Quote:
Originally Posted by gunnut
Was there anyone here 34,000 years ago to check to see if there was ice in the arctic during summer? How about 675,896 years ago?
The Greenland glacier was on a rapid decline near the end of the 1990s (which prompted Rev. Al to become hysterical) but for some odd reason it stopped. Are you sure the Arctic will be ice free in a few years during summer?
South Pole is getting colder with ice sheets getting thicker in the middle. How do you explain that?
Half of Colorado is buried under snow, in May.
I have not noticed the temperature in my city to be any different over the past 25 years. Some summers get hot and some winters are cold.
If it's "global" warming, why are there places getting colder?
|
My belief is that greenhouse gases kickstarted the warming trend in the Arctic and an albedo effect took over.
From NASA:
Quote:
Perennial sea ice is the long-lived, year-round layer of ice that remains even when the surrounding short-lived seasonal sea ice melts away in summer to its minimum extent. It is this perennial sea ice, left over from the summer melt period, that has been rapidly declining from year to year, and that has gained the attention and research focus of scientists. According to NASA-processed microwave data, whereas perennial ice used to cover 50-60 percent of the Arctic, this year it covers less than 30 percent. Very old ice that remains in the Arctic for at least six years comprised over 20 percent of the Arctic area in the mid to late 1980s, but this winter it decreased to just six percent.
According to Walt Meier of the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado, Boulder, as ice ages it continues to grow and thicken, so that older ice is generally also thicker ice. This winter the ice cover is much thinner overall and thus in a more vulnerable state heading into the summer melt season. NASA’s ICESat satellite has contributed to understanding of the changes in ice thickness. To get a better understanding of the behavior of sea ice, NASA is planning a follow-on satellite mission, ICESat II, to launch in 2015.
|
NASA - Researchers Say Arctic Sea Ice Still at Risk Despite Cold Winter
According to NASA, the sun goes through 11-year cycles, and this year is the solar minimum. Makes sense, as it was five years ago there were record high temperatures in Europe that killed 35,000 people. We'll see what 2012-2013 looks like, the next solar maximum. Somehow I doubt 2008 is anywhere near the extreme cold wave of 1997.
Like I said before, increased CO2 is going to aggravate the heating trends, and mitigate the cooling trends.