Arctic warming threatens future of the planet

It's so amazing to me that most people aren't ever interested in being aware of this... Is it laziness? Is it fear? Are most humans just lemmings?

I hope we collectively wake up.

Amen to that. I was having a conversation with a woman Friday who was very concerned about food and even commented to me how it is fresher and more natural in Europe and that the food here was crap. I explained all about Monsanto, GMOS, and chemicals in food here and gave her the website for the Institute for Responsible Technology. She wrote it down, thanked me very much, and told me she would tell all of her friends to buy more natural foods and get off processed foods. Now, she is only one person, but if she tells even ten friends about it and they in turn do the same and so on, we are talking potentially about hundreds of people from that one person knowing more in order to take action. So yes, doing what you say does make a difference, and I think it is great.

my new year's resolution is to do the same Jan. when i see something that is damaging to the planet, i'm going to speak out! even if it is my girlfriend's grandparents. everyone might think i'm a jerk, but nothing is changing by ignoring it or saying that people will never change, because if you explain to them what they are really doing to the Earth they will.(i hope)

Get louder. Get pushy. Get in their faces. That's what I'm doing this coming year.

Sounds like someone needs to make the call. How do we harness the people energy? What should we do, Jan?

I don't know why that is either. And I remember the 70s as well. We don't need a replay of it, we need to learn from it.

You're right, Jan.
Now that I think about it. A call to action does seem to be put on the back burner.
Hmmm...I wonder why?

I can remmeber in the 70's when scientists were warning about pollution and climate change because of it.

Everything, and nothing changes.

We had best get on the stick....there is too much at stake.

Me too. Hopefully all of the posts placed here about this and activist action will not wind up at the back of the pack by being placed there. There seems to be a pattern of that.

I appreciate your acknowledgement of the fact that polar melting is indiscriminant. We all need to take the initiative for the betterment of the world.

You are so right Jan, I am gearing up to be an activist as much as possible for new innovations and technologies.

Let our voices ring!

When the convection currents of the world's oceans are disrupted due to this condition, their will be another Ice Age in Europe, there will be nothing to warm the oceans during winter.

And worse yet, if the inclination of the earth were to tip from 23 degrees to even 25 degrees, together with the convection ceasing and winter in the northern hemisphere, well, that would be a lethal combination. Multitudes will die from freezing to death.

From the article:

A report issued by the U.S. government today shows that rising temperatures in the Arctic could have disastrous impacts on the rest of the planet beyond what had previously been projected, reinforcing the urgency for a new global climate treaty, said officials with World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

According to the report “Abrupt Climate Change” from the U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP), additional warming in the Arctic could cause sea levels to rise substantially beyond scientists’ previous predictions and could result in massive releases of methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide.

“These findings offer a startling view of climate change in the Arctic and the profound impact it may already be having on the future of the entire planet,” said Dr. Richard Moss, vice president for WWF’s Climate Change Program and previously head of the CCSP coordination office. “World governments just concluded two weeks of climate treaty negotiations in Poland with a disappointing lack of progress. As negotiations continue over the course of the coming year, this report should provide a much-needed sense of urgency to help reach agreement next December in Copenhagen.”

The CCSP report found that even relatively small temperature changes in the Arctic could set in motion a chain of events that could greatly accelerate changes to the global climate, and is “likely to have adverse consequences for highly vulnerable Arctic and global ecosystems and negative impacts on human activities, including costly damage to infrastructure.”

Other key findings included:

Recent rapid declines in ice volume in Greenland and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet are likely to continue and will likely result in sea level rise scenarios that “substantially exceed” the predictions made by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007.

Climate change will likely increase the Arctic’s “chronic emissions” of methane, a gas whose warming potential is 25 times greater than carbon dioxide. The rate of methane release in the north could double and “much larger increases cannot be discounted.”

Model scenarios indicate that drier conditions in the subtropics are more likely. “This projected drying extends poleward into the United States Southwest, potentially increasing the likelihood of severe and persistent drought there in the future. If the model results are correct then this drying may already have begun.”

The report was discussed today in San Francisco during the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), the world’s largest gathering of Earth Scientists. In sessions co-organized by Dr. Martin Sommerkorn, WWF’s senior Arctic climate change advisor, scientists provided details on measurements of methane gas escaping from the ocean near Siberia, accelerated melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet and Arctic sea ice, and changes to the tundra that increase carbon losses to the atmosphere.

“The Arctic is a regulator of the earth’s climate,” said Sommerkorn. “We are seeing troubling signs that the dramatic changes in that region threaten the rest of the planet.”

The research discussed at the AGU meeting, together with the findings in the CCSP report, highlight the urgency of immediate action by the global community, said Moss,

“We must reduce greenhouse gas emissions and intensify national and international preparations for impacts if we are to manage the risks of climate change,” Moss said. “President-elect Obama’s proposals for returning to 1990 levels by 2020 are an important first step, but additional reductions will be required to reduce the probability of suffering the impacts described in these reports. In addition, the administration will also need to improve monitoring systems and the quality of information from the federal science program for planning adaptation measures.”