This image made available by NASA shows the amount of summer sea ice in the Arctic on Sunday, Sept. 16, 2012, at center in white, and the 1979 to 2000 average extent for the day shown, with the yellow line. Scientists say sea ice in the Arctic shrank to an all-time low of 1.32 million square miles on Sunday, Sept. 16, 2012, smashing old records for the critical climate indicator. That’s 18 percent smaller than the previous record set in 2007. Records go back to 1979 based on satellite tracking. (AP Photo/U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center)
‘Planetary emergency’ due to Arctic melt, experts warn
By Agence France-Presse
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Experts warned of a “planetary emergency” due to the unforeseen global consequences of Arctic ice melt, including methane gas released from permafrost regions currently under ice.
Columbia University and the environmental activist group Greenpeace held separate events Wednesday to discuss US government data showing that the Arctic sea ice has shrunk to its smallest surface area since record-keeping began in 1979.
Satellite images show the Arctic ice cap melted to 1.32 million square miles (3.4 million square kilometers) as of September 16, the predicted lowest point for the year, according to data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado.
“Between 1979 and 2012, we have a decline of 13 percent per decade in the sea ice, accelerating from six percent between 1979 and 2000,” said oceanographer Wieslaw Maslowski with the US Naval Postgraduate School, speaking at the Greenpeace event.“If this trend continues we will not have sea ice by the end of this decade,” said Maslowski.
While these figures are worse than the early estimates they come as no surprise to scientists, said NASA climate expert James Hansen, who also spoke at the Greenpeace event.
“We are in a planetary emergency,” said Hansen, decrying “the gap between what is understood by scientific community and what is known by the public.”
What do the major-party presidential candidates have to say on the subject of climate change? President Obama says nothing. Willard (“Mitt”) Romney mocks the President for something he said in 2008.
“President Obama promised to slow the rise of the oceans and to heal the planet. My promise is to help you and your family.”
Both candidates, of course, are backed by coal, oil and gas money.
#1 by Anonymous on September 20, 2012 - 10:37 am
Thank you for posting this article. When will the “scientists ” admit to the global geoengineering issue? The elephant in the room that no one dares mention. Had the decades long spraying of the stratosphere helped cause the catastrophe we now face?
Hope all will investigate the dire issue of geoengineering.
#2 by Richard Warnick on September 20, 2012 - 10:52 am
From Wikipedia: “To date, no large-scale geoengineering projects have been undertaken.”
#3 by Larry Bergan on September 20, 2012 - 6:12 pm
This is a scary post.
I just watched the debate between Elizabeth Warren and Scott Brown. I think this was Warren’s first political debate and she did a great job!
She brought up a scary fact: if the Republicans take the senate, James Inhofe – the man who said global warming is a hoax – will be in charge of the EPA. Scott Brown, wisely, distanced himself from Inhofe, but does not call for paring down subsidies to the fossil fuel industry. Warren believes the subsidies should be redirected to renewable energy.
What has to happen here to convince our congresspeople to change?
#4 by brewski on September 20, 2012 - 7:15 pm
Subsidies subsidies subsidies. That’s environmentalism for pussies.
You will never clean up our air and water until using fossil fuels becomes expensive. Warren is an idiot.
#5 by Larry Bergan on September 20, 2012 - 8:17 pm
brewski brewski brewski
Warren has a name and you don’t. I’m assuming you’re using the word pussie as a pejorative. What about cowards such as yourself?
When fossil fuels become more expensive, only the rich will be able to drive in America. Sort of makes them easier to pick out.
Who’re the idiots?
#6 by brewski on September 20, 2012 - 8:56 pm
I guess every single social democracy in Europe are all wrong and we are right.
#7 by anon on September 20, 2012 - 9:00 pm
This is cool, the world has lost 80 million cubic kilometers of ice in 13k years, and the rest could melt off.
This is great, it hopefully will inundate the ratholes we call coastal cities and force us to rebuild them on a new level so as not to flood, This can only benefit humanity by helping lower the human population and drown the rathole filth laden coastal cities.
It will be a blessing.
#8 by Larry Bergan on September 20, 2012 - 11:29 pm
The issue was addressed long, long ago by many bands in America and England. The message always gets lost in the corporate media.
The Question:
Allow me to share this additional Moody Blues content:
#9 by Larry Bergan on September 21, 2012 - 12:38 am
Didn’t really expect link to the entire concert, but there you have it. The DVD looks and sounds better.
Not by much though.
#10 by Richard Warnick on September 26, 2012 - 12:26 pm
100 million people could die as a result of climate change by 2030.
Still not an issue in the 2012 campaign.