Greenland Ice Core

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Greenland Ice Core

• Presented by
• Borislav Stavrev

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Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2

• The Project includes
• drilling in the Greenland Ice Core, and taking
  samples
• Temperature readings
• Detailed Analysis of the data

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World History on Ice

• Ice Sheet formation
• Some Greenland Ice Sheets are hundreds of
  thousands years old
• Greenland Ice sheets contain historical samples
  from the atmosphere

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History of Human Activity

• 500 B.C. first large scale pollution (from lead
  mining) Greek and Roman civilizations
• 300 A.D.- lead pollution decreases with the
  decline of the Roman Empire and remains stable
  until the Industrial Revolution

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• 20th Century- pollution from lead ,
  carbon-dioxide, methane, and sulfate increase
  dramatically
• 1950s- Radioactive pollution appears (strodium-90
  cesium-137) from US, Soviet British nuclear
  tests

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• 1963- Test Ban Treaty
• 1970s-More radioactive Pollution from Second Set
  of Tests made by Chinese, French, and others
• 1986- Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant explodes in
  Ukraine

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Signs Of Hope

• 1970- Decline in key pollutants in the ice with
  the US Clean Air Act
• Kyoto Protocol opened for signing on March 15th
  1999

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Climate Changes and Humanity

• Small Changes in temperature can have profound
  effect on humanity
• Human activities have changed the levels of
  carbon dioxide and methane with the same
  magnitude that occurs
• between glacial and interglacial periods for
  only two centuries

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The Day After Tomorrow

• GISP 2 results indicate that climate changes in
  the past occurred slowly
• Human activity is a factor with unknown
  consequences for climate changes