Thank you Chairman Maominstoat, I was teensy fucked because I thought separating posts would ensure healthy HTMLs, which I manage to mess up from time to time.
Last night, a programme on Danish TV, Viden Om, went to Greenland because of a query. The ice that moves from the north east and southwards was missing. They found out that the ice was 600 km behind in location, as opposed to the many previous years. And found no conclusive answer.
A subsequent search led me to:
-- Global warming could actually lead to a big chill in some parts of the world. If the atmosphere continues to warm, it could soon trigger a dramatic and abrupt cooling throughout the North Atlantic region—where, not incidentally, some 60 percent of the world’s economy is based. --
-- Record ice loss in Arctic
The loss of Arctic sea ice is "big news", according to University of Alaska, Fairbanks, researcher Larry Hinzman.
"Polar sea ice has an important function in moderating the global energy balance," he said. He explained that sea ice has albedo of 0.8. That is, it reflects 80% of the solar radiation. When the sea ice melts you have water, which has an albedo of 0.2. --
-- Bolivian glaciers shrinking fast
The key factor accelerating mass loss on these glaciers is increasingly frequent El Nino events in this part of the world, a climate phenomenon that may or may not be being pumped up by global warming. --
-- Record melt in Arctic and Greenland
Ice sheets shrank by 10 million square kilometres this summer.
Using satellite-based microwave surveys, Mark Serreze and colleagues at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, spotted that Arctic sea ice, which usually covers around 6.5 million square kilometres in the summer, fell to around 5.5 million square kilometres this year. Similarly, Konrad Steffen, of the University of Colorado at Boulder, found that 16% more Greenland ice melted this summer than in 1979, when satellite monitoring began. These are the largest decreases ever seen. --
I have a series of observations, also. But the sun is shining and I want to play outside.
Needless to say though, more melting ice means change for the rest of the world. |
