Arctic Tock ... 1

Arctic ice may be gone in one to three decades

If you've been planning a trip to the Arctic, better buy your tickets now, because it's a-meltin' fast. (Perhaps you've heard?) A record low amount of ocean froze over this winter -- a reduction of over 115,000 square miles of sea ice from last year. Researcher Walt Meier of the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center says there is "a good chance" that the Arctic has reached a tipping point: ice decline has accelerated since 2003, and if the trend continues, the Arctic could be ice-free by 2030. The U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in California plans to publish computer simulations showing that in summertime the Arctic could be ice-free within a decade. Loss of ice could have a huge impact on Arctic animals like polar bears (not to mention Santa Claus). Said Meier, "If we are heading for an ice-free Arctic, it's a really dramatic change and something that is unprecedented almost within the entire record of human species." Eek.

source: The Guardian, David Adam, 15 May 2006

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  1. retroproxy Posted 3:54 pm
    22 Nov 2008

    Unprecedented?All of these "record" low ice extents have been set only since the advent of satellite technology. Aside from observations going back one, maybe two centuries, we really have no way of knowing if the conditions in the Arctic are unprecedented. Therefore, we can't claim with certainty that CO2 is the cause of recent "record" low ice extents. I know that's a hard pill to swallow for all the carbon haters, but it's the TRUTH. CO2 emissions have risen and we've seen the lower and lower sea ice levels but that doesn't prove that CO2 is the cause. Numerous data presents a strong case that naturally changing ocean and wind currents influence the Arctic ice far more powerfully than the miniscule warming effects of CO2. Furthermore, sea ice growth has been fast and furious this Autumn with some of the fastest growth ever recorded, and current sea ice levels are right at the 1979-2000 mean. Look here to see all the glorious arctic ice: http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/NEWIMAGES/arctic. .... And look here:

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