Jakarta Post, AAAS Science News: In Papua, Indonesia a tropics glacier melts – expedition treks – ice borers ready
There must be some more press on a remarkable expedition now underway through a jungle of Indonesia and up a massif called Punca Jaya where lingering glacier fragments await. After reading of it on line in the current Science magazine, where Richard Stone explains the urgency and the incentive to get a core (Story may require a EurekAlert! or subscriber password to read), I went looking to see where else it runs.
Bingo, but only one so far. If others have written this up, let us know. I have seen no press release either (AMEND THAT! One just came in from Columbia U, now in Grist). The one news story I do spot is in an outlet we don’t often come across, Indonesia’s top newspaper. It is a competent, well-written, and brief job.
- Jakarta Post – Arghea Desafti Hapsari (May 19) :RI, US launch climate study of Puncak Jaya glaciers ;
To be sure, seasoned climate writers, particularly in the US, may have written or read of Ohio State University’s Lonnie Thompson so much that another yarn involving him did not trigger particular enthusiasm. He, with his wife Ellen Mosely-Thompson, has gotten barrels of ink over the years for research on climate and on glaciers – with Thompson focussing lately on those at mid-latitudes. He is among the ring leaders of the project along with colleagues in Indonesia and at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. But this tale is so exotic, scientifically potent, and melancholy as the glaciers shrink away, it looks to be more than worth following. And boy – wouldn’t it be a fine assignment to go along with it? Maybe a reporter is along, for all I know. There is a blogging research scientist there – an Indonesia-born, Columbia University/Lamont-Doherty man, R. Dwi Susanto. His one post so far: Our Race Against Time.
Grist for the Mill: Columbia University/Earth Institute Press Release ;
- Charlie Petit
