Arctic sea ice hits lowest peak in satellite record, says US agency
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Saudi Gazette
7 days ago
- Saudi Gazette
British man who perished in Antarctic glacier found 65 years later
LONDON — The bones of a British man who died in a terrible accident in Antarctica in 1959 have been discovered in a melting glacier. The remains were found in January by a Polish Antarctic expedition, alongside a wristwatch, a radio, and a pipe. He has now been formally identified as Dennis "Tink" Bell, who fell into a crevasse aged 25 when working for the organisation that became the British Antarctic Survey. "I had long given up on finding my brother. It is just remarkable, astonishing. I can't get over it," David Bell, 86, tells BBC News. "Dennis was one of the many brave personnel who contributed to the early science and exploration of Antarctica under extraordinarily harsh conditions," says Professor Dame Jane Francis, director of the British Antarctic Survey . "Even though he was lost in 1959, his memory lived on among colleagues and in the legacy of polar research," she adds. It was David who answered the door in his family home in Harrow, London, in July 1959. "The telegram boy said, 'I'm sorry to tell you, but this is bad news'," he says. He went upstairs to tell his parents. "It was a horrendous moment," he adds. Talking to me from his home in Australia and sitting next to his wife Yvonne, David smiles as stories from his childhood in 1940s England spill out. They are the memories of a younger sibling admiring a charming, adventurous big brother. "Dennis was fantastic company. He was very amusing. The life and soul of wherever he happened to be," David says. "I still can't get over this, but one evening when me, my mother and father came home from the cinema," he says. "And I have to say this in fairness to Dennis, he had put a newspaper down on the kitchen table, but on top of it, he'd taken a motorbike engine apart and it was all over the table," he says. "I can remember his style of dress, he always used to wear duffel coats. He was just an average sort of fellow who enjoyed life," he adds. Dennis Bell, nicked-named "Tink", was born in 1934. He worked with the RAF and trained as a meteorologist, before joining the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey to work in Antarctica. "He was obsessed with Scott's diaries," David says, referring to Captain Robert Scott who discovered the South Pole and died on an expedition in 1912. Dennis went to Antarctica in 1958. He was stationed for a two-year assignment at Admiralty Bay, a small UK base with about 12 men on King George Island, which is roughly 120 kilometres (75 miles) off the northern coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. The British Antarctica Survey keeps meticulous records and its archivist Ieuan Hopkins has dug out detailed base camp reports about Dennis's work and antics on the harsh and "ridiculously isolated" island. Reading aloud, Hopkins says: "He's cheerful and industrious, with a mischievous sense of humour and fondness for practical jokes." Dennis's job was to send up meteorological weather balloons and radio the reports to the UK every three hours, which involved firing up a generator in sub-zero conditions. Described as the best cook in the hut, he was in charge of the food store over the winter when no supplies could reach them. Antarctica felt even more cut off than it is today, with extremely limited contact with home. David recalls recording a Christmas message at BBC studios with his parents and sister Valerie to be sent to his brother. He was best known for his love of the husky dogs used to pull sledges around the island, and he raised two litters of dogs. British Antarctic Survey A black and white photograph of three men holding large husky dogs. British Antarctic Survey Dennis Bell, on the left, with dogs at the Admiralty Bay Station in 1959 He was also involved in surveying King George Island to produce some of the first mapping of the largely unexplored place. It was on a surveying trip that the accident happened, a few weeks after his 25th birthday. On 26 July 1959, in the deep Antarctic winter, Dennis and a man called Jeff Stokes left the base to climb and survey a glacier. Accounts in the British Antarctic Survey records explain what happened next and the desperate attempts to rescue him. The snow was deep and the dogs had started to show signs of tiredness. Dennis went on ahead alone to encourage them, but he wasn't wearing his skis. Suddenly he disappeared into a crevasse, leaving a hole behind him. According to the accounts, Jeff Stokes called into the depths and Dennis was able to shout back. He grabbed onto a rope that was lowered down. The dogs pulled on the rope and Dennis was hitched up to the lip of the hole. But he had tied the rope onto his belt, perhaps because of the angle he lay in. As he reached the lip, the belt broke and he fell again. His friend called again, but this time Dennis didn't reply. "That's a story I shall never get over," says David. The base camp reports about the accident are business-like. "We heard from Jeff [...] that yesterday Tink fell down a crevasse and was killed. We hope to return tomorrow, sea ice permitting," it continues. Hopkins explains that another man, called Alan Sharman, had died weeks earlier, and the morale was very low. "The sledge has got back. We heard the sad details. Jeff has badly bitten frostbitten hands. We are not taking any more risks to recover," the report reads the day after the accident. Reading the reports again, Hopkins discovered that earlier in the season, it had been Dennis who'd made the coffin for Alan Sharman. "My mother never really got over it. She couldn't handle photographs of him and couldn't talk about him," David says. He recalls that two men on Dennis's base visited the family, bringing a sheepskin as a gesture. "But there