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P16 - PAKISTAN LINK - JANUARY 20, 2023 COMMENTRY
Runaway W. Antarctic Ice Sheet gether multiple observations and re-
n By Kelly Macnamara comed the approach of bringing to-

he runaway collapse of the cords, although the study period was
West Antarctic Ice Sheet Collapse Not 'Inevitable': Study "the blink of an eye in ice terms".
T -- which would trigger cata- "I think we still have to live and
strophic sea level rise -- is not "inevi- plan and do our sea level projections
table", scientists said Monday follow- and coastal planning with a hypoth-
ing research that tracked the region's which we could influence in a posi- esis that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet
recent response to climate change. tive way by reducing greenhouse is destabilized and we will get three
As global temperatures rise, there gas emissions." and a half meters of sea level rise just
is mounting concern that warming The researchers observed that from this area of the planet alone," he
could trigger so-called tipping points while in one region, in the Belling- said, adding however that this would
that set off irreversible melting of the shausen Sea, the pace of ice retreat happen "over centuries to millennia".
world's massive ice sheets and ulti- accelerated after 2003, it slowed in The United Nation's science ad-
mately lift oceans enough to drasti- the Amundsen Sea. visory panel for climate change, the
cally redraw the world map. They concluded that this was IPCC, has forecast that oceans will
New research published Mon- down to changes in the strength and rise up to a meter by the end of the
day suggests a complex interaction direction of offshore surface winds, century, and even more after that.
of factors affecting the melting of which can change the ocean currents Hundreds of millions of people
the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which and disturb the layer of cold water live within a few meters of sea level.
is home to the enormous and un- around Antarctica and flush relatively While cutting planet-warming
stable Pine Island and Thwaites warmer water towards the ice. emissions is seen as the first and most
glaciers -- nicknamed the "Dooms- Both the North and South pole important way to halt the melting of
day glacier" -- that together could regions have warmed by roughly the West Antarctic ice sheet, scien-
raise global sea levels by more than three degrees Celsius compared to tists have also come up with an array
three meters (10 feet). late 19th-century levels, nearly three of hi-tech suggestions for saving the
Using satellite imagery as well "That means that ice-sheet collapse is not inevitable," said co-author of the report times the global average. gargantuan ice shelf and staving off.
as ocean and climate records be- Professor Eric Steig from the University of Washington in Seattle - RFI Scientists are increasingly con- Levermann has researched ideas
tween 2003 and 2015, an interna- cerned that the Pine Island and including using snow cannons to
tional team of researchers found caused by changes in ocean tem- ocean and atmospheric conditions Thwaites glaciers have reached a "tip- pump trillions of tons of ice back on
that while the West Antarctic Ice peratures that were caused by off- playing a key role. ping point" that could see irreversible top of the frozen region.
Sheet continued to retreat, the pace shore winds, with pronounced dif- "That means that ice-sheet col- melting irrespective of cuts to green- Other suggestions have included
of ice loss slowed across a vulner- ferences in the impact depending lapse is not inevitable," said co-author house gas emissions. constructing Eiffel Tower-sized col-
able region of the coastline. on the region. Professor Eric Steig from the Univer- Anders Levermann, a climate umns on the seabed to prop it up
Their study, published in the Researchers said that this raises sity of Washington in Seattle. scientist at the Potsdam Institute for from below, and a 100m-tall, 100-ki-
journal Nature Communications, questions about how rising tempera- "It depends on how climate Climate Impact Research who was lometre-long berm to block warm
concluded that this slowdown was tures will affect the Antarctic, with changes over the next few decades, not linked to the latest study, wel- water flowing underneath. – AFP

