Scientists see dramatic record-shattering drop in Arctic sea ice

[Subdivisions]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Arctic sea ice declined this year to the lowest levels registered since satellite assessments started in the 1970s, extending a trend fueled by human-caused global warming, scientists said on Monday.

Sea ice declined by so much this year that the typically ice-clogged Northwest Passage, allowing vessels to sail from the Atlantic to the Pacific, completely opened for the first time anyone can recall, the researchers said.

-snip-

"We've got the final numbers now for this September, and it's a really dramatic record low. It didn't just break the record, it shattered the record. This year just obliterated everything else."

Sea ice last month was 39 percent below the long-term average from 1979 to 2000, the scientists said.

-snip-

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071001/sc_nm/arctic_ice_dc_1;_ylt=Auo4IH03ZDM85x5MU0FY5ktrAlMA

I hope I'm alive to witness the results of world events not just with regard to global warming but also with geopolitical reaction to GW and to energy depletion and environmental, economic, social and cultural ruin.

[Lorien]

1. Are you under 50?

If so, I'm willing to wager that you will be able to see those things. Likely die from them (along with the rest of us) too.

[Subdivisions]

5. Yes, I'm a bit under 50. I am also not very pleased with

the human race. And I'm a human. But I also am forced to play along with the game in order to survive. I don't like it.

As far as anyone knows, THIS is the only LIFE-GIVING planet in the entire universe. We may be the ONLY INTELLIGENT LIFE in the universe. But the word "intelligent" is subjective in the case of humans, is it not? How intelligent can a species be that systematically destroys itself by killing, torturing or enslaving its own, depleting its lifeblood in a fevered frenzy to profit while the profiting is good, the future be-damned, and leave this planet a burning and lifeless cynder?

Yep. If humanity is going to just go right ahead and self-destruct, I want to see it with my own two eyes. Then it can take me too.

[yardwork]

2. Hey, they got their Northwest Passage at last!

500 years too late, but hey, who's counting?

[Bandit]

3. In Juneau Alaska there is a major glacier that you can drive up to

It is called the Mendenhall Glacier and two days ago the whole face of it sluffed off into the water. They said in the local paper it was the largest calving in recent memory..It is receding so fast that if anyone wants to see and visit it they better do so within this decade or it will be gone..

[Tyler Durden]

4. Anyone else feel like they're at the top of a BAD roller coaster hill?

One of those badly designed wood ones that shakes the living SHIT out of you and leaves you nauseous with a sore neck and a migraine?


HHHHEEEERREEE WE GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[The2ndWheel]

6. At least with the roller coaster, you have a choice to get on or not

The difference here being that we have to deal with the explonential alterations within our habitat that have been going on for at least decades, if not centuries.

Worse than that, to stop now would be something on the order of putting all 20th century dictators together, and adding up the total. To not stop, makes the problem even worse when we hit the wall. Now, if we hit the wall, but find a way to push the problem off into the future(which is all we ever have done, do, and will do), that just means we alter more of the environment to fit the needs of one single species. So, you pick.

[Lorien]

8. The " explonential alterations" in our environment have only happened since

the beginning of the industrial age. There has been a sharp increase in gases that contribute to global warming since the early 1990s, deforestation has increased drastically since the mid 1980s, making it far more difficult for the environment to cope with the drastic increase in fossil fuel use. This information came to me from a longtime friend; a scientist working in Antarctica for the past 47 years studying climate change through ice core samples.

As all species are interconnected and the planet functions as a living organism, it is foolish to fantasize that humanity can survive WITHOUT 50% or more of all the other species on earth. The death of pollinators or bats alone would destroy us.

[The2ndWheel]

9. Yeah, the Industrial Age gave it a good smack

But empires have been rising and falling long before the Industrial Age. The only difference is that today, it's on an actual global scale, not just here and there.

Today we can grow the most productive plants and trees, and attempt to get rid of anything else. Like you said, the planet is far more complex than that, but that's not what we want. The culture of mass control won out a long time ago, and if we have to take out 51%+ of the diversity on this planet to reach the goal, we will do it or die trying. We're not going to stop it, we can't. Not when there are 6.5 billion+ people now, and more to come. Not when all those people are required to fit into the same way of life, since that way of life must consume everything in order to survive.

[Lorien]

10. We can stop it. What is lacking is the political will

I honestly don't believe that the majority of human beings are SO stupid that they don't understand the interconnectedness of all living things; most cultures have a better grasp on that then we Americans do. And I'll never be so negative and cynical as to honestly believe that humanity is actively, consciously doing all that it can to destroy itself and all life on earth AS IT"S GOAL. The overloads are doing it for profit. The majority have a different idea: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzMPUKAXM7U

[The Traveler]

7. Quit yer squealing

Its good for the economy. So shut up and spend ...

:rofl:

(Seriously. Heard a wingnut economist take that basic position on the subject lately. Nuts. They're nuts, I tell you.)

[hatrack]

11. Yes, I'm just waiting for John Stossel to chime in . . .

:puke: