Global warming could melt the Arctic’s ice during the summer as early as 2040, raising serious environmental as well as commercial and strategic issues, experts said on Monday.
“The effects of greenhouse warming are starting to rear their ugly head,” said Mark Serreze, a scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado in Boulder.
Marika Holland, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, projects a slow, steady decline of Arctic ice as global warming continues, with a dramatic “tipping point” in about two decades.
The research, published by the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters [yesterday], found that the extent of sea ice each September could be reduced so abruptly that, within about 20 years, it may begin retreating four times faster than at any time in the observed record.
“The ice is actually quite stable until 2025 and then boom, it goes,” Holland told the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.
Although geographically remote from most of the inhabited world, melting Arctic ice could change the world’s ecosystem including sea and surface life, weather, shipping patterns and even national defense needs.
“There are winners and losers in this game but on balance I think it’s negative,” Serreze said.
Guess who gets to be winners and who gets to be losers?
But how about Santa?
Not really that bad as the Moirture in the air from this much water could make a NICE storm sytem and green up the Arab deserts…MORE food
Maybe its time to start buying property in Alaska…
Oh thank god, that Ice was really causing problems..
I guess I better invest in one of those turn-pee-into-water manufacturers
It’s about time.
Great, I can book a polar cruise on my 75th birthday. Sweet!
I knew the titanic was ahead of it’s time
#5 – Hey, you took my line…
2″.Not really that bad as the Moirture in the air from this much water could make a NICE storm sytem and green up the Arab deserts…MORE food”
Wonderful NOW the Arabs will control all the oil and the food.
“Maybe its time to start buying property in Alaska…”
I agree, if comic books and super-hero movies have taught me anything, it’s that Lex Luthor is behind this. I’d guess he owns a ton of land in Alaska.
Wow, we went a couple of days without a Global Warming (TM) post. I was getting withdrawl symptoms. Gonna have to buy a solar powered houseboat I guess.
Woohoo!!
Think of all the fuel saved by being able to go across the top……who knows, could cut CO2 emissions …..oh…wait….it won’t matter then.
OH….I REALLY hate it when your spam catcher tells me I can’t post because it hasn’t been 15 seconds and I haven’t posted at all today.
Another doom and gloom prediction using another worthless computer model.
So what do these all-knowing climatologists predict for next year’s hurricane season? I haven’t heard any and I’m wondering if they have wised up to making predictions that can actually be checked?
I live in Canada and, quite frankly, the less ice the better — winter sucks
Great! We need more coastline since by then Florida will be under water.
Surprising to see how many people are more For than Against climate change.
Even if the “worthless” computer model isn’t 100% accurate, it still points to a disturbing trend.
15 quatloos that by 2040 the next mini ice-age will be underway. I’m keeping my snowblower tuned up.
Global warming…..yes
Cause…..many differing theory’s
Human Cause…..maybe
Natural Cycles….you betcha
More severe due to Humans…….possibly
Reducing CO2 stop it…..nope, slow it maybe
What to do……when that ice in Greenland, Iceland, and Anartica melt…..get your floaties on.
Um… in spite of the name, there is no ice in Iceland.
Palm trees in Sweden, crops in Siberia, rain forest in what used to be the Sahara. Why to these fanatical scientists assume it will only have negative consequences?
#14 – dude, i know it sucks ass – i’ve taken to copy/paste my comments so i dont have to retype my diatribe again
20,
I already moved…alt, 3000+ feet, will have beach front on Oregon SOON..
Frank (#21, #22) — it’s always a delight to see your ignorance matches your politics.
Even if you didn’t click the link, the precis quoted includes a note on positives as well as negatives.
I guess that was gravel I XC ski’d in Iceland, dude. BTW, one of the largest icecaps in the world is the Vatnajokull glacier — in ICEland.
#23 – You too huh? 🙂
Sorry, I exaggerated a bit re Iceland. While it is mostly ice-free for much of the year, and if the existing glaciers melted completely and permanently, there would be negligible impact on the level of the oceans, it is most certainly not completely ice or snow-free.
I was thinking of Iceland in comparison to “Green”land which is mostly icecap. If Greenland’s icecap melted completely and permanently, it would indeed have an impact on the level of the oceans.
But if the ice over the Arctic Ocean, or any other floating ice melts, it will have no impact on the level of the oceans whatsoever, no matter how much of it melts. Only ice that is over land will affect the level of the oceans as it melts.
Look at Iceland with Maps.Google.com I couldn’t see any glaciers on Iceland.
Groenland, however, has quite a large number of “holes” visible from space.
Mark –
There are several scattered glaciers covering the higher elevations of Iceland, covering a total of 11% of the land.
Here is an satellite image at Wikipedia.
So Greenland really will be green. Will it be underwater? Will NYC be the next Vienna?