My ass there's no global warming! How about this then?!?!

There is nothing wrong with being a skeptic.  When it comes to investing or trading, it sometimes pays to be a contrarian.  Religion and God?  I'm an agnostic.  Believing what the government tells me?  Pfft...not with the GOP in charge! But sometimes, skepticism can turn into stupidity, and when it comes to not believing in climate change, that is such a case.  Today the Associated Press had a story that should open the eyes to many conservative skeptics of climate change!

WASHINGTON - There's a 50-50 chance that the North Pole will be ice-free this summer, which would be a first in recorded history, a leading ice scientist says.

The weather and ocean conditions in the next couple of weeks will determine how much of the sea ice will melt, and early signs are not good, said Mark Serreze. He's a senior researcher at the National Snow and Ice Data Center and the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colo.

The chances for a total meltdown at the pole are higher than ever because the layer of ice coating the sea is thinner than ever, he said.

- excerpt from This summer may see first ice-free North Pole

I'm no scientist, and the closest thing to chemistry in my life is that I can make a couple of mean drinks.  So I'll grant you, that when it comes to global warming or climate change, that you can say I'm full of shit.  But frankly, I truly think this whole thing is really happening.

Is it just some sort of solar cycle?  Possibly.  Can it be that the planet just goes through a warming phase every couple centuries or something like that?  Hey may be, I've seen documentaries on such things on the Science Channel.

But those past "hot flashes" Mother Earth used to go through didn't have 6 billion-plus people on it.  And lets not forget a little era in human development known as the Industrial Revolution!  No, looking back, be it the smokestacks or the SUVs, humanity has been adding to the climate change of this planet!

I could throw a bunch of stats your way, but many conservatives (and their filthy neo-con bastard causins) would simply ignore them.  No, for folks like that, sadly, it's going to take some damn ecological disaster on their own property to finally open their eyes.  Oh who am I kidding, a good chunk of them will probably say it was Jesus punishing us for gay marriage or something!

The above photos are pictures from NASA of Mount Kilimanjaro in northeastern Tanzania. One is from 1993, the other from 2000.  So why bother with a mountain from Africa in a post about melting ice in the arctic north? Rising 5895 meters, at its summit in the summer it is almost as cold as the North Pole. The top temperatures this week alone is 3 degrees Celsius (that's about 37 F).  Ok, not close, but according to Snow-cast's website, "freezing air level" is reached at 4400 meters. In the winter time, the temperatures drop even further.  Above all, what I want you to take away from this example, is that if you want to see where the North Pole could possibly be going, we should take a look at other examples of where similar situations occurred; in this case it is Mount Kilimanjaro. Disagree with me if you wish, but google old photos of this place and you will see that it has had much more snow, many times over, than what is seen on that '93 photo.

Now, for you good folks who are still sitting on the fence, keep this one thing in mind.  When you have credible scientists saying the North Pole has a good chance of losing ice and snow, that should set off alarm bells in your head.  How long until the North Pole starts to have longer periods of melting ice and no snow?  We could get to the point where the North Pole is looking like some sort of rocky plain or something for much of the year. For me, the North Pole, like other geographical sensitive areas are like some sort of global version of a canary in the coal mine kinda thing.  Something we need to keep an eye on.

In the past, my conservative friends and family members laughed at me when I would bring something like this up.  For them, its all some sort of extreme leftist (or "watermelons" as one put it to me, green on the outside, but really red on the inside) plot to "take away the American lifestyle."  Now I find this to be complete bullshit, because the so-called American lifestyle shouldn't just be consumption and pollution.  Indeed, we have a cultural history of conservation.  But I guess for those righties out there, that meaning of "conservatism" is nill.  Go figure!  

UPDATE: It has come to my attention that there is no ground under the ice and snow of the arctic north, according to one astute commenter.  Now frankly, I got egg on my face on this one.  Here I go lecturing those bastard conservatives, and here I am wrong on the North Pole!