Arctic Ice Cap Could be Gone by the Summer

Maybe its like a bonfire. The more fuel the higher the temperature.

Sad :-(

Here's an interesting tidbit that noone seems to mention...pbs did one of their Nova specials on the changes in the magnetic forces of the Earth..a sort of polar shift being detected especially in the southern hemisphere between Africa and South America. It was somewhere around 2001 when it was being noticed. Supposedly every half a million years there is some sort of polar shift. If we are in the beginning stages of a shift and the magnetism of the Earth is weakening as it begins to "relocate" then we are seeing global temps rise not just because of "human influence" but because of natural causes as these now weaker magnetic forces are responsible for protecting the Earth from UV rays. just something to think on

It's probably important to make the distinction that what is being projected is the potential loss of all summer sea ice in the arctic. The loss of sea ice in itself does not contribute to a rise in sea levels, just as an ice cube melting in a glass of water doesn't raise the level. Though the decrease in average sea ice over the year and the corresponding decrease in arctic albedo (reflectivity of sunlight) could potentially increase the rate of glacier loss in Greenland, which would raise sea levels.

One wonders whether the arctic may be a place where some of the "geoengineering" solutions might be tried. Perhaps creating spring/summer cloud cover to try to prevent summer loss of sea ice... if atmospheric conditions would permit such a thing.

Not good at all.

This link is to animations of the Arctic Sea, especially Beaufort Sea. The images are updated regularly. It looks like the Arctic in a blender. Is this the 'tipping point'?

http://ice-glaces.ec.gc.ca/App/WsvPageDsp.cfm?Lang=eng&lnid=43&ScndLvl=no&ID=11892

there was that article recently with the year to year shots of the artic ice. and over the past few seasons it dropped some 40% opening up the northsea passage.

if the next season drops this by more again, considering the last melt was something like twice as bad as the previous (by recall, dont quote me) then the next really be enough to have it melt pass a limit to which the warm waters in the freeze season could finish it off. i recon 2013 is about on the mark if you look at the trend. but nature doesnt usually doesnt follow a trend as theres too many factors.

anyway, with peak oil and the ice cap, i think 2015 is going to be interesting.

i think it would be a real shame to see an earth without a north pole. im interested in theories on greenland with no northpole, would it melt faster or slower? as no north pole means europe into a ice age, whats the effects on greenland then? slight warmer and higher seas or not? would that require another tipping point before it goes? would be have another chance to fix things?

it might provide the shake up we need to begin fixing things seriously. governments need to commit to this like its WW3 or we are going to go the way of the aztecs

It's probably important to make the distinction that what is being projected is the potential loss of all summer sea ice in the arctic. The loss of sea ice in itself does not contribute to a rise in sea levels, just as an ice cube melting in a glass of water doesn't raise the level.

that's not completely true. thermal expansion causes warmer water to have a larger volume than colder water. it isn't as much as having land ice melt of course, but if the oceans warmed enough tomorrow to melt all floating sea ice you'd actually see a measurable rise in sea levels.

There's always that one (or more) person who will say at the end of an article like this one that this is not caused by humans. Who cares? This is something that we need to worry about, and the steps we must take to stop and hopefully reverse climate change will help more than just the environment. Think about the political effects of an end of the dependence on foreign oil. That's something to think about...

Thank goodness for mortality.

In the summer of 2007 an unprecedented 50% of Arctic ice melted, this was not covered by the news in the way you might think it should so most people arent aware of it. So one good thing is it will be a little hard to ignore when the arctic is no longer white for the first time in human history. Yes its true this will only raise sea level an inch or so because it is water not land based ice BUT there are two things to consider by the top of the world changing its albedo from light to dark we will see an unprecedented increase in absorbed solar heat causing a dramatic speeding up the of the global warming process. Also in 2007 the permafrost on the land ares around the arctic was melting at an alarming rate also something that has never happened before in human history, why is this important the permafrost has or had frozen methane in it which is being release at an alarming rate methane is 25 times more powerful a green house gas than co2. Again fueling warming even faster. And dont forget that Greenland ice shelf is also melting and this WILL raise the sea level by 23 ft and could happen suddenly not in a century or fifty years or even 10 but this year or very soon. And the Antarctic is also melting too.

And in reaction to those that may say this is not due to humans but a natural cycle. Yes there are cycles the earths orbit does change and is in fact changing right now to a more eliptical one this causes our global mean temperature to LOWER not rise! And so even tho we should be getting cooler were are not. And it matter little whether or not we did it the results will be the same and catastrophic. And I am afraid to say that even tho I am all for going green and do so myself realistically the whole world will not cut co2 overnight and even if we did the current co2 levels will not be absorbed for many decades, I am afraid there is no stopping or slowing it.

