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Svalbard - an icy beauty
But - The Polar Bears are in danger!
Svalbard archipelago is the northernmost tip of Europe and its settlements are the northernmost permanently inhabited spots on the planet. Svalbard is located between Norway and Greenland.
The islands cover a total of 62,050km², the largest of which are Spitsbergen, Nordaustlandet and Edgeøya. The combined permanent population is less than 3000, nearly all of which is concentrated in the main settlements of Longyearbyen and Barentsburg on Spitsbergen.
The islands were allegedly first discovered by Viking explorers in the 12th century. However the first recorded voyage here was by the Dutch in 1596, landing on the northwest of Spitsbergen. This coast served as an international whaling base during the 17th and 18th centuries. Norway's sovereignty was recognized in 1905; five years later it officially took over the territory. However, the Svalbard Treaty gives "absolute equality" to other nations wishing to exploit mineral deposits, and Russia continues to maintain a significant population on the island.
Thank you all who voted for my lens!
I won one of the rewards in June
Svenskhuset - Now we know what happened
for years it was a mystery.
In 1879 plans for an international polar year 1882-83' were made. Eight nations co-operated to establish fourteen different research stations during The Polar Year. Twelve of these stations were situated in the Arctic. Sweden undertook responsibility for the station on Spitsbergen. This was established at Kapp Thordsen on the northern side of Isfjorden, where A.E. Nordenskiöld had already put up a house ten years earlier. Today the building is known as 'Svenskhuset'. The house was expanded and equipped as an adequate research station for overwintering and making scientific observations. The engineer Salomon August Andrèe led the rebuilding work. The expedition consisted of six scientists under the leadership of the meteorologist Nils Gustav Ekholm. Three Swedish and three Norwegian workers also took part.
Already 1872 a tragedy took place in this house. 17 scientists were found dead. Some burried and others in their beds. There have been theories why they died and nobody knew for sure until now, 135 years later. The graves were opened and Doctor Ulf Aasebø and historian Kjell Kjær found that the cans of food they had been eating were full of lead. They died from lead poisening. Some of the cans were so full of lead they had little drops inside. The lids had been closed with lead as the custom was in those early days.
The National Snow and Ice Data Center
These data have been collected from an Arctic desert site (latitude 78o57'29N, longitude 12o27'42E), Broeggerhalvoya in western Spitsbergen, 10 km NW from Ny Alesund, 45 m above sea level, 2 km from the shore. This is a low relief tip of a bedrock peninsula covered with several meters of glacial drift and reworked raised beach ridges.
- N S I D C
- Latest news about the Ice and the climate changes. This effects Svalbard and Arctis a lot. The ice is rapidly disapearing and the Ice Bears have no hunting ground any more.
A lens about our earth, our home - Tellus
This lens is about the situation on our planet. But also facts about the solar system, the moon and the tide and the seven wonders of the world.There are serious problems to face also and working with this lens I realized that time is running out.
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Planet Earth - our home in space
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Atmosphere is the huge blanket of gas that circles the entire Earth. Without it, life as we know it could not exist. The atmosphere This blanket of gas starts at ground level and stretches 600 miles into the sky. However, most of this life-supporting...
Polar Bears are in danger
- Watch videos about Polar Bears
- Twin polar bear cubs Lia and Lutik, born and bred in St. Petersburg zoo, are about to be moved to the opposite end of... Read more
- Danger from Global warming
- Global warming, a scientifically documented phenomenon wherein the global temperature is steadily rising, has a profound impact on species all over the world. Polar bears and other Arctic species are particularly at risk because their habitat is increasingly threatened by global warming. Numerous scientific agencies have shown that polar bear numbers are on the decline, and that if action is not taken quickly, polar bears may vanish from the Earth, deprived of habitat, food, and shelter. The disappearance of these picturesque animals would be a great tragedy.
