MORE NEWS . . .
> Ozone Hole Recovery Will Reshape Climate Change
> Innovative Research Program Winners Announced
Regional Monitoring needed for heat-trapping CO2
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 Global Earthquake Fatalities Expected To Rise This Century
Earthquake expert and CIRES Fellow Roger Bilham says unprecedented human fatalities from earthquakes will occur around the globe in the coming century unless significant earthquake-resistant building codes are implemented. Bilham, who has worked extensively in the Himalaya, anticipates that the death toll from the May 12 magnitude 7.9 Sichuan Province earthquake in China may exceed 50,000 based on previous similar earthquakes in urban settings. [ source: News & Events ]
 Solomon Named to Time Magazine's 2008 List of World's
100 Most Influential People
Time magazine has named CIRES Fellow Susan Solomon to its fifth annual list of the world's most influential people. In the Time piece describing Solomon, IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri wrote, "All scientists like to believe they will leave the world better than they found it. Susan Solomon of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration surely will. Having helped save the earth's atmosphere already, she is now playing a role in doing it again." [ source: Time ]
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 Researchers Predict 59 Percent Chance of Record Low Arctic Sea Ice in 2008
New calculations by CIRES affiliate Jim Maslanik and CU's Sheldon Drobot indicate the record low minimum extent of sea ice across the Arctic last September has a three-in-five chance of being shattered again in 2008 because of continued warming temperatures and a preponderance of younger, thinner ice. In January 2008, a team led by Maslanik and involving CIRES and NSIDC's Julienne Stroeve concluded there had been a nearly complete loss of the oldest, thickest Arctic sea ice. The team calculated that 58 percent of the remaining Arctic sea ice was thin and more vulnerable to melt. [ source: News & Events ]
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 Upward and Outward - New Video for Students
How does the Tibetan Plateau affect climate patterns from the location
of giant dust storms to the timing of monsoons? Follow the scientific
investigation through the eyes of the researchers -- posing questions,
planning investigations, gathering and interpreting evidence. In "Upward
and Outward: Scientific Inquiry on the Tibetan Pleateau," a new 20-minute
teaching documentary by CIRES Outreach, students learn that real
research isn't just done in a beaker; it's messy, creative and fun. The
film aligns with state and national standards on science as inquiry and
is suitable for high school and college science students and general
adult audiences.
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Quotables
What's the Forecast?
Colorado's high country can expect more storms and maybe snow throughout May, CIRES' Klaus Wolter told the Summit Daily News ("Still snowing"). While higher elevations have dodged the dry conditions that often come with La Nina, other areas of Colorado, including the northeastern plains, have not been as lucky.
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