The Arctic is melting
November 10, 2004 11:26 AM   Subscribe

The Arctic is melting, according to the Arctic Council report, Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, which says the Arctic has lost 386,100 square miles of sea ice in the past 30 years, an area bigger than Texas and Arizona combined. A Pew Center report, Observed Impacts of Global Climate Change in the U.S., describes how global warming is disrupting animals, plants and insects. Perhaps it's all an E.U. conspiracy. WorldChanging has a world press roundup.
posted by homunculus (33 comments total)
 


Junk science.

Needs more study.

Too reality based for our society.

What is really weird will be seeing the Exxon_Mobil CEO explain why the oil pipeline is sinking into the melting permafrost while at the same time still claiming that climate change is not real.
posted by nofundy at 11:44 AM on November 10, 2004


duh
posted by Bonzai at 11:44 AM on November 10, 2004


It's clear that all the oil that has pooled underneath the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has led to accelerated geothermal activity.

We need to find a way to somehow remove that oil. Otherwise, those poor polar bears are doomed.
posted by rajbot at 11:51 AM on November 10, 2004


Please. The Armageddon will happen long before your junk science theories come to pass. Haven't you read "Left Behind"?
posted by eyeballkid at 11:52 AM on November 10, 2004


The senior adviser to Bush on Climate Change thinks that climate change is a hoax? Thanks for the links.. homunculus++
posted by rajbot at 11:57 AM on November 10, 2004


This will be great for the economy. Think of all the shipping routes, it's the northwest passage! Hudson would be proud. And it's easier to get oil now. And more people can move up north and higher property taxes, I think it's a win-win situation. Pass the sunscreen and snow boots.
posted by graventy at 12:00 PM on November 10, 2004


Actually, can't this evidence be used to stop Anwar? Hasn't it been hurting the Alaska pipeline too?
posted by amberglow at 12:05 PM on November 10, 2004


This sounds like a completely fantastic idea. Best idea since Thomas Midgley, Jr. came up with chlorofluorocarbons.
posted by Hypnerotomachia at 12:27 PM on November 10, 2004


amberglow, it's too late. The majority of Alaskans (78%) are for ANWR drilling. President Bush, Alaska governor Frank Murkowsk, and the AK Senators (Sen. Sevens and Frank's daughter Lisa) are commited to ANWR development. For some reason, even the Teamsters are strongly for it. The environmentalists seem to have retreated...
posted by rajbot at 12:37 PM on November 10, 2004


Hypnerotomachia, your link goes to a "sorry, story is not available" page.
posted by Potsy at 12:38 PM on November 10, 2004


during the press conference that was shown on CSPAN(realplayer), the scientists state that Arctic oil exploration has been reduced from 300 exploration days down to 100 days of exploration - due to the fact that the tundra is melting.
posted by nyoki at 12:43 PM on November 10, 2004


The Earth's magnetic field is getting weaker, too. And like global warming, there's not a damn thing anybody can do about it.

That being said, graventy's comment about naval lanes being opened is quite correct, and the US Navy has been actively mapping and preparing for access between North America and Russia across the northern polar sea route.

Points of interest would be the cities of Murmansk, Archangel, Dikson, Tiksi and Cherskiy. Maybe there might be some development in the giant islands of Novaya Zemlya, Severnaya Zemlya and the New Siberian Islands.

Learn Russian.

Things change. Say goodbye to New Orleans and maybe Amsterdam.
posted by kablam at 12:44 PM on November 10, 2004


and Venice, and the Keys, and the Barrier Islands, and Cape Cod, and ...
posted by amberglow at 12:50 PM on November 10, 2004


{hank _hill} graventy, you giblet-head, we live in Texas! It's already 110 in the summer, and if it gets one degree hotter, I'm going to kick your ass!{/hank _hill}

Less than an hour ago I heard Rush Limbaugh say that the level of the oceans can't rise from melting ice, because that ice is already floating in the water, and your drink doesn't overflow just because the ice melts, does it? Well, does it? Then he claimed the people that thought it would cause rising levels of oceans were morons.

Yep, the same Rush that NBC decided to have as one of their co-hosts(for "analysis") with Tom Brokaw and Tim Russert for the two hours of primetime coverage of election night 2000.

What a country. Now row faster, you morons.
posted by dglynn at 12:50 PM on November 10, 2004


It's our holocaust. History will not judge us kindly for the destruction we wrought.
posted by muckster at 12:57 PM on November 10, 2004


Ah, Rush as scientist. Now that's progress.
posted by Red58 at 12:57 PM on November 10, 2004


My comment was obviously tounge in cheek, but there are some economic benefits to it, to go with the massive economic tragedies that would occur because of it. On one hand, cheaper oil. On the other, no Caribbean and New Orleans. Hmm...

The Rush Limbaugh thing is funny. I think Franken touched on that in his book, or it was FAIR that did a thing on it. I can't remember.

This frightens me as a liberal because all the blue states are near water.
posted by graventy at 1:01 PM on November 10, 2004


Well, he's right, in that ice floating on the ocean can't raise the sea level.

However, the ice on Greenland and Antarctica is not floating -- and some 90% of all the ice on the planet is on Antarctica.
posted by eriko at 1:34 PM on November 10, 2004


Things change. Say goodbye to New Orleans and maybe Amsterdam.

Ah, you're so fashionably cavalier.

Get this: The most likely scenario for North America in the age of global warming is a colder, drier climate -- enough to ruin our grain crops. Failing American grain crops mean people start to starve. That means instability, mobile populations, more death, etc. It means changes in the economic order of the world.

But hey, since companies like Enron and Exxon-Mobil are raking in cash right now, their senior stakeholders are probably going to be sitting pretty: They'll be able to construct their own survival systems, whatever those end up needing to be (secure enclaves or just virtual serf-labor systems with intensive security).

Ironically, the people who most contributed to the problem in the first place are the ones who have the least to fear from it. (Or maybe that's not ironic at all. I lose track. Is irony even still fashionable?)

In any case, there's a good chance that you and yours won't be in their with them, unless you're much better off than I think.
posted by lodurr at 1:50 PM on November 10, 2004


You can say goodbye to the Polar Bears too.

nice post, homonculus.
posted by Ufez Jones at 1:57 PM on November 10, 2004


Do not sell short on surfboard futures.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 2:24 PM on November 10, 2004


However, the ice on Greenland and Antarctica is not floating -- and some 90% of all the ice on the planet is on Antarctica.

You're obviously deviant. Looks like you need re-education.
posted by NewBornHippy at 4:34 PM on November 10, 2004






Two Sides to Global Warming
posted by homunculus at 12:14 AM on November 11, 2004


Wind power not all pleasant breezes

I wonder what effect a group of solar thermal towers would have.
posted by homunculus at 1:38 AM on November 11, 2004




Yay for Colorado. I feel all progressive all of a sudden! (As a footnote, I already pay extra to get 100% of my electricity from wind generated power... I am DOUBLY progressive!)
posted by Eekacat at 3:16 AM on November 11, 2004


this sucks ... as do people who don't care about passing this planet on to the next generation in any condition other than trashed, like the apartments in alabama formerly occupied by the frat boy in chief in the white house he and and all his supporters can go to h*ll for his failures in leadership on this front alone - not to mention so many others on the environmental front.
posted by specialk420 at 8:55 PM on November 11, 2004




Melting Swiss Glaciers Threaten Alps
posted by homunculus at 12:25 AM on November 17, 2004




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