Posted on 05/25/2008 1:25:21 PM PDT by PROCON
Here's the good news: this summer's Arctic ice melt means an early start to the Hudson Bay shipping season.
Forecasts show Coast Guard icebreakers will no longer be necessary for shipping to Churchill after July 16.
That's 15 days earlier than the average ice-free shipping date of July 31, which means re-supply barges should able to reach communities in Nunavut's Kivalliq and Kitikmeot regions that much earlier.
But the down side to the retreat of the Arctic's thin ice cover is a 50-50 chance that the North Pole will become ice-free this September - for the first time in more than 100,000 years.
(Excerpt) Read more at nunatsiaq.com ...
Things change.
You’re right....Ice breakers change things...
I will believe this prediction when I see it. I suspect that while the ice will melt faster this summer, because it is thinner, it will reach a point of withdrawl and then come to a dead stop, because it’s just not warm enough.
Bet ice breaking contractors aren’t very happy this year.
I don’t freaking think so: www.spaceweather.com
I do think there is a 100% chance that scary predictions of a 50% chance of something bad happening are pure BS. They know the uneducated public will just see the scary thibg, and then when it doesn’t come to pass, they can use the 50% odds as an out.
ROFLOL!
ROFLOL!!
So 100,000 years ago there was global warming
Notice: Not first time ever, just since .......
So, was that you driving your SUV 100,000 years ago?
” I suspect that while the ice will melt faster this summer, because it is thinner,....”
Thickness matters — but, it’s not the only thing.
New sea ice is brackish & therefore melts at a much lower temperature than fresh water ice. The salt gradually leaves the ice & after a year or so, it is no longer brackish. This “old ice” is much less likely to melt.
yitbos
And who was at the NP for those 100k years recording this info?
50-50 chance that the North Pole will become ice-free this September - for the first time in more than 100,000 years. ........................ I predict that there is a 50/50 chance that Tampa will be hit with a Hurricane this year. There is a 50/50 chance that the Yanks will win the series (I won’t take bets on that one) This 50/50 is major BS. Tell us there is a definite 100% chance and then I may worry, but a weather prediction is just a prediction. Weather tends to be weather and does what it wants regardless of predictions. My guess, there will be ice in the north pole, Santa need not worry.
I heard one scientist say there is more oil under the arctic than the entire Mideast.
Seriously, I don't know what Canadians are crying about. Global warming is good for Canada. Bring it on.
And this is bad because?
Or paddle the kyak. Whatever.
Of course, there is no way they would have known weather or not there was no ice at the pole even 500 years ago, let alone 100,000.
If their prediction comes true, they will say “see! global warming”
If it doesn’t come true, we will near nothing more of it.
Woo hoo. I’ll get my water ski’s and you bring the beers.
Good thing the North Pole has never moved in the last 100,000 years...
Someone screwed up. This is a short term forecast. Usually the forecasts are 30+ years. This is one to check back on, email the writer to ask what happened and if she’ll make a retraction, and post the response.
Did somebody mentions thickness?
I just saw that Victoria Australia just reported the lowest temperature for the month of May where it got down to -13C (7F) a couple of days ago.
That's true. The dinosaurs killed wooly mammoths and used them for coats.
I’m glad to see someone caught the inference.
The sea ice is usually melts by mid-July in Hudson Bay so again, there is nothing to report here. It returns by mid-December so it is not exactly a long shipping season.
In ‘84 I was on an exploratory well in the Beaufort Sea, (50 miles off Milne Point in Prudhoe Bay area,) It was drilled from a man-made island. (Mukluk Island)
It was and still is the most expensive well ever drilled. (1.7 Billion $) It was a dry hole. It broke Diamond Shamrock and hurt Exxon so badly, they sold out their interest on the North Slope to Standard Oil. (SAPC)
There is some directional drilling and concrete floater drilling near the shore line, but most of the oil is inland.
The difficulty to drill offshore there, mainly because of the pack ice, will put a halt to any optimism or effort.
But if the ice at the North Pole melts then would it be doable?
Saw the idea that the north pole has not been ice free for that long and then on further readings of the sentence saw that they meant this is the first 50-50 chance in 100,000 years. How they know this is not known, since none of them are over 30.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.