was no conclusion. There was no service; there was no anything. Just Dennis gone," David says. About 15 years ago, David was contacted by Rod Rhys Jones, chair of the British Antarctic Monument Trust. Since 1944, 29 people have died working on British Antarctic Territory on scientific missions, according to the trust. Rod was organising a voyage for relatives of some of the 29 to see the spectacular and remote place where their loved ones had lived and died. David joined the expedition, called South 2015. "The captain stopped at the locations and give four or five hoots of the siren," he says. The sea-ice was too thick for David to reach his brother's hut on King George Island. "But it was very, very moving. It lifted the pressure, a weight off my head, as it were," he says. It gave him a sense of closure. "And I thought that would be it," he says. But on 29 January this year, a team of Polish researchers working from the Henryk Arctowski Polish Antarctic Station stumbled across something practically on their doorstep. Dennis had been found. Some bones were in the loose ice and rocks deposited at the foot of Ecology Glacier on King George Island. Others were found on the glacier surface. The scientists explain that fresh snowfall was imminent, and they put down a GPS marker so their "fellow polar colleague" would not be lost again. A team of scientists made up of Piotr Kittel, Paulina Borówka and Artur Ginter at University of Lodz, Dariusz Puczko at the Polish Academy of Sciences and fellow researcher Artur Adamek carefully rescued the remains in four trips. It is a dangerous and unstable place, "criss-crossed with crevasses", and with slopes of up to 45 degrees, according to the Polish team. Climate change is causing dramatic changes to many Antarctic glaciers, including Ecology Glacier, which is undergoing intense melting. "The place where Dennis was found is not the same as the place where he went missing," the team explains. "Glaciers, under the influence of gravity, move their mass of ice, and with it, Dennis made his journey," they say. Fragments of bamboo ski poles, remains of an oil lamp, glass containers for cosmetics, and fragments from military tents were also collected. "Every effort was made to ensure that Dennis could return home," the team say. "It's an opportunity to reassess the contribution these men made, and an opportunity to promote science and what we've done in the Antarctic over many decades," adds Rod Rhys Jones. David still seems overwhelmed by the news, and repeats how grateful he is to the Polish scientists. "I'm just sad my parents never got to see this day," he says. David will soon visit England where he and his sister, Valerie, plan to finally put Dennis to rest. "It's wonderful; I'm going to meet my brother. You might say we shouldn't be thrilled, but we are. He's been found - he's come home now." — BBC
Asharq Al-Awsat
09-08-2025
- Asharq Al-Awsat
US Astronaut Jim Lovell, Commander of Apollo 13, Dead at 97
US astronaut Jim Lovell, the commander of the Apollo 13 Moon mission which nearly ended in disaster in 1970 after a mid-flight explosion, has died at the age of 97, NASA announced Friday. The former Navy pilot, who was portrayed by actor Tom Hanks in the 1995 movie "Apollo 13," died in a Chicago suburb on Thursday, the US space agency said in a statement. The astronaut's "life and work inspired millions of people across the decades," NASA said, praising his "character and steadfast courage." Lovell travelled to the Moon twice but never walked on the lunar surface, reported AFP. Yet he is considered one of the greats of the US space program after rescuing a mission that teetered on the brink of disaster as the world watched in suspense far below. "There are people who dare, who dream, and who lead others to the places we would not go on our own," Hanks said in an Instagram post. "Jim Lovell, who for a long while had gone farther into space and for longer than any other person of our planet, was that kind of guy." 'Houston, we've had a problem' Launched on April 11, 1970 -- nine months after Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the Moon -- Apollo 13 was intended to be humanity's third lunar landing. The plan was that Lovell would walk on the Moon. The mission, which was also crewed by astronauts Jack Swigert and Fred Haise, was already considered fairly routine. Then an oxygen tank exploded on the way there. The disaster prompted Swigert to famously tell mission control: "Houston, we've had a problem." Lovell then repeated the phrase, which is slightly different to the one used in the Ron Howard movie, according to NASA. The three astronauts and crew on the ground scrambled to find a solution. The United States followed the chaotic odyssey from the ground, fearing that the country could lose its first astronauts in space. Around 200,000 miles from Earth, the crew was forced to shelter in their Lunar Module, slingshot around the Moon and rapidly return to Earth. The composed leadership of Lovell -- who was nicknamed "Smilin' Jim" -- and the ingenuity of the NASA team on the ground managed to get the crew safely back home. Lovell was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, but never returned to space. 'Our Hero' Born on March 25, 1928 in Cleveland, Ohio, Lovell worked as a Navy pilot before joining NASA. He was one of three astronauts who became the first people to orbit the Moon during the Apollo 8 mission in 1968. The mission also took the famous image "Earthrise," in which the blue planet peeks out from beyond the Moon. Lovell's family said they were "enormously proud of his amazing life and career," according to a statement released by NASA. "But, to all of us, he was Dad, Granddad, and the Leader of our family. Most importantly, he was our Hero," the statement added. "We will miss his unshakeable optimism, his sense of humor, and the way he made each of us feel we could do the impossible."