Serious Conference about the life of Polar Bears
Polar Bear in Danger: Senate EPW Hearing
4.2.2008 - www.nwf.org - National Wildlife Federation's Senior Scientist Dr. Doug Inkley testified before the Senate Environment & Public Works Cmte. regarding the unfortunate delay in listing the polar bear as a threatened species.
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Planet Earth
about the Polar bear
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Planet Earth - The Complete BBC Series [HD DVD]
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Planet Earth is quite simply the greatest nature/wildlife series ever produced.
Accompanied by majestic orchestral scores by George Fenton, every episode is packed with images so beautiful or so forcefully impressive (and so perfectly photographed by the BBC's tenacious high-definition camera crews) that you'll be rendered speechless by the splendor of it all.
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Photo from Planet Earth
News about the global warming
- Report says Arctic temperatures at record highs
- The region has long been expected to be among the first areas to show impacts from global warming, which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says ...
- Arctic temperatures hit record high
- The Arctic Report Card's authors attributed the temperature spike to a combination of long-term global warming and short-term, natural variations in ocean ...
- U of C students challenged to do something about global warming
- We lost two ice shelves just two months ago in the Arctic ? a symptom of global warming.? Spurring the audience to get involved, U of C student Zoe ...
- Climatologist says global warming "unequivocal"
- Global warming is accelerating fastest at regions of high altitude and in the artic. ?Everywhere around the world we're seeing a reduction in snow pack,? he ...
What YOU can do about the Global Warming
GO GREEN!
Act now and make a difference!
Reduce Reuse and Recycle
Bring your straw to the anthill - our earth
Simple daily little things
It is very frustrating to watch the Global Warming just get worse and worse. Here are some of the things you can do to help our planet:Change a light, and you help change the world. Replace the conventional bulbs in your 5 most frequently used light fixtures with bulbs that have the ENERGY STAR and you will help the environment while saving money on energy bills. If every household in the U.S. took this one simple action we would prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions from nearly 10 million cars.
If there is a recycling program in your community, recycle your newspapers, beverage containers, paper and other goods. Use products in containers that can be recycled and items that can be repaired or reused. In addition, support recycling markets by buying products made from recycled materials. Reducing, reusing, and recycling in your home helps conserve energy and reduces pollution and greenhouse gases from resource extraction, manufacturing, and disposal.
Saving water around the home is simple. Municipal water systems require a lot of energy to purify and distribute water to households, and saving water, especially hot water, can lower greenhouse gas emissions. Look for products with EPA's WaterSense label; these products save water and perform as well or better than their less efficient counterparts. There are also simple actions you can take to save water: Be smart when irrigating your lawn or landscape; only water when needed and do it during the coolest part of the day, early morning is best. Turn the water off while shaving or brushing teeth. Do not use your toilet as a waste basket - water is wasted with each flush. And did you know a leaky toilet can waste 200 gallons of water per day? Repair all toilet and faucet leaks right away. See EPA's WaterSense site for more water saving tips.
There is much more to read on the site I got this information from:
climatechange
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Apple MacBook Pro MB133LL/A 15.4-inch Laptop (2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 2 GB RAM, 200 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD SuperDrive)
Products that earn the ENERGY STAR prevent greenhouse gas emissions by meeting strict energy-efficiency guidelines set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy. ENERGY STAR makes it easy for you to choose products that not only save you money, but help the environment by preventing greenhouse gases associated with global warming--all this without sacrificing the quality that you expect from these products.
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To learn more, visit www.energystar.gov or take a room-by-room tour of ENERGY STAR @ home and learn what you can do to save energy, save money, and help protect our environment in your own home.
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Daylight Mini Twist Compact Fluorescent, 23 Watt
Save energy costs by replacing incandescent bulbs with fluorescent equivalents. Simulates natural sunlight, enhances colors.
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Vanishing World - The Endangered Arctic
A lovely beautiful book
Vanishing World: The Endangered Arctic
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Nature photographer Mireille de la Lez and cowriter Fredrik Granath have spent years working in the high Arctic and specialize in photography and films of the polar regions. They live in Stockholm, Sweden.
