Report Sounds Alarm on Pace of Arctic Climate Change

[G_j]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A12360-2004Oct30?language=printer

Report Sounds Alarm on Pace of Arctic Climate Change
Warmth, Glacial Melt Linked to Humans; Wide-Ranging Effect on Environment and Industry Forecast

By Juliet Eilperin and Rick Weiss

Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, October 31, 2004; Page A08

The most comprehensive international assessment of Arctic climate change has concluded that Earth's upper latitudes are experiencing unprecedented increases in temperature, glacial melting and weather pattern changes, with most of those changes attributable to the human generation of greenhouse gases from automobiles, power plants and other sources.

The 144-page report is the work of a coalition of eight nations that have Arctic territories -- including the United States, which has hosted and financed the coalition's secretariat at the University of Alaska.

The findings, which reflect four years of study, confirm earlier evidence that the Arctic is warming far more quickly than the earth overall, with temperature increases in some northern regions exceeding by tenfold the average 1 degree Fahrenheit increase experienced on Earth in the past 100 years.

"For the past 30 years, there's been a dramatic increase in temperature and a decrease in the thickness of ice," said Robert W. Corell, a senior fellow with the American Meteorological Society and chairman of the Arctic climate impact assessment group, which produced the report.

..more..

[Rainbowreflect]

1. As much as I'm afraid of another 4 years of bush in foreign policy,

war, civil rights, the economy, & health care. I'm at least of as afraid of what it will cost the environment.

[saigon68]

2. IT WILL BE THE END OF THE WORLD

As we know it

[ixion]

3. yep... look for the emergence of super cells over the next few years

we ain't seen nothin' yet... ;-)

[Whoa_Nelly]

10. And isn't that what Bush the God-Listener wants?

Bring It (Armageddon) On!
Only two more days before the court fights...Sure hope Kerry wins by too large a margin to be disputed!

Zogby poll today:
Kerry 48%
Bush48%^
Undecided 2%
http://zogby.com

[0007]

15. We'll just start all over again as one cell amoeba if there is any

oxygen.

Vote as if your life depended on it, because it does.

Call 866 687-8683
If Poll Workers refuse you to vote for any reason
If there is a late opening or early closing of a polling place.
If your polling place runs out of ballots or has an incorrect ballot
If you experience poll worker insensitivity or discrimination in the voting process

The civil rights community have set up a toll-free Election Day hotline. This line is
staffed now and, in addition to logging your complaint, the civil rights organizations have law
students and attorneys who can provide assistance on Election Day.

the hotline number is
866 687-8683
202 457-0473 fax

When you call the hotline, be prepared to give your name, telephone number, and note as many
details as possible, including the names of the people who are involved.

[Squatch]

23. Is there a Mr Little in the house, first name Chicken?

The sky is falling, the sky is falling...sheesh.

[Gregorian]

16. It's the population stupid.

(I don't mean you. No offense, just paraphrasing Clinton.)


Regardless of whom is elected, the driving will continue.
The president, nor the Kyoto treaty will have any affect on the environment. No matter how hard we try, in America, India and China are just starting to use energy. People, when will you learn that it is a direct result of overpopulation.


Edit- I know, I've said it before, but I'm currently involved in a startup company for fuel cells, as an engineer. I'm not just making snide, uneducated comments. Just uneducated ones, haha. In order to sustain THIS lifestyle; In order to live like we do (as kings), it requires energy in excess of what this planet is capable of surviving. IN THESE NUMBERS. With this population of six billion. Therein lies the key. With two billion, we exhausted whale oil, which set us on the search for alternatives- namely petroleum. Now, only 100 years later, with three times the number of people, we are in search for another solution. But this time it isn't energy as much as how to accomplish the same results as we are accustomed to, without destroying the planet.

There are only several ways to deal with the problem. Fewer humans using energy; Noncombustive energy; Change in lifestyle.

I might add that we are sustaining an unnatural (if I may use that term), perhaps unreasonable, population of people due to the sources of energy we are using. I might also add that by doing so, we risk an enormous catastrophe. And that is what is very close to happening. Namely, the production of food is largely accomplished through the useage of petroleum products. Fertilizer, etc.

[Amigust]

20. As good as alternative energy sources might be, it seems that

we're already in runaway mode - too little and much too late.

Do you suppose Junior already knows this,and that's why he shows total contempt for mitigation and wants to impose world grab-all-you-can domination now?

[Gregorian]

22. He knows that peak oil has significance

We haven't reached runaway mode. There isn't such a thing. Well, in a way, we have already hit our peak. We are declining in our acceleration of growth.
But Bush and Cheney know that finding alternative sources that are equal in energy density, are not readily available. It's a game of musical chairs. Whomever has that oil, will be almighty. Whomever doesn't, will be subserviant. I think it's that simple.

I think we're very close to finding a replacement for gasoline. That's only a third of the solution. But with Kerry in office, we might have that problem solved in a decade.

Remember, this is all happening to keep our present level of lifestyle. That's all this is. It's about comfort and convenience.

