But Gore claims 4 or 5 years: Ice-free Arctic Ocean "possible" in 30 years, not 90 as previously estimated - insciences

"The uncertainty in future timing for a September sea-ice free Arctic is strongly influenced by the chaotic nature of natural variability," the authors write in the paper. Still, "the one climate realization that we are living through appears to be a fast track for September sea ice loss," they write.

Scientists don't expect the Arctic to be totally ice free, figuring that ice still will be found along northern Canada and Greenland where powerful winds sweeping across the Arctic Ocean force ice layers to slide on top of each other, making for a very thick ice cover.

Big Bear Lake's level a refreshing change: Up over 12 feet since recent lows

Big Bear Lake is now five feet below its maximum depth and slowly rising.

That is a far cry from the drought-induced dust bowl days of the early to mid-2000s --when the lake was down 17 1/2 feet -- but still about a foot lower than last year at this time.
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Alan Sharp, 54, opened his Big Bear Marina on Saturday for the first dozen of what he hopes will be thousands of dock rentals over the summer.

"We had record snowfall," he said. "However, there is a caveat to that. It didn't contain a lot of moisture. Even though there is 120 inches of snow, the reality is that the lake is down and it will be difficult to get to the level we had last year."

Science Centric | News | Ecologists question effects of climate change on infectious diseases

Recent research has predicted that climate change may expand the scope of human infectious diseases. A new review, however, argues that climate change may have a negligible effect on pathogens or even reduce their ranges. The paper has sparked debate in the ecological community.

In a forum in the April issue of Ecology, Kevin Lafferty of the U.S. Geological Survey's Western Ecological Research Centre suggests that instead of a net expansion in the global range of diseases, climate change may cause poleward range shifts in the areas suitable for diseases as higher latitudes become warmer and regions near the equator become too hot.
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Lafferty agrees that climate isn't the only issue that affects disease ecology, and maintains that climate may play only a small part in determining disease ranges.

'If we over-emphasise the role of climate, which we have little control over, at the expense of other factors that drive disease dynamics, we may be missing the forest for the trees,' he says.

Global Warming At The Pole Since 1913 « Watts Up With That?

So it is extremely cold and they are finding old, thick ice. That does not sound like the sub-tropical Arctic as portrayed by The Guardian.

Flashback to February, 2008 OSLO, Feb. 29 (Xinhua) — The polar cap in the Arctic may well disappear this summer due to the global warming, Dr. Olav Orheim, head of the Norwegian International Polar Year Secretariat, said on Friday.