Arctic Ice Melting
 

The whole article is an eye opener, but the last few paragraphs should
really make some people open their brains.

Arctic ice: it's melting
Scientists say wintertime loss of polar ice is growing along with a
continuing summertime pattern and is strong evidence of global warming
Jane Kay, Chronicle Environment Writer

Thursday, September 14, 2006


Printable Version
Email This Article




The vast expanses of ice floating in the Arctic Sea are melting in
winter as well as in the summer, likely because of global warming, NASA
scientists said Thursday.

"This is the strongest evidence yet of global warming in the Arctic,''
said Josefino Comiso, a research scientist at NASA's Goddard Space
Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

And if the ice continued to melt at the current rate, Comiso said, it
could have profound effects on all life in the Arctic and other
consequences around the world.

Particularly hard hit would be the polar bears, which live on the ice,
he said. Sea ice also provides oxygen-rich cold water needed for the
growth of phytoplankton. A decline in the number of the tiny plants
could have a cascading effect on the food supply of fish and
crustaceans, seals and the other marine mammals.

The size of this summer's Arctic ice won't be known for a few weeks
because it usually reaches its smallest size the third week of
September. Last year, scientists found that polar ice an area twice the
size of Texas has melted since NASA started compiling satellite data 27
years ago. Scientists said there could be no ice left in the Arctic in
the summer by the end of the century.

Until 2005, the wintertime sea ice -- which is thick and multilayered
-- has been relatively stable. In the summer, the ice is thinner, more
mobile and melts at the edges every spring before freezing up again in
the autumn.

In the last two winters -- 2005 and 2006 -- the size of the sea ice was
6 percent smaller than average, the data show. The sea ice in the
Northern Hemisphere covers nearly 10 million square miles in the
winter. The melting -- most of it occurring in the eastern Arctic near
the North Pole -- correlates with a rise the ocean's surface water
temperature.

The melting period is growing by 15 days each decade, meaning less time
for ice to grow back, experts said.

When Comiso saw the decline of winter sea ice in 2005, he said, "it was
only one year, and I didn't think it was so serious.''

However, based on NASA data, his computer simulations and two years of
melting ice, "this has a very large chance of continuing," he said.

Already a greater number of polar bears have been showing up in Inuit
communities in the Arctic, apparently searching for food, said NASA
researcher Claire Parkinson.

The bears use the sea ice toseals and other marine mammals. "When the
ice retreats, they have to come on the land. Normally, when they're on
the land, they're not eating,'' she said.

The bears come on land more often now, she said, because they're
probably hungrier and afraid of being stranded on a retreating floe,
she said.

Parkinson and Ian Stirling, a biologist in the Canadian Wildlife
Service, published a study in the journal Arctic this month showing
that the polar bear population is shrinking, even though there have
been more sightings. Instead, the Hudson Bay population has declined
from 1,200 bears in 1989 to 950 bears in 2004, and the weight of adult
females has dropped. None of the 18 other populations in the Arctic has
grown, either, she said.

It's not impossible that the sea ice could recover in coming years,
Parkinson said.

"The possibility is there that the Arctic will recover, but that is not
as likely as that it will continue to decrease,'' she said.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering listing the polar
bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act and is
conducting studies in the North Slope of Alaska and elsewhere in the
Arctic.

The loss of Arctic sea ice has global effects, scientists say.

Sea ice is made of frozen ocean water, and when it melts, it doesn't
raise the ocean's level as do melting glaciers and ice sheets. But less
sea ice means a smaller area of ice to reflect radiation away from
Earth, and the dark, open water absorbs heat. Both phenomena could
accelerate the world's warming, scientists say.

"We're seeing an overall pattern of global warming,'' said Mark
Serreze, senior research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data
Center in Boulder, Colo., which joined NASA scientists at a telephone
news conference Wednesday.

Ice core borings in Antarctica have produced a record of historic
carbon dioxide concentrations over the last 600,000 years. The borings
show the levels of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, are at their
highest ever because of the burning of fossil fuels, Serreze said.

Serreze said he was surprised to see a new lake, or polynya, the size
of Maryland, opening up in the sea ice north of the Beaufort Sea.

In 20 years of looking at sea ice, he has never seen anything like it.

"If you asked me five years ago if it was human activity (causing
global warming) versus natural variability, I was a fence-sitter,''
Serreze said.

"The magnitude of the changes is starting to rise above the noise of
natural variability. There is a continuing trend. What we see in the
Arctic is part of a much larger picture. We hate to say, 'We told you
so.' But we told you so.''

