Impact Of Arctic Heat Wave Stuns Climate Change Researchers.

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/2007/2007092625668.html

Media Alerts Stories Archive

Sept. 26, 2007

IMPACT OF ARCTIC HEAT WAVE STUNS CLIMATE CHANGE RESEARCHERS

Unprecedented warm temperatures in the High Arctic this past summer were so extreme that researchers with a Queen's University-led climate change project have begun revising their forecasts.

"Everything has changed dramatically in the watershed we observed," reports Geography professor Scott Lamoureux, the leader of an International Polar Year project announced yesterday in Nunavut by Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl. "It's something we'd envisioned for the future – but to see it happening now is quite remarkable."...

From their camp on Melville Island last July, where they recorded air temperatures over 20ºC (in an area with July temperatures that average 5ºC), the team watched in amazement as water from melting permafrost a meter below ground lubricated the topsoil, causing it to slide down slopes, clearing everything in its path and thrusting up ridges at the valley bottom "that piled up like a rug," says Dr. Lamoureux, an expert in hydro-climatic variability and landscape processes. "The landscape was being torn to pieces, literally before our eyes. A major river was dammed by a slide along a 200-metre length of the channel. River flow will be changed for years, if not decades to come."

Comparing this summer's observations against aerial photos dating back to the 1950s, and the team's monitoring of the area for the past five years, the research leader calls the present conditions "unprecedented" in scope and activity. What's most interesting, he says, is that their findings represent the impact of just one exceptional summer.

interesting times are surely ahead for our species...and what kinds of MAJOR changes has our society made to head off the inevitable effects of global warming?

by the time the REALLY REALLY BAD stuff starts happening- the stuff that will be scary enough to frighten the people into action- it will already be WAY too late...(which, it may already BE too late- but it doesn't matter anyway, because nothing is going to change until the really bad shit comes down the pike, anyway).

happy, happy...:hi:

"Conservative" has a connotation of playing it safe

These GOP Assholes ...by rejecting the notion....is anything but "Conservative"

More like RECKLESS

:smoke:

I remember 5/9 - 32 and 9/5 +32, but still, thank you.

And they're the same at minus 40, I think? Trick question on chemistry exams?

It's going to take super leadership to get people to alter their habits. I got out of my car at the request of cycling friends. I thought it would be rough. It was like putting the sights and smells of life back into my life.

Most people would rather fight than switch. We'd rather kill people in other lands than alter our ways.

Bush could join reality. But the truth is this goes far beyond Bush. People must begin to realize this is personal. This is about what you are doing tomorrow. That new camera. That vacation. Compounded by population. We must stabilize world population.

Nobody is listening. Nobody cares enough to change their ways. I feel like maybe it's time I started living again. Maybe I'll travel the world. After all, I denied myself the luxury for decades now. Maybe I'll drive around the USA. Why the hell not? If I'm the only one who is trying to do the right thing, it won't make a bit of difference.

One bicycle in a sea of cars.

I walk over 2 miles to work every day. You're not alone.

(Over 4 miles round trip.)

the roads aren't getting any less congested anywhere around here- and more and more people are still moving farther and farther into the ex-burbs...giving them longer and longer commutes- the kind you don't want to do every day on a bicycle.

i'm 46, and at this point- i'm just hoping that i live long enough to see at least several florida cities surrendered to the rising seas- it will seem like poetic justice for what went down in 2000.

interesting times ahead.

Cars are the only thing that make biking unpleasant. Its really stunning, but nobody knows until they do it. You have to get outside the car culture to see how crazy it is.

And today is the day when I begin driving my truck with my bike in it to get to my bike ride. I'm not risking it any more. Ridiculous! To think these American assholes can't give me three feet. I even have been having a challenge with several drivers who think it's funny to see how close they can come without killing me. And then gassing it. Plumes of blue smoke.

That is the essence of America. To me.

To be honest, where I am a lot of drivers cut a wide circle around me and treat me with respect, but there are always those like your talking about, and I don't think they are going to get it until somebody makes them get it.

i've seen PLENTY of them that totally flaunt the idea of traffic laws- they blow through stop signs, they go against traffic on two-way streets and the wrong way down one-way streets, don't signal their turns, and ride wearing their ipod headphones, among other things... just yesterday i had a biker get mad at me for exercising my right-of-way, making a right turn- because it interfered with his ignoring the stop sign.

bicyclists are beholden to the SAME traffic laws as cars, in most if not ALL states. and if bicyclers want some respect on the roads- they need to start respecting the traffic laws just like everyone else.

But motorists get a bit pissed when a bike going 15 mph gets take up the lane on a 35 mph street. Therefore, bicyclists operate on a separate set of rules then cars, driving in the shoulder and on sidewalks and so forth. They are also much more at risk, so motorists need to respect these rules, being mindful of bicyclists that might be in the shoulder when making a right turn etc.

things like obeying stop signs, being mindful of the vehicle's blindspot, paying attention to the task at hand- not talking on a phone or listening to an ipod...

at all that goes for BOTH the driver and the bicycler.

the actuality of it is that on the same roads, cars and bicycles are supposed to adhere to the same rules- not separate ones. and bikes don't belong on the sidewalk, if you're older than 12 or so- around here, that kind of thing will get you ticketed in a hurry.

The one thing I hear when a bicycler goes by is silence! I appreciate it so much .