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TechnoratiWASHINGTON - A bleak "report card" on global warming's Arctic impact released on Wednesday found less ice, hotter air and dying wildlife, and stressed that what happens around the North Pole affects the entire planet.
The report, issued by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, also found that weird winds blowing warm air toward the North Pole and unusually persistent sunshine added to the warming trend.
Unlike previous years, when there have been hot spots and cold spots at different times in the Arctic, "winter and spring, the temperatures are all above average throughout the whole Arctic and all at the same time," said James Overland of NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle.
"This is an unusual feature and it looks like the beginning of a signal from global warming," Overland said in a telephone news briefing.
The report gave red "stoplights" to conditions in the atmosphere and sea ice to show scientists have "a high level of confidence that things there are showing dramatic effects due to the warming temperatures," said Jacqueline Richter-Menge of the Army's Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in New Hampshire.
The report also gave yellow "caution lights" -- indicating mixed signals -- on conditions of the Greenland ice sheet, North Pole ocean temperatures, wildlife and permafrost.
There were no green lights, which would have indicated "all systems were OK," according to Richter-Menge.
The NOAA report was in keeping with similarly gloomy news about the Arctic released in recent weeks:
-- On September 7, the U.S. Geological Survey said two-thirds of the world's polar bear population could be gone by mid-century if predictions of melting sea ice hold true.
-- On September 20, the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center reported that Arctic sea ice melted to its lowest level ever, a decrease of 23 percent from the previous record and a 39 percent drop from the long-term average.
PERMAFROST AND REINDEER
Environmental observers focus on the Arctic because it has long functioned as Earth's air conditioner, cooling the planet with reliable stores of sun-reflecting sea ice.
The sea ice melts and re-freezes seasonally but recent years have shown a smaller area of maximum sea ice in the winter, indicating it is more difficult to restock the supply of polar ice after a record summer melt like this year's.
Another indicator of climate change is the condition of permafrost, the ground that has been frozen solid for centuries.
Permafrost all around the Arctic started warming up in the 1970s and 1980s, but the warming slowed by the mid-1990s and showed almost no change by 2000, said Vladimir Romanovsky of the University of Alaska at Fairbanks.
This shows that whatever is causing the permafrost to get warmer, it is consistent around the hemisphere, from Alaska to Greenland to Siberia, Romanovsky said.
Mike Gill of the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program noted that Arctic biodiversity has a global impact, since hundreds of bird species and several marine mammal species migrate from the Arctic to all parts of the Earth except the interior of Antarctica.
Gill noted that some reindeer and caribou herds, on which local populations depend, have declined up to 80 percent, while some goose populations have doubled, contributing to overgrazing.
© 2007 Reuters
10 Comments so far
Show Allworkreno,
I agree with you on steet lighting - except where needed in urban (not suburban) areas, I hate street lighting. Especially all those (in)security lights seen around houses even in rural areas. Besides the energy waste, most USAns these days have never seen a truly dark starry sky or even the milky way, something we sorely need more USAns to do for the beneficial humility gazing out into just that small portion of our galaxy produces.
This is part of the neoCON playbook. Use photos two years old and understate everything. Meanwhile, scientist and journalists who just got back this month from a helicopter survey say that the whole Greenland ice sheet is experiencing massive earthquakes; glaciers ripping off the bedrock (breakup?) .... if it goes completely, it's a 20ft worldwide sea level rise. They say it's already too late. Rivers the size of Niagra falls are dropping into lakes 500 meters deep under the ice cap!
It is a hell of a lot later than any of us think it is......
Conservative estimate for heartbreak is mere years they say. If we're lucky, we won't have disaster for 30 years I think they said. But I can't remember it's so shocking. If I'm wrong, it's because I'm too frightended to read it again. The estimates of one hundred years weren't even close. Click here:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/10/08/4409/
Google this site for greenland icecap for other stories.
Gulmp!
pac "chittin my pants" plyer
We will soon be trapped between immovible rock of fossil fuel energy and the irresistable force of Climate Change. Toss in Peak Oil for fun and you can see that it is going to be a wild ride around 2050 perhaps sooner.
PJD as a civil engineer how much energy would you think is used in this country every single night just so Sheeple that are affaid in the dark (dark of night that is) can feel"safe" while they sleep.
Are street lights really nessisary when all the "boogie men" seem to be doing there bussiness in broad daylight? not to mention all the flood lights the plebs keep on all night so they can??????
L-Edwards,
As a civil engineer, I have been thinking exactly the same thing.
The current approach to climate is equivalent to designing a high-hazard dam only to withstand a storm or earthquake that the engineer can prove to a skeptical client will occur. Assuming the typical statisticians definition of confidence, this means such a dam will have a 95% probability of failing and killing people over its life. Not acceptable!
In reality of course the dam is designed to withstand a "maximum credible earthquake" and a "probable maximum flood" both worst case and very improbable events - plus a safety factor.
Someone please explain if I'm off here.
And yes, that is an old picture. I understand that this summer, the ice-free part of the Beaufort Sea off of Pt. Barrow was at least 3 times wider, and there was none of that broken ice zone in the NW passage - just wide open water.
In the end, it is hopeless, the US has plans to massively increase it's coal production for a large number of new power plants. As a person working in coal mining regulation, the consideration of CO2 emissions is absolutely NOT in even on the farthest horizon for these coal barrons and the politicians who lavish them with outright gifts of cash.
The science is good, but for climate its learning curve is steep and the trend is clear -- good knowledge, but if taken literally it is not reliable for society to plan with.
The important thing is to distinguish between "pure science" and "applied science" (e.g. the engineering approach). Engineers apply a factor of safety to avoid nasty surprises. We need to recognize that pure science is (and for the foreseeable future will be) behind the curve on climate change.
We need to consider that the accepted target of reducing global greenhouse gas emissions by 50% and U.S. emissions by 80% by 2050 incorporates NO factor of safety. Given the trend of the science and frequency with which the pure scientists are getting surprised, this target is foolish optimism that is not up to the task. For starters, knock 20 years off the time available, and also design an emissions reduction vs. time schedule curve that is front end loaded. Otherwise we are likely to fail miserably.
Why did it take 2 frigging years to release this pic ???
Now I see why the buShit administration is in favor of nuclear suicide with Iran and the rest of the world. If they can pump enough dust into the atmosphere it will cause a Nuclear Winter thus stopping "we told you so" Global Warming. We all get to die from radiation sickness, famine and freezing. The rich people also get to starve to death after the canned food supply runs out in a few years and they've consumed the remaining soylent.
By the way, I don't have a German potsticker symbol on my keyboard for the first sentence.
Sacasm mode in pause.
I fear that too many influential people see this as a good thing. They think of the short term benefit of shorter global shipping lanes through the arctic, but ignore that fact that civilisation relies on a stable climate. Once the climate ceases to be conductive to agriculture, the game is up.
It's been an incredibly warm autumn so far here in the western PA. Only a few coldest spots have had frost. Temperatures averaging 5C above normal continuously - I'll be picking tomatos well into November, and we'll be seeing green trees into December.