Arctic Ice in Death Spiral

[Panaconda]

Arctic Ice in Death Spiral

by Stephen Leahy

UXBRIDGE, Canada - The carbon dioxide emissions from burning such fossil fuels have now melted the Arctic sea ice to its lowest volume since before the rise of human civilisation and dangerously upsetting the energy balance of the entire planet, climate scientists are reporting.

"The Arctic sea ice has reached its four lowest summer extents (area covered) in the last four years," said Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in the U.S. city of Boulder, Colorado. The volume - extent and thickness - of ice left in the Arctic likely reached the lowest ever level this month, Serreze told IPS.

"I stand by my previous statements that the Arctic summer sea ice cover is in a death spiral. It's not going to recover," he said.

There can be no recovery because tremendous amounts of extra heat are added every summer to the region as more than 2.5 million square kilometres of the Arctic Ocean have been opened up to the heat of the 24-hour summer sun. A warmer Arctic Ocean not only takes much longer to re-freeze, it emits huge volumes of additional heat energy into the atmosphere, disrupting the weather patterns of the northern hemisphere, scientists have now confirmed.

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http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52896

[derby378]

Behold the downside to ICE ROAD TRUCKERS

Those long-haul truckers risk their lives getting supplies to the most remote outposts, but I think they still do so burning fossil fuels that aren't doing the Arctic ice any favors.

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. Not good.