Arctic ice is now in a "death spiral" that could mean summer ice at the North Pole will be a thing of the past in a decade, according to a leading scientist involved with studies of the region. As recently as 2001, the Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change had reported that major ice retreat would not occur before 2100. Two years ago, a key researcher at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said summer ice would be gone by 2050.
Two decades ago, the idea that a big, disturbing change might be developing in the Arctic was hooted down by the climate skeptics – read: fossil-fuel propagandists – and laughed off by almost everyone except the scientists who were actually doing field work there. They knew that if what was then almost always referred to simply as the "greenhouse effect" was going to have a significant impact on the earth, the Arctic would be the first to experience it. They dug into 100,000-year-old ice-caps to see what was going on.
In 1993, one of those researchers, Walter Oechel, a biologist at San Diego State University, said it was unsettling that that the peaty tundra was drying out in some places and releasing stored carbon into the atmosphere.
"This worries me," he said. "It could be a very strong 'feedback' effect," or an outcome that accelerates the very warming process that triggered it in the first place.
"The Arctic is a system that has a very strong potential for feedback," Oechel added. "And its importance is much greater than just in the North. If this carbon (in the tundra) is released into the atmosphere, it's going to affect broccoli and a lot of other things in Southern California."
Five years ago, what had become a well-funded denier cabal used their perch to laugh off the 140-page Impacts of a Warming Arctic put together by the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment. In short, the study stated:
"The Arctic is now experiencing some of the most rapid and severe climate change on Earth. Over the next 100 years, climate change is expected to accelerate, contributing to major physical, ecological, social, and economic changes, many of which have already begun. Changes in arctic climate will also affect the rest of the world through increased global warming and rising sea levels".These climate changes
Oklahoma Senator and Chief Political Climatologist Jim Inhofe and private-sector deniers attacked the ACIA’s report as nonsense. But the circumpolar Inuit who have lived in the Arctic for millennia could have have explained who the real nonsense spouters were. For decades, they had seen the change close up, the warmer weather, the pressures on the polar bear and other species, the drying tundra. The deniers, with barely a handful of scientists having relevant credentials supporting their views, succeeded in getting much of the media to report man-made climate change – particular in the Arctic where its effects had become obvious – as a matter that divided researchers about equally. This had the desired effect, making it easier for politicians to continue their dilly-dallying.
The deniers had by then moved away from their old stance of saying the greenhouse effect itself was a hoax, into a phase of arguing that it might be a real phenomenon but not happening, and then into the phase of saying greenhouse-produced climate change might be happening but was no big deal, and the into the phase of saying it might be a big deal but not caused by humans so nothing could be done about, and then into the phase of saying it might be caused by humans but it would have as many positive and negative benefits, and then into the phase of saying it might be happening but that it would take centuries to have a real impact and nothing should be done about it because it would wreck the economy.
This past August, Mark Serreze, a scientist at the NSIDC who recently became its new director, said: "No matter where we stand at the end of the [2008] melt season it's just reinforcing this notion that Arctic ice is in its death spiral." The Arctic could be free of summer ice by 2030." So much for centuries remaining before the impact is felt.
The NSDIC reported in December that the Arctic melt had passed the point of no return. Increased melting, the center stated, was accumulating heat in the ocean in a process known as Arctic amplification, something the most pessimistic researchers had not expected to see for another decade or more.
The graph above shows daily sea ice extent as of June 2, 2009. The solid blue line indicates 2009; the dashed green line shows 2007;and the solid gray line indicates average extent from 1979 to 2000. The gray area around 1979-2000 average line shows the two standard deviation range of the data. Sea Ice Index data.
— Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center
(click to enlarge) |
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The rescue begins below and continues in the jump.
vets74 wrote about the problems with Saturn to Penske. Multi-Production for New Age Cars?: "Roger Penske is getting Saturn. Distribution for the brand name with 350 dealerships and the current designs. He plans to build Saturns overseas. However, critically, the Saturn production facility at Spring Hill, Kentucky Tennessee, was designed for a JIT multi-production operation. Logistic support and the assembly lines were aimed to do a number of specialty low-volume cars. ... Now, Penske Auto is not getting the factory -- just the network, the brand name, and a few new car designs. For a country that needs to see affordable New Age electric and super-hybrid automobiles, it is not difficult to construct a better industrial plan.
