Depressing factoid of the day....
Arctic sea ice 'faces rapid melt'
The Arctic may be free of all summer ice by as early as 2040, new data from scientists suggests.The latest data presented at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting suggests the ice is no longer showing a robust recovery from the summer melt.
Last month, the sea that was frozen covered an area that was two million sq km less than the historical average.
“That's an area the size of Alaska,” said leading ice expert Mark Serreze.
“We're no longer recovering well in autumn anymore. The ice pack may now be starting to get preconditioned, perhaps to show very rapid losses in the near future,” the University of Colorado researcher added.
The sea ice reached its minimum extent this year on 14 September, making 2006 the fourth lowest on record in 29 years of satellite record-keeping and just shy of the all time minimum of 2005.
So there's really no need to avoid cocktails before lunch then, is there?
Tags: global_warming
After a couple wintry days last week, we're back to balmy in B'more. On December 12th and it's in the high 50s--I think the average or typical temp for this time of year in this region is the low-to-mid 40s. Last evening I was out in shorts, and the day before it topped 70 degrees.
According to weather.com we've got high 50s through Christmas coming our way. Ho ho ho.
Once that Arctic ice vanishes into the North Atlantic we'll have ourselves a nice, long freeze 'round these parts. Guess I should enjoy any warm weather I can right now.
One ironic thing about this, is that it is one of the things that the anti-environmentalists are excited about. There are profits to be made from having an open shipping lane in the far north.
The fact that some major ports might be underwater by then does not seem to phase them.
Now, that's the funniest news I've heard all week. Sounds like Lex Luthor's plans to buy ocean front property in Nevada (or whatever the plot of the movie Superman was).