sebastian Hersch, Mohamed Zaki, Jorge Arias, Miguel Sellanes, Leonardo Menarguez, Carlos Vairo, Thomas Diner, Raul Grunthal, Frederico Dreher, Jorge Freioli, Pinino Orri, Pablo Ciancio, Jose Tejo, Enrique Ollivier, Pepi May, Candelaria May, Finn Longinotto, Carter Brooks, George Diner, Alejandro Palmeyro, Andreas Hanggi, Diego Torti and Sergio HanquetThe 13 countries were Argentina. Belgium, Egypt, England, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Peru, Poland, Spain, Switzerland and the U.S.