Arctic ice ‘is at tipping point’

Scientists suggest the Arctic is already at a climatic “tipping point”

Arctic sea ice has shrunk to the second smallest extent since satellite records began, US scientists have revealed.

The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) says that the ice-covered area has fallen below its 2005 level, which was the second lowest on record.

Melting has occurred earlier in the year than usual, meaning that the iced area could become even smaller than last September, the lowest recorded.

Researchers say the Arctic is now at a climatic “tipping point”.

“We could very well be in that quick slide downwards in terms of passing a tipping point,” said Mark Serreze, a senior scientist at the Colorado-based NSIDC.

“It’s tipping now. We’re seeing it happen now,” he told the Associated Press news agency.

Under covered

The area covered by ice on 26 August measured 5.26 million sq km (2.03 million sq miles), just below the 2005 low of 5.32 million sq km (2.05 million sq).

But the 2005 low came in late September; and with the 2008 graph pointing downwards, the NSIDC team believes last year’s record could still be broken even though air temperatures, both in the Arctic and globally, have been lower than last year.

Last September, the ice covered just 4.13 million sq km (1.59 million sq miles), the smallest extent seen since satellite imaging began 30 years ago. The 1980 figure was 7.8 million sq km (3 million sq miles).

The 2008 graph shows a steeper decline than at the same time last year

Most of the cover consists of relatively thin ice that formed within a single winter and melts more easily than ice that accumulated over many years.

Irrespective of whether the 2007 record falls in the next few weeks, the long-term trend is obvious, scientists said; the ice is declining more sharply than even a decade ago, and the Arctic region will progressively turn to open water in summers.

A few years ago, scientists were predicting ice-free Arctic summers by about 2080.

Then computer models started projecting earlier dates, around 2030 to 2050; and some researchers now believe it could happen within five years.

That will bring economic opportunities, including the chance to drill for oil and gas. Burning that oil and gas would increase levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere still further.

The absence of summer ice would have impacts locally and globally.

The iconography of polar bears unable to find ice is by now familiar; but other species, including seals, would also face drastic changes to their habitat, as would many Arctic peoples.

Globally, the Arctic melt will reinforce warming because open water absorbs more of the Sun’s energy than ice does.

Pitt and Clooney at Venice debut

Clooney and Pitt were on the red carpet for the premiere

The Venice Film Festival has opened with the premiere of the Coen brothers’ dark comedy Burn After Reading.

The film, starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt, is showing out of the competition at the annual event.

Before the screening, the stars posed good-naturedly for pictures and signed autograph books for fans lining up along the red carpet.

There are 21 movies competing for the coveted Golden Lion this year, with entries from Ethiopia and Turkey.

The festival continues with a fly-on -the-wall film about fashion designer Valentino Garavani – billed as a glimpse into a world of bygone glamour.

The movie was directed and produced by special correspondent for Vanity Fair magazine, Matt Tyrnauer.

Conspiracy

Pitt and Clooney are joined by British actress Tilda Swinton in Ethan and Joel Coen’s latest offering.

Clooney plays a paranoid federal marshal who gets mixed up in a conspiracy involving a former CIA analyst’s missing memoirs.

Also involved are the analyst’s adulterous wife, played by Swinton, and a couple of gormless gym instructors played by Pitt and Frances McDormand.

Before the premiere, Pitt picked up an award that he won in Venice last year – the best actor’s prize for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

“You can run but you can’t hide,” Pitt joked as he accepted the award.

“It was an honour to receive this last year and it remains an honour to accept this this year.”

Among the favourites for the Golden Lion are Japanese directors Takeshi Kitano, with Achilles and the Tortoise, and Hayao Miyasaki, for the animated feature Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea.

The prize will be awarded on 6 September.

Other strong contenders include US director Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler, starring Mickey Rourke, and French film-maker Barbet Schroeder’s thriller L’Inju: la Bete dans l’Ombre, or The Beast in the Shadows.

China admits mismanaged funds

Chinese officials admit that corruption is a huge problem

China’s government departments misused, embezzled or mismanaged more than 46bn yuan ($6.7bn) in 2007, the state auditor has said in an annual report.

China’s national audit office said offences included using disaster relief funds to build government offices.

Auditor General Liu Jiayi said that 14 central government officials had been detained and nearly 200 other people had been punished.

Beijing authorities admit that fighting corruption is one of their key tasks.

Chinese President Hu Jintao has repeatedly warned that endemic corruption threatens the Communist Party’s grip on power.

‘Irregularities’

Every year, China’s auditor-general gives the public a glimpse of how widespread government corruption is in this vast nation.

In this latest report to parliament, Mr Liu said an audit of more than 50 government departments and their subsidiaries had discovered that 4.5bn yuan ($660m) had been misused or embezzled in 2007.

He said the offences included diverting public funds to speculate in stocks and using disaster relief money to build government offices.

The report also found “managerial irregularities” in the use of another 41.7bn yuan ($6bn) of public money.

It said the country’s education and commerce ministries, along with the statistics and tax offices, were among the major offenders.

Despite admitting that tackling corruption is a top priority, China’s rulers have a poor track record, correspondents say.

Previous crackdowns have failed, and critics believe that without an enquiring free press and an independent judiciary, corruption in China will continue to spread.