India is about to Pass China as the Deceased US Presidents

World's Most Populous Country n By Dr Khalid Siddiqui

Ohio
n By Marquise Francis
National Reporter 10. John Tyler (1841-1845): He was one of the
four presidents who were never elected to the
ndia is expected to surpass China and be- Presidency. He is the first of the eight vice presi-
come the world’s most populous nation dents who became president upon their prede-
I within the next three months, according cessor’s death in office.
to a recent report by the United Nations’ popu- President William Harrison had died only
lation division, marking a seismic shift on the 31 days after taking office. Tyler, therefore, had
global stage in a trend with significant social the shortest tenure as a vice president. The Cab-
and economic impact for both countries. inet met within an hour of the president’s death
“Most people think India's economy is still a and decided that Tyler would be “vice-president 10. JOHN TYLER, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
fraction of what it could be in the future, which Since 1950, India and China have accounted for an acting president”. However, Tyler firmly and de-
means there's so much promise,” Dr Audrey estimated 35% of the world’s population growth. cisively asserted that the Constitution gave him she became the first First Lady to sit for her
Truschke, an associate professor of South Asian Combined, the two population epicenters are a full and unqualified powers of office, and had photograph, posing at the Anthony Studios in
History at Rutgers University, told Yahoo News, significant slice of the world’s roughly 8 billion himself sworn in immediately as president, set- New York.
adding that much of the potential is due in large people - Yahoo News ting a critical precedent for an orderly transfer John Tyler is the president who fathered
part to India being “such a young country.” face economic difficulties caring for two par- of power following a president’s death. the most children, having fifteen children over
Of the rapidly growing 1.41 billion people ents and four grandparents. As a result, many The opposition felt that Tyler should be a two marriages. He was a slaveholder, at one
in India, about 1 in 4 are under the age of 15 elderly Chinese will be left to rely on a public caretaker under the title of “acting president”, or point keeping forty slaves; and he never freed
and nearly half are under 25. By comparison, pension system that is reportedly set to run out remain vice president in name. It considered his any one of them. During the American Civil
China’s population is about 1.45 billion, but of money by 2035, despite recent efforts by the presidency as a mere “regency”. He was referred War (1861-1865) he sided with the Confederate
those under 25 make up only a quarter of the government to boost revenue. to by many mocking nicknames, including “His States of America. In other words, he rebelled
population. “Without a quality pension support system, Accidency”. However, Tyler never wavered against the same country he was the president
“The Indian subcontinent has always sup- young people would be reluctant to get married from his conviction that he was the rightful of two decades earlier. He died in 1862 and was
ported a robust human population,” Truschke and have children, [and] middle-aged people are president. When his political opponents sent buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond,
said. “India has also long been compared to Chi- double-burdened to care for the young and the correspondence to the White House addressed Virginia next to the tomb of James Monroe.
na, and they have for a long time traded with one elderly,” Zhang Jingwei, a researcher at Chong- to the “vice president” or “acting president”, Ty- His death was the only one in US presiden-
another. So as much changes over the course of yang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin ler had it returned unopened. tial history which was not officially recognized
human history, that's something that recurs — University, told the South China Morning Post. Tyler was the first president to have his by Washington DC due to his allegiance to the
both the dense population of the subcontinent, Population growth in China is flatlining, veto of legislation overridden by Congress. He Confederate States of America. Tyler had re-
as well as the comparison with China.” and its supply of cheap labor may follow suit. played a major role in the annexation of Texas quested arrangements for a simple burial, but
Since 1950, India and China have ac- Despite stubborn unemployment in pockets of which entered the union in 1845 as the 28th Confederate President, Jefferson Davis, hosted
counted for an estimated 35% of the world’s the country, the shortage of skilled manual labor state. In 1842 he began a process that led to the a grand event complete with a Confederate flag
population growth, with China emerging as a is becoming more evident. India and its growing eventual annexation of Hawaii by the United draped over the coffin. He remains the only US
global industrial power. Combined, the two population of more than a billion people could States in 1959 as the 50th state. president ever laid to rest under a flag not that
population epicenters are a significant slice of pick up some of the slack, but its growth rate is He was one of the four US presidents who of the United States.
the world’s roughly 8 billion people. also declining, and its industrial infrastructure served the entire tenure without a vice presi- As of September 28, 2022, one of President
In recent years, women have been allowed is not as robust as China’s. And much of India’s dent. His first wife, Letitia Christian Tyler, was Tyler’s grandsons, Harrison Ruffin Tyler, 93, was
to have up to three children, but the average population growth is centered in its poorer re- the first of the three First Ladies who died in alive and living in a nursing home in Virginia;
birth rate still sits at 1.2. China's population is gions, especially in the north. the White House. She was also the youngest the president himself was born in 1790! Thus,
set to peak in the coming years and projected By 2050, data shows that India is expect- (51) First Lady to die in White House. After her Tyler becomes the earliest former president of
to decline. This means that the older, nonwork- ed to provide more than a sixth of the world’s death, Tyler remarried Julia Gardiner in 1844, the United States with a living grandchild.
ing population will have to rely on individual population of working age (15 to 64 years old). thus becoming one of three US presidents who I found John Tyler the most ‘interesting’
single children, many of whom will probably – Yahoo News got married while in the White House. In 1844 US president.
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