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Links to information about the global warming
That is a fact in this case. The Global warming is also a fact because of us.
Act now and tell others to do so also!
- National Geographic shockwave presentation
- We call the result global warming, but it is causing a set of changes to the Earth's climate, or long-term weather patterns, that varies from place to place. As the Earth spins each day, the new heat swirls with it, picking up moisture over the oceans, rising here, settling there. It's changing the rhythms of climate that all living things have come to rely upon.
- The Discovery of global warming
- This Website created by Spencer Weart supplements his much shorter book, which tells the history of climate change research as a single story. On this Website you will find a more complete history in dozens of essays on separate topics, updated annually.
- Discover
- Global atmospheric temperatures are measured at multiple levels from the lower troposphere to the stratosphere. The image above shows temperatures at the 600 MB level using data combined from the AMSU-A instruments on NOAA-15 and NOAA-16.
- Global warming - what we can do
- Climate Change is the most serious problem we face in the 21st century. Future generations are depending on us to do whatever we can to turn things around.
The Union of Concerned Scientists, a group of over two thousand scientists, has concluded that global warming is beyond dispute, and already changing our climate. The last 30 years have seen the warmest surface temperatures in recorded history, and the NOAA has recently predicted 2007 will be the warmest year on record.
Another Important thing
That is being done
"Noah´s ark" with seeds this time
A safety-storage for preservation of duplicate collections of seeds on behalf of genebanks.
Svalbard Global Seed Vault At was opened by the Prime Minister of Norway, Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday 26. th of February 2008.The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is being constructed as a cave excavated into the permafrost just outside Longyearbyen. The SGS is intended to ensure genetic variety for the world's food plants by storing duplicates of seed collections from gene banks all over the world, and will have storage capacity for over four million different seed samples. If a seed is lost somewhere in the world due to natural disasters, war or resource shortages, it can be re-established with seeds from Svalbard.
The Seed Vault has the capacity to store 4,5 million different seed samples.
Many developing countries are rich in biodiversity. The Svalbard vault will be an extra security for plant diversity.
The gene bank is a facility for maintaining crop diversity in the form of seeds, stored and conserved in a frozen state. The ideal temperature is between minus 10 and minus 20 degrees Celsius. Each different type of seed is stored in its own container, such as a bottle, can, or in sealed a aluminium foil package. Genebanks may also contain living plants and parts of plants in those cases where it is difficult to store the crop in the form of seeds.
Scroll down for more information in the link list.
Svalbard Seed Vault
Links to facts about the seed vault
- Video of opening ceremony
- The seed vault homepage
- Where is Svalbard?
- Site with maps and info
- Pictures from Svalbard
- It is very beautiful in Svalbard
- Information about Svalbard
- Tourism and visitors
- Wikipedia about Svalbard
- More information and facts
- Spitsbergen in English
- Travel information
- Huskies on Svalbard
- Svalbard Huskies offers guided tours and dog sledding excursions in the beautiful surroundings of the Spitsbergen arctic archipelago. Experience the grandness of the arctic nature with your own eyes when piloting your own dog sled. Witness reindeers, foxes and if you are really lucky you might even see polar bears in their natural habitat. An experience that you will treasure for a long time!
- News and blogs
- Here are comments both in Norweigan and English
Svalbard Blog Posts from Google
- Arctic seabed, west of the Norwegian island of Svalbard
- Arctic seabed, west of the Norwegian island of Svalbard. [q url="http://earthfrenzyradio.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=197:hundreds-of-methane-plumes-discovered&catid=56:newswire-hot-list&Itemid=27"]British scientists ...
- Svalbard nature
- Svalbard nature From Adventdalen, Svalbard Norway.
- JW Svalbard Apr19 - Apr25 2009
- By F8DVD as JW/F8DVD fm Longyearbyen ARC (ED-026); HF; CW SSB; QSL OK via Buro or direct: Francois Bergez, 6 rue de la Liberte, F 71000 Macon, France Your email: Subscribe Unsubscribe ©2008 LY4A "Daily Dx News". All Rights Reserved. ...
