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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: T L Comiskey who wrote (56163)	11/28/2008 11:52:48 AM
From: longnshort	4 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 224749

Arctic sea ice now 28.7% higher than this date last year - still rallying 15 10 2008 10/14/2008 7,064,219 square kilometers 10/14/2007 5,487,656 square kilometers A difference of: 1,576,563 square kilometers, now in fairness, 2008 was a leap year, so to avoid that criticism, the value of 6,857,188 square kilometers can be used which is the 10/13/08 value, for a difference of 1,369,532 sq km. Still not too shabby at 24.9 %. The one day gain between 10/13/08 and 10/14/08 of 3.8% is also quite impressive. You can download the source data in an Excel file at the IARC-JAXA website, which plots satellite derived sea-ice extent: Sea Ice Extent Watch the red line as it progresses. So far we are back to above 2005 levels, and 28.7% (or 24.9% depending on how you want to look at it) ahead of last year at this time. That’s quite a jump, basically a 3x gain, since the minimum of 9% over 2007 set on September 16th. Read about that here. Go nature! There is no mention of this on the National Snow and Ice Data Center sea ice news webpage, which has been trumpeting every loss and low for the past two years…not a peep. You’d think this would be big news. Perhaps the embarrassment of not having an ice free north pole in 2008, which was sparked by press comments made by Dr. Mark Serreze there and speculation on their own website, has made them unresponsive in this case. From May 5th, 2008: “Taken together, an assessment of the available evidence, detailed below, points to another extreme September sea ice minimum. Could the North Pole be ice free this melt season? Given that this region is currently covered with first-year ice, that seems quite possible. “ See the original story here: wattsupwiththat.com

To: T L Comiskey who wrote (56163)	11/28/2008 11:54:48 AM
From: longnshort	5 Recommendations Respond to of 224749

Arctic Sea Ice Growing at Fastest Rate in Recorded History ______________________________ ? 7 Nov 08 - An abnormally cool Arctic is seeing dramatic changes to ice levels. The total amount of ice, which set a record low last year, grew in October at the fastest pace since record-keeping began in 1979, bringing ice back to levels from the 1980s. Some researchers, not surprisingly, say the rapid increase is "no big deal". While admitting that the Arctic has certainly been colder in recent months, they say the long-term decrease is still ongoing and see nothing in the recent data to contradict predictions of global warming. Others aren't so sure. Dr. Patrick Michaels, Professor of Environmental Science at the University of Virginia, says he sees some "very odd" things occurring in recent years. The Southern Hemisphere can't be explained by current theory, says Michaels. "The models predict a warming ocean around Antarctica, so why would we see more sea ice?" Large areas of the Southern Pacific are showing cooling trends, an occurrence not anticipated by any current climate model, Michaels adds. On average, ice covers roughly 7% of the ocean surface of the planet. Sea ice is floating and therefore doesn't affect sea level like the ice anchored on bedrock in Antarctica or Greenland. However, research has indicated that the Antarctic continent -- which is on a long-term cooling trend -- has also been gaining ice in recent years. (See Antarctic Ice Sheet growing enough to lower sea levels) Did you catch that? “The Antarctic continent -- which is on a long-term cooling trend – has also been gaining ice in recent years.” Where are the breathless headlines in the world's news- papers announcing this fact? iceagenow.com

To: T L Comiskey who wrote (56163)	11/28/2008 11:54:49 AM
From: longnshort	1 Recommendation Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 224749

Arctic Sea Ice Growing at Fastest Rate in Recorded History ______________________________ ? 7 Nov 08 - An abnormally cool Arctic is seeing dramatic changes to ice levels. The total amount of ice, which set a record low last year, grew in October at the fastest pace since record-keeping began in 1979, bringing ice back to levels from the 1980s. Some researchers, not surprisingly, say the rapid increase is "no big deal". While admitting that the Arctic has certainly been colder in recent months, they say the long-term decrease is still ongoing and see nothing in the recent data to contradict predictions of global warming. Others aren't so sure. Dr. Patrick Michaels, Professor of Environmental Science at the University of Virginia, says he sees some "very odd" things occurring in recent years. The Southern Hemisphere can't be explained by current theory, says Michaels. "The models predict a warming ocean around Antarctica, so why would we see more sea ice?" Large areas of the Southern Pacific are showing cooling trends, an occurrence not anticipated by any current climate model, Michaels adds. On average, ice covers roughly 7% of the ocean surface of the planet. Sea ice is floating and therefore doesn't affect sea level like the ice anchored on bedrock in Antarctica or Greenland. However, research has indicated that the Antarctic continent -- which is on a long-term cooling trend -- has also been gaining ice in recent years. (See Antarctic Ice Sheet growing enough to lower sea levels) Did you catch that? “The Antarctic continent -- which is on a long-term cooling trend – has also been gaining ice in recent years.” Where are the breathless headlines in the world's news- papers announcing this fact? iceagenow.com

