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The information about changes in how the frozen body of James Bedford was stored comes from an article called “Dear Dr. Bedford (and Those Who Will Care for You after I Do),” published in the July 1991 issue of Cryonics, available at http://www.alcor.org/Library/html/BedfordLetter.htm. The author of the article, Michael Darwin, is difficult to reach but is widely recognized as an important figure in the field of cryonics. The quotations from John Baust and Arthur Rowe come from the Alcor Institute’s Web site. It is refreshing to see an organization involved in a controversial endeavor that is willing to quote its critics.
The Arthur C. Clarke quotation is from a letter written in support of a legal case on June 20, 1989. Although Clarke is perhaps best known for his science fiction, which includes 2001: A Space Odyssey and Childhood’s End, he seems to have seen endless possibilities coming from scientific advances. In his letter supporting the possibility of successfully preserving human life through cryonics, when he wrote, “Although no one can quantify the probability of cryonics working, I estimate it is at least 90% — and certainly nobody can say it is zero,” Clarke underlined “nobody” and signed the letter “best wishes.” The letter is available at http://www.alcor.org/Library/html/declarations.html.
The quotation from Bert Lenten is from an article in the electronic newsletter Mongabay.com. The quotation from Robert Hepworth is from the May 13, 2007, edition of the International Herald Tribune (Europe).
The June 2006 issue of the National Park Service’s magazine Alaska Park Service includes a series of photographs showing various Alaskan glaciers at different times, ranging back to the early twentieth century and continuing to more recent times.
Bill Ford Jr.’s comments about climate change were released with Ford Motor Company’s 2005 climate change report.
In the late 1990s, the oil industry began to acknowledge publicly the possibility that climate change related to greenhouse gas emissions could be an important environmental problem. Under the leadership of Lord John Browne, British Petroleum (later officially renamed BP) was the first of the major oil companies to acknowledge climate change as a potentially important issue. Browne’s announcement came in May 1997 during a speech at Stanford University, where he said, “There is now an effective consensus among the world’s leading scientists and serious and well informed people outside the scientific community that there is a discernible human influence on the climate, and a link between the concentration of carbon dioxide and the increase in temperature.” Browne’s entire climate change speech is available at www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=98&contentId=2000427.
The Arctic sea ice is changing rapidly. Satellite images or recent summaries based on satellite images should be checked for current information.
The comments from Sergei Kirpotin and David Viner come from “Thawing Siberian Peat Bog Will Speed Up Global Warming” in the August 11, 2005, Moscow News.
Sea ice near shore is often dirty, sometimes because it has been frozen to the sea bottom or the shore and has picked up sediment, but more often because river floodwaters run over the top of the ice or wind blows sediment or sediment-laden spray from the open water onto the ice.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
BILL STREEVER manages an environmental studies program in Alaska and serves on many related committees, including a climate change advisory panel. He lives with his partner and son in Anchorage, where he hikes, bikes, camps, scuba dives, and cross-country skis.