A chunk of Arctic sea ice roughly the size of Florida melted in just six days, according to scientists who warn that ice in the region continues to melt at an alarming rate.
Reports are already surfacing of the detrimental effects such rapid habitat loss is having on marine mammals, such as polar bears, which use the ice to hunt and migrate. Most recently scientists have said polar bear populations could drop by 66 percent by mid-century.
Virtually every day there is news about the impacts of climate change on the oceans, from whale deaths due to lack of food, to potential coral destruction; from rising temperatures and increased ocean acidity, to the disappearance of cold water species because of warming ocean temperatures.
The oceans are suffering from climate change. More than ever we all need to do our part to step up and protect them.
The coming climate panic?
Comments
View as Flat
Billhook Posted 10:16 am
20 Sep 2007
compared with the global scope of the sea level rise that now threatens every coastal city, town & vilage,
as well as the best quarter of productive farmland ?
Regards,
Bill
Permalink
Sam Wells Posted 1:09 pm
20 Sep 2007
This is becoming truly alarming. Polar seas are incredible complex, and nobody knows what will happen next. Laurentian cold water to alter the Gulf Stream? Not impossible although highly unlikely. I wish I could say everything is OK, but this is of Biblical proportions. Folks, I think the planet is sick. Time to do something. /sammie
Onward through the fog
Permalink
Biodiversivist Posted 1:29 am
21 Sep 2007
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world
Permalink
Delay And Deny Posted 3:53 am
21 Sep 2007
One of the problems of the Earth prior to the beneficence of Global Heating was lack of fresh water.
Yes, lack. We are just beginning to tap into the motherload supplied by icebergs and permafrost.
This additional water will help quench the Sahara and Arizona deserts and provide clean water to wash away pollution. It's already happening in China.
John Bailo
Sutext:
Permalink
sindark Posted 5:41 am
21 Sep 2007
http://nsidc.org/news/press/2007_seaiceminimum/images/200 ...
The red ice is the old, strong stuff.
a sibilant intake of breath
Permalink
Delay And Deny Posted 8:14 am
21 Sep 2007
http://soundpolitics.com/archives/009285.html
The New York Times reports some astonishing news of a changing climate:
Sea ice around Antarctica has seen unusual winter expansions recently, and this week is near a record high.
(it's the very bottom of a story that is mainly about the shrinking of Arctic ice). So how do scientists explain all of this?
scientists acknowledged that both poles were extraordinarily complicated systems of ice, water and land, and that the mix of human and natural influences was not easy to clarify.
John Bailo
Sutext:
Permalink