Snap! Al Gore is back and with some grim news from Copenhagen…
COPENHAGEN – New computer modeling suggests the Arctic Ocean may be nearly ice-free in the summertime as early as 2014, Al Gore said Monday at the U.N. climate conference. This new projection, following several years of dramatic retreat by polar sea ice, suggests that the ice cap may nearly vanish in the summer much sooner than the year 2030, as was forecast by a U.S. government agency eight months ago….
Last April, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted that Arctic summers could be almost ice-free within 30 years, not at the 21st century’s end as earlier predicted.
Gore cited new scientific work at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, whose Arctic ice research is important for planning polar voyages by Navy submarines. The computer modeling there stresses the “volumetric,” looking not just at the surface extent of ice but its thickness as well.
“Some of the models suggest that there is a 75 percent chance that the entire north polar ice cap during some of the summer months will be completely ice-free within the next five to seven years,” Gore said. His office later said he meant nearly ice-free, because ice would be expected to survive in island channels and other locations.
Now, check out the strong counter argument
Asked for comment, one U.S. government scientist questioned what he called this “aggressive” projection.
“It’s possible but not likely,” said Mark Serreze of the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado. “We’re sticking with 2030.”
Zing!
OK, but I am left wondering…As it seems there is no argument that the polar ice caps ARE indeed melting, what are we really arguing about?
I hear Michael Jackson singing in my head, “It’s time to make a change, for once in my life. I am going to make a difference, gonna make it right…” Come on, you know the song. Seriously, the argument has ended and appears that facts are facts but yet the arguments continues. World government’s and our leadership has a drinking problem and they need to admit that they have a problem so we can all begin to work towards a solution. Or, we could just ignore it, or keep debating and let our collective planetary liver shrivel til we no longer have a habitat we can survive in.
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