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Prepare For Even More Volatile Weather in 2017 (engadget.com)

An anonymous shares a report on Engadget: Ice isn't just great for keeping your drinks cool at parties, it also helps keep our planet cool by reflecting some of the sun's heat away. But thanks to our steadfast refusal to address climate change, there's going to be a lot less ice in the Arctic next year. Scientists are observing record high temperatures in the Arctic circle that's likely to lead to record low levels of ice coverage in 2017. Long story short, we're currently melting the wall that's helped stop the seas boiling for all of these years. Normally, by November, the global temperature has dropped sufficiently that ice can form again in the Arctic ready for the following summer. This year, however, climate scientists saw a spike to -7 celsius (19f) -- 15 degrees celsius (27f) warmer than usual. While the readings have fluctuated since November 11, they're expected to rocket up again in the next few days.

38 of 364 comments (clear)

  1. Anti-science bullshit is the new normal here by CajunArson · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Long story short, we're currently melting the wall that's helped stop the seas boiling for all of these years."

    Yes, that bullshit is what passes for "science" on Slashdot these days and if you dare to point out that bullshit is bullshit you can be blacklisted as an "anti-science" nazi for failing to show proper piety to the religion of Global Warming -- oops I mean "Climate Change".

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    AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
    1. Re:Anti-science bullshit is the new normal here by slashkitty · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Indeed. If slashdot is going to venture out of tech space, at least they could do is stick to science. This is just a dumbed down scaremonger piece. It has no place in scientific discussion. (other than maybe to point out what is NOT science)

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      -- these are only opinions and they might not be mine.
    2. Re:Anti-science bullshit is the new normal here by Mashiki · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Don't worry. We already know that there will be no more snow by 2010, the telegraph told us so. Oh, and we're going to run out of food by 1980, and the end of natural gas is here too...courtesy of 1985.

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      Om, nomnomnom...
    3. Re:Anti-science bullshit is the new normal here by TWX · · Score: 2

      metaphor and hyperbole have their places, but this usage was so hamhanded it was cringeworthy. It makes me want to ignore the speaker rather than helping to support his arguments.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    4. Re:Anti-science bullshit is the new normal here by fodder69 · · Score: 2, Informative

      You think that disproves the post? Are you aware of what volatile means?

    5. Re:Anti-science bullshit is the new normal here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Oh, but our industry should already be dead because sulfur emission controls would have dealt a death blow to it. And these nice salmon tartar? It doesn't exist because fishing quotas have made fisheries extinct. And these damn industry-killing CFC regulations were the cherry on top, because of them we don't have air conditioning anymore.

      Should I continue with the tropes from the other side?

    6. Re:Anti-science bullshit is the new normal here by aicrules · · Score: 2

      In this case volatile means anything that happens can be claimed as proof that they were right. 72 degrees and sunny all year? Volatile! 4 distinct seasons? Volatile! 4 generally normal seasons with some outlier days? Volatile! Exactly the same weather patterns as last year? Volatile! Completely normal weather with no drastic fluctuations? Volatile!

    7. Re:Anti-science bullshit is the new normal here by ClickOnThis · · Score: 2

      Anti-science? It's an Engadget blog post. Engadget is peer-reviewed as fuck. I think the blogger who posted it has 9 PhDs.

      The author's bio, from TFA:

      After training to be an Intellectual Property lawyer, Dan abandoned a promising career in financial services to sit at home and play with gadgets. He lives in Norwich with his wife, his books and far too many opinions on British TV comedy. One day, if he's very, very lucky, he'll live out his dream to become the Executive Producer of Doctor Who before retiring to Radio 4.

      So, apparently not even one PhD. Perhaps an undergraduate degree in a science field to prepare him for an IP law career, but that's just speculation.

      The point is that the blogger does not appear to have any significant science pedigree. He's just a dude at home with a keyboard and "far too many opinions."

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      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    8. Re:Anti-science bullshit is the new normal here by CaptainDork · · Score: 2

      I never met a phor I didn't like.

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    9. Re:Anti-science bullshit is the new normal here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      religion of Global Warming -- oops I mean "Climate Change".

