Slashdot Mirror
Ice-Free Summers Coming To Arctic
rocketjam writes "CNET reports that researchers from the University of Arizona and other universities have concluded that the Arctic will likely see ice-free summers within a century due to the increasing rate of global warming. The melting will raise ocean levels worldwide, flooding coastal areas where a substantial proportion of the world's population live. The increasing rate of ice melt is already having an impact on people and animals in the Arctic. Currently, researchers cannot foresee any natural forces that will counteract the trend."
As the escaped penguins in Madagascar said when reaching the wind-blown South Pole, "This sucks!"
Comment removed based on user account deletion
> . So, the evidence is mounting to the point where even the Bush administration is having to acknowledge that global warming is a reality.
yes, but they can blame it on asteriods, so we need to build more weapons in space to attack them nasty aliens....
I think the real problem is when the weather swings the other way and we're all huddled round the nearest space heater and claiming the global cooling researchers are full of it.
Bush, acting without the approval of his cabinet or advisors, pledged 100,000 GE air condititioners to recool the region. Go ahead, mod me -1. I dare you!
The only flaw in your logic is that polar bears don't mind being wet.
Hmm, I was certain that there'd be a healthy (er, unhealthy) amount of people ignorantly crying "FUD!" by now... they remind me of Eddie Izzard's comedy routine about how Britain ignored the rest of Europe... "No, no, no I can't! (sticks fingers in ears) la la la la la la la la!"
-Vendal Thornheart
Yes yes yes, and Kevin Costner will be forced to drink his own urine, as filtered through a Mr. Coffee. And Hollywood will no doubt drop several more "The world is going to end tomorrow!" movie-turds on a helpless public. Yes, we know the dangers of global warming far too well...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
No, that's "evil-you-shun". It's obvious really. Evil-you-shun is the work of the devil and was actually devised by al-Quaeda to steer God-fearing Southern Baptist Americans away from their faith. Have you looked at pictures of Charles Darwin and Osama bin-Laden? The beard is a dead giveaway. Plus, have you ever seen them in the same place twice? Think about it.
And of course when faced with evil-you-shun, then as a God-fearing American (and let's face it, if you're not God-fearing you have no business being an American), you'd darned well better shun it.
Global warming doesn't exist. There is a lot of evidence that proves it doesn't.
1. It was colder than average at my house for 2 days last week.
2. The planet is supposed to get warmer and colder, it is natural. Just look at the tropical fossils and dinosaur bones in Canada. The temperature changes are natural.
3. Man has only been on this planet for 10,000 years, it says so in the bible. This means the scientific data uncovered about earths climate is wrong. It was probably planted by the devil.
4. It has been cloudy for 2 weeks, how can it be warming with no sun?
5. Doesn't ice expand when it freezes, so melting would lower the sea level right?
6. I have a paintball gun, powered by C02. That stuff is cold! How could it warm the planet?
7. We can't be sure the planet is getting warmer simply because the measurements say it is. Don't cloud the issue with facts.
8. If there is soo much C02 around, then why are my garden plants dead? The extra C02 should make them grow fast. I only got 4 cuekes this year.
9. How can the planet be getting so much warmer when more and more of the world now has air conditioning?
10. If the planet was getting that much warmer, we would see a consistant rise in the stock price of anti-perspirant companies. Us overweight americans are using less deodorant than ever!
Clearly this process is currently beyond ability to predict, so this is an adjustment, not a warming.
Furthermore, this process is too complex to be naturally occuring, so some intelligent hand must be guiding the temperature changes.
I really think they should be teaching Intelligent Thermal Control as an alternate theory is school science classes.
A fine /. tradition passed on by our forefathers.
Well, I just had to add my two cents.
Well, IF we lose the ice caps, which is entirely plausible, and IF the gulf stream doesn't turn off producing an ice age, then you could see the sea level rise by quite a bit. They were saying one foot over the next century, but some wit here on Slashdot pointed out that the mass of ice on Greenland alone would increase the surface level by 42 feet or so. I don't know if I buy THAT, but let's have some fun with it anyway.
I live in upstate New York, at 210 feet above sea level (God, I love the Catskills!). Being a mountain dweller, I can look on with some amusement as all those stuck up, smug folks down in NYC find out what it's like to live in Venice. Also, I can go on vacation in Venice, right here in New York, which is nothing to sniff at. Instead of gondolas, we'll probably get gypsy cab drivers in Zodiacs flying down the block at forty miles an hour yelling "GET OUTTA THE FUCKIN' WAY YOU PIECE-A-SHIT!". VERY entertaining.
While us East Coast types will take refuge in the mountains, as no doubt will our Californian counterparts (they'll benefit because the earthquakes will be underwater, thus causing great waves for all their surfer population and stealing business from Hawaii) I think the relatively dumber central and southern states are going to have a rough time.
First of all, the Mississippi is going to flood all the way up to Illinois or thereabouts. The Gulf of Mexico is going to be a LOT bigger. Texas is basically gone, folks (Hooray!). New Mexico has some high ground, so maybe it'll be an Island state. And Arizona has the bottom tip of the Rocky Mountains so everyone can head up to Flagstaff with the hippies, which isn't that bad a fate. Phoenix was too damn hot anyway.
The Southeast will probably be gone, but nobody will notice. Hawaiians will just wait for the volcanoes to grow another few dozen feet, no big deal there. Throw a few virgins in, please the fire gods, the mountain grows, and Bob's your uncle (as the British say).
Big changes, big changes. Should be interesting!
Farewell! It's been a fine buncha years!
What about world jump day? all that is neeeded is for 600,000,000 people to jump at the same time in july of next and we can fix global warming. check it out and sign up!
-1: flamebait should really be -1: inciteful
Could be the "Cancun" of 2020 at the rate things are changing!
Am I the only one who would love having an irrefutable reason to pour all of our money and technology into space exploration and colonization?
// goes back to reading Science Fiction