NYT: In a Melting Trend, Less Arctic Ice to Go Around

New York Times ^ | September 29, 2005 | ANDREW C. REVKIN

[OESY]

The floating cap of sea ice on the Arctic Ocean shrank this summer to what is probably its smallest size in at least a century of record keeping, continuing a trend toward less summer ice, a team of climate experts reported yesterday.

The Cryosphere Today (University of Illinois Urbana Champaign) That shift is hard to explain without attributing it in part to human-caused global warming, the team's members and other experts on the region said.

The change also appears to be headed toward becoming self-sustaining: the increased open water absorbs solar energy that would otherwise be reflected back into space by bright white ice....

"Feedbacks in the system are starting to take hold," Dr. Scambos said.

The data was released on the center's Web site, www.nsidc.org.

The findings are consistent with recent computer simulations showing that a buildup of smokestack and tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases could lead to a profoundly transformed Arctic....

Expanding areas of open water in the summer could be a boon to whales and cod stocks, and the ice retreat could create summertime shipping shortcuts between the Atlantic and the Pacific.

But a host of troubles lie ahead as well. One of the most important consequences of Arctic warming will be increased flows of meltwater and icebergs from glaciers and ice sheets, and thus an accelerated rise in sea levels, threatening coastal areas. The loss of sea ice could also hurt both polar bears and Eskimo seal hunters.

The Arctic ice cap always grows in the winter and shrinks in the summer....

Before 1979, scientists estimated the size of the ice cap based on reports from ships and airplanes....

[OESY]

COMMENT: In 1979, the Times was whining about the forthcoming Return of the Ice Age. Now that we solved that problem, we can turn to global warming.

But, if the arctic ice has already melted, how big a risk could we face from drowning due to an accelerated rise in sea levels?

As Bjorn Lomborg in "Skeptical Environmentalist," it will take trillions of dollars to have a marginal impact on global-warming. Why not buy everyone who doesn't want longer growing seasons to feed the world's starving poor an air conditioner? Have environmentalists at the Times no heart?

[Maceman]

I seem to recall a few years ago that the Times printed a story about how for the first time ever, there was a navigable channel through the artic ice. There had never been one before, and this situation was said to be due to global warming.

Then it turns out that this event happens every summer. The Times printed its correction on page 115 of Section Z, or something like that.

[Perdogg]

http://www.iceagenow.com

[preacher]

Global warming is truly happening but man hasn't had a significant role in causing it.

The sea level has risen more than 120 meters since the peak of the last ice age, about 18,000 years ago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_level_rise

Glaciers were up to a mile thick in North Dakota and up to 8,000 feet thick near Hudson Bay during the last ice age . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glacier

[Conspiracy Guy]

Bush's fault

[Red Badger]

If the entire NORTH polar ice cap melted, it wouldn't affect the sea level a lot, because most of it is floating. Like when the ice in you tea glass melts, it doesn't overflow........The SOUTH polar ice cap is different story...........

[Patti_ORiley]

"That shift is hard to explain without attributing it in part to human-caused global warming, the team's members and other experts on the region said."

Year on year observations of Martian icecaps reveal the same thing -- which of course is hard to explain without attributing it in part to human-caused global warming.

[auboy]

That shift is hard to explain without attributing it in part to human-caused global warming, the team's members and other experts on the region said.

Maybe some of these scientists can explain how human activities on Earth have caused the Sun to gradually rise in temperature. Or how global warming has caused a decrease in ice on Mars.

[6SJ7]

Year on year observations of Martian icecaps reveal the same thing -- which of course is hard to explain without attributing it in part to human-caused global warming.

Obviously caused by those two Mars Rovers sent up last year. Four wheel drive. Driving off road. Sightseeing. Why, they're nothing more than extraterrestrial, non-indiginous, man-made SUVs! The horror!

[Pessimist]

Can't FEMA just send all those truckloads of ice its been transporting around and storing? :)

[WideGlide]

"That shift is hard to explain without attributing it in part to human-caused global warming, the team's members and other experts on the region said."