      In science, we have this thing called "revising our position based on new evidence and/or new understandings". I know that to someone who believes "everything I know is right, and anything that calls that into question must be wrong" this can seem like a bad thing, but it is actually a good thing. It allowed us to learn that the Earth revolves around the sun, not the other way around. It allowed us to learn that there are in fact things smaller than an atom. It allowed us to learn how traits are inherited from parents to offspring, to learn that maggots do not spontaneously appear from decaying meat, that the continents do move and have been in wildly different locations in the past, and many other things. So please stop trying to claim that people switching from calling it "Global Warming" to "Climate Change" is a bad thing. It just reveals your ginormous ignorance to us.

    10. Re: Anti-science bullshit is the new normal here by Jakune · · Score: 4, Insightful

      In America, that is currently the partisan universe we live in. You can basically bring it up from either with little to no scientific proof or any sort of true data on any topic. And that is what is being done by most, whether it be the politicians, leaders, or the sheeple following those people that call other people sheeple for following someone else. Instead of seeing something on the media "Global Warming is a hoax" or "Global Warming is melting the ice caps" and then looking into it. They just say, this is what fox/cnn/msnbc/cbs/etc says and there for that is what I believe. And to answer the question... Horrible, living in that universe is Horrible and makes me fear the future (Idiocracy anyone?)!

    11. Re:Anti-science bullshit is the new normal here by MightyMartian · · Score: 2

      Reduce albedo by melting ice, what do you think is going to happen?

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    12. Re:Anti-science bullshit is the new normal here by MightyMartian · · Score: 2

      If there's another ice age coming, it's thousands of years away. Human-caused global warming is already having significant effects, and by the end of the century not even people repeating moronic memes they read on the Internet will have much ability to deny reality.

      If you think parts of the High Arctic being near 0C at the end of December is somehow a good thing, then you're a fucking idiot.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  2. Ridiculous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Trump won - get over it. He's going to give us the best weather ever.

  3. Re:yeah right by Bayoudegradeable · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Haven't been any hurricanes in 10 years? I'm guessing you live in Iowa; hence you didn't see any hurricanes. You are aware that the strongest hurricanes ever observed in the Pacific have been forming regularly? Just because the US hasn't seen a catastrophe doesn't mean "there haven't been any hurricanes for 10 years." This has nothing to do with "politically correct shit." It has to do with science. Don't take my word for it... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

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    Sig Registration Form 34c_766(a) submitted to Ministry of Signature Management. Approval pending.
  4. The seas are NOT going to boil. by emil · · Score: 5, Informative

    Anyone with a cursory understanding of climate over the geologic ages knows that ice at both poles is rare:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_and_icehouse_Earth

    Permanent ice is actually a rare phenomenon in the history of the Earth, occurring only during the 20% of the time that the planet is under an icehouse effect.

    Humans as a species do not have any serious ability to harm the planet. We can easily make it completely unsuitable for human life, however.

    1. Re:The seas are NOT going to boil. by Malenx · · Score: 2

      With a uid that low, I can only assume you are speaking from past experience.

    2. Re:The seas are NOT going to boil. by mce · · Score: 4, Funny

      Say again? :-)

    3. Re:The seas are NOT going to boil. by MindPrison · · Score: 3, Insightful

      They're not lost, they're just selective about their posts and when they answer one. I suspect the reason for this is age and experience. The longer you've been at a party - the better you know your guests, and you know whether it would be futile to participate or just wait until the other who are new to the party finish their little internet-arguments first.

      For the same reason we get older, the older we get, the less we speak, because we know it's in vain unless there's something actually worth contributing with. Been there, done that - ring any bells?

      --
      What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
    4. Re:The seas are NOT going to boil. by MightyMartian · · Score: 2

      Which is irrelevant. Human civilization did not exist during the age of the dinosaurs or when trilobites crawled along the ocean floor.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    5. Re:The seas are NOT going to boil. by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 3, Funny

      Don't tease the old guys. If anything, we should be asking them what it was like to live in the last inter-glacial period a few hundred thousand years ago...

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      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  5. Not Worried by 31415926535897 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm not worried anymore. Trump said he'll be tough on volatile weather. I know it will be the most serene weather we've ever had.

    And if it doesn't cooperate, he'll build the biggest wall you've ever seen on the east border of California. That will kill two birds with one stone. (Not that trump has only one stone...He definitely has two and they're the biggest and best stones you've ever seen).

  6. Re: yeah right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Are you positive that those trees fell down due to "wind"? Correlation does not equal causation you know. Maybe those trees were just tired. Or, maybe they got drunk and passed out. Quit blaming everything on this "wind" hocus-pocus.

