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Scientists Marvel At 'Increasingly Non-Natural' Arctic Warmth (msn.com)
mmell writes: Recognizing that this is a dreadfully old story (at least by Slashdot standards), current developments make this once more a current story. Scientists studying the Arctic environment are used to seeing broad variations in average temperature readings, but recent results have been so far beyond the normal range that they are only able to conclude that they are being caused by human activity. The temperature data (which includes a great many days with readings above 0C) is bolstered by measurements showing that the Arctic ice shelf is both thinner and less extensive than has ever been previously recorded. I wonder if the Arctic ice cap will reform in the winter, or if it's possible that its absence will cause irreversible changes to the Earth's ocean currents (and by extension, Earth's climate)? "[A]fter studying the Arctic and its climate for three and a half decades, I have concluded that what has happened over the last year goes beyond even the extreme," wrote Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, in an essay for Earth magazine. According to The Washington Post, the scientists' simulations predict some places in the high Arctic will rise over 50 degrees above normal. One chart, embedded in the report and shared by several meteorologists online, shows a "jaw-dropping and emblematic display of the intensity and duration of the Arctic warmth. It illustrates the difference from normal in the number of 'freezing degree days,' a measure of the accumulated cold since September."
It's been hot this summer, really hot so naturally, I'm catching some waves.
The water is cold, icy cold and I'm only half joking when I say, 'now we know where the icebergs are melting to'. I know it's subjective, I posted this in previous years, however I have decades of experience in the ocean and I remember by month just how cold the water should feel for that time of year. My mental map of the way the ocean should feel is changing enough to notice.
I can sustain a 2+ hour body surf if I have time. I had time the other day and could only stay in for an hour, it was that cold in the middle of summer on a 42C day.
This used to be a pretty rare occurrence, now it is becoming more common at least to my local observations.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Historically, the artic, has, Been ice free. If you look at the history of the Vikings, you will notice an odd naming of Greenland. And colonies having been very far north. That was during a little ice age, another factor up there, we don't see the influence of volcanism. No one reports what is happening there. But, during the last ice melt off, scientists found several widespread lava fields, they never seen before. Same in the Antarctic, several active fields were found.
So you're assuming that everything the EPA is good? You don't mind having an agency write their own laws? Make their own regulations? You should be horrified by that even if you're a strong supporter of the EPA.
Would you want customs agents making their own regulations? How about police departments? Hell no.
The laws and regulations ought to come from Congress.
Oh - "but Congressmen don't have the time and energy to work on such laws". That's why a lot of the "responsibility" given to the Federal Government should be in the states. Examples include HUD, Education, etc...
Then let the Federal Government focus on Federal problems - you know, little, inconsequential things, such as pollution, war, immigration, international treaties, selecting court justices.
If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
You're entitled to that opinion. And, if so many people can suffer denialism, how do you or I know that we aren't also suffering from some sort of political bias? I mean it is funny isn't it, that it is always the other people who are the stupid deluded ones. I am, for example, reading a book at the moment that goes into the massive scientific cockup that was nutritional science over the last fifty years. The book got a review in the BMJ to the effect that, admitting indeed that, we all thought science was this clear headed thing and actually, there can be screw ups that ruin an entire field for decades and decades. If you want a fact, people are fallible and whole fields of enquiry can fail spectacularly whilst lots of intelligent smart and skilled people in the field confidently cock it up. That is just a fact of life, that it sometimes happens. So rather than just blast other views as denialists, why not be a little less certain? For me, once a field starts calling others "denialists" then it has become closed minded and loses the self-correcting nature that is supposed to be the reason why we trust science in the first place. It *might* have got the answer right, but once you start blasting others as denialists, we can no longer know whether it can be trusted, because the self-correciton has been replaced with dogma. As I say, we KNOW, empirically, from experience, that whole fields can and do screw up. I will still go to the doctor when I get ill, but I won't blindly trust anything he or she says about nutrition.
Yeah, Ironically, the worry is global warming will make Europe colder (it is at the same latitude as Canada but is saved the brutal cold because of warming ocean currents).
If the ice melts, especially if it melts quickly, the relative lower salinity that results in the Northern Atlantic could screw up the ocean currents. That warm water that makes Europe warmer than say, Mongolia and Siberia no longer warms Europe. Europe freezes over like much of Canada.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
So you're assuming that everything the EPA is good?
It sounds like you're arguing that if something isn't perfect then it isn't worth having. I think that mindset of no nuance stems from the puritanical influence. Sex outside of marriage? Yeah you're going to hell. Genocide? Also going to hell.
In reality, nothing is perfect and so perfect is the enemy of good. If you strive for perfection and discard anything falling short, then you will never get anything.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Greenland has been losing about 270 gigatons of ice per year lately, but the pace is likely to accelerate as the warming continues.