This is what happens when the Arctic warms twice as fast as the rest of the planet

[webfact]

This is what happens when the Arctic warms twice as fast as the rest of the planet
By Darryl Fears
The Washington Post

WASHINGTON: -- For a second straight year, the Arctic is warming faster than any other place in the world, and walrus populations in the area’s Pacific and Atlantic ocean regions are thinning along with the ice sheets that are critical for their survival, researchers reported Tuesday.

Overall, the outlook for the frozen top of the world is bleak, according to the annual Arctic Report Card: 2015 Update released by the federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Since the turn of the last century, it said, the Arctic’s air temperature has increased by more than 5 degrees due to global warming.

Warmer air and sea temperatures melt ice that in turn expands oceans and causes sea-level rise, which scientists say presents a danger to cities along the entire Atlantic coast, from Miami to Washington to Boston. Walrus and other arctic mammals that give birth on ice sheets are struggling with the change, and fish such as cod and Greenland halibut are swimming north from fishermen and animals that feed on them in pursuit of colder waters.

Full story: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/12/15/this-is-what-happens-when-the-arctic-warms-twice-as-fast-as-the-rest-of-the-planet/

-- The Washington Post 2015-12-16

[BuaBS]

Let it melt , I have no problem with that. Ice ages come and go , whether it is man made or of other causes.

[chuckd]

Now we have a walrus problem?

How are the poor polar bears holding out or has their 15 minutes simply expired?

[JetsetBkk]

Now we have a walrus problem?

How are the poor polar bears holding out or has their 15 minutes simply expired?

Yes, dead already. This was the last picture taken of the last known polar bear. Absolutely not faked.

[hugocnx]

I find this biased information. The south pole has more ice than ever, so it is just a climate change all according to mother nature's gallactic mood.

Think the people concerned should give the poor animals a detour south pole . Money for migrants is quite normal these days in Europe.

This article just is corn on the mill for the climate freaks.

[RickBradford]

According to the New York Times, this catastrophic melting has been going on since at least 1881.

Their headlines of looming polar doom come around regularly.

1881: “This past Winter, both inside and outside the Arctic circle, appears to have been unusually mild. The ice is very light and rapidly melting …”

1932: “NEXT GREAT DELUGE FORECAST BY SCIENCE; Melting Polar Ice Caps to Raise the Level of Seas and Flood the Continents”

1934: “New Evidence Supports Geology’s View That the Arctic Is Growing Warmer”

1937: “Continued warm weather at the Pole, melting snow and ice.”

1954: “The particular point of inquiry concerns whether the ice is melting at such a rate as to imperil low-lying coastal areas through raising the level of the sea in the near future.”

1957: “U.S. Arctic Station Melting”

1958: “At present, the Arctic ice pack is melting away fast. Some estimates say that it is 40 per cent thinner and 12 per cent smaller than it was fifteen years [ago].”

1959: “Will the Arctic Ocean soon be free of ice?”

1971: “STUDY SAYS MAN ALTERS CLIMATE; U.N. Report Links Melting of Polar Ice to His Activities”

1979: “A puzzling haze over the Arctic ice packs has been identified as a byproduct of air pollution, a finding that may support predictions of a disastrous melting of the earth’s ice caps.”

1982: “Because of global heating attributed to an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide from fuel burning, about 20,000 cubic miles of polar ice has melted in the past 40 years, apparently contributing to a rise in sea levels …”

1999: “Evidence continues to accumulate that the frozen world of the Arctic and sub-Arctic is thawing.”

2000: “The North Pole is melting. The thick ice that has for ages covered the Arctic Ocean at the pole has turned to water, recent visitors there reported yesterday.”

2002: “The melting of Greenland glaciers and Arctic Ocean sea ice this past summer reached levels not seen in decades, scientists reported today.”

2004: “There is an awful lot of Arctic and glacial ice melting.”