  7. re: human race wiped out? by King_TJ · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The fear-mongering that we're going to successfully wipe ourselves out by not immediately embracing solar or wind energy, or electric cars, or whatever the faux solution-du-jour is ..... That's as much B.S. as this sensationalist garbage that our oceans will begin boiling if the polar ice melts.

    If we succeed in destroying ourselves as a species on Earth, it will probably be with a nuclear war. But even that is a situation that essentially peaked in the 1980's, and nations have taken steps to back-pedal from it since then.

  8. You're not helping by belthize · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Stupid ass hyperbole (seas boiling) is not helping.

    Increases in CO2 are real, impacts to global temperature due to CO2 are real, impacts to life (human or otherwise, positive and negative) due to rising temperatures and ocean levels are real.

    Hollywood-esque hyperbole just confuses the issue and makes it trivial to lump all information into the same cesspool of misinformation.

  9. Super sciency lead in by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Ice isn't just great for keeping your drinks cool at parties..."

    Was this written for 3rd-graders?

    Thanks for the credible scientific lead in. I mean, I had NO IDEA that ice was good for anything beyond keeping my drinks cold at parties. And now it turns out it's got something or other to do with the planet? Well I'll be damned. Can't we just go to the mini-mart and buy a few more bags?

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    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
  10. Re:A theory I'd love to see tested. by Muros · · Score: 3, Informative

    Have you ever seen the sun? It is far enough away to essentially be considered a point light source. There is no significant difference in the amount of insolation between the hemispheres, except for the fact that the earth is closer during the southern hemisphere's summer, causing the summers there to be sunnier and the winters darker than in the northern hemisphere. Overall, southern hemisphere insolation is higher.

  11. Re:No, they didn't tell you that. by Layzej · · Score: 3, Informative

    "Boiling seas" is needless hyperbole. The truth is startling enough. This is one year and it's not clear that this dramatic excursion from the trend isn't just an anomaly. Anyone interested in polar ice should follow Neven's Arctic Sea Ice Blog

  12. Much Better Article by turp182 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's only 35F degrees higher than normal in some parts of the Artic.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12...

    Seriously, Engadget for science news?

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    BlameBillCosby.com
  13. Re: human race wiped out? by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    These days, a degree just means "I agree with the politics of the doctrinal committee"

    --
    SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
  14. Punched Cards by emil · · Score: 2

    I actually wrote COBOL programs on punch cards in high school. The deck of cards, in the right order, would get a rubber band and go in a bin for overnight processing. The print-out of the run came back the next school day. Fortran was a bit easier, as we got to use teletype terminals with built-in acoustic coupplers.

    Later, working for Rockwell, I wrote some X-Windows software for pulling punched cards with attached microfiche.

  15. Re: human race wiped out? by Stephan+Schulz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If we succeed in destroying ourselves as a species on Earth, it will probably be with a nuclear war. But even that is a situation that essentially peaked in the 1980's, and nations have taken steps to back-pedal from it since then.

    Well, climate change and nuclear war are not necessarily independent. With Himalaya glaciers shrinking, water supply for India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and even China will become a lot less stable. There are 3 billion people in these countries, and 3 of the 4 states already have nuclear weapons. If they start to seriously compete for limited water resources, things may easily become very ugly. There is a reason why China is in Tibet, and why India and Pakistan are fighting a slow war over what currently is an extremely inhospitable ice desert.

    And what do you think will happen to the stability of the region if a few tens of millions of (mostly Muslim) Bangladeshis will be forced to flee into India because sea level rise is going to flood significant parts of the Bengal delta, one of the most fertile and most densely populated areas of the planet?

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    Stephan

  16. Re:"stop the seas boiling" by Tenebrousedge · · Score: 2

    Yup, it disagrees with your already settled worldview, therefore it's wrong. I mean, it's not like you could run any sort of experiment to find out if CO2 and H2O cause warming -- where would you even obtain such things? To be safe I think you should also disbelieve in the greenhouse effect entirely. The planet is at 252K and anything suggesting otherwise is a liberal myth.