To: T L Comiskey who wrote (56163)	11/28/2008 11:54:27 PM
From: Neeka	2 Recommendations Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 224749

ARCTIC DRAMA A bittersweet harvest from a misfortune of nature The first sign of trouble came when hunters crossing the sea ice outside of Pond Inlet, high on Baffin Island's northeast coast, saw polar bears feasting on dead narwhals. But it wasn't until the hunters got close to the blood-stained carcasses of the white whales that they saw the enormity of the disaster. Some 500 whales were trapped in the ice, about 50 kilometres from the open ocean, repeatedly surfacing at a handful of small, air holes that were rapidly freezing shut. Since that discovery last week, people from the hamlet of Pond Inlet have killed an estimated 300 whales by shooting them as they surface, quickly harpooning them and dragging them onto the ice. The whales that remain alive, perhaps as many as 200, will be killed in the next few days as the community of Pond Inlet moves to harvest animals that otherwise would die of starvation or drowning. "A bunch of narwhal got caught inside by the annual freeze-up, before they could escape to open water," Keith Pelley, area director for the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans in Nunavut, said yesterday. "They've been keeping breathing holes open, but the ice is freezing up and eventually all these whales will drown," Mr. Pelley added. "The harvest right now is a little over 300 and the estimate is more than 200 more still using the breathing holes." He said DFO has approved the harvest because otherwise the whales would just sink to the bottom of the ocean after dying from starvation. Mr. Pelley said the closest coast guard icebreaker is about seven days away and even if it made the trip it likely couldn't save the whales. "Narwhal have a tendency to scare easily with engine noise and, more than likely, if a boat came close, they would probably swim farther up under the ice and not be able to get back to their breathing holes. They would drown sooner," he said. Mr. Pelley said it's not uncommon for whales to get trapped by the ice in the Arctic but it is rare for such a large group to be stranded. Mike Richards, special administrative officer for Pond Inlet, said nearly every household in the community of 1,000 people now has some whale meat, or muktuk, a traditional food for the Inuit. "Most of the town has been out and harvested some," he said. "Local people are saying it's unfortunate. They feel sorry for the whales, but they know they are going to die anyway so they should harvest them. "It's a feast for the community and there will be a lot of young hungry Inuit who are going to be well fed for the next few weeks." Mr. Richards said "it doesn't matter which house you walk into, there's muktuk on the kitchen floor. Pretty well every house that has muktuk is eating it right now. They'll get through the Christmas season [on it] and it will be frozen and last until spring." He said the place where the whales are trapped is a little over an hour across the ice by snowmobile. Most of the whales are cut up on the ice and the meat is hauled back to the community on sleds. "A few people have brought back the whole carcasses. I know the school went out and brought one back. They are doing a thing in the classroom." Mr. Richards said it might sound like needless slaughter, but people see it as a sensible way to make the best of a bad situation. "It's just a misfortune of nature." Mr. Richards said one hunter told him they had pulled 11 dead baby narwhals out of the air holes. The whales that have been harvested don't have much fat, an early sign of starvation. Joseph Maktar of the Pond Inlet Hunters and Trappers Association said something like this happened once before. "Based on our hunters' knowledge there were trapped whales in 1943. And [the community] harvested them until they were all gone," he said. Mr. Maktar said that during the summer and fall narwhal are hunted from boats. But usually by the end of September, the whales have migrated out of Eclipse Sound and are far beyond the reach of local hunters. "We can blame it on global warming," he said of the current situation. Mr. Maktar said the ice pan formed late this year, toward the end of October, and the whales stayed in Eclipse Sound too long. When the ice formed, it came in fast and suddenly closed off all exits, trapping the whales. theglobeandmail.com