61 replies to this topic

[Shortpoet-GTD]

"Arctic sea ice is disappearing at a rate that’s “unprecedented” in more than a millennia, according to a study that suggests the cause may be human- influenced climate change.

Trends from the last several decades suggest there may soon be an ice-free Arctic in the summer, according to a study published today in the journal Nature. Ice shrinkage is occurring at a rate
that’s unmatched in duration and magnitude in 1,450 years, and greenhouse gases may be
contributing to the warming, researchers said.
(may be?)
The thickness and extent of sea ice have declined dramatically over the last 30 years, the researchers said.
Arctic sea ice influences the global climate, since 80 percent of the sunlight that strikes it is reflected back to space. When the ice melts in the summer, it exposes the ocean surface,
which absorbs about 90 percent of the light, heating the water.
The more sea ice you lose, the more energy you get in the ocean, which warms the atmosphere.”
http://www.bloomberg...study-says.html

[jasserEnv]

It is so sad that such enormous environmental damage is being done while the lunatic conservative fringe continues to debate the existence of climate change and we continue to subsidize fossil fuel production. The damage we do will eliminate thousands of species at least and take so many years to recover from.

[Mon-Jes]

This planet is getting too warm. I know that "global warming" has been replaced by "climate change," and that some areas are seeing the change manifest as colder winters, but arctic melting is not good. Think of all the methane trapped in the now-melting permafrost....

[Shortpoet-GTD]

"According to new calculations, (NASA report from 7/18/2005) methane's effect on warming
the world's climate may be double what is currently thought.
The new interpretations reveal methane emissions may account for a whopping third of the climate warming from well-mixed greenhouse gases between the 1750s and today.

Sources of methane include natural sources like wetlands, gas hydrates in the ocean floor, permafrost,
termites, oceans, freshwater bodies, and non-wetland soils.
Fossil fuels, cattle, landfills and rice paddies are the main human-related sources."
http://www.nasa.gov/...th/methane.html

Termites? Even that one is news to me.
Checking out the net for estimates on their emissions? there is so much misinformation out there,
it's unbelievable. Some say it's all the termites fault, some say it's negligible.
Too many sites say that cows farting is the problem, when it's really their belching.


What's disheartening too, is that Googling "methane release, permafrost melt" brings up study after
study, many of them from years ago;  state that permafrost melt is a massive issue, and yet you hardly
ever hear a word about it on the news.
"Pass the butter, cause we're toast." might scare too many people?
http://news.national...mafrost-oceans/

[Alli]

The things we as humans do to our environment is both frightening and sad... and as developing nations become more consumerist, it will only continue to get worse... quite scary stuff!

[Shortpoet-GTD]

"Satellite measurements have pointed to a shrinkage in ice extent and thickness in the Arctic,
due to rising temperatures.
In September, experts at the National Snow and Ice Data Center reported that Arctic sea ice
had declined to its second-lowest level in the past 32 years,
and researchers at the University of Bremen in Germany said the ice coverage had fallen even below the 2007 minimum.
This report from the European Space Agency helps put the issue in perspective."
http://photoblog.msn...hrinking-domain

http://www.msnbc.msn...cience_monitor/

[mariaandrea]

Shortpoet-GTD, on 27 November 2011 - 04:15 AM, said:

What's disheartening too, is that Googling "methane release, permafrost melt" brings up study after
study, many of them from years ago;  state that permafrost melt is a massive issue, and yet you hardly
ever hear a word about it on the news.

This is so true. Unless you live in Alaska. A friend lives in Fairbanks and is always posting links to articles in the local papers there about the permafrost and the sea ice. They live with it and know the consequences and as my friend continually points out, those consequences are eventually going to affect us all no matter where we live.

[zararina]

Just watch some documentaries about it a while ago and it was scary to know what it could cause. It would worsen climate conditions just like making/creating more storms that are more destructing and stronger than before. There would be worse floods scenarios and rise of diseases. Very alarming that it could be unstoppable.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

"We're gonna need a bigger boat."

[jasserEnv]

What is truly disturbing is that this is all happening and people still continue to deny it. Or, they claim solar flares and other activity choosing tidbits that support their views of the world. I just don't get how people can be that dogmatic.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

climagician, on 04 December 2011 - 03:11 PM, said:

It's a pity the records don't go back further. Hard to tell with such short records if it is that bad. We've alreary rebounded from the 2007 minimum though, so the death spiral is a little bit exagerated.

650,000- 800,000 years is a pretty good record.
http://www.realclima...concentrations/
http://cdiac.ornl.go...omec/domec.html
http://creation.com/...ds-120000-years

[Shortpoet-GTD]

Yeah all those penguins are in the way.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

"Greenland rose as 100 billion tons of ice melted away."
http://worldnews.msn...ice-melted-away

[jbgreen]

Something's going to give eventually. We as humans can't continue to contest nature by living in ways that erode our environment. If we continue to live this way things are only going to get worse because of population growth and economic development in third world countries. I can only imagine the challenges future generations will have to face with all of these environmental issues surfacing.

[kathie_san]

That explains why summer time gets hotter each year, and sea levels rising. I think it's something irreversible nowadays that mankind continues to destroy the environment, directly or indirectly.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

"Dramatic and unprecedented plumes of methane - a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide -
have been seen bubbling to the surface of the Arctic Ocean by scientists undertaking an extensive survey of the region.


The scale and volume of the methane release has astonished the head of the Russian research team who has been
surveying the seabed of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf off northern Russia for nearly 20 years.

In an exclusive interview with The Independent, Igor Semiletov of the International Arctic Research Centre
at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, who led the 8th joint US-Russia cruise of the East Siberian Arctic seas,
said that he has never before witnessed the scale and force of the methane being released from beneath the Arctic seabed.

"Earlier we found torch-like structures like this but they were only tens of metres in diameter.
This is the first time that we've found continuous, powerful and impressive seeping structures more than 1,000 metres
in diameter. It's amazing," Dr Semiletov said.

"I was most impressed by the shear scale and the high density of the plumes.
Over a relatively small area we found more than 100, but over a wider area there should be thousands of them," he said.
"We carried out checks at about 115 stationary points and discovered methane fields of a fantastic scale - I think on a scale not seen before.
Some of the plumes were a kilometre or more wide and the emissions went directly into the atmosphere -
the concentration was a hundred times higher than normal," he said."
http://www.independe...as-6276278.html

[jasserEnv]

Its all very disappointing, even more when considering the forces of the self serving and ignorant who choose to deny that anything is happening.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

And here we go again.
An ice chunk nearly four times the size of Manhattan (46 square miles) in Greenland has broken free.
http://www.msnbc.msn...cience-science/