Its been a depressing race.. to see if 2011 will be the worst or the 2nd worst year for Arctic Ice loss. Now the first reports that it’s the worst ever are coming in.
The Arctic lost sea ice very rapidly in the first half of July. Ice loss slowed in late July-early August, but resumed again later in August. Web cam 1 has tipped but not fallen over completely, as you can see in the images.
Depressing and pathetic. At the North Pole Web cam 2 fell over on July 23 in the melted snow and ice, and now views only the sky.
The North Pole skull cap shrank to about half a percent under the previous record low set in September 2007. University of Bremen physicists said there was uncertainty in July about whether the ice melt would surpass the previous record.
They said their studies indicated that continuing ice decline was related to man-made global warming.
“It seems to be clear that this is a further consequence of the man-made global warming with global consequences,” researchers said in their report. “Directly, the livehood of small animals, algae, fishes and mammals like polar bears and seals is more and more reduced.”
As Arctic sea ice has continued to decline, it also has become drastically thinner overall, the report said.
The researchers said that previously the melting ice had been attributed to yearly weather anomalies. But now it is believed the massive melt is due in part to global warming and the increasing albedo effect, which has to do with the power of the surface to reflect sun. As more ice melts, instead of having white ice reflect more of the sun’s rays, you have a larger amount of open water that absorbs those same rays. Therefore, warmer temperatures lead to even more ice melting….A typical Runaway Climate Change loop.
What does this mean??
Loss of Arctic ice means…
Accelerated global warming, loss of habitat and species, worse ocean acidification threatening disaster, unpredictable methane blowouts from the seabed, methane release from melting permafrost ‘bogs’, (methane is shorter lived but more than 20 times worse than CO2), warmer oceans means more storms and hurricanes in the tropics, coral die off threatening biosphere, oil gas and mineral exploration and extraction, causing pollution and more climate change ( a man made feedback loop).
It’s not true that there is nothing we can do about climate change.
It’s not the heat we put out that is the problem, it’s the CO2,. There are
plenty of other energy technologies that don’t produce CO2. It’s just a case of switching soon enough, before the change becomes irreversible. So it’s a very good idea to stir people up, because there’s a lead time and later may be too late.
Alternatives include wind, sun, geothermal, and theres even a CO2-Free ”gasoline”.. NH3 fuel, which has been suppressed by big oil and could power cars, trains , planes etc more cheaply and pollution free. SEE HERE..https://thefreeonline.wordpress.com/category/ammonia-nh3-co2-free-fuel/
The Free 