World atlas re-worked as climate change alters the face of the planet

 

The world's most authoritative atlas has had to erase 15% of Greenland's once permanent ice cover – turning an area the size of the United Kingdom and Ireland 'green' and free of ice. The new edition of The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World, published today, provides concrete evidence of how the effects of climate change is changing the face of the planet forever – and at an alarming and accelerating rate. Cartographers of the atlas have sourced the latest evidence and referred to detailed maps and records to confirm that in the last 12 years, 15% of the permanent ice cover (around 300,000 sq km) of Greenland, the world’s largest island, has melted away. Modelling predicts that Greenland could reach a tipping point in about 30 years, and after that little would prevent its ice cap from melting completely. Aptly-named ‘Warming Island’ (Uunartoq Qeqertoq) is the first of possibly many more islands that will be spotted off Greenland as the ice continues to retreat. Several miles long, this island is now large enough to be shown on The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World as being separate from the mainland. Jethro Lennox, Editor of The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World, said: “With every new edition of the atlas, we are giving people across the globe an up-to-date, accurate and instant picture of the current state of the planet. “With each new map we can see and plot environmental changes as they happen, and are increasingly concerned that in the near future important geographical features will disappear forever.” Over the last few decades, human activities and the effects of climate change have forced the atlas’s cartographers to not only erase ice cover, but also to shrink seas and redraw rivers. Some of the changes being charted are: * The breaking up of the Antarctica ice shelves – the atlas’s new Antarctica image shows the breaking up of the Larsen B ice shelf and Wilkins ice shelf, along with the ‘ice bridge’ that once joined it to Charcot Island. * The shrinking of seas and lakes – the level of the Dead Sea has dropped 12m in the last 12 years – the height of three double-decker buses. The main cause of this is the draining of water from the Sea of Galilee and diverting the flow of the Jordan River in order to turn the desert green. * The rapid shrinking of the Aral Sea in Central Asia as it continues its rapid retreat – it has shrunk by 75% since 1967. * The drying up of rivers, requiring them to be redrawn – most years the Colorado River does not reach the sea due to damming, irrigation, evaporation and water being redirected to cities such as Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. In Mongolia, the Ongyin Gol river has had its flow diverted for gold mining operations. These and some others now shown as ‘intermittent’ could totally dry up by the time the next edition of the atlas is published, four years from now. Four years in the making, The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World is the world’s most prestigious and authoritative atlas – painstakingly researched by a dedicated team of 30 cartographers, with changes to the database made, on average, every 3.5 minutes using a 24-hours-a-day news feed.

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