this is sweden and finland over here, is iceland, greenland. the north pole is approximately over here. this is where polar bears lippa. now i will identify the goal for you, but i wanted to identify this spot down here. we're going to go there pretty soon. a polar bear populations are the world have been more or less arbitrarily divided into 19 different populations. and as you can see, they all kind of bought up one against another. so it's not altogether sure that one of the population is going to wander into another area and become a polar bear and another population. but the ability to segregate the polar bears, at least technically, gives us some idea of how many there are. in other words, you can count, although polar bears are very difficult to count, you can estimate the number of polar bears in this area. you insert estimate the number of polar bears and the south hudson bay because we'll talk about that in a minute. in greenland, and along the russian coastline, which is there. so what we've come up with is roughly a population of 22

the icy expanse of greenland, land and sky seem frozen forever. danger is hard to see with the naked eye. the ice melts, the seas will rise. how much? how fast? a matter of debate. but tens of millions will be affected in this century. >> as the arctic changes under the effects of climate change and global warming, these very well could be one of the creatures most greatly affected. >> already polar bears' behavior is changing. already, small islands slip beneath the sea. >> they say that the water is actually going to cover this entire island. what's going to happen to you? >> i will have to stay. the life here is too valuable to leave. >> more people are born. economies boom. we consume and grow more each passing year. by 2050 there will be 50% more people on the planet than there are right now. in america the discussion seems mired in politics. skeptics, believers, liberals, conservatives. it all seems so theoretical. environmentalism, the pet project of the rich, a cause for cele celebs. but travel the world, and the issues are real. >> the fa

the greenland ice cap that he has made such a big deal about has been shrinking for the last 6000 years as far as we can tell. if we have ice ending up on the polar cap i would say that is more natural variation than it is man-made co2. for one thing, they are not many people of around the north pole, so it is pretty hard to see how we could be causing it. >> congressman, your point of view is shared by a vocal but small minority in congress and an even smaller minority on the world stage. i question to you is, we have not heard very much from house republicans on the issue of climate change since the house passed its climate change bill in summer. over the past week or so, you and other republican leaders in the house have really been bringing this issue back up and you have made it clear that you want to travel to copenhagen and send a message to the world that this is your point of view. i question is, who you expect to influence, and how you expect that to change the debate, especially here in washington since the climate bill has already passed the house? the arena in washington is

or the lower ice age when greenland was emp tied of -- emptied of life again. mr. barton: all i know is when people retire they move to florida, not greenland. mr. linder: co-2 is a helpful gas that feeds planet. the notion that we should control it somehow is nothing but vanity. we are not going to change what's put on this planet for 4.5 billion years. we're told we heard from the gentleman from massachusetts that there's a scientific consensus, he said 98% of the sign -- of the scientists, tens of thousands, agree with his position. i would like to ask him to produce that list. only 600 of them shared the nobel prize with al gore. a scientist from australia said only 35 people actually wrote the i.p.c. reports, and they were controlled by 10 people. what is not popularly known -- mr. barton: one of whom just resigned from his position at east anglia. mr. linder: he did. what's not known is 32,000 scientists, including edward teller, who said there's no evidence that humans are causing any impact on the global warming that occurred between 1975 and 1998. in none

but i was just in greenland, and i stood with some elders seeing huge slabs of ice crack off and crash down. they never used to see the ice melt, and that was a raging torrent of melted ice. wasn't even a trickle 30 years ago. it was a mountain. this is the big ice and it goes up to the ice cap. and i came away with a sense of, like, this is a wakeup calm we have to do everything we can to slow down climate change. we can't stop it. we can't halt it in its tracks. we can't suddenly turn it around, any more than a full ship can be turned around quickly. it takes time but we three do everything we can. and one way is saving tropical forests, trapping the carbon there. >> host: you remain optimistic. it's an interesting thing for me to try to figure out what form of optimism this is, whether it's bull-headed opt -- optimism. and i heard one say it was necessary to be optimistic, but i think it's more than that. you really do believe that there is a way to do these things to steal a phrase from our current president, yes, we can, situation. >> guest: well, you know, things like -- may not

5 to 7 years from now: >> it's almost like blood spilling out of a body along the east coast of greenland there and so it's gone in less than 30 years from this to this. so on a regional basis this means a dramatic change in the heat absorption from the sun during the summertime. >> suarez: and again today, there were protests by those who warned failure means catastrophe. greenpeace protesters marched outside the conference, dressed as the four horsemen of the apocalypse. >> woodruff: next, a major environmental dilemma, the production of obscure but valuable minerals called rare earth. lindsey hilsum of independent television news reports from china, which produces nearly all the world's rare earth. >> reporter: it doesn't look very green, rare earth processing in china is a messy, dangerous, polluting business. it uses toxic chemicals, acids, sulfates, ammonia. the workers have little or no protection. but without rare earth, copenhagen means nothing. you buy a prius hybrid car and think you're saving the planet. but each motor contains a kilo of neodymium, and each battery more than 1