Yes, and they have the 12th Century satellite photographs to prove it.

[Pessimist]

"That shift is hard to explain without attributing it in part to human-caused global warming, the team's members and other experts on the region said."

One word: "Greenland". Who's fault was that? The Vikings pass too much gas?

[Pondman88]

Well, Maine and New Hampshire should benefit from rising temps...It's mighty cold up thar in winter.....

[yoe]

Show the same map in January or February - even the permafrost melts in the artic during summer.

Too many people with too much time on their hands………too may organizations funding too many people......too many scientists looking for the funding........too little factual research getting attention......the Mayor Nagin has the same meltdown problem….must be Bush’s fault….. San Andreas fault now renamed Bush’s Fault………………………………….

[pfony1]

Way back when the MSM was predicting an "Ice-Age", it was accepted that thick glaciers could not "form" without substantial snowfalls and that substantial snow could not "fall" unless the water vapor needed to form snow could enter the atmosphere from large, open bodies of water, located nearby.

The "opening" of the Arctic Ocean may be the first step in that process. Now, look for more snowfalls in Siberia and northern Canada, and look for snow fields to start to cover the frozen tundra there year-round.

I wonder how long it will take for reports of large Arctic snowfalls and reports of growing snowfields on the tundra to drive the "global-warmers" CRAZY.

[A.Hun]

Before 1979, scientists estimated the size of the ice cap based on reports from ships and airplanes....

Typical global warming BS, no reliable data pre 1979.

[ICE-FLYER]

Call me a healthy skeptice or whatever else pleases you but for folks to strut about barking doom and gloom over something that they have admitted to only record in actuality for a very short periuod of time compared to the history which they believe spans millions of years only makes them look foolish.

I have been going to Greenland and Antarctica for over a decade. In that time I have seen great expanses of previously melted areas remain frozen for 5 or more years and other places the size of of the state of Delawar break off and drift towards sea. My constant question to those who study it is what they think of it and their consistant answer is that we are only now seeing some things for the very first time because we are there witnessing them.

If you go to some places in Canada where the tidal flow rises and falls over 12 feet or more you can see engraved markings in the rock walls of where sea levels have been since the 1800's. There has been little change. It is a fact that while little to no precipitation happens in Antarctica a lot of snow falls at its edges is wind blown to the Aouth pole region and beyond, builds up higher, compresses down and flows out towards the ocean in a NEVER ENDING CYCLE. The Ice at the South Pole is over 2 miles thick and growing, and I am sure it will compress and move towards the hundres of glacial outflows off the continent. After all, if you want proof of it moving simply see that they replace the marker every year as the ice flows just over 33 or so feet every year.

Some of these folks act more out of theor world view than out of a commen sense scientific view. Thermal warming of the planet has been something they may suspect does happen to some small degree or another (no pun intended) but it is only because we have now had the ability to witness some of the data on it. The variables for speaking with certainty as to a trend one way or another are not yet computable and are well outside our reach as of right now.

I have witnessed amazing science both north and south, but the global warming theories are just that...theories.

For the first time in over 5 years the ice cutter making the channel to McMurdo Station for the cargo and fuling ship to get in will make its channel and not have to work as hard the next year because the massive Delawar sized ice berg blocking ocean current into McMurdo Sound has finally moved.

Always fun to watch people on this subject.

[tumblindice]

"estimated" "predicted" "forecast" et cetera.
All breathless algore euphemisms for: "guessed".

Many of these same "environmentalists" still think banning DDT was a
great thing when in fact the result is that they've killed more people than Hitler.

[Prince Charles]

The floating cap of sea ice on the Arctic Ocean shrank this summer to what is probably its smallest size in at least a century of record keeping, continuing a trend toward less summer ice, a team of climate experts reported yesterday.

I'll bet this will be the big story on Kook To Kook AM later tonite.

[Freedom_Fighter_2001]

Does this mean I'll have to pay more for my arctic ice cubes for my single malt on the rocks?