More Global Warming

[alysheba88]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200...04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl



y SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer 1 hour, 5 minutes ago

Arctic sea ice in winter is melting far faster than before, two new
NASA studies reported Wednesday, a new and alarming trend that researchers say threatens the ocean's delicate ecosystem.
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Scientists point to the sudden and rapid melting as a sure sign of man-made global warming.

"It has never occurred before in the past," said NASA senior research scientist Josefino Comiso in a phone interview. "It is alarming... This winter ice provides the kind of evidence that it is indeed associated with the greenhouse effect."

Scientists have long worried about melting Arcticsea ice in the summer, but they had not seen a big winter drop in sea ice, even though they expected it.

For more than 25 years Arctic sea ice has slowly diminished in winter by about 1.5 percent per decade. But in the past two years the melting has occurred at rates 10 to 15 times faster. From 2004 to 2005, the amount of ice dropped 2.3 percent; and over the past year, it's declined by another 1.9 percent, according to Comiso.

A second NASA study by other researchers found the winter sea ice melt in one region of the eastern Arctic has shrunk about 40 percent in just the past two years. This is partly because of local weather but also partly because of global warming, Comiso said.

The loss of winter ice is bad news for the ocean because this type of ice, when it melts in summer, provides a crucial breeding ground for plankton, Comiso said. Plankton are the bottom rung of the ocean's food chain.

"If the winter ice melt continues, the effect would be very profound especially for marine mammals," Comiso said in a NASA telephone press conference.

The ice is melting even in subfreezing winter temperatures because the water is warmer and summer ice covers less area and is shorter-lived, Comiso said. Thus, the winter ice season shortens every year and warmer water melts at the edges of the winter ice more every year.

Scientists and climate models have long predicted a drop in winter sea ice, but it has been slow to happen. Global warming skeptics have pointed to the lack of ice melt as a flaw in global warming theory.

The latest findings are "coming more in line with what we expected to find," said Mark Serreze, a senior research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo. "We're starting to see a much more coherent and firm picture occurring."

"I hate to say we told you so, but we told you so," he added.

Serreze said only five years ago he was "a fence-sitter" on the issue of whether man-made global warming was happening and a threat, but he said recent evidence in the Arctic has him convinced.

Summer sea ice also has dramatically melted and shrunk over the years, setting a record low last year. This year's measurements are not as bad, but will be close to the record, Serreze said.

Equally disturbing is a large mass of water - melted sea ice - in the interior of a giant patch of ice north of Alaska, Serreze said. It's called a polynya, and while those show up from time to time, this one is large - about the size of the state of Maryland - and in an unexpected place.

"I for one, after having studied this for 20 years, have never seen anything like this before," Serreze said.

The loss of summer sea ice is pushing polar bears more onto land in northern Canada and Alaska, making it seem like there are more polar bears when there are not, said NASA scientist Claire Parkinson, who studies the bears.

The polar bear population in the Hudson Bay area has dropped from 1,200 in 1989 to 950 in 2004 and the bears that are around are 22 percent smaller than they used to be, she said.

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On the Net:

[Dell Dude]

I'm going to pull a Buck Dope and bump the prissy Alysheba's GW thread. Explain again about this global warming, sheba? The silence is deficating or deafening. Won of the too.

Chicago Socked By Snow... Over 8 Inches At O'Hare...
SNOWBLAST SET FOR GOTHAM; UP TO 5-INCHES... DEVELOPING...
Watches/Warnings...
Heavy Snow, Detroit to New York; More coming to Chicago...
Coldest Weather Possible In Nearly 15 Years...

[StarnetGypsy]

Chicago Socked By Snow... Over 8 Inches At O'Hare...
SNOWBLAST SET FOR GOTHAM; UP TO 5-INCHES... DEVELOPING...
Watches/Warnings...
Heavy Snow, Detroit to New York; More coming to Chicago...
Coldest Weather Possible In Nearly 15 Years...

melting of polar caps creates more moisture in the atmosphere which when coupled with freezing temps in the jet stream will bring heavy snow. we're probably seeing extreme weather conditions because of unstable weather patterns & changes in the warm & cool currents of the oceans ... without warm currents our planet would become a snowball in space. one positive tho is that the Redwings would have plenty of ice to practice on!

[Dell Dude]

Earth on the Brink of an Ice Age

The earth is now on the brink of entering another Ice Age, according to a large and compelling body of evidence from within the field of climate science. Many sources of data which provide our knowledge base of long-term climate change indicate that the warm, twelve thousand year-long Holocene period will rather soon be coming to an end, and then the earth will return to Ice Age conditions for the next 100,000 years.

Earth on the Brink of an Ice Age - Pravda.Ru

Indeed, Starnet Globalwarming Gypsy. Indeed.

[Dell Dude]

So basically this means fucking Algore is getting us to contribute to global cooling.

[Dell Dude]

YouTube - Madonna Feat. Justin Timberlake - 4 Minutes OFFICIAL VIDEO

President 'has four years to save Earth'US must take the lead to avert eco-disaster

Robin McKie in New York The Observer, Sunday 18 January 2009

Barack Obama has only four years to save the world. That is the stark assessment of Nasa scientist and leading climate expert Jim Hansen who last week warned only urgent action by the new president could halt the devastating climate change that now threatens Earth. Crucially, that action will have to be taken within Obama's first administration, he added.

Soaring carbon emissions are already causing ice-cap melting and threaten to trigger global flooding, widespread species loss and major disruptions of weather patterns in the near future. "We cannot afford to put off change any longer," said Hansen. "We have to get on a new path within this new administration. We have only four years left for Obama to set an example to the rest of the world. America must take the lead."

[Dell Dude]

GORE HEARING ON WARMING MAY BE PUT ON ICE
Mon Jan 26 2009 17:59:26 ET

Al Gore is scheduled before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday morning to once again testify on the 'urgent need' to combat global warming.

But Mother Nature seems ready to freeze the proceedings.

A 'Winter Storm Watch' has been posted for the nation's capitol and there is a potential for significant snow... sleet... or ice accumulations.

"I can't imagine the Democrats would want to showcase Mr. Gore and his new findings on global warming as a winter storm rages outside," a Republican lawmaker emailed the DRUDGE REPORT. "And if the ice really piles up, it will not be safe to travel."

A spokesman for Sen. John Kerry, who chairs the committee, was not immediately available to comment on contingency plans.

Global warming advocates have suggested this year's wild winter spells are proof of climate change.

Developing...

Yeah, global warming. Might as well blame global warming for my 0-17 two. It's all global warming's fault.

[Dell Dude]

If Obama actually follows threw with these radical policies to "save the planet", he may save the planet but the Unites States economy and therefore the United States goverment with all that ecompasses is toast. Bankrupt.

[StarnetGypsy]

Originally Posted by alysheba88

Scientists point to the sudden and rapid melting as a sure sign of man-made global warming.

"It has never occurred before in the past," said NASA senior research scientist Josefino Comiso in a phone interview. "It is alarming... This winter ice provides the kind of evidence that it is indeed associated with the greenhouse effect."

Scientists have long worried about melting Arcticsea ice in the summer, but they had not seen a big winter drop in sea ice, even though they expected it.

"Trust me dear, there is no rise in sea levels, this global warming crap is just a left-wing scam."