Edited December 16, 2015 by RickBradford

[howbri]

I thought it was the polar bears that were near extinction! Come to find out they are thriving! Now the walruses? What's next in this global scam? In the 1970's the same people told us we would freeze by 2000. Then it was global "warming". when that didn't go over well, they made it "climate change" so ANY change in the weather brings out the chicken little's! Al Gore is laughing all the way to the bank while flying around in his private jet to one of his 6 homes all over the world. Carbon footprint indeed!

[lust]

Global warming or not, pollution needs to be reduced regardless!

[up2u2]

Same thing occurred last year with tens of thousands of Walrus stranded on land when they should be floating about on Sea Ice catching food. No protection from the sun and having to travel much further for food and large herds competing in a reduced area. It is happening each season now. I expect the herds will slowly decline. Quite a beautiful animal the Walrus.

Doesn't look good for the future for the Walrus. Each year the Arctic Sea Ice Extent reduces.

[Chicog]

I find this biased information. The south pole has more ice than ever

Really?

Have a link for that?

Scratch that, found it:

The sea ice cover of the Southern Ocean reached its yearly maximum extent on Oct. 6. At 7.27 million square miles (18.83 million square kilometers), the new maximum extent falls roughly in the middle of the record of Antarctic maximum extents compiled during the 37 years of satellite measurements -- this year's maximum extent is both the 22nd lowest and the 16th highest. More remarkably, this year's maximum is quite a bit smaller than the previous three years, which correspond to the three highest maximum extents in the satellite era, and is also the lowest since 2008.

and

The depletion of the ozone layer above Antarctica during last century by emissions of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) has caused an overall cooling trend on the continent.

Ozone itself is a greenhouse gas and its reduction has seen more heat reflecting back into space. Although the ozone hole has begun to show the first signs of recovery, levels are still significantly reduced. Parkinson says the loss of ozone is probably the second largest human impact on global climate after carbon dioxide.

Edited December 16, 2015 by Chicog

[Andaman Al]

Damn lies and statistics!

Obviously pictures of the polar bears didn't work so now we get the walrus ! Has it crossed the scientists minds that the declining population of the walrus is now due to the fact there are in the region of 30k polar bears (there were around 5K 25 years ago), so many in fact that in order to find food they can now be found going through peoples bins in Alaska. Conservation has really worked there then hasn't it. Eco culture is a finely balanced thing and if you upset the scales you upset things you never even considered.

Sea Ice in the Arctic is truthfully down by around 5% but in the Antarctic it is up by 15% or more.

There is no correlation whatsoever between carbon dioxide concentration and the temperature at the earth’s surface.

During the latter part of the Carboniferous, the Permian and the first half of the Triassic period, 250-320 million years ago, carbon dioxide concentration was half what it is today but the temperature was 10ºC higher than today . Oxygen in the atmosphere fluctuated from 15 to 35% during this period

From the Cretaceous to the Eocene 35 to 100 million years ago, a high temperature went with declining carbon dioxide.

The theory that carbon dioxide concentration is related to the temperature of the earth’s surface is therefore wrong.

It is all BS and the heating is caused by the great big yellow hot thing up in the sky, not a trace gas in the earths atmosphere. For all those screaming we must reduce pollution, yes we must, but pollution is NOT CO2. By the way remember, no CO2 = No Oxygen. Countless experiments in controlled conditions show that the phenomena of 'green house warming' as we are told is simply a myth and does not happen.

Meanwhile Al Gore makes another billion and we worry about air travel which gives off CO2 emissions on 20% of that of shipping and both fall into insignificance with the CO2 given off in the flatulence of cattle and humans every day.

Time for a sundowner! Relax, it's the sun, it happens and always has and always will. We are just around at that blinking of a geological eye. But I guess you can't make trillions out of that explanation can you, so you need to change it to make people think we are all doomed and it's our fault! Do independent research everybody and then do some basic chemistry and physics. the truth is out there somewhere Scully!

[tartempion]

It's all a hoax, we humans are a blessing for this planet, we are intelligent isn't?

