Climate change eradicating Arctic's oldest ice

w1z4rd

w1z4rd

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The Arctic's oldest, thickest sea ice — much of which used to survive the year's warmest months — had all but disappeared by the end of this summer's near-record meltdown, according to new U.S. analyses that vividly show how the circumpolar region is being transformed by warmer temperatures and other features of climate change.

In reports issued this week by NASA and the associated National Snow and Ice Data Center, the respective teams of U.S. scientists offered end-of-season overviews of the state of the northern cryosphere that emphasized not only the severe shrinkage of the ice cover for the fifth straight year, but also the widespread replacement of the Arctic's most mature ice masses by much younger, thinner and weaker sheets of ice.

The trend — reinforced by this year's loss of about 50 per cent of Canada's rapidly vanishing, millennia-old Arctic ice shelves along the coast of Ellesmere Island — continues to suggest the likelihood of ice-free Arctic summers in the coming decades, the experts say.

"The oldest, thickest ice (five or more years old), has continued to decline," states the report from the Colorado-based NSIDC, which points to the Beaufort Sea north of the Yukon-Alaska boundary as a prime area for the loss of old-growth ice. "In essence, what was once a refuge for older ice has become a graveyard."

That observation recalls warnings issued two summers ago by one of Canada's top Arctic scientists, University of Manitoba researcher David Barber, who described how "rotten" ice was becoming prevalent throughout Canada's northern waters, where thicker and more durable ice previously had been the norm.

"The multi-year (ice) continues to decline precipitously, and we have a good handle now on the processes controlling this," Barber told Postmedia News on Wednesday. "We are on the way to a seasonally ice-free Arctic; in fact, you could have taken an ice-reinforced tanker across the pole in 2010 and again in 2011— so in terms of ship navigation, we have already reached it."

By the time Arctic ice reached its minimum extent of 4.3 million square kilometres on Sept. 9, it had nearly equalled 2007's record melt to just 4.13 million square kilometres.

Arctic ice typically builds to about 14 million square kilometres during the winter months. The 30-year average for the end-of-summer ice extent is about half that, around seven million square kilometres.

But the decreased extent of September ice cover in recent years provides only part of the picture worrying scientists — even as the same phenomenon heralds new possibilities for Arctic shipping, tourism and oil and gas exploration.

Thinner ice at the end of the summer typically means winter ice buildup takes longer and results, the following spring, in weaker ice masses entering the next melt cycle. That's largely why, researchers say, in the five years since 2007, the Arctic has experienced the five greatest summer retreats of sea ice since satellite measurements began in 1979.

NSIDC data released this week shows that while more than 30 per cent of the Arctic's oldest ice survived the summer of 1983, barely five per cent survived the summer of 2011.

"It looks like the spring ice cover is so thin now that large areas melt out in summer, even without persistent extreme weather patterns," NSIDC director Mark Serreze said in the centre's summary of the season's ice losses.

"The oldest and thickest ice in the Arctic continues to decline, especially in the Beaufort Sea and the Canada Basin," added NSIDC scientist Julienne Stroeve. "This appears to be an important driver for the low sea ice conditions over the past few summers."

NASA's statement on Arctic ice echoed the observations from the Colorado institute, highlighting the reduced thickness of the annual freeze-up.

"The sea ice is not only declining, the pace of the decline is becoming more drastic," said Maryland-based NASA scientist Joey Comiso. "The older, thicker ice is declining faster than the rest, making for a more vulnerable perennial ice cover."
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Interesting article for sharing.

Read more: http://www.canada.com/technology/Cl...rctic+oldest/5507384/story.html#ixzz1ZzPJxtDr
 
jeez, another one. Seems ghoti lit a match or something and is trying hard to appease the global warming gods today for his wasted carbon credits.
 
so they arctic might be a good holiday destination in a few years.
 
BigBullBully said:
jeez, another one. Seems ghoti lit a match or something and is trying hard to appease the global warming gods today for his wasted carbon credits.
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This is pretty simple, if you dont like my posts, ignore me. Dont read them. I am not going to stop posting them, and if anything, the more you complain about them, clearly the more you need to read them. Sorry. I wont be bullied into keeping quiet. You and your conservative buddies can attack my character as much as you want, but I am not backing down. This issue is bigger than you, its bigger than me, and I understand some people think theyre smarter than the combined combination of all the worlds scientific bodies. Thats your thing, my thing is to keep telling the truth as I see it, and I see I have to post more often on this topic as so many people know so little about it.

