All Five Great Lakes Ice-Free So Far This Winter - NYT

[hatrack]

EDIT

For the first time that anyone in Put-in-Bay could remember, the Great Lakes were ice-free in the middle of winter. Even Lake Erie, the shallowest of the five lakes and usually the first to freeze over, was clear. "There's essentially no ice at all," said George Leshkevich, a scientist who has studied Great Lakes ice for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, since 1973. "I've never seen that."

The unusually warm weather has upset the routine for hundreds of people who live year-round on islands in Lake Erie. On summer weekends, 14,000 tourists turn South Bass, the largest island on the American side of Lake Erie, into a teeming resort. "You either make your money in the summer or you don't make it at all," said Tip Niese, owner of the grocery store in Put-in-Bay, the only town on the island.

The first ice usually forms in late November, and by January it locks into place. For islanders, it is the equivalent of summer vacation. "Winter is the only time we get to see our friends," says Maggie Beckford, president of the Put-in-Bay chamber of commerce. "Everybody's too busy during the summer." Once the lake freezes, islanders organize impromptu ice rallies. Families gather to drink hot wine and race all-terrain vehicles across the lake. They also race iceboats, which resemble sailboats on skates. Put-in-Bay even has its own ice yacht club.

EDIT

This year, the unusually warm weather wiped out the ice-fishing trade. Many guides tried boat fishing, but strong winds whipped up sediment and clouded the water so the walleyes could not see the lures. "I'm down $40,000," said Bud Gehring, another guide. "It's hurt everybody." With no ice fishing, 1,200 cases of beer sat unsold, stacked to the ceiling inside Niese's Island General Store. A bed-and-breakfast owner, Jean Burgess, has not rented a room all winter. For the first time in its 100-year history, Miller Boat Lines ran a ferry across Lake Erie through the month of January. "We're not making money here," Mr. Market says. "It's our duty to do this."

EDIT

http://www.ecoearth.info/articles/reader.asp?linkid=52746

[leftchick]

1. well this makes no sense...

what is small and regional about All Five Great Lakes??

<snip>

Even Brent Lofgren, a NOAA climatologist who believes in global warming, said that "in a small, regional area over a short period of time, it's hard to know what's happening."

[Itchinjim]

2. Don't worry, global warming is just a scam perpetuated by those

environmental wackos. Michael Crichton and * told us so!

[oneighty]

3. I grew up on a cliff edge

overlooking Lake Erie. I live near the lake now. 63 years I have never seen the lake without at least some ice in the winter. Now there is none other than the very edge of the lake and that is shore ice/snow.

180

[NMDemDist2]

4. Good Grief `K&N'd n/t

[Deja Q]

5. I'm sacrificing a lot to minimize my driving and electricity use...

Less tv, live closer to work & walk when I can, fluorescent lights, recycling, power-efficient PCs and switchbox, you name it.

[Porcupine]

6. Knowing the climate is changing and seeing it change are....

such very different things. No ice on all five Great Lakes is just a little scary. There has always been ice on the lakes. Vast sheets of it that allow ice-sailing.

Hurricanes through December and no ice on the lakes, no snow in the Yukon. Shouldn't somebody in the White House hand ** a clue about now?

K&R

[hatrack]

7. That somebody is Michael Crichton - the Littlest President loved his book

They even met and talked for an hour.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 —
-snip-
In his new book about Mr. Bush, "Rebel in Chief: Inside the Bold and Controversial Presidency of George W. Bush," Fred Barnes recalls a visit to the White House last year by Michael Crichton, whose 2004 best-selling novel, "State of Fear," suggests that global warming is an unproven theory and an overstated threat.

Mr. Barnes, who describes Mr. Bush as "a dissenter on the theory of global warming," writes that the president "avidly read" the novel and met the author after Karl Rove, his chief political adviser, arranged it. He says Mr. Bush and his guest "talked for an hour and were in near-total agreement."

"The visit was not made public for fear of outraging environmentalists all the more," he adds.
And so it has, fueling a common perception among environmental groups that Mr. Crichton's dismissal of global warming, coupled with his popularity as a novelist and screenwriter, has undermined efforts to pass legislation intended to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, a gas that leading scientists say causes climate change.

Mr. Crichton, whose views in "State of Fear" helped him win the American Association of Petroleum Geologists' annual journalism award this month, has been a leading doubter of global warming and last September appeared before a Senate committee to argue that the supporting science was mixed, at best.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/national/19warming.ht...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2118551&mesg_id=2118551

[Dr.Phool]

8. Yes, Crichton is a good fiction writer.

Key word. FICTION.

[Angry Girl]

10. Crichton is predictable, sophomoric, and the worst kind of propagandist

He writes one-dimensional characters and bad dialog. He's exactly the type to recruit on a propaganda mission, however, as this article shows (see last paragraph below):

The 62-year-old author of stunningly successful novels like Jurassic Park, Crichton is a master at using science as a springboard for blockbusters, which is one of the reasons environmentalists have been so distressed by his latest bestseller, State of Fear. Weighing in at 603 pages, the novel is a relentless diatribe against the environmental movement, featuring nefarious, grant-hungry greenies who conspire to create deadly natural disasters just to fool the world into believing that global warming is a threat. To reinforce his view that climate-change theories are hokum, Crichton laced the book with graphs, appendixes, and footnotes from scientific journals.