[Andaman Al]

I find this biased information. The south pole has more ice than ever

Really?

Have a link for that?

Links are everywhere. It is at least 15% up.

[bangkapi]

Fake phony false doctored data.

SCAM!

[Dumbastheycome]

Just thinking about the weight shift. Hmmm. Will the planet wobble more or less? Either way that will completely screw up seasonal.... Oh shiite.....it has already!

[SOTIRIOS]

...better check the facts...

[Richard W]

Just thinking about the weight shift. Hmmm. Will the planet wobble more or less? Either way that will completely screw up seasonal.... Oh shiite.....it has already!

At least I can reassure you that 31 December 2015 and 1st January 2016 will both be 86,400 seconds long, even though 30 June 2015 was 86,401 seconds long, at least in some places.

[allanos]

I absolutely support all of the scepticism expressed by the posters, who

have not been hoodwinked by the "facts" and "statistics" put out by the

climate-change and global-warming brigade.

There is a 5200-year solar activity cycle at play here, and within which

there is a 400-year earth's core rotation effect, both of which being the

main causes of the current warmer climate.

The only winners in this whole debate are Al Gore -being the opportunist

he is - and the rest of his bandwagon, mining this new gold rush for all it

is worth.

[jmccarty]

According to the New York Times, this catastrophic melting has been going on since at least 1881.

Their headlines of looming polar doom come around regularly.

1881: “This past Winter, both inside and outside the Arctic circle, appears to have been unusually mild. The ice is very light and rapidly melting …”

1932: “NEXT GREAT DELUGE FORECAST BY SCIENCE; Melting Polar Ice Caps to Raise the Level of Seas and Flood the Continents”

1934: “New Evidence Supports Geology’s View That the Arctic Is Growing Warmer”

1937: “Continued warm weather at the Pole, melting snow and ice.”

1954: “The particular point of inquiry concerns whether the ice is melting at such a rate as to imperil low-lying coastal areas through raising the level of the sea in the near future.”

1957: “U.S. Arctic Station Melting”

1958: “At present, the Arctic ice pack is melting away fast. Some estimates say that it is 40 per cent thinner and 12 per cent smaller than it was fifteen years [ago].”

1959: “Will the Arctic Ocean soon be free of ice?”

1971: “STUDY SAYS MAN ALTERS CLIMATE; U.N. Report Links Melting of Polar Ice to His Activities”

1979: “A puzzling haze over the Arctic ice packs has been identified as a byproduct of air pollution, a finding that may support predictions of a disastrous melting of the earth’s ice caps.”

1982: “Because of global heating attributed to an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide from fuel burning, about 20,000 cubic miles of polar ice has melted in the past 40 years, apparently contributing to a rise in sea levels …”

1999: “Evidence continues to accumulate that the frozen world of the Arctic and sub-Arctic is thawing.”

2000: “The North Pole is melting. The thick ice that has for ages covered the Arctic Ocean at the pole has turned to water, recent visitors there reported yesterday.”

2002: “The melting of Greenland glaciers and Arctic Ocean sea ice this past summer reached levels not seen in decades, scientists reported today.”

2004: “There is an awful lot of Arctic and glacial ice melting.”

There are opposing studdies and recordings that still say that this is an unnaturally accelerated cycle! The cold could likely come back with a vengence very fast after a few (10s of) very hot years.

[arjunadawn]

Climate Change is not an observation, its a political ideology. You no longer have to even know what is being said, just watch who is speaking!

[Andaman Al]

Now we have a walrus problem?

How are the poor polar bears holding out or has their 15 minutes simply expired?

Yes, dead already. This was the last picture taken of the last known polar bear. Absolutely not faked.

polar bear on ice .jpg

But of course, absolutely faked, and pictures like this have the tree huggers and bear huggers screaming foul, or more appropriately Athropogenic Global Warming!!

