Glacier

VIENNA, Austria -- The mummified man discovered in a melting Alpine glacier last September is older than first believed, dating from the late Neolithic rather than the Early Bronze age, scientists and historians say.Two independent tests of radiocarbon dates have been conducted on pieces of grass from a woven mat found with the man. They show he died at least 4,600 years ago, or about 2,600 B.C., said Sigmar Bortenschlager, director of the Institute of...

NORTH CASCADES NATIONAL PARK, Wash. -- Global warming is altering the identity of national parks in the West, especially the Pacific Northwest, where the iconic string of glacier-capped mountains inexorably shrinks from the horizon, park officials warn. The melting ice caps in Washington state, home to more glaciers than anywhere else in the lower 48, are providing one of the most visual accountings of global warming outside Alaska and the Arctic, enhanced by federal officials' digital archiving last year of photos of park glaciers taken 50 years ago. The changes over the decades are threatening the aesthetics and ecosystems of parks such as North Cascades, imperiling the country's natural heritage, park officials and conservationists said.

We're less than 15 months from the end of the millennium, and the National Hockey League still isn't the sport of the year, the decade, the century or even the moment.Despite glowing predictions, glowing hopes for a marketing bounce from the Winter Olympics and even glowing pucks, the NHL remains fourth among the major team spectator sports played in North America.Nothing that happened this summer is likely to change that anytime soon, but it doesn't mean the off-season was all bad. Along with a few other odds and ends, here's a look at some of what's happened off the ice since the Detroit Red Wings skated off with their second consecutive Stanley Cup five months ago:Cashing in: Despite its puny and declining Nielsen ratings, the NHL capitalized on the grudge match between Disney and Fox with a five-year, $600-million television-rights deal that will put games on ABC beginning next season.

PUNAKHA, Bhutan -- High in the Himalayas, above this peaceful valley where farmers till a patchwork of emerald-green fields, an icy lake fed by melting glaciers waits to become a "tsunami from the sky." The lake is swollen dangerously past normal levels, thanks to the global warming that is causing the glaciers to retreat at record speed. But no one knows when the tipping point will come and the lake can take no more, bursting its banks and sending torrents of water crashing into the valley below.

The Arctic is experiencing some of the most rapid and severe warming on the planet, according to a new, eight-nation report - the most comprehensive assessment of Earth's fragile northern cap to date. The report, a four-year effort involving hundreds of scientists, describes vast areas of melting ice, declining species and fading indigenous cultures. "It's affecting people up there now," said Robert Corell, the American oceanographer who led the project. "And there are very serious consequences for people on the rest of the planet."

The melting of Earth's glaciers is making the planet fatter, and scientists say that if the trend continues, it could increase flooding, beach erosion and water shortages worldwide. A team of researchers from Belgium and California has confirmed that Earth is becoming more pumpkin-shaped. They attribute this to the melting of glaciers, which is sending more water into the oceans. "There's been a melting of the glaciers, a rise in the oceans and a redistribution of the mass of the oceans," said Jean O. Dickey, a geophysicist at the California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

WASHINGTON - Scientists are finding new evidence some glaciers in Antarctica may be slip-sliding away, a process with potentially serious consequences over the long term for global sea levels. In a study published online today by the journal Science, a team of researchers reports that several glaciers in West Antarctica are thinning more rapidly than a decade ago. While most of the thinning is close to the coast, one of the largest ice masses, the Pine Island Glacier, is thinning at an accelerated rate as far as 186 miles inland.

There we were, floating around in a pool of geothermally heated, 85-degree water, contemplating just how far we had traveled from anyplace even remotely familiar.We had stripped to our bathing suits in air that was 40 degrees, at best, in the company of Danish tourists who, like us, were taking a break from the coldness by basking in the local hot springs.But what made the scene so surreal was feeling the warmth all around us while at the same time gazing out over outstretched toes and seeing massive icebergs gently bobbing by in the nearby fjord.

Money makes the world go 'round -- and nuts, sometimes.From the Washington Monthly to Harper's to the Atlantic Monthly, our current national obsession with the stock market is held up to the light this month, and the picture is not a pretty one. (In a piece of timing the market might admire, those mags have jostled for newsstand space with issues of Money, U.S. News & World Report, and Business Week touting hot mutual funds.)In Washington Monthly, Joseph Nocera is decidedly bearish about the effects of the longest bull market in history.

Two Baltimore men suspected of being members of an interstate gang cashing U.S. Postal Service money orders stolen last month in Washington state have been arrested in the city, a postal official said. Postal Inspector Tom Boyle said yesterday that a third man and a woman -- both of Baltimore -- connected with the gang were being sought. Boyle said charges were pending against a second Baltimore woman, who tried to cash two stolen money orders several days ago. He said the post office in Glacier, Wash.