Arctic Ice Melting
 

Interesting, but I also remember after the winters of 1978 and 1979
that the scientists of the day were saying that we were entering a new
ice age, again because of human intervention, pollution, etc.

I don't trust scientists anymore than politicians. They all have
agendas and need money to further there jobs, research, etc., so to say
they are "unbiased" and "impartial" is dreaming.

Is the ice melting? Looks that way. Is it the humans fault? Maybe.

Am I going to lose any sleep over it? Definitely not. I live up north
and hate the cold. Global warming sounds like a great idea to me.
Florida is crowded and my house is nearly paid off. Bring the sunshine
and heat to me!


basskisser wrote:
The whole article is an eye opener, but the last few paragraphs should
really make some people open their brains.

Arctic ice: it's melting
Scientists say wintertime loss of polar ice is growing along with a
continuing summertime pattern and is strong evidence of global warming
Jane Kay, Chronicle Environment Writer

Thursday, September 14, 2006


Printable Version
Email This Article




The vast expanses of ice floating in the Arctic Sea are melting in
winter as well as in the summer, likely because of global warming, NASA
scientists said Thursday.

"This is the strongest evidence yet of global warming in the Arctic,''
said Josefino Comiso, a research scientist at NASA's Goddard Space
Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

And if the ice continued to melt at the current rate, Comiso said, it
could have profound effects on all life in the Arctic and other
consequences around the world.

Particularly hard hit would be the polar bears, which live on the ice,
he said. Sea ice also provides oxygen-rich cold water needed for the
growth of phytoplankton. A decline in the number of the tiny plants
could have a cascading effect on the food supply of fish and
crustaceans, seals and the other marine mammals.

The size of this summer's Arctic ice won't be known for a few weeks
because it usually reaches its smallest size the third week of
September. Last year, scientists found that polar ice an area twice the
size of Texas has melted since NASA started compiling satellite data 27
years ago. Scientists said there could be no ice left in the Arctic in
the summer by the end of the century.

Until 2005, the wintertime sea ice -- which is thick and multilayered
-- has been relatively stable. In the summer, the ice is thinner, more
mobile and melts at the edges every spring before freezing up again in
the autumn.

In the last two winters -- 2005 and 2006 -- the size of the sea ice was
6 percent smaller than average, the data show. The sea ice in the
Northern Hemisphere covers nearly 10 million square miles in the
winter. The melting -- most of it occurring in the eastern Arctic near
the North Pole -- correlates with a rise the ocean's surface water
temperature.

The melting period is growing by 15 days each decade, meaning less time
for ice to grow back, experts said.

When Comiso saw the decline of winter sea ice in 2005, he said, "it was
only one year, and I didn't think it was so serious.''

However, based on NASA data, his computer simulations and two years of
melting ice, "this has a very large chance of continuing," he said.

Already a greater number of polar bears have been showing up in Inuit
communities in the Arctic, apparently searching for food, said NASA
researcher Claire Parkinson.

The bears use the sea ice toseals and other marine mammals. "When the
ice retreats, they have to come on the land. Normally, when they're on
the land, they're not eating,'' she said.

The bears come on land more often now, she said, because they're
probably hungrier and afraid of being stranded on a retreating floe,
she said.

Parkinson and Ian Stirling, a biologist in the Canadian Wildlife
Service, published a study in the journal Arctic this month showing
that the polar bear population is shrinking, even though there have
been more sightings. Instead, the Hudson Bay population has declined
from 1,200 bears in 1989 to 950 bears in 2004, and the weight of adult
females has dropped. None of the 18 other populations in the Arctic has
grown, either, she said.

It's not impossible that the sea ice could recover in coming years,
Parkinson said.

"The possibility is there that the Arctic will recover, but that is not
as likely as that it will continue to decrease,'' she said.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering listing the polar
bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act and is
conducting studies in the North Slope of Alaska and elsewhere in the
Arctic.

The loss of Arctic sea ice has global effects, scientists say.

Sea ice is made of frozen ocean water, and when it melts, it doesn't
raise the ocean's level as do melting glaciers and ice sheets. But less
sea ice means a smaller area of ice to reflect radiation away from
Earth, and the dark, open water absorbs heat. Both phenomena could
accelerate the world's warming, scientists say.

"We're seeing an overall pattern of global warming,'' said Mark
Serreze, senior research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data
Center in Boulder, Colo., which joined NASA scientists at a telephone
news conference Wednesday.

Ice core borings in Antarctica have produced a record of historic
carbon dioxide concentrations over the last 600,000 years. The borings
show the levels of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, are at their
highest ever because of the burning of fossil fuels, Serreze said.

