Back to the Future: 2 Degrees C is Safe for Whom?
There are many, many tens of millions of us in the global North who accept the reality of climate change science. Were we to take meaningful action both personally and politically it would reduce CO2 emissions significantly and shake the political foundations of our societies to the core.
Most Powerful Image Yet Showing Huge Arctic Sea Ice Volume Loss
The volume of the Arctic sea ice falling even faster than the extent. Last year, it was 55% less than the 1979-2000 average. This year it is on course to be even lower.
Entire Ice Mass of Greenland Will Melt at Two Degrees Celsius Temperature Increase
The entire ice mass of Greenland will disappear from the world map if temperatures rise by as little as 2C, with severe consequences for the rest of the world, a panel of scientists told Congress today.
Cryosat-2 Now Sending Data on Arctic and Antarctic Ice Thickness
The Cryosat-2 mission is delivering on its promise to make high-precision radar measurements of polar ice.
The first data from the European spacecraft has been presented at an Earth observation meeting in Norway.
The information clearly shows Cryosat has the required sensitivity to assess the state of Antarctic and Arctic ice
Alarming Graph From PIOMAS of Arctic Sea Ice Volume and Trend
Arctic sees record sea ice shrinkage, as well as heading for record low volume
Arctic Sea Ice Thickness: Important Update
Important new information: New graphic from NSIDC showing Arctic sea ice thickness, plus a report on the successful launch of the European satellite CryoSat 2, also for measuring Arctic ice thickness
Why has the surface of the Arctic sea ice remained frozen this March?
Yesterday morning, March 30, I emailed James Overland with the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory/NOAA in Seattle asking him about the slow melt of visible Arctic sea ice, adding that this was certain to stoke the fires of the army of climate skeptics. This morning Dr. Overland replied that “the winds on the Atlantic side were [...]
Disturbing New Information on the Arctic Methane Bubbling to the Surface
In the past two days, there has been many breaking news stories published on “a large but overlooked source of methane gas escaping from permafrost underwater”. Here is one report from the National Science Foundation and a commentary by by Will Steffen at World Changing.com From the NSF, March 4. (Click title for full story): [...]
Arctic Thick and Thin: A Warning About the Escalating Loss of Sea Ice Mass
Scant ice over the Arctic Sea this winter could mean a “double whammy” of powerful ice-melt next summer, a top U.S. climate scientist said on Thursday.
“It’s not that the ice keeps melting, it’s just not growing very fast.”
“We’ve grown back ice in the winter, but that ice tends to be thin and that’s the problem,” he said. “You set yourself up for a world of hurt in summer. The ice that is there is also thinner than it was before and thinner ice simply takes less energy to melt out the next summer.” – Mark Serreze, director of the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center.
In January, Arctic sea ice grew by about 13,000 square miles (34,000 sq km) a day, which is a bit more than one-third the pace of ice growth during the 1980s, and less than the average for the first decade of the 21st century.
Arctic ice cover is important to the rest of the world because the Arctic is the globe’s biggest weather-maker, sometimes dubbed Earth’s air-conditioner for its ability to cool down the planet.
