Arctic Warming Drying Up Lakes

kingofalaska writes "An accelerating Arctic warming trend over the past quarter of a century has dramatically dried up more than a thousand large lakes in Siberia probably because the permafrost beneath them has begun to thaw, according to a paper to be published the journal Science." From the article at the LA Times: "About 125 of the 1,170 shrunken lakes disappeared altogether, and most are now considerably smaller than the study's baseline of 40 hectares, or about 99 acres, the researchers found. If Arctic temperatures continue to rise, the scientists said, many of the lakes in high northern latitudes, where they are ubiquitous, could eventually disappear."

Comments

This != Global warming

[treff89]

Before the advocates pipe up, global warming most likely did not cause this. Why? Global warming barely exists! There has only been a small (0.5, 1cm) rise in seawater levels since the 1800s, as much as the zealots would have us believe otherwise. No, this was likely caused as a result of regional discrepancies, not global worming. (Pre-emptive :P)

Re:This != Global warming

[0111 1110]

More important is the temperature anomaly (which is global and indisputable)

No it is not indisputable. God, this is so tiresome having to show the same points over and over again. When you actually look at the evidence for global warming it is not very convincing, at least to an unbiased rational observer only concerned with facts. A global tempurature rise of 1 deg celsius over an entire century is nothing. Maybe next century we will have Global cooling of 1 degree based on the same kinds of measurements. Also, the temperature measuring stations around the world are not accurate enough to show such a small temperature change. And when you consider the modern urban heat island effect everything just falls apart. Which is why for many years during my lifetime Global Cooling is what we worried about. A lot of people thought we were headed toward another ice age. And no, it's not because the whole world was stupid at the that time. BTW, if this anomaly were due to global warming, then why haven't all lakes dried up? Although I am not certain how a infinitesimally higher than "average" temperature can cause lakes to dry up anywhere. Wouldn't lack of rain cause that?

While I do think Global Warming would be great (I live in a cold climate), and much better than Global Cooling, there isn't much that can be deduced from our very shaky evidence. I am no more convinced by said evidence (and yes I have actually looked at the data offered as proof) than by the evidence that was presented for Global Cooling. Perhaps 25 years from now everyone will be laughing about our silly belief in Global Warming since it is so obvious (except to rich oil comany executives of course) to everyone that we are on our way to another ice age.

Re:Tropical

[ocelotbob]

Maybe you should eat a steak every once in a while, help get some badly needed protein to that undernourished brain of yours. Hyperbole isn't going to solve this problem; do you want to use the same tactics that bush uses to speak, or do you want to be an intelligent insightful person that people will respect the opinion of. Yes, global warming is a big problem, but your shrill voice makes you easy to dismiss. Yer either wit' us or agin' us, right?

Re:Tropical

[ocelotbob]

Except when you consider that well-used grazing land is more beneficial than land which is sitting fallow and not being used for grazing. Yes current methods are bad, but again, properly used, mixing cattle grazing with cropland helps remove co2 from the atmosphere. Or do you not care about the facts when you spout your meat baaaaad rhetoric.