“The catastrophic loss of Arctic Sea Ice and its implications for landslides”
Landslides have been getting a lot of attention in the Alps and the Himalayas this year as once stable high angle rock is peeling off, due to the ice-glue melting.
Tired of ice melting? Ready for U.S.A is #1 story? Like to think you are geeky but not the nerdiest guy on the planet? Then meet Chris Burt, official slayer of Libya’s dicatat… er, hot temperature record:
Judging by that graph, we may well have at least another week to go before re-freezing starts. It is an outrage that human activity will be the cause of the extinction of polar bears (in the wild). However, to make it personal, I agree that it would be better for the image of a human child to be the icon of the campaign to prevent ecocide. http://www.yaleclimatemediaforum.org/2012/09/child-rather-than-polar-bear-as-icon-of-global-warming/
As a couple of astute scientists have pointed out, the polar bear readily interbreeds with the brown bear and will survive as a carrion, fish and berry eater.
And the iconic symbol of the top of the food chain in the Arctic Ocean will soon be….. the orca.
***
By the way, why don’t those three girls have surf boards? They look so deprived. 🙂
Having been personally similarly dismissed by Real Climate (for suggesting that climate models are not adequately incorporating the loss of a major CO2 sink because of forests dying off from ozone pollution) I have a lot of sympathy for the AMEG.
Thanks for the HuffPo discussion of Real Climate’s sometimes odd biases. I’ve been wondering about that site. I read their dismissiveness of the methane issue above the Arctic Circle and wondered if they were perhaps being too cavalier about the risks.
It’s good to see my suspicions corroborated by others.
And thank YOU for the landslide blog! Maybe there are so many more deaths from landslides (amazing graph there) because of wild weather and melting ice, but to an Ozonista like me, it’s welcome evidence that I expected to find, that vegetation is in decline as are roots that hold soil and absorb precipitation.
RealClimate (some not all contributors) are, like most scientists, still stuck in the old paradigm of reticence, caution, professional discretion, and remaining above the policy fray. They are trained to be that way. And they don’t like being asked, “What part of existential threat don’t you understand?”
The days when science can be aloof are over, but most of them haven’t figured it out yet, or, they just don’t want to risk their reputation/career by inviting the dreaded epithet “alarmist”.
Or as somebody once said, no one ever got denied tenure or funding for saying “more research is needed.”
………If you’re not alarmed,………
you’re not paying enough attention!
***
You make an interesting point about deforestation and landslides. Dr. Petley from time to time does note that quite a large percentage of landslides have to do with the unintended consequences of humans devastating their surroundings and then suffering the results of greed, folly and indifference to nature.
Speaking metaphorically, the angle of repose is getting shallower and shallower for such a careless species such as our own.
***
BTW Gail, you might find it amusing that I got censored off the Climate Progres blog when I objected to Joe Romm that he was hosting pro-military madness when some dumb kid came on promoting the $27/gallon biofuel the Navy was experimenting with in some of its fleet. Talk about misguided missiles and when Green turns ghastly. Oy vey.
However, if the methods and conclusions of this 2010 paper are right, then solar variation either had little impact on the Roman and Medieval Warm Periods, both of which are trotted out by the cooligan crowd as proof that it’s either the sun (D’oh!!) or it’s not CO2.
Archibald trundles along with his ice holocaust and says that the planet has been cooling for 8000 years, insolation at the critical latitudes is already low enough to trigger an irreversible slide into glaciation – in about 200 centuries.
@ ^ Morin Moss : So, wait, that last one is saying we’re cooling now and willhave an ice age in 2000 years time – and this somehow explains away / is consistent with this year’s record low Arctic sea ice – *how* exactly??
mediacritter : & now to discuss these issues we’ll take a look at the poles.
Screen shot : Arctic ocean full of waves, the last few chunks of melting ice, a barbers pole and a drowning Santa clinging to the reins of his deer as they struggle to lift an overladen sled from cold waters.
This ice thing is getting so weird that we’re even getting the landslide guys to pay some attention:
http://tinyurl.com/9pvxglj
AGU Landslide Blog headline by Dr. David Petley:
“The catastrophic loss of Arctic Sea Ice and its implications for landslides”
Landslides have been getting a lot of attention in the Alps and the Himalayas this year as once stable high angle rock is peeling off, due to the ice-glue melting.
Loadza Goodies From Neven at the blog formerly known as Arctic Sea Ice:
http://neven1.typepad.com/blog/2012/09/sea-ice-loss-2012-what-do-the-records-mean.html
Tired of ice melting? Ready for U.S.A is #1 story? Like to think you are geeky but not the nerdiest guy on the planet? Then meet Chris Burt, official slayer of Libya’s dicatat… er, hot temperature record:
http://www.wunderground.com/deadheat
If this is something you can watch in its entirety, we have an “Eagle Geek” badge waiting for you!