If amongst all the hysteria people would just stop and contemplate that CO2 constitutes ONLY 0.04% of the atmosphere. That is 400 parts per million. Think about it folks! However all the chief Deceptacon Gore has to say is CO2 has gone up 25% since records began and most people in the world think we are about to run out of Oxygen but actually what 25% increase really means is that since records began it has gone up between 0.006 and 0.008 % of atmospheric composition - but hey that wont concern you but screaming 25% has got everyone having palpatations. Gore and the GW ers say that in the 1800's CO2 soared up past 285 parts per million and blamed it on the Industrial revolution. What he does not state is that CO2 was equally as high in the Middle Ages, what was that then? Commercial air travel? Shipping? the odd log fire around a world with probably less than 500 Million people?

So currently CO2 is increasing at 2 parts per million per year, so if the trend continued (which it wont) it would reach 0.08% of the atmosphere in 200 years, even then it is still a trace gas. This IS NOT warming the planet folks, wake up. Yes we need to clean up our act and protect our water sources our soil our earth, but this is all a distraction from the biggest money making scam since JC and the 3 wise men - AND current GW agreements will now ensure that under developed countries with huge resources such as Africa have no chance of becoming 'developed'. How convenient the inconvenient truth has become for our global elite.

To put this in numbers that the majority of our membership may understand. If the atmosphere were represented by a 500ml glass of beer. The amount of CO2 in our atmosphere is equivalent to one THIRD of a drop in our beer. Put another way, IF one drop of beer were representing the CO2 in our atmosphere you need to drop it in 1.5 liters of beer to give the equivalent mix! If you want to know how much CO2 has gone up in our atmosphere since records began it is equivalent to one drop of beer in 6 liters of beer! Now I hope as you consume your libation this evening it puts things in perspective.

Edited December 16, 2015 by Andaman Al

[zappalot]

I find this biased information. The south pole has more ice than ever

Really?

Have a link for that?

Links are everywhere. It is at least 15% up.

NOT true, still no link from your side, and no link is supporting your 15% up for 2015. Fantasy does not make truth better, it is just...

This is what NASA says for this year:

At maximum on October 6, Antarctic sea ice extent measured 7.27 million square miles (18.83 million square km). NASA said:

The growth of Antarctic sea ice was erratic this year: sea ice was at much higher than normal levels throughout much of the first half of 2015 until, in mid-July, it flattened out and even went below normal levels in mid-August.

http://earthsky.org/todays-image/2015-antarctic-sea-ice-extent

One need just to look at glaciers all around the world. The majority of them is declining faster than ever before.

So just this fact should tell any logical thinking person: There is a difference to previous climate changes compared to the current one. But human kind was never logical thinking let alone acting...

[Yahooka]

Now we have a walrus problem?

How are the poor polar bears holding out or has their 15 minutes simply expired?

..................and next year it`s gonna be those damned seals who gonna get their 15 minutes of fame ................

Global warming or not, pollution needs to be reduced regardless!

Agree and Im more worried about pollution in forms like chemicals and additives that creeps into our food and water supplies,than for rising temperatures and sea levels.

[arjunadawn]

Now we have a walrus problem?

How are the poor polar bears holding out or has their 15 minutes simply expired?

Yes, dead already. This was the last picture taken of the last known polar bear. Absolutely not faked.

polar bear on ice .jpg

But of course, absolutely faked, and pictures like this have the tree huggers and bear huggers screaming foul, or more appropriately Athropogenic Global Warming!!

If amongst all the hysteria people would just stop and contemplate that CO2 constitutes ONLY 0.04% of the atmosphere. That is 400 parts per million. Think about it folks! However all the chief Deceptacon Gore has to say is CO2 has gone up 25% since records began and most people in the world think we are about to run out of Oxygen but actually what 25% increase really means is that since records began it has gone up between 0.006 and 0.008 % of atmospheric composition - but hey that wont concern you but screaming 25% has got everyone having palpatations. Gore and the GW ers say that in the 1800's CO2 soared up past 285 parts per million and blamed it on the Industrial revolution. What he does not state is that CO2 was equally as high in the Middle Ages, what was that then? Commercial air travel? Shipping? the odd log fire around a world with probably less than 500 Million people?

