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When it comes to the effects of climate change, scientists don’t always get it right. Contrary to the belief of many skeptics, though, climatologists’ miscalculations are often due to UNDERestimation, rather than some hysterical exaggeration of global warming’s potential effects. That very topic has been previously presented in this space.

Which brings us to recent findings from the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP). The organization, a working group of the eight-nation Arctic Council, has determined that the Arctic’s ice and snow are melting faster than previously thought. The findings imply that sea levels will rise more rapidly than projected by earlier assessments.

While critics of the United Nations, and its Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) paint the organizations as alarmists, the AMAP report presents findings predict a future that is dramatically worse than projected by the IPCC’s report just four years ago.

Coverage by Karl Ritter for the Associated Press
Coverage by Alister Doyle for Reuters
The AMAP website

Check out Tuesday’s “What on Earth?”

LEARN MORE ABOUT WHAT ON EARTH?…

Interview: Katie Kline, Communications Officer at Ecological Society of America interviewed me via Skype for the ESA’s Ecotone blog. Read and hear it here.

Video: Bebbo and Kito were featured in one of Jim Parks’ terrific Today’s Green Minute episodes. See the video! Learn more about it.