Think of the earth as seen from space, and the North Polar Ice Cap pops into mind's eye as familiar as a shock of pearly, white hair on Santa's head. But if new findings from a team of North American researchers are accurate, we may not have that ice cap for much longer:
ABC News -- A team of scientists from the United States and Canada has found new evidence about the rapid melting of ice in the Arctic. Data presented at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union suggests all year-round ice could disappear by the year 2040. The scientists also believe recent research shows a tipping point which would trigger a rapid melting is fast approaching.
That much melt water spreading over parts of the the Arctic Ocean could shut down the North Atlantic Conveyor. The last time that happened, it may have sent western Europe into a brief but intense ice age marked by a notable pulse of extinction across every clade on record. In addition, this phenomenon could also signal that the permafrost ringing the Arctic Circle is melting, which would release prodigious amounts of trapped methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
In the bigger and more immediate picture, what makes the tragedy of regional war in the Middle East a potential economic catastrophe for human civilization? What is the root source of funding for Al Qaeda and Hezbollah? Why can repressive regimes such as those in Saudi Arabia or Uzbekistan count on US support and complicity? Why can a select few nations play by their own arbitrary rules? All these world class headaches and many more share one key ingrediant with climate change: E-N-E-R-G-Y.
Can you imagine what the overall state of our national and global health would be right now, had the WH and GOP controlled Congress responded to 9-11 with a crash research and incentive program of energy efficient and alternative energy technologies --instead of a campaign of fear, secrecy, and endless war -- and funded it to the tune of the trillion or more dollars they pledged to death and destruction in Iraq, and tax breaks for Paris Hilton and Exxon? I'm not sure when boneheaded stupidity, raw greed, and willful ignorance cross over the line into criminal negligence, but that has to be pretty damn close.
The irony is that we live on a world seething with energy. From the red hot magma beneath our feet over which we majestically glide on rafts of stone, to the mountains of water and continents of air our sun and moon drag around the planet everyday. Even the matter which forms our material world is energy, frozen, condensed, and available for use -- with the right technology. The first nation that figures out how to tap into any of that in a big, commercially viable way, will inherit the new millennium. Those left behind will be heir to a future far less desirable.