Serreze said he was surprised to see a new lake, or polynya, the size
of Maryland, opening up in the sea ice north of the Beaufort Sea.

In 20 years of looking at sea ice, he has never seen anything like it.

"If you asked me five years ago if it was human activity (causing
global warming) versus natural variability, I was a fence-sitter,''
Serreze said.

"The magnitude of the changes is starting to rise above the noise of
natural variability. There is a continuing trend. What we see in the
Arctic is part of a much larger picture. We hate to say, 'We told you
so.' But we told you so.''

Arctic Ice Melting
 

Joey916 wrote:
Interesting, but I also remember after the winters of 1978 and 1979
that the scientists of the day were saying that we were entering a new
ice age, again because of human intervention, pollution, etc.

I don't trust scientists anymore than politicians. They all have
agendas and need money to further there jobs, research, etc., so to say
they are "unbiased" and "impartial" is dreaming.

Is the ice melting? Looks that way. Is it the humans fault? Maybe.

Am I going to lose any sleep over it? Definitely not. I live up north
and hate the cold. Global warming sounds like a great idea to me.
Florida is crowded and my house is nearly paid off. Bring the sunshine
and heat to me!

If that is all you know, then good luck. I take it you don't understand
the ramifications of even a couple of degrees of global warming, huh?
Perhaps that house that is nearly paid for will be under water. :

V Effects of Global Warming

Print this section | Edit this section
Scientists use elaborate computer models of temperature, precipitation
patterns, and atmosphere circulation to study global warming. Based on
these models, scientists have made several predictions about how global
warming will affect weather, sea levels, coastlines, agriculture,
wildlife, and human health.

A Weather

Edit this section
Scientists predict that during global warming, the northern regions of
the Northern Hemisphere will heat up more than other areas of the
planet, northern and mountain glaciers will shrink, and less ice will
float on northern oceans. Regions that now experience light winter
snows may receive no snow at all. In temperate mountains, snowlines
will be higher and snowpacks will melt earlier. Growing seasons will be
longer in some areas. Winter and nighttime temperatures will tend to
rise more than summer and daytime ones.

The warmed world will be generally more humid as a result of more water
evaporating from the oceans. Scientists are not sure whether a more
humid atmosphere will encourage or discourage further warming. On the
one hand, water vapor is a greenhouse gas, and its increased presence
should add to the insulating effect. On the other hand, more vapor in
the atmosphere will produce more clouds, which reflect sunlight back
into space, which should slow the warming process (see Water Cycle).

Greater humidity will increase rainfall, on average, about 1 percent
for each Fahrenheit degree of warming. (Rainfall over the continents
has already increased by about 1 percent in the last 100 years.) Storms
are expected to be more frequent and more intense. However, water will
also evaporate more rapidly from soil, causing it to dry out faster
between rains. Some regions might actually become drier than before.
Winds will blow harder and perhaps in different patterns. Hurricanes,
which gain their force from the evaporation of water, are likely to be
more severe. Against the background of warming, some very cold periods
will still occur. Weather patterns are expected to be less predictable
and more extreme.


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B Sea Levels

Edit this section
As the atmosphere warms, the surface layer of the ocean warms as well,
expanding in volume and thus raising sea level. Warming will also melt
much glacier ice, especially around Greenland, further swelling the
sea. Sea levels worldwide rose 10 to 25 cm (4 to 10 in) during the 20th
century, and IPCC scientists predict a further rise of 9 to 88 cm (4 to
35 in) in the 21st century.

Sea-level changes will complicate life in many coastal regions. A
100-cm (40-in) rise could submerge 6 percent of The Netherlands, 17.5
percent of Bangladesh, and most or all of many islands. Erosion of
cliffs, beaches, and dunes will increase. Storm surges, in which winds
locally pile up water and raise the sea, will become more frequent and
damaging. As the sea invades the mouths of rivers, flooding from runoff
will also increase upstream. Wealthier countries will spend huge
amounts of money to protect their shorelines, while poor countries may
simply evacuate low-lying coastal regions.

Even a modest rise in sea level will greatly change coastal ecosystems.
A 50-cm (20-in) rise will submerge about half of the present coastal
wetlands of the United States. New marshes will form in many places,
but not where urban areas and developed landscapes block the way. This
sea-level rise will cover much of the Florida Everglades.

