The staggering decline of sea ice at the frontline of climate change

[xchrom]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/sep/14/decline-sea-ice-arctic?intcmp=122


The scientist John Fletcher from Cambridge University measures the thickness of an ice floe in the Arctic. Photograph: Alex Yallop/Greenpeace

***SNIP

"This is the new minimum extent of the ice cap," he says, the "frontline of climate change".

"It is sad. I am not doubting this is related to emitting fossil fuels to a large extent. It's sad to observe that we are capable of changing the planet to such a degree."

The vast polar ice cap, which regulates the Earth's temperature and has been a permanent fixture in our understanding of how the world works, has this year retreated further and faster than anyone expected. The previous record, set in 2007, was officially broken on 27 August when satellite images averaged over five days showed the ice then extended 4.11 million sq km, a reduction of nearly 50% compared to just 40 years ago.

But since 27 August, the ice just kept melting – at nearly 40,000 sq km a day until a few days ago. Satellite pictures this weekend showed the cap covering only 3.49m sq km. This year, 11.7m sq km of ice melted, 22% more than the long-term average of 9.18m sq km. The record minimum extent is now likely to be formally called on Monday by the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) in Colorado.

[pscot]

1. I've been womdering whether the melt would end

on schedule. Events up there don't necessarily follow form any more.

[AverageJoe90]

2. That may very well be true. Some have said it's kind of like rolling a pair of dice......

.....and we've just happened to get some snake-eyes these past few years.

[pscot]

3. Crap shooters luck, eh?

Sort of like accidentally shooting yourself while playing Russian roulette.

[AverageJoe90]

4. I guess you could say that, yeah. nt

[pscot]

5. Smile, dude

It may be fatal, but it's not serious.

[AverageJoe90]

6. LOL.

In all honesty, though, I just don't see the literal death-of-the-planet scenario that others may. I don't see Earth becoming a Venus copy, literally or otherwise, or humanity going extinct because of AGW alone. A favorite point of mine is that as bad as AGW is, and could get, we have been through disasters even worse than this; the Toba event, for one, caused a massive bottleneck in the human population. Even the K/T event 65 mya couldn't quite kill all life on Earth, even though the dinosaurs didn't quite make it....just something I feel is an important perspective to keep in mind.

[pscot]

7. I don't know about all life on Earth

but I would guess the human population is going to fall very fast, and the survivors will struggle mightily to adapt to the new realities. I also know that I will not see it, but my grand-daughter will. I worry about that.

[AverageJoe90]

8. I worry, too.

There's about 7 billion people on this rock and many of us don't even have guaranteed access to clean water or quality medicine, let alone universal healthcare or welfare.