Irreversible
Sea ice in the Arctic has failed to re-form for the second consecutive winter, raising fears that global warming may have tipped the polar regions in to irreversible climate change far sooner than predicted.
Satellite measurements of the area of the Arctic covered by sea ice show that for every month this winter, the ice failed to return even to its long-term average rate of decline. It is the second consecutive winter that the sea ice has not managed to re-form enough to compensate for the unprecedented melting seen during the past few summers.
Scientists are now convinced that Arctic sea ice is showing signs of both a winter and a summer decline that could indicate a major acceleration in its long-term rate of disappearance. The greatest fear is that an environmental "positive feedback" has kicked in, where global warming melts ice which in itself causes the seas to warm still further as more sunlight is absorbed by a dark ocean rather than being reflected by white ice.
From an article by Steve Connor in the Independent.
I love that far sooner than predicted: everybody always knew that there would be a tipping point after which we had no choice but to wait for the rising ocean levels to drown us all, the only surprise is how quickly it has arrived. Yawn. Thanks for buying that SUV, dude.
posted by Udge @ 08:30
4 Comments:
Yeah, we're some of the worst air polluters here. In Canada, our winter has been 4 degrees warmer on average this year. (Still not wearing shorts). Since the arctic weather is way more sensitive, the shift is more dramatic the farther north you go. This has caused many other major problems like the devastation of our forest by pine beetles since the cold weather no longer kills them off, dead seals washing up on Newfoundland shores since they have no caps to cross to. We knew it would happen but no one is doing anything about it. Kyoto's a joke at this point. The only way we could possibly be motivated is if there were large economic deterrents like air pollution credits that we had to pay for violating standards, but even then, while every individual has the right to buy a big gas-guzzler, environmental standards are unenforceable.
I read an article that said that it would, at this point, be dangerous to stop polluting. The author suggested that the damage is so far gone that it can't be reversed anyway and that pollution in the air at least provides 'global dimming' which deflects some of the suns rays or heat, or something. He said that is pollution were to stop today, when the 'air cleared' (literally), the process that we are unfortunately unable to avoid happening (ie. a complete change in our eco-system making most of the world uninhabitable) would actually happen faster. Frightening... How have humans managed to do so much damage so quickly with so little thought about the consequences?
nrg - Do you have a citation for that article? I would love to read it.
as would I.
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