Arctic Ice Gone By 2030?

[Doug]

Arctic ice loss is “stunning” — total loss possible by 2030, scientists warn
Last week, the Arctic lost an area of ice “almost twice as big as the UK.” The normally staid US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) reported:

Even more stunning is that the August 2007 monthly average is the lowest extent in the satellite record for any month, including any previous September, which is typically the lowest month each year.

The NSIDC notes “Another notable aspect of August 2007 was the opening of the Northwest Passage.”

Human-caused climate change is remaking the planet. Ice retreat back in 2005 was already faster than any of the 19 IPCC climate models had predicted. An NSIDC Arctic specialist said: “It’s amazing. It’s simply fallen off a cliff and we’re still losing ice.” He then added:


“If you asked me a couple of years ago when the Arctic could lose all of its ice then I would have said 2100, or 2070 maybe. But now I think that 2030 is a reasonable estimate. It seems that the Arctic is going to be a very different place within our lifetimes, and certainly within our childrens’ lifetimes.”

Read the rest here.

[Doug]

Stevens says Earth's warming trend may reverse

AP September 4, 2007

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - U.S. Senator Ted Stevens says he believes the worst of global climate change may be over.

Stevens says the Earth is at the end of a long warming period, perhaps as much as 700 to 900 years.

He says that if the Earth is close to the end of that, it means the planet will start getting cooler gradually.

...The president of Alaska Conservation Solutions, a group focused on global warming issues in Alaska, says Stevens theory on warming is a new one.

Deborah Williams says it's the opposite of the findings of an international panel of scientists earlier this year.

Williams says she has not heard of any credible climatologist who believes that the Earth is going to cool...

Read the rest here.

[Doug]

TOKYO (AFP) — A Japanese government website crashed Wednesday as people raced to take up an offer of a half-price McDonald's hamburger in exchange for pledging to fight global warming.

The Japanese unit of the US burger giant Tuesday offered a Big Mac for 150 yen (1.3 dollars), about half the normal price, to anyone demonstrating a commitment to preventing climate change.

People were asked to check up to 39 boxes on a form they could download from the environment ministry's website, each listing a way of reducing carbon dioxide emissions blamed for global warming.

"We started seeing a rise in access yesterday and it surged this morning. We are now trying to restore the system," said Kenji Someno, who heads the ministry's Lifestyle Policy Office.

Read the rest here.

[Dardedar]

DAR
Oh the irony. Whack a forest, to raise cows, to make discount burgers to help fight global warming.

[Doug]

An area of Arctic sea ice the size of Florida has melted away in just the last six days as melting at the top of the planet continues at a record rate.

2007 has already broken the record for the lowest amount of sea ice ever recorded, say scientists, smashing the old record set in 2005.

North Pole's Ice Disappears
From September 3 to September 9, researchers say 69,000 square miles of Arctic ice disappeared, roughly the size of the Sunshine State.

Read the rest here.

[Barbara Fitzpatrick]

This is why I think it's already too late (as in, we are passed the "tipping point") and damage control is the best we may possibly be able to do.