Tuesday, September 27, 2011

After Arctic ice grew by 9,000 Manhattans in four years, Time claims that Arctic ice is "vanishing fast"

Farewell to the Arctic — as We Know It -- Signs of Climate Change: Arctic Ice Is Vanishing Fast - TIME
The physical changes from global warming are visible in the Arctic almost in real time — and they are a warning for those of us who live in more comfortable latitudes. As the polar expert Walt Meier of the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) has put it: "What happens in the Arctic doesn't stay in the Arctic."

That's bad news, since not only is the warming threat in the Arctic bad, it's almost certainly intensifying.
...Some scientists worry that Arctic sea ice may be going from a downward spiral to a "death spiral," one from which there is no escape even if we can manage to reduce carbon emissions. As more ice melts, more dark open water is exposed, which absorbs more heat, accelerating the melting. (White sea ice, by contrast, reflects sunlight, slowing warming.) Until recently, many scientists thought it might take until the end of the century for the North Pole to become completely ice-free during the summer. Now there are estimates that we could see a naked North Pole by 2030 or even earlier. "The melting is happening faster in the real world than it has in the models," says James Overland, an oceanographer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
2007 Record Low Date Arrives – 9000 Manhattans Of Recovery | Real Science
September 24, 2007 was the date of the lowest JAXA Arctic ice extent. The University of Bremen announced a record low two weeks ago just before the Al Gore telethon, but JAXA shows that there are 9,000 more Manhattans of ice than there was on this date in 2007. That is 1/4 of a Manhattan of extra ice for each Polar Bear!

3 comments:

tonylearns said...

Wow,Tom, that arctic ice sure recovered this year. NINE THOUSAND Manhattans since 2007! Just think of how many Central Parks, or Holiday Inn Expresses, or Soccer balls, or the untold TRILLIONS of legos that translates to!
Funny, looking at the warmist websites, they all say this was the second lowest ever and came close to breaking the 2007 record low. And all the scientific websites that have the actual satellite and other data say the same thing. One source even had it lower than 2007. if one looks at the JAXA record it seems rather hard to paint a recovery picture over the numbers. but maybe they are all lies, and the Arctic has just been getting thicker and thicker with ice every summer since 2007?

Dr. Killpatient said...

Calm yourself, tony. I hate to break it to you, but 2011 just won't match or exceed the 2007 low extent. The recovery makes it a mathematical impossibility at this point in the year.

Perhaps you should instead focus on hurricanes or frog species or something.

tonylearns said...

Dr. Killpatient,

Excuse me if I don't see where you point out anything I wrote that was incorrect.
Am I misreading what I wrote, because you appear to be saying that I wrote 2011 will exceed the 2007 record low SIE for the arctic, yet that is not what I read in my comment.
You DO use the word recovery. So you believe the 270,000 sq KM increase from the record low of 2007 indicates the arctic sea ice is recovering from the low?. Even though that is one MILLION miles less than 2002 (that would be umm, let's see 1,000,000 divided by 50. that would be TWENTY ThOUSAND Manhattans) or going back to the historical average from Satellite data it is almost 2 million KM less than that number.
Obviously you did not get the memo. The skeptic/denier meme NOW is "Of COURSE the arctic is melting. it is all part of natural variation. it happens all the time. This is actually a good thing because it opens up the arctic for gas and resource utilization"
No need to thank me, just don't screw up again, ok? it makes us look bad.