Thanks for giving me the incentive to post more on climate change. You are an inspiration to me.
 
ghoti said:
This is pretty simple, if you dont like my posts, ignore me. Dont read them. I am not going to stop posting them, and if anything, the more you complain about them, clearly the more you need to read them. Sorry. I wont be bullied into keeping quiet. You and your conservative buddies can attack my character as much as you want, but I am not backing down. This issue is bigger than you, its bigger than me, and I understand some people think theyre smarter than the combined combination of all the worlds scientific bodies. Thats your thing, my thing is to keep telling the truth as I see it, and I see I have to post more often on this topic as so many people know so little about it.

Thanks for giving me the incentive to post more on climate change. You are an inspiration to me.
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Fair enough, you have your (misguided) opinion, I have the right to criticize your posts, that's how the interwebs works.
 
BigBullBully said:
Fair enough, you have your (misguided) opinion, I have the right to criticize your posts, that's how the interwebs works.
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Great. Are you able to criticize "my" (theyre actually not my posts, theyre articles by other people I am reposting here with links back to the originals for people to be informed) posts without attacking my personality?
 
ghoti said:
This is pretty simple, if you dont like my posts, ignore me. Dont read them. I am not going to stop posting them, and if anything, the more you complain about them, clearly the more you need to read them. Sorry. I wont be bullied into keeping quiet. You and your conservative buddies can attack my character as much as you want, but I am not backing down. This issue is bigger than you, its bigger than me, and I understand some people think theyre smarter than the combined combination of all the worlds scientific bodies. Thats your thing, my thing is to keep telling the truth as I see it, and I see I have to post more often on this topic as so many people know so little about it.

Thanks for giving me the incentive to post more on climate change. You are an inspiration to me.
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How dare we question the scientists !!! How dare we not have faith in their views and support it without question !!!

We will burn in the scientific pit of fire for all eternity...

Heathens the whole bunch of us


/facepalm
 
MacNutter said:
We all know you have a personal vendetta with ghoti, could you stop being childish about it?
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So now my view on this Global Warming scam is based on a vendetta with w1z4rd? :confused:

edit:

btw, 2 of your last 4 posts was about me...

If you want to have sex with me just PM me your details, seriously. No need to be so weird about it, just PM me and don't worry I'll knob just about anything. So no need to feel that you're not good enough to be in my league :)
 
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Nicodeamus said:
Who awards those tenders?, but yes, luckily I'm living in Pretoria, if the sea level rises then all the capetonians will be gone :D
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Im not sure we will be so badly effected compared to others tbh, well so far as sea level rising. Luckily SA is on a rising continental shelf so in theory, we should be kept above water (me thinks Amsterdam and Venice will have major issues though :D) . I think our biggest worries will be climate refugees from already badly run African countries.

No one awards "tenders" with the arctic situation. If anything, it could be a conflict point because everyone is fighting for territorial claims over the resources now becoming available.
 
ghoti said:
Im not sure we will be so badly effected compared to others tbh, well so far as sea level rising. Luckily SA is on a rising continental shelf so in theory, we should be kept above water (me thinks Amsterdam and Venice will have major issues though :D) . I think our biggest worries will be climate refugees from already badly run African countries.

No one awards "tenders" with the arctic situation. If anything, it could be a conflict point because everyone is fighting for territorial claims over the resources now becoming available.
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Well Europe is one of the major contributors to global warming, so is the US and China, maybe it serves them right.
 
Why would the arctic be treated differently to any other large ocean? Within X kilometers of your shore is sovereign territory, beyond that is international waters.
 
Icarium said:
Why would the arctic be treated differently to any other large ocean? Within X kilometers of your shore is sovereign territory, beyond that is international waters.
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Its not such a large space when you look at it from the top.

Pg-12-Arctic-graphi_643879a.jpg


Russia are claiming their rights extend to the end of the continental shelf.
 
Isn't there a possibility that the earth might tilt its axis as well if it is disturbed a bit? My logic tells me a warming metal loses some magnetic properties..
 
Nicodeamus said:
Isn't there a possibility that the earth might tilt its axis as well if it is disturbed a bit? My logic tells me a warming metal loses some magnetic properties..
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Im not sure. The magnetosphere is created by our molten metal core turning. So the field is create by heated metal moving. What is going to happen shortly though (since we are on the topic), is our inner core is going through a geomagnetic reversal. I expect our north and south poles to swap polarity in the next couple of decades to hundred years. This happens regularly though (every 250k years or so) and is not linked to extinction events (though strangely enough it does seem to have a link to specication) .

Mars and the moon are good examples of what happens when your inner core cools down and stops moving as much.
 
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