- Saison opening
- As one can see, Svalbard is already covered with snow, but the snow blanket is not continuous. But heavy snowfall is predicted for next week, which is good, because I am up for some serious skiing before it gets dark. ...
Pliosaurus found at Svalbard
Reptile from the past
Gigantic Pliosaurus discovered on Norwegian soilNorwegian palaeontologists have made a sensational discovery, currently drawing much international attention. A complete skeleton of a Pliosaurus, one of the largest-ever marine predators, has been discovered on Svalbard. These gigantic creatures, comparable in many respects to the Tyrannosaurus Rex, lived in the ocean 150 million years ago.
Palaeontologists from the University of Oslo, led by Dr. Jørn Hurum and Hans Arne Nakrem, made the discovery in August this year. The remains, which are very well preserved as well as being unique in their completeness, are the first complete skeleton of a Pliosaurus ever discovered, although parts of pliosaurs have earlier been found in England, Russia and Argentina.
During the two-week field period the palaeontologists documented a remarkable 28 skeletons, ranging from two to ten meters in length. The discovery ranks Svalbard as one of the world's four most productive sites for the remains of marine reptiles.
Pliosaurus, one of the largest-ever marine predators, lived in the ocean and hunted other smaller marine reptiles.
The University of Oslo has launched a website for information about the Svalbard discoveries
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Casio Exilim EX-Z77 Digital Camera (Blue) with 2GB SecureDigital (SD) Card + Spare NP-20 Battery + Carrying Case + Tripod
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Read about Svalbard - Spetsbergen
Before you go - find out about the islands
The Svalbard Archipelago: American Military and Political Geographies of Spitsbergen and Other Norwegian Polar Territories, 1941-1950
Norway's Spitsbergen Archipelago, known as Svalbard to the Norwegians, is of increasing interest to Arctic scholars and geographers, as well as to military historians and analysts of strategy.
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The Svalbard Passage
The Svalbard Passage is a masterful novel set in the US and Norway. The intensity of the story, combined with the authors' knowledge of political reality, result in one of the best Cold War novels ever written. Readers of LeCarre, Follet, Condon and Ludlum will find it irresistible.
Release Date: 12/13/2000
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Spitsbergen: Svalbard, Franz Josef, Jan Mayen, 3rd: The Bradt Travel Guide
The original wilderness encompassing the archipelago of Svalbard (commonly known as Spitsbergen) is a vast region of ice and snow where you can travel for weeks without meeting a soul. Lying as close to the North Pole as can easily be reached, its climate and wildlife are unique in Europe; this is the home of the arctic fox, the reindeer and the polar bear.
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Svalbard videos
Svalbard news from Google
- Svalbard bans criminal
- The Assistant Governor on Svalbard has barred a 28 year-old man from entering the Arctic archipelago for two years. Authorities in Longyearbyen (above) ban ...
- Sweet Basil & the Bee: Squashing the competition: Pumpkins and the ...
- Seed Savers Exchange is a participant in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a massive seed storage facility built into the side of a mountain on the Svalbard ...
- Visit the European doorway into the High Arctic with Quality ...
- Part of the Svalbard archipelago, it is a land forged by ice and wind, ocean and snow, and by the endless days and endless nights of the polar seasons. ...
- The Troubled Seas of Svalbard
- By Anthony Johnston Yet below the surface of Svalbard lies a hotbed of potential international disputes over the right to authority over the territory's ...
New Weather Widget
Go to Svalbard for vacation!
Dress warmly...
These boots are made for walking on Svalbard
Perfect when you want to keep warm
Useful Jackets for Svalbard travellers
Smart choises
Gloves made for snow
Warm hands is a must
Your head is the chimney of your body
Dont let the heat out!
Ski-ing is a must
Bring them!
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The North Pole
Go to Norway and then to Svalbard
Huskies and snow
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Svalbard is the most exiting place on earth