C Agriculture

Edit this section
A warmed globe will probably produce as much food as before, but not
necessarily in the same places. Southern Canada, for example, may
benefit from more rainfall and a longer growing season. At the same
time, the semiarid tropical farmlands in some parts of Africa may
become further impoverished. Desert farm regions that bring in
irrigation water from distant mountains may suffer if the winter
snowpack, which functions as a natural reservoir, melts before the peak
growing months. Crops and woodlands may also be afflicted by more
insects and plant diseases.

D Animals and Plants

Edit this section
Animals and plants will find it difficult to escape from or adjust to
the effects of warming because humans occupy so much land. Under global
warming, animals will tend to migrate toward the poles and up
mountainsides toward higher elevations, and plants will shift their
ranges, seeking new areas as old habitats grow too warm. In many
places, however, human development will prevent this shift. Species
that find cities or farmlands blocking their way north or south may die
out. Some types of forests, unable to propagate toward the poles fast
enough, may disappear.

E Human Health

Edit this section
In a warmer world, scientists predict that more people will get sick or
die from heat stress, due less to hotter days than to warmer nights
(giving the sufferers less relief). Diseases now found in the tropics,
transmitted by mosquitoes and other animal hosts, will widen their
range as these animal hosts move into regions formerly too cold for
them. Today 45 percent of the world's people live where they might
get bitten by a mosquito carrying the parasite that causes malaria;
that percentage may increase to 60 percent if temperatures rise. Other
tropical diseases may spread similarly, including dengue fever, yellow
fever, and encephalitis. Scientists also predict rising incidence of
allergies and respiratory diseases as warmer air grows more charged
with pollutants, mold spores, and pollens.

Arctic Ice Melting
 

For every scientist screaming global warming is bad, you can find one
saying it's no big deal.

http://www.junkscience.com/news/robinson.htm

http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com...ming_myths.htm

http://www.ncpa.org/ba/ba230.html

....and there are many more.

I'm going back to sleep.

Arctic Ice Melting
 

basskisser wrote:

Almost boating related.

If the ice melts, it may change sea level.

The planet has been in a constant state of change since it was formed.
Just wait until the next time the axis suddenly shifts- global warming
will seem pretty insignificant.

Arctic Ice Melting
 

Chuck Gould wrote:
basskisser wrote:

Almost boating related.

If the ice melts, it may change sea level.

The planet has been in a constant state of change since it was formed.
Just wait until the next time the axis suddenly shifts- global warming
will seem pretty insignificant.

Thank you for you okay, Sheriff.

Arctic Ice Melting
 

Joey916 wrote:
For every scientist screaming global warming is bad, you can find one
saying it's no big deal.

http://www.junkscience.com/news/robinson.htm

http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com...ming_myths.htm

http://www.ncpa.org/ba/ba230.html

...and there are many more.

I'm going back to sleep.

What you fail to offer, of course, is anything with any REAL data. The
FACT is, global warming is occuring. The FACT is, the polar ice caps
are melting at a far greater rate, and at a far greater period of time
than ever. The FACT is, core samples show that CO2 is increasing and at
a rate that isn't linear. Because of ice samples taken that represent
60,000 years, we know that the CO2 rates are increasing logarithmically.

Arctic Ice Melting
 

Chuck Gould wrote:
basskisser wrote:

Almost boating related.

If the ice melts, it may change sea level.

The planet has been in a constant state of change since it was formed.
Just wait until the next time the axis suddenly shifts- global warming
will seem pretty insignificant.


I am waithing for the magnetic poles to switch. That will be something
to see.

Arctic Ice Melting
 

basskisser wrote:
Joey916 wrote:
For every scientist screaming global warming is bad, you can find one
saying it's no big deal.

http://www.junkscience.com/news/robinson.htm

http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com...ming_myths.htm

http://www.ncpa.org/ba/ba230.html

...and there are many more.

I'm going back to sleep.

What you fail to offer, of course, is anything with any REAL data. The
FACT is, global warming is occuring. The FACT is, the polar ice caps
are melting at a far greater rate, and at a far greater period of time
than ever. The FACT is, core samples show that CO2 is increasing and at
a rate that isn't linear. Because of ice samples taken that represent
60,000 years, we know that the CO2 rates are increasing logarithmically.


The argument is not that global warming is happening. The alleged causes
of the warming are in question.

Arctic Ice Melting
 

"Bert Robbins" wrote in message
...
Chuck Gould wrote:
basskisser wrote:

Almost boating related.

If the ice melts, it may change sea level.

The planet has been in a constant state of change since it was formed.
Just wait until the next time the axis suddenly shifts- global warming
will seem pretty insignificant.


I am waithing for the magnetic poles to switch. That will be something to
see.

They just did .... see?
ooopps, there they go again.

Eisboch