NSF Report - No Natural Process Exists To Slow Arctic Meltdown - LAT

[hatrack]

WASHINGTON -- The rate of ice melting in the Arctic is increasing and a panel of researchers says it sees no natural process that is likely to change that trend. Within a century the melting could lead to summertime ice-free ocean conditions not seen in the area in a million years, the group said Tuesday. Melting of land-based glaciers could take much longer but could raise the sea levels, potentially affecting coastal regions worldwide. And changes to the permafrost could undermine buildings, drain water into bogs and release additional carbon into the atmosphere.

"What really makes the Arctic different from the rest of the non-polar world is the permanent ice in the ground, in the ocean, and on land," said Jonathan T. Overpeck of the University of Arizona and chairman of the National Science Foundation's Arctic System Science Committee that issued the report. "We see all of that ice melting already, and we envision that it will melt back much more dramatically in the future, as we move towards this more permanent ice-free state," Overpeck said in a statement.

The panel's findings were published in Tuesday's issue of Eos, the weekly newspaper of the American Geophysical Union. The report comes just days after environmental ministers and officials from 23 countries met in Greenland to call on governments to stop arguing over global warming and start acting.

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The scientists said they did not see any natural mechanism that could stop the loss of ice. "I think probably the biggest surprise of the meeting was that no one could envision any interaction between the components that would act naturally to stop the trajectory to the new system," Overpeck said. In addition to sea and land ice melting, Overpeck said that the frozen soil layer called permafrost will melt and eventually disappear in some areas. That could release additional greenhouse gases stored in the permafrost for thousands of years, he said.

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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/wire/sns-ap-melting-arctic,1,2953105.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

You might also want to try the American Geophysical Union:
http://www.agu.org/

[henslee]

1. As our friend Stephens Hawkins pointed out. "Colonize outer space or die.

end of story.

[Boomer]

2. Not much of a solution

Outer space is even more unforgiving of failure than Earth.

If we can't survive in the incredibly fertile, regenerative environment that nutured us in the first place, I greatly doubt we could survive in the harsh, resource-poor environs of our solar system.