Arctic Updates

[Iamwhomiam]

https://act.credoaction.com/campaign/car_comments/index.html?r=5538

[JackRiddler]

BTW, it is hoped that you are doing this educational task as a charity for if you have a pecuniary interest, the attachment will be so much more difficult to transcend.

I am whom I am too.

Yeah, because only think-tankers and PR flappers financed by oil companies should make a living for the "education" they provide. They're going to hell anyway, right? Those who instead say they speak for a general good are believable only if they starve and live in rags.

The polluters' lobby with its untold millions in easy financing from oil hyperprofits is always quick to see financial gain and an "industry" in the occasional salaried (usually underpaid) ecologist.

[annie aronburg]

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010 ... z0mnjtqhwq

Spring showers are next to non-existent in the High Arctic, so Environment Canada's senior climatologist says he's baffled to hear that it rained near the North Pole this week.

A group of British scientists working off Ellef Ringnes Island, near the North Pole, reported being hit with a three-minute rain shower over the weekend. The group reported the rain on Tuesday.

Rain in the High Arctic in April is nothing short of bizarre, said David Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment Canada.

"My business is weird, wild and wacky weather, and this is up there among fish falling from the sky or Niagara Falls running dry," Phillips told CBC News in an interview that aired Thursday.

"I mean, it really is strange. You just don't expect it to rain in the High Arctic in April; maybe in July and August. And certainly for these scientists from Europe coming over, they must have been also mystified."

Phillips said 50 to 60 years of historical weather data show no signs of rainfall ever occurring in April in the High Arctic.

The earliest account of measurable rainfall at Canadian Forces Station Alert took place on May 21, 1988, he said.

At a weather station on Ellef Ringnes Island, where the scientists were conducting their experiments, Phillips said the earliest measured rainfall was on June 7, 1975.

"For the end of April, it is really bizarre," he said.
Climate change research

The scientific group was on Ellef Ringnes Island as part of the Catlin Arctic Survey, which is gathering data on the effects of climate change on the Arctic Ocean.

The researchers have been working on determining the amount of carbon dioxide that's trapped in the ocean.

"It's definitely a shocker … the general feeling within the polar community is that rainfall in the high Canadian Arctic in April is a freak event," Pen Hadow, the team's expedition director, told Reuters in an interview from London this week.

"Scientists would tell us that we can expect increasingly to experience these sorts of outcomes as the climate warms."

Tyler Fish, a polar guide at the base, said the rain fell after temperatures had been rising for a couple of days.

"I think we were disappointed. Rain isn't something you expect in the Arctic and a lot of us came up here to be away from that kind of weather," he told Reuters.

"We worry that if it's too warm maybe some of the scientific samples will start to thaw ... or the food will get too warm and spoil."

Phillips said it would be difficult to tell how much rain had fallen, as the scientists probably did not bring rain gauges with them.

Environment Canada meteorologists will examine weather patterns to try to understand the unusual rainfall, he said.

[Ben D]

BTW, it is hoped that you are doing this educational task as a charity for if you have a pecuniary interest, the attachment will be so much more difficult to transcend.

I am whom I am too.

Yeah, because only think-tankers and PR flappers financed by oil companies should make a living for the "education" they provide. They're going to hell anyway, right? Those who instead say they speak for a general good are believable only if they starve and live in rags.

The polluters' lobby with its untold millions in easy financing from oil hyperprofits is always quick to see financial gain and an "industry" in the occasional salaried (usually underpaid) ecologist.

Understand your point Jack but IMHO no matter where whoever gets their 'money' from to survive in the economic system we live in, there is a compromise between personal self interest/pet beliefs and that of universal altruism.

If you agree that there is validity to this point, then it affects not only one side of the debate but both for ultimately it is the financial sponsor one must please to preserve or improve one's position. FWIW, when I look back over my working life, I am acutely aware of this regardless of the particular field in which I happened to be employed at the time,...always the loyal employee but inwardly aware of my compromised conscience. But towards the end of my career when I did start to speak out, for the first time in my life I experienced being railed against by both senior management and fellow employees and ultimately sacked for no longer being a 'team player'.

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."

-Upton Sinclair.

[No_Baseline]

Ben D, what were your careers in which you started speaking out? I have had only one career field, environmental/safety compliance, and, while I haven't been sacked (for the compliance portion!), I don't earn a lot of fans...

[Ben D]

Remote Sensing which involved Landsat tracking and data acquisition over the Australian continent for the Australian government and also for NASA's Agristars program.

[wintler2]

[No_Baseline]

Spoiler alert: There are no graphs or charts in this post, sorry

Arctic team reports unusual conditions near Pole

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64G5S020100517

Expedition leader Ann Daniels said the ice drifted so much that they eventually covered 500 nautical miles (576 miles) rather than the 268 nautical miles initially envisaged.