and as the ice melts in those large chunks of ice, masses of ice in greenland and west antarctica, which is the most moldable part of antarctica, each one of those areas of ice is equivalent to an increase in sea level of six to 7 meters, or 20 feet or so. we have already seen the beginnings of sea level rise, slowly at first, but it is now accelerating you can't get those large masses of ice become destabilized, and there is evidence that process may be beginning now, then we could see catastrophic sea level rise. and each 1 meter of sea level rise generates approximately 100 million climate refugees, in places like bangladesh. that process has already begun. people who used to rebuild their lives every 20 years when the storm surges game are now having to rebuild their lives every four or five years. and they can't do that, so they are moving to the cities and the concertino barbwire has gone up on the border between bangladesh and india. in the low-lying island nations, the trickle of refugees has already begun. they just added a new line item to the budget last year entitled funding

possible elimination of the greenland ice sheet and a sea level rise of 7 meters.mperatures would compare with levels estimated years ago when paleoclimate information suggests four to 7 meters rise. if increases in global average warning exceeded 1.5 to 2.5 degree celsius. climate change is expected to exacerbate stresses on water resources from population growth and economic and land use change including urbanization. the available research suggests a significant increase in heavy rainfall events in many regions, including some in which the main rainfall is projected to decrease. the flood risk poses challenges to society physically -- physical infrastructure and water polo -- quality. it is likely the population as a fraction could exceed 2 billion people. they live in areas where river flood potential could increase by 20. -- the 2088 and'0's. yields could be reduced by up to 50%. another area of facing impact are the oceans. the osha has become more acidic with an average decrease of ph of .1 units. the consequences should bcould e serious. options that can be

earth's origin -- gravitational field so accurately that we can see the changes in the mass of the greenlandand the arctic ice sheet. that was data that begun -- that we began to take in 2002. initially, it was at a rate of 150 to 200 cubic kilometers per year. it is now losing mass at almost 300 cubic kilometers per year. and a and dr. cut, which had been close to mass balance, -- and antarctica, which had been close to mass balance, is now losing nasmass. if we continue, those eyes she to will become unstable and we will get rapid cboe -- those ice sheet will become unstable and to get rapid sea level rise. it will be a chaotic situation for our children and grandchildren. we will have to decrease of atmospheric co2 back below 350 parts per million. that is possible if we phase out coal emissions and prohibit and conventional fossil fuels like oil shale and tar sands. host: moving on to tennessee. tennessee, are you there? paul, what is the name of your town? caller: petros. mr. hansen, i have a quick call and a question for you. my comment is, i work in the coal mines. we had some scienti

it is not a greenland thing, it's all of us in this boat, and only a fool will not put their finger in if they see the dike leaking. >> host: good morning. republican line? caller: there is no offender big enough to fill the hole if climate change is occurring. outside of man's control. and i hope that we nail down the science a lot better than we have. thank you, very much.ñr host: syril inçó lincoln, california, is on our line, how important is climate change the conference in your view? caller: basically i think we're rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic. i tend to agree with dr. james lovelock that the planet -- and if you've never had dr. lovelock on, i strongly suggest you do it. his theory is well accepted by most scientists, and dr. lovelock says basically the planet is already going into a heating moat mode, and the co 2 is jst adding to it. and we really ought to be concentrating on how the human race is going to survive this change. because in his estimation, we're going to be called down from 8 billion to 1 billion humans on the planet after this heating hits its stri

the atlantic conveyor is diving beneath the fresh cold water in greenland and the poles. for the science lesson. we want to stick with our conversation about what is accomplished by moving the detainees from guantanamo bay to prison. steve is on the line for republicans. caller: i think the only thing that will be accomplished is that president obama will be able to go before a joint house of congress and said that he closed guantanamo bay but he said he would. he is nothing but a campaigner in chief. i do not have a lot of faith in the obama administration. i sincerely hope the only last one term. host: if the administration were not to move the detainee's from guantanamo to the united states, is it your opinion they should stay in guantanamo indefinitely? caller: yes, so what. leave them there. i would rather be captured and killed on the battlefield. host: with more from the editorial in "the washington post" this morning. it's as lawmakers should not stand in the way of this deal. the fear mongering ignores the fact that the united states has long imprisoned extremely

earth's origin -- gravitational field so accurately that we can see the changes in the mass of the greenlandand the arctic ice sheet. that was data that begun -- that we began to take in 2002. initially, it was at a rate of 150 to 200 cubic kilometers per year. it is now losing mass at almost 300 cubic kilometers per year. and a and dr. cut, which had been close to mass balance, -- and antarctica, which had been close to mass balance, is now losing nasmass. if we continue, those eyes she to will become unstable and we will get rapid cboe -- those ice sheet will become unstable and to get rapid sea level rise. it will be a chaotic situation for our children and grandchildren. we will have to decrease of atmospheric co2 back below 350 parts per million. that is possible if we phase out coal emissions and prohibit and conventional fossil fuels like oil shale and tar sands. host: moving on to tennessee. tennessee, are you there? paul, what is the name of your town? caller: petros. mr. hansen, i have a quick call and a question for you. my comment is, i work in the coal mines. we had some scienti