Judging by that graph, we may well have at least another week to go before re-freezing starts. It is an outrage that human activity will be the cause of the extinction of polar bears (in the wild). However, to make it personal, I agree that it would be better for the image of a human child to be the icon of the campaign to prevent ecocide.
http://www.yaleclimatemediaforum.org/2012/09/child-rather-than-polar-bear-as-icon-of-global-warming/
What ecocide, Marin?
As a couple of astute scientists have pointed out, the polar bear readily interbreeds with the brown bear and will survive as a carrion, fish and berry eater.
And the iconic symbol of the top of the food chain in the Arctic Ocean will soon be….. the orca.
***
By the way, why don’t those three girls have surf boards? They look so deprived. 🙂
from the Arctic Methane Emergency Group:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nathan-currier/arctic-crisis_b_1859710.html
Having been personally similarly dismissed by Real Climate (for suggesting that climate models are not adequately incorporating the loss of a major CO2 sink because of forests dying off from ozone pollution) I have a lot of sympathy for the AMEG.
Gail,
Thanks for the HuffPo discussion of Real Climate’s sometimes odd biases. I’ve been wondering about that site. I read their dismissiveness of the methane issue above the Arctic Circle and wondered if they were perhaps being too cavalier about the risks.
It’s good to see my suspicions corroborated by others.
And thank YOU for the landslide blog! Maybe there are so many more deaths from landslides (amazing graph there) because of wild weather and melting ice, but to an Ozonista like me, it’s welcome evidence that I expected to find, that vegetation is in decline as are roots that hold soil and absorb precipitation.
RealClimate (some not all contributors) are, like most scientists, still stuck in the old paradigm of reticence, caution, professional discretion, and remaining above the policy fray. They are trained to be that way. And they don’t like being asked, “What part of existential threat don’t you understand?”
The days when science can be aloof are over, but most of them haven’t figured it out yet, or, they just don’t want to risk their reputation/career by inviting the dreaded epithet “alarmist”.
Or as somebody once said, no one ever got denied tenure or funding for saying “more research is needed.”
Re: “Or as somebody once said,…”
One of my favorite bumperstickers reads:
………If you’re not alarmed,………
you’re not paying enough attention!
***
You make an interesting point about deforestation and landslides. Dr. Petley from time to time does note that quite a large percentage of landslides have to do with the unintended consequences of humans devastating their surroundings and then suffering the results of greed, folly and indifference to nature.
Speaking metaphorically, the angle of repose is getting shallower and shallower for such a careless species such as our own.
***
BTW Gail, you might find it amusing that I got censored off the Climate Progres blog when I objected to Joe Romm that he was hosting pro-military madness when some dumb kid came on promoting the $27/gallon biofuel the Navy was experimenting with in some of its fleet. Talk about misguided missiles and when Green turns ghastly. Oy vey.
Baby, it’s NOT cold outside:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/sep/14/arctic-sea-ice-smallest-extent
I see our cooligan comrades at WUWT are doubling down on global cooling.
Here are some recent posts:
1) History of Solar Activity over Millennia
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/09/13/paper-demonstrates-solar-activity-was-at-a-grand-maxima-in-the-late-20th-century/
However, if the methods and conclusions of this 2010 paper are right, then solar variation either had little impact on the Roman and Medieval Warm Periods, both of which are trotted out by the cooligan crowd as proof that it’s either the sun (D’oh!!) or it’s not CO2.
2) F10.7 Flux, Sea Level and the Holocene
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/09/15/f10-7-flux-sea-level-and-the-holocene/
Building off of post #1, Dave Archibald states that we are on the cusp of at least 2 decades of cooling, likely to begin in early 2015
3) Onset of the Next Glaciation
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/09/16/onset-of-the-next-glaciation/
Archibald trundles along with his ice holocaust and says that the planet has been cooling for 8000 years, insolation at the critical latitudes is already low enough to trigger an irreversible slide into glaciation – in about 200 centuries.
@ ^ Morin Moss : So, wait, that last one is saying we’re cooling now and willhave an ice age in 2000 years time – and this somehow explains away / is consistent with this year’s record low Arctic sea ice – *how* exactly??
Must be the effect of that oh-so-super-ultra-high solar output in the latter half of the 20th century.
And that predicted ice age, by Archibald’s estimate, is TWENTY thousand years away, not two.
Used to be people sliding on ice.
.. Now seems to be ice sliding on people.
mediacritter : & now to discuss these issues we’ll take a look at the poles.
Screen shot : Arctic ocean full of waves, the last few chunks of melting ice, a barbers pole and a drowning Santa clinging to the reins of his deer as they struggle to lift an overladen sled from cold waters.
Idea inspired by this :
http://freethoughtblogs.com/cuttlefish/2012/09/03/the-year-that-santa-drowned/
Bit of verse.