The expedition's team will release the report in September.

and

Greenland rising ‘an inch a year’ as ice melts

http://digitaljournal.com/article/292211

Greenland is rising. The big melt is taking a lot of weight off the crust, resulting in the coastal land surface movement as millions of tons of ice dissolves. What’s bothering scientists is they can literally see it happening.

[Jeff]

Polar bear population could fall by 30 per cent in a year: study

Published On Thu May 27 2010
Lesley Ciarula Taylor Staff Reporter

A mathematical analysis for the first time has uncovered the prospect of a sudden, dramatic decline among Canadian polar bears as they starve to death.

“This is much, much different. This is not a gradual change,” said Dr. Andrew Derocher, one of the world’s leading polar bear authorities and co-author of the study. “We’re looking at a decrease by 20 or 30 per cent or even much more in a year.”

The study was released this week just as Environment Canada is meeting to decide, also for the first time, whether polar bears should be declared a species at risk.

“The key thing is that this allows us to look forward better and more accurately,” said Derocher of the study, which combined his expertise as a University of Alberta professor who has studied polar bears for 28 years with that of two biomathematicians.

“You can go a reasonable period of time without seeing major effects. But once you look at the data, you start to see sudden, dramatic changes.”

...

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/arti ... year-study

[Iamwhomiam]

Thank you, Jeff, for this rather sad news. I'm afraid we'll be seeing reports of the demise of many other species of fauna and flora too, as time progresses.

For what it's worth, I am not employed by anyone and receive no monetary support from any organization or corporation. I am retired.

The social and environmental work I do is motivated purely by my acute sense of social responsibility; I feel it is my duty as a citizen living on this planet to alleviate suffering wherever and whenever I can.

Anthropogenic pollution causes untold suffering to all species inhabiting this planet and now threatens their very existence.

Nothing - nothing is more important to curtail our polluting ways as quickly as we can.

Those of us working daily to effect this change understand this all too well. It is essential that we not merely reduce our carbon emissions greatly, but that we create conditions of negative carbon output as soon as possible.

Regardless of what you've heard, it is not enough to reduce our carbon outputs from the 393ppm they are now at to the so-called sustainable level of 350 ppm. Time is very, very short. Ten years at best, as anthropogenic carbon emissions grow daily.

[Jeff]

Sea ice retreat in Arctic worst in thousands of years: study
“The picture is very troubling. We are losing ice very fast”

June 3, RANDY BOSWELL Canwest News Service

A major international study of Arctic sea ice has concluded that the recent, record-setting retreat is the worst in thousands of years — a conclusion that challenges skeptics’ claims that the meltdown being witnessed in Canada’s North is probably just the latest low ebb in a historical cycle of ice loss and regeneration.

The new study, involving 18 scientists from five countries and to be published in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews, includes data from two Canadian co-authors who interpret historic levels of ice cover from ancient whalebones found throughout the polar region.

Other evidence marshalled in the bid to reconstruct ancient Arctic climate conditions include patterns of driftwood deposit and chemical signatures in seabed sediments and ice cores.

“The current reduction in Arctic ice cover started in the late 19th century, consistent with the rapidly warming climate, and became very pronounced over the last three decades,” the study states. “This ice loss appears to be unmatched over at least the last few thousand years and (is) unexplainable by any of the known natural variabilities.”

The study’s lead author, Ohio State University polar researcher Leonid Polyak, told Canwest News Service on Thursday that predictable, long-term ice-cover changes linked to fluctuations in the Earth’s orbit mean “we should expect more rather than less sea ice” at this time in history.

“The evidence that we have based on the existing data suggests that the current Arctic warming is probably the strongest since at least the middle Holocene — that is approximately 5,000 years,” he said.

...

http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/a ... ears_study

[Cosmic Cowbell]

NOAA: May Global Temperature is Warmest on Record
Spring and January-May also post record breaking temps

June 15, 2010

The combined global land and ocean surface temperature was the warmest on record for May, March-May (Northern Hemisphere spring-Southern Hemisphere autumn), and the period January-May according to NOAA. Worldwide average land surface temperature for May and March-May was the warmest on record while the global ocean surface temperatures for both May and March-May were second warmest on record, behind 1998.

The monthly analysis from NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center, which is based on records going back to 1880, is part of the suite of climate services NOAA provides government, business and community leaders so they can make informed decisions.

Global Highlights – May 2010

Temperature anomalies May 2010.

* The combined global land and ocean surface temperature for May was the warmest on record, at 1.24°F (0.69°C) above the 20th century average of 58.6°F (14.8°C).