[Amigust]

25. "runaway mode"

"Global warming: Does doom loom?
Niggling little scientific observations, from atop Mauna Loa to subarctic Hudson Bay, are pointing to the very real possibility of a runaway greenhouse effect" - http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/news/editorial/story.html?id=29ed61e7-47a0-4cd9-bd7b-4d4d8326361f&page=1

[hatrack]

4. Yes, the Arctic Council report that ChimpCo Inc. tried to block

You have to wonder, just what will they say?

What will they say after an 800 millibar storm flattens Miami or Jacksonville, or after the Atlantic conveyer shuts down, or after the Las Vegas aquaduct runs dry, or after the mother of all ice storms shuts down the Northeast for a month, or when the Alaska Pipeline sinks into a mush of melting permafrost?

What will they say? We already know - they'll sit their with climatic egg on their sour little faces, with their beady eyes flickering back and forth, and they'll say the same Goddamned things they always say. They'll call for further study, and they'll call for increased funding for scientific research and they'll propose exciting market-based solutions involving huge federal subsidies to major campaign contributors.

They'll prattle on about the non-negotiability of the American Dream, even as it runs through their hands like olive oil.

[G_j]

5. exactly

seems like you've seen the script before.

Then once a new 'study' is done it will be squashed because it will draw similar conclusions that the last one did: "we are in BIG trouble".

four more years of Bush would nail the coffin ..

[shadu]

7. You always cheer us up

Good post. I like hearing about millibars and
the Atlantic conveyor.

[hatrack]

14. It's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it!

:hi:

[JohnOneillsMemory]

6. I just did sound for Al Gore at UCBerkeley. He showed global warming

in a powerpoint presentation that had amazing photos of the melting ice caps and glaciers.

It was a powerful presentation that has me extremely alarmed at how far gone the problem already is even if we had Dennis Kucinich as president for the next 20 years (which would be great!)

Gore showed his intellectual chops and vision thing by being scientifically 'reality-based' unlike the neo-imperialists in DC.

We are living in a horror flick with the whole plot laid out before us with a big question mark next to it. 'Bad chimp.

-and I don't mean just W. All of us carbon-burning chimps are guilty.

[sadiesworld]

8. kick

[reprobate]

9. Ther's one small positive note about the doom of civilization.

Once the atlantic conveyor is shut down life as we have known it for the last three or four hundred years will face the biggest change since the last ice age.

The plus side of this, and yes I'm stretching the point quite a bit, is that the corporate society that has been imposed on humanity will NOT survive and the few people who remain will have the opportunity to build their own society.

If there are enough left to form a society.

[belle]

11. That's like the mirror image of the Rapture people. Ih. well, whatever.

[Ratty]

12. That tundra

I saw it on television awhile ago. The tundra sits on top of all this ancient, frozen vegetable matter. If the arctic heats up and the tundra begins to melt, all that stuff will start to rot and emit methane, *significantly* adding to greenhouse gases, accelerating global warning, causing more tundra to melt--begin vicious cycle. Arctic researchers are VERY alarmed at what they are seeing. Comparing photos from 50 years ago, millions of square miles of tundra are disappearing already. I have images in my head of a 900 degree, acid clouded, Venus-like Earth a thousand years from now.

The arctic is used as a good indicator of global warning for the entire Earth, but preserving the arctic itself is also a critically important necessity.

[Karenina]

17. Many decades ago

we were studying the solar system in elementary school. I was always fascinated by Venus and somehow got it into my head that there HAD BEEN life there and something went horribly wrong. After our units on the internal combustion engine, pollution and the regular duck and cover drills, I expressed my alarm about our own fate to the teacher who told me I had a very vivid imagination...

[G_j]

18. imagine that..

consequences to our actions.
:shrug:
you were right

[Amigust]

19. Your teacher had a very vivid lack of imagination.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

13. The Day After Tomorrow

[Squatch]

24. I believe the day after tomorrow will be Wednesday.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

[DeepModem Mom]

21. kick

[muriel_volestrangler]

26. (Summer) Arctic ice cap set to disappear by year 2070

More details, this time in the Financial Times:

A warmer Arctic could cause sea levels to rise nearly a metre by the end of the century, flooding many coastal regions and perhaps halting the Gulf Stream, the ocean current that brings warmer water and weather to north-western Europe.

Pal Prestrud, vice chairman of the steering committee for the report, said: "Climate change is not just about the future, it is happening now. The Arctic is warming at twice the global rate."

If current rates of change continue, there may be no ice in the Arctic in the northern hemisphere's summer by 2070, according to the study, to be discussed next Tuesday at an international conference in Iceland.
...
As Arctic ice melts, global warming is likely to accelerate. As the ice reflects much of the sun's heat back into space, so a shrinking ice cap will mean more heat is absorbed by the earth.

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/66e7d6a6-2c73-11d9-8339-00000e2511c8.html

And of course it's the summer that matters for the amount of sunlight reflected back in the Arctic - a reflecting icecap in the winter when there's no daylight at all doesn't do you any good.