Warming Sign Exploding Across Arctic Regions - Ice Extent, Vegetation & More

[hatrack]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Signs of warming continue in the Arctic with a decline in sea ice, an increase in shrubs growing on the tundra and rising concerns about the Greenland ice sheet. "There have been regional warming periods before. Now we're seeing Arctic-wide changes," James Overland, an oceanographer at the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle, said Thursday.

For the past five years, it was at least 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit above average over the Arctic over the entire year, he said. The new "State of the Arctic" analysis, released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, also reports an increase in northward movement of warmer water through the Bering Strait in 2001-2004. This may have contributed to a continuing reduction of sea ice.

EDIT

There have been many changes over the Arctic land areas, too, said Vladimir E. Romanovsky, a professor at the geophysical institute of the University of Alaska. These include changes in vegetation, river discharge into the Arctic Ocean, glaciers and permafrost. The tundra is becoming greener with the growth of more shrubs, he said. This development is causing problems in some areas as herds of reindeer migrate.

At the same time, there is some decrease in the greening of the northern forest areas, probably due to drought. The glaciers are continuing to shrink and river discharge into the Arctic Ocean is rising, Romanovsky said. There has been a significant warming of the permafrost over the past 30 years, he added.

EDIT

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/ARCTIC?SITE=MOSTP&SECTION=HOME

[Kool Kitty]

1. This is very frightening.

How can people claim that this isn't happening? Will you please send this article to that moron, Inhofe?

[Deep13]

2. Suggested title of study: "We Are Screwed."

:-(

[kestrel91316]

3. Do you mean: "We Are Screwn"?

[Deep13]

4. I appreciate the effort, but that is too funny for this subject.

This is just too serious for me to joke about it. It may very well be the end of the world and of human civilization. After 100,000 years of progress, we blow it in the last fifty. Sorry.:-(

[kestrel91316]

8. I guess I'm just trying to find SOME way to avoid the

wailing and gnashing of teeth that this apocalypse warrants.

[Deep13]

9. Yeah, I know.

Thanks.

[JohnWxy]

5. recommended.

[Benhurst]

6. Recommended #5

[Speck Tater]

7. Mother Earth's immune system is fighting off the infection called mankind.

Once civilization can no longer be sustained the fever will break and the planet will become healthy again.

Our great-great grandchildren will be far fewer in number and very skilled at hunting and gathering. I'd wager they'll be more content and peaceful than us as well.

[thingfisher]

10. I recently read an article

that pointed out that the sun itself is putting out more heat thar ever before and the whole solar system is warming as a result.

[Jokinomx]

11. I have read that also....

Even though greenhouse gases maybe contributing to the warming... this alone may not be the cause. Nobody can doubt that warming is occuring... it just may continue whether or not we cut greenhouse gases. With that said we still need to do everything possible to slow it down.

We also must start drawing up plans for mass population relocation within the next 50 years. Some experts predict most of the state of Florida will be underwater. All those people must go somewhere...

If not in my lifetime... certainly in our children's lifetime this world will become a much different place.

:kick:

[skids]

12. Not quite an honest article.

It is intriguing to extrapolate these results to longer term solar irradiance changes, which are roughly two to three times larger than solar cycle variations. The pattern of modeled surface temperature changes induced by solar variability is well correlated with observed global warming over the first half of the 20th century, but not with the more rapid warming seen over the past three decades. The latter more closely resembles modeled warming induced by increasing greenhouse gas emissions. This suggests that although solar variability does impact surface climate indirectly, it was probably not responsible for most of the rapid global warming seen over the past three decades.

http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/briefs/shindell_03/

I'd recommend taking everything that doesn't get good reviews on realclimate.org with a big old grain of salt.

[mcg]

14. Thanks for the info. nt

[bloom]

13. There are a lot of "articles" that are funded by Exxon

about things like that.


Some vague article by who knows who - doesn't mean anything.

[Odin2005]

15. Stars do slowly warm over time, but not at timescales relavent to Global Warming

As a star fusing hydrogen into helium the total number of atomic nuclei in the core decreases, causing the core to slowly contract and thus heat up, making the whole star warmer. 4 billion years ago the sun was 30% dimmer then it is now. Around 1 to 1.5 billion years from now the warming sun will trigger a runaway greenhouse effect on Earth, turning it into Venus II.