So currently CO2 is increasing at 2 parts per million per year, so if the trend continued (which it wont) it would reach 0.08% of the atmosphere in 200 years, even then it is still a trace gas. This IS NOT warming the planet folks, wake up. Yes we need to clean up our act and protect our water sources our soil our earth, but this is all a distraction from the biggest money making scam since JC and the 3 wise men - AND current GW agreements will now ensure that under developed countries with huge resources such as Africa have no chance of becoming 'developed'. How convenient the inconvenient truth has become for our global elite.

To put this in numbers that the majority of our membership may understand. If the atmosphere were represented by a 500ml glass of beer. The amount of CO2 in our atmosphere is equivalent to one THIRD of a drop in our beer. Put another way, IF one drop of beer were representing the CO2 in our atmosphere you need to drop it in 1.5 liters of beer to give the equivalent mix! If you want to know how much CO2 has gone up in our atmosphere since records began it is equivalent to one drop of beer in 6 liters of beer! Now I hope as you consume your libation this evening it puts things in perspective.

Brilliant post. This is not just another point of view; this is 100% factual. Climate Change is entirely predicated on emotion and fear. It relies on heavily managed data and where the data fails, pejorative, social isolation, coercion, and fear. Climate Change is a the product of studies in the early 60's that proffered the thing that would be needed to remove the glue that binds peoples to faith, nationalism, and the glue that has traditionally bound nations, and orient them toward a global mindset would have to be an external threat so vast that it transcended borders. The two major perils envisioned were a threat from space or from climate. Enter their social engineering "progressive" (Read incremental) Fabian-like socialist religion of fear- "Climate Change."

The people who blindly follow the Climate Change mouthpieces without inspecting the concealed ideology stalking within it are more objectionable than those who trade their scientific street creds at the altar of socialist politics. Climate Change is an ideology like communism, fascism, socialism, Democracy, etc. Accordingly, it should be opposed on this merit alone.

[AZBill]

This is BS

[ExpatOilWorker]

Of course the Artic is warming faster and Antarctica is cooling. If you step back and look at the Earth the north pole is always up and the south pole is down. Due to simple convection hot air rises to the north and cold air sinks down to the south pole.

These "scientist" can't be that smart if they haven't figured this simple fact out yet.

[lust]

It's interesting how people say global warming is fake for someone's personal gain.

What is the cause of this? Pollution is produced from cars, factories, agriculture, etc.

It doesn't really matter if global warming is man made or not. What does matter is that we continue to improve our carbon foot print on earth to ensure the survival of life. We cannot continue on this current path of overfishing the oceans, deforestation, etc. Harvesting every resource without giving back. We are a just parasite sucking on the life of earth, draining her dry,

It's also interesting what we as humans value. 7 billion people on earth all trying to live like the 1%. What will be of value when something threatens life on earth?

[arjunadawn]

It's interesting how people say global warming is fake for someone's personal gain.

What is the cause of this? Pollution is produced from cars, factories, agriculture, etc.

It doesn't really matter if global warming is man made or not. What does matter is that we continue to improve our carbon foot print on earth to ensure the survival of life. We cannot continue on this current path of overfishing the oceans, deforestation, etc. Harvesting every resource without giving back. We are a just parasite sucking on the life of earth, draining her dry,

It's also interesting what we as humans value. 7 billion people on earth all trying to live like the 1%. What will be of value when something threatens life on earth?

Humans are pigs. Humans are polluting in such a way that they clearly forfeit the right as a species to coexist with such a delicate natural world- at least from a moral perspective. Humans destroy each other, and everything else. A predator species which clearly attained supremacy rather than earned it with any great stewardship. Our pollution of the world is tragic. Yet this does not reflect Climate Change, this reflects a morally inferior creature, a spiritually absent landlord. It is the height of arrogance to look out upon the world and say "When I was younger the weather was... therefore..." Humans are a flea on the asss of time, and no more.

