......Signs of warming continue in the Arctic with a decline in sea ice, an increase in shrubs growing on the tundra and rising concerns about the Greenland ice sheet.
......The new "State of the Arctic" analysis, by the NOAA, also reports an increase in northward movement of warmer water through the Bering Strait in 2001-2004. This may have contributed to a continuing reduction of sea ice.
......During that time, there were record lows in sea ice coverage in the region, Overland said. The report said Arctic sea ice coverage this past March was the lowest in winter since measurements by satellite began in the early 1970s.
......Jacqueline A. Richter-Menge of the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Hanover, N.H., said the sea ice decline is now being observed in both winter and summer.
......There have been many changes over the Arctic land areas and include changes in vegetation, river discharge into the Arctic Ocean, glaciers and permafrost.
VEGETATION
......The tundra is becoming greener with the growth of more shrubs - causing problems in some areas as herds of reindeer migrate.
......At the same time, there is some decrease in the greening of the northern forest areas, probably due to drought.
......There has been a significant warming of the permafrost over the past 30 years. Much of the damage to the permafrost soil can be blamed on human construction activities and fires, he said. In many areas, this frozen ground is close to the melting point and soon could begin to thaw.
OCEANS:
......Those in the middle levels of the ocean, such as pollock, seem to do well; those on the surface ice or the sea floor, such as walrus or crabs, are not coping as well.
WEATHER:
......Most of the heating from the sun comes to the equator and subequatorial regions, and a lot of heat leaves by radiation from Arctic, he said. "The temperature difference between the Arctic and equator drives all of our weather. If the Arctic warms up and that difference is reduced, weather could change, though people remain unsure about the effect.
FROM: NOAA WEBSITE
......Peer-reviewed State of the Arctic Report (42 pgs) covering data from 2000-2005, with a first look at winter 2006. This provides an update to some of the data records of physical processes discussed in the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA 2004, 2005 ).
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'I don't think Canadians want us to sell out important Canadian values. They don't want us to sell out to the almighty dollar.'
- Cdn PM - Harper
World Has Under a Decade to Act on Climate Crisis
JAMES HANSEN: The world has less than a decade to take decisive action in the battle to beat global warming or risk irreversible change that will tip the planet towards catastrophe.
Note: - James Hansen
Siberian heatwave brin...
Signs of Warming Cont...
State of the Arctic Re...
ACIA 2004, 2005
- Cdn PM - Harper
World Has Under a Deca...
Stumble It!
I submit that James Hansen is wrong.
We are past that point, and nothing will change what is now inevitable.
"irreversible change" implies that CO2 levels will never decline, again wrong. Once we stop inflicting huge amounts of CO2 on the Earth's atmosphere, levels will drop over time. At what rate, I do not know.
But it is far too late to PREVENT a global climate change from occurring.
Even if we cut emissions by 90 percent tomorrow, we are looking at decades at minimum, and centuries at worst, before the temperature rise peaks and drops back to what it would have been had we not loaded it with greenhouse gases.
To say we still have a decade is to live in a dreamworld.
We had a decade 20 years ago.
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"and the knowledge they fear is a weapon to be used against them"
"The Weapon" - Rush
Civilizations will in fact continue, but not as they have been for the last two hundred years. They will also be drastically different from what we currently have.
"Before this century is over, billions of us will die, and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic"
That line strikes me as being overly pessimistic, and needlessly doomsday in nature.
"Few breeding pairs"?
I think he goes about a thousand miles too far with that line.
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"and the knowledge they fear is a weapon to be used against them"
"The Weapon" - Rush