Arab News
06-08-2025
- Arab News
Only a global pact can stop the threat posed by plastics
No one can contest the fact that plastic and microplastics have been found in Arctic sea ice, the bellies of whales, Earth's atmosphere and oceans, as well as human blood vessels and digestive systems. That is why governments have been for years under increasing pressure to unite in action against this global threat but to no avail. A recent study by The Lancet, a highly respected British medical journal, warned that plastic pollution is a 'grave, growing, and under-recognized danger' to human health that is causing disease and death from infancy to old age, and costing the world at least $1.5 trillion a year in health-related economic losses. The report comparing plastic to air pollution and lead said that the impact on health could be mitigated by laws and policies. But talks this week in Geneva on a global treaty on plastics may well fail — as have the previous five meetings convened by the UN — for lack of consensus between over 180 nations on whether to endorse a pact to limit production and phase out harmful chemicals from the manufacturing process, or to focus only on recycling and treating waste, better recycling, and future technological breakthroughs to decompose plastic harmlessly. One would hope that negotiators would face up to those deep divisions and try to mediate the health and ecological hazards that result from plastic use and disposal worldwide. UN Environment Programme Executive Director Inger Andersen is optimistic that 'it is possible to leave Geneva with a treaty' despite the diverging interests of nations, industries, and those trying to protect the environment and human health. But in an international system under strain in multiple areas, from wars to environmental and tech issues, it is highly unlikely that delegates will be able to bridge the gap to reach an agreement. Even if they do, realization of a treaty faces many obstacles and hindrances — as witnessed in other situations, from feeding the hungry in Gaza to stopping the war in Ukraine. Despite that, the stakes are high, and if nothing is done, global plastic consumption could triple by 2060, according to OECD projections. Meanwhile, plastic waste in soils and waterways is expected to increase by 50 percent by 2040, according to the UNEP, which is overseeing the talks in Geneva. Many initiatives are offering hope for a better future. Mohamed Chebaro About 460 million tonnes of plastic are produced globally each year, half of which is single-use. And less than 10 percent of plastic waste is recycled. In rich or poor countries, the harm of plastic is still largely unknown, but evidence is mounting that burning plastic in dumps and open fires is a major problem for the planet. A study published last year in the journal Nature and based on research by a team from UK Leeds University identified India as the world's largest emitter of macroplastic pollution. The Leeds researchers created a detailed global inventory of plastic pollution by using AI to assist in modeling waste management in more than 50,000 municipalities. They estimated at least 52 million tonnes of plastic waste entered the environment in 2020, 43 percent as unburned litter, and the remainder through open fires lit in homes, streets, or dumpsites. Improperly burning garbage and leaving plastic to smolder does not make it 'disappear,' but spreads smaller pieces around the environment, worsening air quality and exposing people living nearby to harmful additives, the research found. Against the doomsday backdrop above, many initiatives are offering hope for a better future — from planting trees and rewilding to the commendable work of some municipalities seeking to recycle with zero waste. Yet, in an increasingly fractured international order, the push to establish pacts limiting plastic pollution could be challenging. Governments have been regularly falling short of climate pledges as funding and a willingness to protect the environment give way to geostrategic priorities. Conflicts, displacement, and poverty eradication are also proving intractable problems. Plastic, like many other life hazards, calls for a global approach to tame its harms, and unless strained ties between the superpowers ease, discord will obstruct efforts not only to limit pollution, reduce plastic use, and combat climate change, but also to ensure a secure, sustainable future for all. • Mohamed Chebaro is a British-Lebanese journalist with more than 25 years' experience covering war, terrorism, defense, current affairs and diplomacy.
