Ice caps are melting even in winter, global warming evidence mounts

[tex-wyo-dem]

(09-13) 14:36 PDT GREENBELT, MD. -- The vast expanses of ice floating in the Arctic Sea are shrinking in winter as well as summer, most likely a result of global warming, NASA scientists said today.

"This is the strongest evidence yet of global warming in the Arctic,'' said Josefino Comiso, a research scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

If the ice caps continue to melt, Comiso said, it could have very profound effects on the polar bear and other marine mammals living in the Arctic.

A greater number of polar bears have been showing up in Eskimo communities in the Arctic, apparently searching for food, scientists said today. They usually hunt for seals and other marine mammals out on the sea ice, and fast when they are on land.

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http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/09/13/MNGR3L509T9.DTL&type=science

[Blue_In_AK]

1. I can't resist posting here Don Young's comments

yesterday afternoon at the hearing on BP corrosion at Prudhoe Bay. This is just too good.

http://www.adn.com/money/industries/oil/pipeline/story/8192414p-8085097c.html

Before he left the hearing, Young, noting the presence of network TV crews, took a moment to reflect on his thoughts regarding climate change, citing the benefit of global warming -- not caused by man -- in another eon to an area that today is frozen much of the year. "We're dealing with the most northern part of the United States of America, and a most hostile climate, and we're pumping oil, and I'd just like to remind them if they're asked where did the oil come from, and I would say this to Al Gore specifically: This was a jungle at one time, this was a forest at one time, this was a fern-laden area with mammoths at one time, and that's really why we're pumping oil," he said.

Next to speak was the committee's ranking Democrat, James Oberstar of Minnesota, who reminded Young that while global warming might have been good for fern jungles, human civilization is another story.

"That happened years ago," Oberstar said. "The place was uninhabited by humans at that time."



:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[tex-wyo-dem]

2. Unreal...

I think the corporatists realize that global warming is the greatest threat to their way of life, so they will spin it any way they can. First it was "global warming is a myth," then it was "global warming is happening, but it's not caused by man," now it's "global warming can be a good thing."

They're losing the battle, but it can't be lost soon enough.

[Viking12]

5. The next step in that progression is...

"Global warming is a bad thing but there's nothing we can do about it (so let's keep pollutin')"

[Delphinus]

8. You're not wrong!

After the 2004 election, my tv, radio, Internet was off for weeks. When I finally started coming out of the mourning process, one of the first programs I saw on C-Span was about the environment. A scientific panel (can't recall who, although it was one of my first posts on DU) was talking about the ramifications of the melting of the Arctic. One of the questions from the audience was how to exploit it!

[skids]

6. OMG.

Isn't that essentially a declaration of environmental terrorist war by Alaska on the continental U.S. That is "we're going to steal your good weather?"

[Harry Monroe]

3. The Bush Administration can continue sticking their heads up their asses..

...over Global Warming at their own and this planet's peril. It's here and it's for real. Now, how are our leaders going to handle it??

[applegrove]

4. I didn't know you could get iced cappuccino in Winter. .... I know, I know

It is so depressing. They have also found 100 years of pollution on those glaciers. So the shit melting from mountains would be highly toxic.

There is a glacier at Bo Hut in Banff National Park. Bo glacier was tested a few years ago and they found nuclear fall-out..yes... nuclear fall-out...likely from Siberian experimentation 50 years ago.. on Bo Glacier.

Just like the permafrost has stored methane..the glaciers have stored air pollution after air pollution. Not a pretty site.

[Dogmudgeon]

7. A kick instead of a new posting

I found this story while looking for related information. I've also posted a couple of articles on Arctic weather that relate to the stories about the extensive summertime melting this year, so -- KICK!

--p!