* The global land surface temperature for May was 1.87°F (1.04°C) above the 20th century average of 52.0°F (11.1°C) — the warmest on record.

* The May worldwide ocean temperature was the second warmest on record, behind 1998. The temperature anomaly was 0.99°F (0.55°C) above the 20th century average of 61.3°F (16.3°C).

* Warm temperatures were present over most of the globe’s land areas. The warmest temperature anomalies occurred in eastern North America, eastern Brazil, Eastern Europe, southern Asia, eastern Russia, and equatorial Africa. The Chinese province of Yunnan had its warmest May since 1951. Numerous locations in Ontario, Canada had their warmest May on record.

* Anomalously cool conditions were present across western North America, northern Argentina, interior Asia, and Western Europe. Germany had its coolest May since 1991 and its 12th coolest May on record.

Global Highlights – March-May 2010

Temperature Anomalies March - May 2010.

* The combined global land and ocean average surface temperature for the March-May season was 58.0°F (14.4°C), which is the warmest such period on record and 1.31°F (0.73°C) above the 20th century average of 56.7°F (13.7°C).

* The worldwide land surface temperature for March-May was 2.20°F (1.22°C) above the 20th century average of 46.4 °F (8.1°C) — the warmest on record.

* The worldwide ocean surface temperature was 0.99°F (0.55°C) above the 20th century average of 61.0°F (16.1°C) and the second warmest March-May on record, behind 1998.

* Very warm temperatures were present across eastern and northern North America, northern Africa, Eastern Europe, southern Asia, and parts of Australia. Tasmania tied its warmest March-May period on record. The Northeastern U.S. also had its warmest March-May period on record. Conversely, cool temperatures enveloped the western U.S. and eastern Asia.

* Western Europe was particularly dry for its spring season. For the United Kingdom, it was the driest spring since 1984, and the twelfth driest since the UK record began in 1910.

Other Highlights

* Arctic sea ice covered an average of 5.06 million square miles (13.1 million square kilometers) during May. This is 3.7 percent below the 1979-2000 average extent and the ninth-smallest May footprint since records began in 1979. During May 2010, Arctic sea ice melted 50 percent faster than the average May melting rate, according to the National Snow & Ice Data Center.

* Antarctic sea ice extent in May was 7.3 percent above the 1979-2000 average, resulting in the fourth largest May extent on record.

* Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent during May 2010 was a record low at 4.3 million square kilometers below the long-term average. North America and Eurasia both had record-low snow extents for the month. Northern Hemisphere March-May snow cover extent was fourth smallest on record, while the North American (including Greenland) snow cover extent for spring (March-May) 2010 was the smallest on record.

Scientists, researchers, and leaders in government and industry use NOAA’s monthly reports to help track trends and other changes in the world's climate. This climate service has a wide range of practical uses, from helping farmers know what and when to plant, to guiding resource managers with critical decisions about water, energy and other vital assets.

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2010/20100615_globalstats.html

[wintler2]

In the words of heroin salesmen in this part of the world, "Are ya chasin'?" Yes, we are.

UK group begins oil drilling in Arctic
A British independent oil company has started drilling an exploration well in the Arctic waters between Greenland and Canada, having won approvals from the Greenland authorities in spite of the concerns raised by BP’s huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Industry experts and environmentalists say the consequences of a spill in the Arctic could be much more serious than the impact of the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the gulf.

Yet the lure of the potentially vast resources of the region is so strong that companies and governments are pushing ahead with exploration programmes, albeit with heightened levels of attention to safety and scrutiny from regulators. ..

[anothershamus]

[Cosmic Cowbell]

July 6, 2010

Rapid ice loss continues through June

Average June ice extent was the lowest in the satellite data record, from 1979 to 2010. Arctic air temperatures were higher than normal, and Arctic sea ice continued to decline at a fast pace. June saw the return of the Arctic dipole anomaly, an atmospheric pressure pattern that contributed to the record sea ice loss in 2007.

Overview of conditions

Arctic sea ice extent averaged 10.87 million square kilometers (4.20 million square miles) for the month of June, 1.29 million square kilometers (498,000 square miles) below the 1979 to 2000 average and 190,000 square kilometers (73,000 square miles) below the previous record low for the month of 11.06 million square kilometers (4.27 million square miles), set in 2006. In June, ice extent declined by 88,000 square kilometers (34,000 square miles) per day, more than 50% greater than the average rate of 53,000 square kilometers (20,000 square miles) per day. This rate of decline is the fastest measured for June.

During June, ice extent was below average everywhere except in the East Greenland Sea, where it was near average.

http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/