Associated Press: The European Space Agency launched a new high-tech satellite Thursday to measure the effects of global warming on Earth’s polar ice and gather data on rising sea levels, information that could prove crucial to millions on the globe’s coasts and islands. ESA said at its European Space Operations Center in Germany Thursday it received a signal from CryoSat 2 after it took off on a Russian launcher rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, meaning lift-off was …