Arctic ice shrinks 18% in a year, sounding climate change alarm bells
Source: The Guardian
Scientists and environment groups say the fall is unprecedented and the clearest signal yet of global warming
Arctic ice shrinks 18% in a year, sounding climate change alarm bells
Scientists and environment groups say the fall is unprecedented and the clearest signal yet of global warming
John Vidal in Longyearbyen, Svalbard
The Guardian, Wednesday 19 September 2012 14.09 EDT
Arctic melting ice : Icebergs, Disko Bay, Greenland
'Our response [so far] has not been alarm, or panic, or a sense of emergency. It has been: Lets go up there and drill for oil. There is no more perfect indictment of our failure to get to grips with the greatest problem weve ever faced,' says author and environmental campaigner Bill McKibben. Photograph: Paul Souders/Corbis
Sea ice in the Arctic shrunk a dramatic 18% this year to a record low of 3.41m sq km, according to the official US monitoring organisation the National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Boulder, Colorado.
Scientists and environment groups last night said the fall was unprecedented and the clearest signal yet of climate change.
The data released showed the arctic sea beginning to refreeze again in the last few days after the most dramatic melt observed since satellite observations started in 1979.
This year's sea ice extent was 700,000 sq km below the previous minimum of 4.17m sq km set in 2007.
We are now in uncharted territory," said Nsidc director Mark Serreze. "While we've long known that as the planet warms up, changes would be seen first and be most pronounced in the Arctic, few of us were prepared for how rapidly the changes would actually occur.
Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/sep/19/arctic-ice-shrinks?newsfeed=true
Without republican help we are hopeless.
valerief
(53,235 posts)FirstLight
(13,352 posts)in the debates, i am going to fucking scream... really depressing indeed
JRLeft
(7,010 posts)Too much skepticism.
virgogal
(10,178 posts)Berlum
(7,044 posts)"Stupid ice wasn't paying no taxes anyhow. So screw it. We Republicans are well aware that this is 'ice melt thingy' is all just a phony librul plot anyway. Vote Republican this year and you can bet your White Horse we Repubbies won't do a damn thing about it, except to DRILL BABY DRILL."
- Willard (R)
JRLeft
(7,010 posts)"Other leading ice scientists this week predicted the complete collapse of sea ice in the Arctic within four years. "The final collapse ... is now happening and will probably be complete by 2015/16," said Prof Peter Wadhams of Cambridge University."
southmost
(759 posts)raouldukelives
(5,178 posts)Sure Wall St, it's investors and global corporations bear the brunt of responsibility for this and for obfuscating the dawning reality but don't let that deter you from complementing your retirement with massive amounts of Chevron stock.
Now is not the time to ponder your own individual impact, now is the time to call your money man. Strengthen and diversify your portfolio while giving the corporations that helping hand and pat on the back they need to know they are appreciated for working hard for you 24/7.
defacto7
(13,485 posts)the only hope we have is to protect future generations. We will see hard times, our children will see harder times. The biggest mistakes are already made and in some countries like China and India, those mistakes are still belching along.
We must not be selfish. We have to learn as a species to work for the betterment of mankind or our planet will discard us for sure. We now fight to make up for our mistakes so that our species, out children will survive. If we don't we will bring greater pain and suffering to the world than we have ever known.