    --
    Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
  17. Radiative Transfer by Tenebrousedge · · Score: 2

    Go ahead and point to whatever evidence that you can that shows that CO2 doesn't absorb heat. I'm sure the work of Tyndall needs some revision, or perhaps you've found another way to move heat off the planet? Because as far as I can tell, you only need a two-dimensional model to be able to determine whether a higher concentration of CO2 should show warming. And I am sure you have some good explanation for the rise in temperatures and correlated rise of CO2 concentrations as well. Then you'll have to explain why our radiative transfer models work for extraterrestrial atmospheres like Venus and the Sun when, as you seem to be saying, they are entirely wrong. Is the entire greenhouse effect a myth, or just the inconvenient bits? We await the results of your paper.

    --
    Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
  18. Re:You lied by Freischutz · · Score: 4, Informative
    You said: the claims after Katrina hit 11 years ago that THE GULF COAST would see hurricane after hurricane, claiming there would be 3, 4, maybe over half a dozen per year and offered these links as articles that made this claim. Let's take a look.

    Story 1

    This article says nothing about the Gulf coast being hit by 3, 4, maybe over half a dozen hurricanes per year. Just that as there is a observable and measurable correlation between oceans warming and hurricanes growing more frequent and severe.

    Story 2

    This article mostly talks about the fact that hurricanes may become more intense and that a category 6 will eventually have to be created if that happens because hurricanes with windspeed ranging from 257.5 kph to 407 kph are being lumped together into category 5. It goes on to speculate that dumping the category system might be a better idea than creating a category 6. Towards the end it even says: This oscillation means the Atlantic is expected to cool in the future, obscuring links among hurricane activity and global warming. Perhaps counterintuitively, recent computer modeling studies predict fewer tropical cyclones if the ocean heats up further as a result of global warming. But they also predict intensification of the ones that do form, albeit with limited confidence. Frequency drops by 6 to 34 percent this century, according to 2010 review article in Nature Geoscience, whereas intensity rises 2 to 11 percent. (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.) , i.e. fewer hurricanes but the ones we'll get will be more severe. Nothing about the Gulf coast being hit by 3, 4, maybe over half a dozen hurricanes per year.

    Story 3

    The independent isn't really a scientific source but all this piece says is that somebody found evidence that warmer oceans seem to be linked to an increase in hurricane frequency and that in a warm year hurricanes are twice as likely as in a cold year. The real news here is that somebody found a way to extract data about hurricanes from old measurements made before the satellite age. They say nothing about the Gulf coast being hit by 3, 4, maybe over half a dozen hurricanes per year.

    Story 4

    Still nothing about the Gulf coast being hit by 3, 4, maybe over half a dozen hurricanes per year. It does talk about more hurricanes but the frequency is nothing like you claim: ”If this trend continues, it is realistic to expect a ten-fold increase in hurricanes like Katrina. That amounts to once every two years,”

    Story 5

    And yet again nothing about the Gulf coast being hit by 3, 4, maybe over half a dozen hurricanes per year. This guy talks about improvements in computer modelling since 2005 and seems to be making the case that global hurricane frequency will not increase but that the severity of the hurricanes we do get will increase. I.e. about the same number of hurricanes but they'll be more destructive.

    Yea, you did a search.

    Found all these in less than 1 minute, and everyone voted you up because they want you to be right, but obviously you are not. I like the one claiming Category 6 hurricanes will be hitting any day now.

    Bonus speech by Al Gore saying the same thing.

    Read that long winded piece and it is mostly a regurgitation of d

  19. Speaking of failed predictions... by GPS+Pilot · · Score: 2

    Here is a list of 107 failed predictions made by alarmists:

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/20...

    But for some people, 107 failed predictions isn't enough to destroy the credibility of the alarmists. One wonders how many failed predictions it will take until the holdouts think "hmm, perhaps the whole thing is not credible."

    --
    That that is is that that that that is not is not.
  20. Re:No, they didn't tell you that. by Layzej · · Score: 3, Informative

    What argument? I just provided data. The greenhouse theory is basic physics understood even back in the 1800s: http://www.rsc.org/images/Arrh....

    That the world is warming is confirmed by direct measurement, and satellite measurement. We can directly observer the impacts of that warming on the cryosphere, and sea level. We don't need to use pan evaporation rate as a proxy for global temperatures when we have direct measurements. This is especially true since PER makes a very poor thermometer - it's affected by a number of factors other than temperature including humidity, rain fall, drought dispersion, solar radiation, and wind. A change in any of these other factors would render it useless as a thermometer.