Let's not forget about that the predictions that all of England was supposed to be underwater by 2000 and that all aquatic life was supposed to be completely gone by 1980 (both predictions made by Paul Ehrlich, president of Stanford's Center for Conservation Biology) in 1969 and 70, respectively.

These predictions were made in reference to global cooling.

And Emily, that would make sense, considering that the STI (Solar Total Irradiance) has been increasing/decreasing in perfect proportion with the annual arctic-wide surface temperature anomalies for the past 120 years. (A boast that CO2 levels can most certainly not make.

If the Earth is experiencing magnetic polar shift, then that would certainly explain shifting STIs.

On the other subject brought up about the magnetic field issue. Yes some scientists think based on past record that we could experience a magnetic pole flip and subsequent temporary (how long no one knows) loss or weaking of the magnetic field and also the magnetic field has been weaking about 10% over the last century. Keep in mind that the earths magnetic field keeps out radiation NOT heat and its loss could mean lethal amounts of radiation could get thru to the surface in fact mass extinctions may have correlations with this event in the past. The date this is most likely to happen based on the earths position relative to our galactic plane is Dec 21 2012. This has nothing to do with global warming however.

There has been an avalanche of snow and ice on mars as caugth on one of their space probe photos. What caused the avalanche on MArs. If it was because of a gradual warming of Mars as well, then the CME's on the sun may be warming up the Solar system.The earth could handle it but pollution in our atmosphere (CO2) is capturing the extra heat instead of the natural green plant systems protecting the planet. So if the Magnetic field is also failing then the earth will heat up and radiation will bombard everyone. This means many plagues are about to hit the earth of unprecedented types.
Its's time for everyone to repent and go to church and not just whitewash (or greenwash) their lives with profit based solutions. Electric cars will be OK to slow the disaster down but the problem is much bigger than that.

I don't think most people understand how dire the situation is at the polar ice caps. If anything the IPCC reports are underestimating the pace at which climate change is effecting the world around us. In order to prevent a cataclysmic environmental disaster, we need to move as quickly as possible to having near zero emissions. That is the conclusion of a new paper in Geophysical Research Letters (subs. req’d) co-authored by climate scientist Ken Caldeira.

http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2008/2007GL032388.shtml

Alarmist.

Too much ice melted last summer for the remaining pack to be stable. The storms have broke it loose and are churning it like a blender.
I sent this link to Dr. Jeff Masters of the Weather Underground and asked him if what is happening means we will experience more melt this summer than last.
He sent me a reply that said YES.

No matter what you think the reason for the melt, global warming, natural cycles, or religion, the simple fadt is that this is happening. It's not something that will maybe be a problem in 50 years. It's a problem NOW.

http://ice-glaces.ec.gc.ca/App/WsvPageDsp.cfmLang=eng&lnid=43&ScndLvl=no&ID=11892

my freezer is defrosting was this caused by my dog farting close by or did al gore have something to do with it..

I believe the Polar Ice has re-established far beyond last year's coverage and shows added thickness over much of the area. This is consistent with a growing number of scientists who claim the Earth is heading into a 50 year period of declining temperatures and then should remain "relatively cool" for the next 100 years.

Since my comment is neutral and suggests a reasonable "wait and see" approach, sharply at odds with any Global Warming trend that makes this site look a bit off the mark, I suspect it will not make the posting. Still, I thought i would try...

Reading the "doomsday" comments that are here......It makes me wonder what happened to common sense. The ice caps are GROWING at record rates. There are satellite images to prove it. Ice cap "shifting" isn't the same as MELTING. There is far more proof to debunk global warming than there is to support it. You believe what people "tell" you rather investigate all subject matter on this issue. I once believed in global warming and I felt completely stupid once I compared all of the information once I had researched it. Just because Al Gore made a doc doesn't mean its is truth. A lot of people have been fooled. Al Gore stands to make a LOT of $$$ if he can get this "global warming" ball rolling. This is completely out of hand and its embarrassing to see generally logical people sound like they have steped off into the deep end of the "uninformed" pool. Please research and hear ALL THE information before you take a position. Listening to only one side leaves you lop sided and ill informed.

one large volcano can put more greenhouse gases in the air in a week than we could in a hundred years. get a clue people, the earth is in constant change and thru real science we know the earth has spent more time without ice than with ice by millions of times. warm periods made it possible for life to grow on this planet. as someone here as already stated, dont worry about warming, worry about what comes after it, when to sea current stops the ice caps will come back with a furry. glacial periods dont take a thousand years to take over, it can happen in a year, look at the records fro the 1600's. melting snow or the flow of fresh water into to ocean stops the current that brings warmth to the north and south poles, stop the current and instant ice age. no doom or gloom, just the facts. we have contributed to this trend but it would have happened anyway, its earths little population control mechanism.

to read these last few comments. Basic earth science demonstrates that humans have been releasing more carbon into the atmosphere over the last hundred years than about 100 volcanoes erupting... yet these guys continue to say "Not Me! Not Me!"

