Global Warming To Leave North Pole Ice-Free

cwolfsheep writes "Tonight, Yahoo & AFP news are reporting on a study, further backing up a previous report, that suggests the North Pole will be ice-free in the summer by the next century. Oddly enough, they say the melting will not add to the sea-level of the ocean (since the ice is already in the ocean) and that the extra water will help absorb more greenhouse gases. Maybe we need to start using more aerosols."

Comments

Acording to the Scientests ...

[Savage-Rabbit]

... and the treehuggers:

Half the N-Polar icecap melting will have an effect and that effect is to decrease the salinity of the N-Atlantic. Precisely what happens when the salinity is reduced is not clear but there are strong indications it could cause shifting of the gulfstream or even cause it to stop flowing, which would cause a major cold period. Which in turn would cause the collapse of western civilization which in turn means we would be left sitting on a block of ice freezing our joysticks off.

Of course it is also possible that the followers of this teory are wrong and the evil Conservatives are right:

In that case the only effect will be the rise of sealevels, due to melting not of the N-Icecap but the Antarctica, the Greenland glacier etc. and of course it will be a great boon to the economy due to new traderoutes opening, huge untouched fish stocks to eradicate by overfishing and last but not least, lots of oil to drill. That last bit should make Dubya smile as he invades Canada to liberate its people (aka. oil) from oligarchic opression. This will in turn marginalize the southern hemesphere causing a huge global war that would cause the end of western civilization and we would be left sitting in the ruins pondering what our unborn kids will look like because our joysticks have been irradiated by nuclear weapons.

Take your pick, of course I exaggerated hugely in both cases but that is just because sarcastic ranting is one of my numerous human weaknesses. In the end nobody knows exactly what global warming will lead to because the mechanisms involved are so increadibly complex. Of course that stops nether the Scientists from pretending that their little theory explains everyting nor does it stop the Conservatives and capitalists from gleefully expecting global warming to free up new resources for them to exploit. Myself? I expect them both to be disappointed.