Problem with the article about sea ice being gone by 2010... help?

[XemaSab]

"Fortier stressed that 90,000 square metres of sea ice melted in 2007, a spectacular figure that was expected to be seen in only 15 to 20 years."

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=1aaab4cd-0ca4-4b28-8a71-f442545a9d23

It was pointed out to me by a friend that 90K square meters of sea ice isn't a lot at all.

Anyone know anything more about this number and why it was used? :shrug:

[MiniMe]

1. You have to look at the effect of all that ice melting

The white ice reflects back a lot of the sun's energy and heat. When the ice melts, there is more open sea available, and the dark sea absorbs that energy and heat, which heats up the water, which then speeds additional melting. So it is a viscious cycle.

I myself am somewhere in the middle on Global Warming. I do think that a warming trend is part of a natural cycle, BUT, CO2 has greatly enhanced the speed and amount of warming.

[hatrack]

2. I would guess it's 90,000 square kilometers - looks like a typo - nt

.

[XemaSab]

4. That's what I was thinking...

Thanks.

[SteppingRazor]

7. Even a typo wouldn't cut it. This must be an error of reporting...

perhaps Fortier was discussing a small area of the arctic, or specifically referencing a particular ice floe's loss.

Because even 90,000 square km isn't anywhere close to the amount of ice that thawed this summer (see my post below, where I link the NY Times article that puts the number at 1 million square miles.)

[pocoloco]

3. Had me worried for a moment!

90,000 (square meters)* = 0.0347491943 square miles



*google is your friend

[whistle]

5. Was it an error and should have said 90,000 square kilometres

...area based on 900 kilometres by 100 kilometres? I don't know, 900 metres by 100 metres is only the size of 9 football fields

[SteppingRazor]

6. I think the newspaper may have misquoted Mr. Fortier...

for example, check out this NY Times article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/02/science/earth/02arct.html

which states that more than a million square miles of ice thawed over this summer. Although much of it is now turning to ice again, that represented the largest open-water area in the Arctic Ocean since measurements began in 1979.

[OKIsItJustMe]

8. I suspect a unit problem

Millions of square kilometers melted.

http://nsidc.org/news/press/2007_seaiceminimum/20070810_index.html