Sorry to burst your bubble, like US fiat currency, or Enron, or Fannie Mae. Sometimes no matter how much you want/need/have faith something is true (or false, as the case may be) your comments on this post will merely be evidence of your irrational attachment to being "right" that you willingly distort facts... in other words tell big lies about volcanoes and the ice caps a growing. Lies.

http://gristmill.grist.org/skeptics...

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/12/17/223957/72 where even one of your own denied the denial before the cock clucked thrice:

"I have never heard a skeptic making that ridiculous claim [about volcanoes]. It seems you are putting up a straw man in order to be able to kick it. The skeptics are not that dumb"

Why is all the ice in the solar system melting? this has nothing to do with human polution it is a tax on existance duping the enviromental movement via fear. The muskeg gasses now thawing and venting make c02 a minor issue imo. Why no ice on google world sat images? If anything car owners and industry should be the only taxed groups.

Maybe people won't realsie how screwed the Earth is untill everything beautiful in it is gone. :( quite sad really takes destruction for realisation.

Global Warming is a HOAX

Sea Ice Ends Year at Same Level as 1979

Rapid growth spurt leaves amount of ice at levels seen 29 years ago.

Thanks to a rapid rebound in recent months, global sea ice levels now equal those seen 29 years ago, when the year 1979 also drew to a close.

Ice levels had been tracking lower throughout much of 2008, but rapidly recovered in the last quarter. In fact, the rate of increase from September onward is the fastest rate of change on record, either upwards or downwards.

The data is being reported by the University of Illinois's Arctic Climate Research Center, and is derived from satellite observations of the Northern and Southern hemisphere polar regions.

Each year, millions of square kilometers of sea ice melt and refreeze. However, the mean ice anomaly -- defined as the seasonally-adjusted difference between the current value and the average from 1979-2000, varies much more slowly. That anomaly now stands at just under zero, a value identical to one recorded at the end of 1979, the year satellite record-keeping began.

Sea ice is floating and, unlike the massive ice sheets anchored to bedrock in Greenland and Antarctica, doesn't affect ocean levels. However, due to its transient nature, sea ice responds much faster to changes in temperature or precipitation and is therefore a useful barometer of changing conditions.

Earlier this year, predictions were rife that the North Pole could melt entirely in 2008. Instead, the Arctic ice saw a substantial recovery. Bill Chapman, a researcher with the UIUC's Arctic Center, tells DailyTech this was due in part to colder temperatures in the region. Chapman says wind patterns have also been weaker this year. Strong winds can slow ice formation as well as forcing ice into warmer waters where it will melt.

Why were predictions so wrong? Researchers had expected the newer sea ice, which is thinner, to be less resilient and melt easier. Instead, the thinner ice had less snow cover to insulate it from the bitterly cold air, and therefore grew much faster than expected, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

In May, concerns over disappearing sea ice led the U.S. to officially list the polar bear a threatened species, over objections from experts who claimed the animal's numbers were increasing.

http://www.dailytech.com/Sea+Ice+Ends+Year+at+Same+Level+as+1979/article13834.htm

lol that was posted last year! not going to happen

you fools.

global warming is not a hoax. and your researchers are not useing the right formulas to even create acurate predictions anyways. and you people who speak of our carbon emmissions and how they must stop. do you expect everyone in there world to stop using there cars witch run on gas? to not use the electricity witch turns on there lights at night or keeps the fridge on? the same eletricity witch comes from burning coal? HA! i laugh.

why dont you realize, even if we stop our emmisions, we have already passed the tipping point. the polar caps are melting, they have split. its only a matter of time before it messes with the currents in our oceans, because remember its not the sea level in particular thats dangerous, but the current temperature witch controls weather patterns.

not only that but the magnetic poles are going to shift here pretty soon. i dont have a date, but it will be within the decade im sure. when that happens, the field witch keeps the suns immence ammounts of radiation will dissapate. we will be exposed to extreme ammounts of radiation for a prolonged period of time until the poles flip into place and create the feild agian.

agian, what im trying to tell you people is that the tipping point has passed. there is nothing we can do to stop what is to come now. you have 3 years to prepare...i say livew your lives comfortably while you still can.