Comments on: First commercial ship sails through Northwest Passage: “I didn’t see one cube of ice”

By: GEJ

GEJ — Fri, 29 May 2009 13:10:29 +0000

Actually, this report is wrong.

THe first commercial ship to transit the so-called Northwest Passage was the SS Manhattan – an oil tanker, which made the voyage back in (drum roll) 1969.

Apparently, you guys knowledge of history is as shallow as your knowledge of the world’s climate!

By: David Lewis

David Lewis — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 08:27:05 +0000

Canada’s Prime Minister Harper reacted to projections that the Arctic ocean would become navigable for shipping by commissioning construction of a deep sea port and proclaiming Canada was going to assert sovereignty over the NorthWest Passage. The US has never accepted this: Bush restated that the US position is that it is an international waterway.

It might be funny to watch two climate deniers fighting over waters made navigable by global warming even as they continue to deny the science, but it hasn’t been, so far.

Nature 451, 866 (21 February 2008) published an editorial “Science in Retreat” criticizing the Canadian government for its “its manifest disregard for science”, specifically mentioning climate change.

By: David B. Benson

David B. Benson — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:49:08 +0000

Bob Wallace — If Greenalnd just stays as warm as it is now, just that, GIS eventually mostly goes.

By: richard pauli

richard pauli — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 19:45:37 +0000

If we were living in ANY AGE but the present, this would be the biggest story in the world.

By: Bob Wallace

Bob Wallace — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 17:57:31 +0000

While we’re discussing polar changes comes this news from the other end…

“Scientists have identified new rifts on an Antarctic ice shelf that could lead to it breaking away from the Antarctic Peninsula, the European Space Agency said.”

“Wilkins is the size of the state of Connecticut or about half the area of Scotland. It is the largest ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula yet to be threatened.”

“Scientists say the western Antarctic peninsula — the piece of the continent that stretches toward South America — has warmed more than any other place on Earth over the past 50 years, rising by 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit each decade.”

http://www.cnn.com/ 2008/ WORLD/ asiapcf/ 11/ 29/ antarctic.ice.shelf.collapse/ index.html?eref=rss_topstories

By: mauri pelto

mauri pelto — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 12:27:39 +0000

Great story, how long until fishing excursions etc. begin in the Arctic? A whole new cruise ship destination too. It is hard to see any action we take, saving the Arctic Sea Ice at this point, though the ice sheets are still an open question.

By: Bob Wallace

Bob Wallace — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 05:30:27 +0000

“Scientists now suggest that even warming of less than 2 degree Celsius might be enough to trigger the loss of Arctic sea ice and the meltdown of the Greeland Ice Sheet,” the WWF said in a statement to accompany the findings.

“As a result, global sea levels would rise by several metres, threatening tens of millions of people worldwide.”

http://www.physorg.com/news147001400.html

It’s only one study, hasn’t been enough time for the climate folks to chew it over. But if it holds….

By: paulm

paulm — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 05:13:31 +0000

“Six Degrees” is actually an understatement. Much of the events describe therein will be happening …. are happening now and will be in full swing by a 2-3 degree rise.

We are all debating what might happen now, but Hansen has proclaimed that we have passed an important threshold – 350 and that means very unpleasant things are going to happen what ever we do from now on in.

By: Bob Wallace

Bob Wallace — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 04:18:35 +0000

Actually I’m not personally concerned about the 21st Century. Odds are pretty high that I won’t be around even at 2050. (I’m working on my 7th decade.)

I do feel concern for those who are coming along after me. I have very little doubt that if we don’t start making drastic changes, very soon, in the in the way we do business future generations are going to have a very hard time of it.

(Perhaps you didn’t have your snark detector activated when you read my first post?)

All that said, I don’t buy in to the “99.99% die-off” thing. There is a lot of land that will open up in North America and northern Europe/Asia. We will likely pack a large percentage of the Earth’s population up there and do some intensive food production to keep everyone fed.

It wouldn’t be pretty. Better to clean up our act now.

By: Asteroid Miner

Asteroid Miner — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 03:14:28 +0000

Dear Bob Wallace: You won’t be living that long. Read “Six Degrees” by Mark Lynas: Downloaded from:
http://www.marklynas.org/ 2007/ 4/ 23/ six-steps-to-hell-summary-of-six-degrees-as-published-in-the-guardian
By the end of the [21st] century, the Earth could be more than 6C hotter than it is today, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. We know that would be bad news – but just how bad? How big a rise will it take for the Alps to melt, the oceans to die and desert to conquer Europe and the Americas? Mark Lynas sifted through thousands of scientific papers for his new book on global warming. This is what the research told him…
1ºC
Nebraska isn’t at the top of most tourists’ to-do lists. However, this dreary expanse of impossibly flat plains sits in the middle of one of the most productive agricultural systems on Earth. Beef and corn dominate the economy, and the Sand Hills region – where low, grassy hillocks rise up from the flatlands – has some of the best cattle ranching in the whole US. But scratch beneath the grass and you will find, as the name suggests, not soil but sand. These innocuous-looking hills were once desert, part of an immense system of sand dunes that spread across the Great Plains from Texas in the south to the Canadian prairies in the north. Six thousand years ago, when temperatures were about 1C warmer than today in the US, these deserts may have looked much as the Sahara does today. As global warming bites, the western US could once again be plagued by perennial drought – devastating agriculture and driving out human inhabitants on a scale far larger than the 1930s “Dustbowl” exodus.
[Agriculture ends. Civilization collapses. 99.99% of North Americans die.]