12,500 years ago the long ending ice age was thrust violently back into a cold spell that was horrific and lasted a thousand years (yes, humans populated the world then also). It abruptly ended- this 1,000 year period ended more violently and abruptly then the prior cosmic event 1,000 years earlier. So two... two cataclysmic disruptions in the blink of an eye. They too created morality tales in the near thousands basing their suffering on unrighteousness and not listening to "the gods." In fact, our collective memory is now populated with these various stories not only from Sumer and Noah but from many, many hundreds of narratives around the world. "We brought this upon ourselves," the legends insist. Vast, terrible amounts of water raced across the world and destroyed the advanced civilizations. Ice sheets violently melted within weeks, entire continents were buried under water. 500 years ago we had another mini ice age, and so on.

Humans may be poor stewards and unlikely heirs but they are not remotely changing the dynamics of solar cycles, procession of equinoxes, axis tilting, or such. Those who race to shout with urgency "Ah duh, yea, its colder..." are likely to be the first fools destroyed by the politics of Climate Change not the temperature. Climate Change is nearly as foolish as believing a man in the clouds intercedes on behalf of [your] prayers and [your] earnest intention may actually alter the entire universe for an end specially crafted for [you]. The only difference is a Man in the clouds is more believable than Climate Change- there is no real evidence for or against a man in the clouds, there is for Climate Change.

[hugocnx]

It's interesting how people say global warming is fake for someone's personal gain.

What is the cause of this? Pollution is produced from cars, factories, agriculture, etc.

It doesn't really matter if global warming is man made or not. What does matter is that we continue to improve our carbon foot print on earth to ensure the survival of life. We cannot continue on this current path of overfishing the oceans, deforestation, etc. Harvesting every resource without giving back. We are a just parasite sucking on the life of earth, draining her dry,

It's also interesting what we as humans value. 7 billion people on earth all trying to live like the 1%. What will be of value when something threatens life on earth?

Humans are pigs. Humans are polluting in such a way that they clearly forfeit the right as a species to coexist with such a delicate natural world- at least from a moral perspective. Humans destroy each other, and everything else. A predator species which clearly attained supremacy rather than earned it with any great stewardship. Our pollution of the world is tragic. Yet this does not reflect Climate Change, this reflects a morally inferior creature, a spiritually absent landlord. It is the height of arrogance to look out upon the world and say "When I was younger the weather was... therefore..." Humans are a flea on the asss of time, and no more.

12,500 years ago the long ending ice age was thrust violently back into a cold spell that was horrific and lasted a thousand years (yes, humans populated the world then also). It abruptly ended- this 1,000 year period ended more violently and abruptly then the prior cosmic event 1,000 years earlier. So two... two cataclysmic disruptions in the blink of an eye. They too created morality tales in the near thousands basing their suffering on unrighteousness and not listening to "the gods." In fact, our collective memory is now populated with these various stories not only from Sumer and Noah but from many, many hundreds of narratives around the world. "We brought this upon ourselves," the legends insist. Vast, terrible amounts of water raced across the world and destroyed the advanced civilizations. Ice sheets violently melted within weeks, entire continents were buried under water. 500 years ago we had another mini ice age, and so on.

Humans may be poor stewards and unlikely heirs but they are not remotely changing the dynamics of solar cycles, procession of equinoxes, axis tilting, or such. Those who race to shout with urgency "Ah duh, yea, its colder..." are likely to be the first fools destroyed by the politics of Climate Change not the temperature. Climate Change is nearly as foolish as believing a man in the clouds intercedes on behalf of [your] prayers and [your] earnest intention may actually alter the entire universe for an end specially crafted for [you]. The only difference is a Man in the clouds is more believable than Climate Change- there is no real evidence for or against a man in the clouds, there is for Climate Change.

Well, as humans are no good in your optic why would you wanna be amoungst them?

Edited December 17, 2015 by hugocnx

[Rimmer]

Off topic post about America killing other nations removed