A number of scientists have charged that Crichton often misinterprets data, cites questionable studies, and overlooks the consensus of the overwhelming majority of climatologists: that global warming is a serious threat. Several leading authorities—including NASA climatologist James Hansen and NYU physics professor Martin Hoffert—have said Crichton distorted their research in his work. "Crichton is not a scientist, who would examine evidence evenhandedly to get at the truth," Hansen says. "He is a scientific fraud and a charlatan."

<SNIP>

Though the Chicago-born Crichton is not a scientist—he graduated from Harvard Medical School but never practiced—he now lectures about "Science Policy in the 21st Century" before influential outfits like the National Press Club. His thrust: decrying the poor quality of research on which environmental policy is based.

http://outside.away.com/outside/features/200505/counter-enviroment-power-list-3.html

[glitch]

16. Indeed. I barely made it through Juraissic Park, which at least had a

decent plot.

This made me laugh out loud:

"His thrust: decrying the poor quality of research on which environmental policy is based."

[phantom power]

11. I just threw up in my mouth again.

:puke:

[Porcupine]

13. The Littleest President Can't Read!!!

At least he's never been able to demonstrate reading comprehension in public. I suspect he may struggle to read at a third grade level but that's about it.

Michael Chrichton would be way beyond his ability to follow the plot.

[tex-wyo-dem]

17. Crichton is a sham and simply props up the neo-con a la Limbaugh...

framing that global warming is just a scare tactic by the left. I don't doubt that pundits of his ilk are getting some nice kickbacks from various RW entities to continue their propagandizing of the issues.

Down here in Texas we've had temps in the 70s and 80s for most of January and February (normal is mid/high 50s). Some of the flowering trees have already started blooming, which usually doesn't happen until late March at the earliest.

[Delphinus]

18. It's times like this

I want to fall to the floor, weeping for the ignorance of mankind.

I'm reading Thom Hartmann's book right now, "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight", and it's so frustrating to realize there are so many idiots who refuse to see the truth.

[eppur_se_muova]

20. My comments about Crighton from another thread.

Basically, it's not *thoughtful* SF, which all *good* SF is.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2118551&mesg_id=2119788

[eppur_se_muova]

21. Who's going to point out ** spent an HOUR with this guy?

Getting advice on environmental science from someone who has no background in that field is a good investment of time for the POTUS???:wtf: The PDB's barely get an hour of his time! When will an actual SCIENTIST, someone who actually KNOWS SOMETHING about global warming, and isn't beholden to energy conglomerates, get a chance to spend FIVE MINUTES with this illiterate ignoramus?:eyes: OK, that really makes it sound like they'd enjoy it -- but ** needs it, or WE need ** to get it.

[Angry Girl]

9. Natl. Geographic's article about the Arctic hunters was terribly sad

Indigenous people who used to be independent and hunt for their food are being forced to take desk jobs because their hunting can no longer sustain them.

.... Everywhere in the Arctic, indigenous people are suffering. In Alaska the villages on the north coast are being inundated by the rising sea. In some Greenland villages last winter there was no sea ice at all. A few hunters in Qaanaaq and Moriusaq had to shoot some of their dogs because they had no meat for them.

<SNIP>

Without sea ice, without sled dogs, without polar bears, marine mammals, and birds, traditional life in the Arctic could crumble quickly. "Once one piece of our life goes, it all goes," Jen says. "It is just like the ice. If it does not hold together, we cannot make any sense of our lives."

On the next to last day of our trip we emerge from our hut on the north side of Kiatak Island. Jens and Mamarut are boyishly cheerful, despite the disapointment of having no meat to bring home. They race each other up a steep snowfield. Because Kiatak lies farther west than any other land in Greenland, they're sure that, looking out over Baffin Bay toward Ellesmere Island, they'll see an ice edge sturdy enough to hold their dogsleds. This is where the walruses wil be.

What they see astonishes them: There's no ice edge, only the glitter of open water all the way to Canada. Jen blinks, looks away to one side, then back out at the sea.

"In my whole life, and that of my father and grandfather, there has never been anything like this at this time of year. Without ice, we can't live. Without ice, we're nothing at all."

Excerpts from Last Days of the Ice Hunters? by Gretel Ehrlich with photography by David McLean, National Geographic, January 2006.

[phantom power]

12. Well, if it hasn't happened by now, it's not going to.

[bvar22]

14. There are rivers flowing unfrozen in north Minnesota.

That has NEVER happened in recorded history.

[jasmeel]

15. This is sad but could also be used as a way to get through some

thick skulls and convinve people to do something about global warming. Tonight on 60 minutes they're doing a story on global warming and actually show the destruction and ice melting. It looks like it will be very sad. Maybe it will change some minds.

[Kolesar]

19. The shallow western basin of L Erie froze over in December

Then January was largely above freezing, so it must have thawed out. The Lake Effect snow machine has been shut down, though