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The Overnight News Digest is posted and includes the story, American, German vets pay respects to D-Day fallen
teacherken took a look at the column of Eugene Robinson: Coal's Pipedream?: "Robinson argues that the money being spent to research so-called clean coal would be better spent researching truly clean energy production sources like wind, solar and geothermal. I am not opposed to the research per se, because perhaps we will find a break-through which could allow us to change our perspective. But the real breakthrough would have to be to find a less destructive but still acceptable in cost method of extracting the coal in the first place. No one seems to be addressing that."
In Arizona, Kaid at NRDC wrote about Village Green: Tempe's Stunning New Transportation Hub: "When conjuring municipal exemplars of smart growth, Tempe, Arizona, is not the first place that usually comes to mind. But the city of Tempe and ValleyMetro, the transit authority that provides the region's spiffy new light rail system, have just created an amazing facility that in one place embodies the best of smart growth, green building, and sustainable transportation. The Tempe Transportation Center and the Metro light rail line opened to considerable fanfare in December."
Gamblndan promoted Manufacturing, Electric Cars and Project Better Place: "One of the big obstacles to electric cars is the price of the battery. Agassi has taken that component out of the equation. He is going to give you the battery for free, and instead of filling up at a gas station you will now end up switching your battery at a switching station that will take about 3 minutes total. Agassis company will own the batteries and switch them for you. This makes the cars extremely affordable. The other big part of this is that Agassi wants to build a national infrastructure for switching batteries stations, and a new electric grid, and a plug outlet at every parking spot in America."
Bruce Nilles reproted on The Growing Grassroots Movement Against Coal: "Everyday we see signs of the growing grassroots movement for clean energy in the U.S. Americans are not just demanding that we switch from coal to clean energy, they’re getting together to take action on a local and national scale. We’ve got some great examples of this for you. First, on Tuesday night as part of the Sierra Club’s Big Picture campaign, more than 320 people got together at 71 house parties across the U.S. to discuss and plan our next action on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) global warming endangerment finding."
MinistryOfTruth had some advice in Your victory garden and your local farmer can change the world: "If Americans ate less meat, less fast food and manufactured food and instead ate more locally grown fruits and vegetables, as well as whatever food you can grow yourself, we could bring about the change we need without having to wait for anyone to take the lead. Simple changes to your daily diet, even if done in moderation, combined with enough people doing the same thing can literally change the world."
rufus xevious thought it would be a good idea to Tie Global Warming to Local Quality of Life Issues: "...the thing I hear so rarely from environmental and political organizations (okay, excepting Bill McKibben and some other individuals), the simple gut-smacking truth outside all the facts and figures and political this-and-that, is how tragic it is that the way we’ve used land these last 50 years has turned one of the most extraordinary continents on the planet into something ugly to be around. And that right there is the connection between aesthetics and greenhouse gases. Because all this extra ugliness needs enormous amounts of carbon-spouting energy to run: factory farms to grow and harvest pesticide-infested food, buildings upon buildings to sell the food, energy from coal to power the buildings, fences upon fences to protect the buildings, cars upon roads under cars to get people to the buildings, drab, energy inefficient subdivisions to house the people in the cars, and electricity-sucking lights to keep it all illuminated (and the stars hidden from view)."
geodemographics took note of the fact that Monsanto is now blogging at DailyKos: "In response to Jill Richardson's rec list diary yesterday entitled Monsanto Gives New Movie "Food Inc" Two Thumbs Down, Monsanto felt compelled to create a UID named Monsanto Company and posted a comment in her diary. While Monsanto certainly has a right to defend itself against what I believe to be very legitimate criticism, it is interesting that the company felt compelled to post here. They have deep pockets, and their PR team is clearly defensive about the backlash that the movie is likely to create."