Record low Arctic sea ice extent for January

The U.S. government won't take action until geoengineering the atmosphere is a last resort.
We must INDIVIDUALLY take action by driving as little as possible in a hybrid vehicle, turning off lights and TVs when leaving a room, cutting back on eating beef, installing a reflective roof and, most importantly, planting as many evergreen trees as possible.

geoengineering is certain death, messing with nature acting as its master is sure to end in disaster

When you really think about it we have been geoengineering the atmosphere for centuries with our industrial greenhouse gasses.
And, technically, planting forests is a form of geoengineering the land and sky.
We must learn as much as we can about all forms of geoengineering in order to know what we are talking about.
Agricultural biochar and Arctic cloud whitening are not bad ideas.

touche' I like your out of the box thinking, actually truth to what you say, its just now magnitudes greater with ever bigger and crazier solutions to self made problems, with proactive thinking such drastic solutions would not be necessary in the scheme of things, but you are right, expecting man to be proactive is a futile lesson in despair.

lulz I luv those guys. "what do you mean global warming!? look at all this snow!"

To get enough people to do something about it why not throw a tree-planting party with free beer?

You bring the beer & I'll bring a tree.

I'll even plant my tree.................*¿*

Hell, I'll bring a keg of German beer, plenty of compost and 50 sequoia saplings if you bring the shovels and people!
;~}

I've run out of room to plant trees in my year and started asking neighbors if I could plant trees in their yards at my own expense. So far I've planted 18 in my neighborhood and offer to water and fertilize them for free.
If you live in an apartment with a sunny patio there are numerous small trees that do well in large pots. I recommend the dwarf Alberta spruce and black bamboo depending on your climate zone.

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'member when janis was singin live in the counter-culture revolution?
well
it was environmental awareness and zpg (zero population growth) back then

people talking about it NOW?
kinda late to the party?
sheee at
.

There are organizations planting trrees, millions of them... the problem is our voracious and selfish desire for palm oil and other products that are unnecessary as well as cutting down forests to grow biofuel and other non food crops unbalances the equation. We also have the added threat of drought which kills trees, the Amazon being a prime example and infestations due to warming weather such as what is happening in the US Northwest as well as stronger storms like Cyclone Yasi destroying all in its path. We can plant trees, the problem is keeping them in the ground. And even ideas presented to foster that don't go all the way in holding polluters accountable.

The problem is not biofuels. It is impossible raise atmospheric CO2 using biofuels. Every single atom of carbon in a biofuel first had to be removed from the atmosphere by a plant in order to produce the biofuel. If the carbon were not removed by a plant first---you'd have no plants to make the biofuel from. Therefore, you can not raise the atmospheric CO2 level using biofuels.

It's a problem when you need to feed people.

All of us are the polluters.
I belong to several tree planting organizations which makes me feel good. But the reality is that unless the saplings are watered several times a week in hot weather they will die. The statistics are that 9 out of 10 saplings planted will die if not tended regularly for the first few years.
My brother recently planted 500 pine saplings on his land and they were all dead the next year.

Is spending nearly a trillion dollars a year and life and limbs of thousands of US service personnel on wars over oil feeding one single person?

I've been holding on to nine acres riverfront the Rio Grande in Colorado since 1989 for this very reason. Paid $6000 and my taxes are $38 a year.
The region is called the Land of Cool Sunshine.
300 sunny days per year. Minimal rain but I'm on the river with a good watertable.
I feel lucky I paid attention to global warming way back then.

Cheers and applause to you. Please do not think that teaching your Grand kids is "not much'. It's huge!! If all would do what you are doing another generation of children will be wiser.

Plastic bags no...paper or cloth yes..........lesson learned young..........*¿*

I agree, the " tipping point " has come and gone many years ago.

Sadly, I think you may be right.

We must accept the fact that what you speak of is now a reality.

One would think that the most intelligent inhabitants of the plant would not be the cause of its demise.

What a world...........it was.................*¿*

We can stop burning petroleum and coal.

We have the means to do anything we need done without the use of either petroleum or coal.

We'd also avoid a LOT of other environmental damage besides climate change if we stopped all petroleum and coal use as well.

Polar bears are just the tip of the iceberg.

What tip of what iceberg? its already melted.

Thank you. Politicizing this crisis is immoral.

On edit:

What is now occurring does not know of poltiics, race, sex, creed, or religion. It will effect all of us in one way or another. I am one who has always believed that what happens to one part of the world has a ripple effect like throwing a stone across a river. We may have divisions and labels put upon us to facilitate our biases but bottomline is we are all humans and a part of the human condition and a biosphere where other species that cannot speak for themselves are also suffering the effects of this. Our planet is now in distress and like a child or someone we love who is sick and needs us, she now needs us too.

Some say we have reached a tipping point. Though I think we are close, we are not all the way there yet. There is still a small sliver of time to move, but of course that will take discussing this and solutions and adaptation plans not as left or right or from the perspective of putting only our needs first, but as a people who care about this Earth because we know that to lose her means we lose us.

I don't mean to preach, but as someone who has read reports, seen the graphs, listened to the scientists, this is no hoax. We have to stop using politics as an excuse to continue this stalemate. It is a great disservice to our future and especially the future of our children and grandchildren.

As the Arctic continues to melt, we may well see an ice free Arctic in summer within the next twenty years. For many of us that will be our lifetime and the lives of our children and or theirs. It will precipitate a warmer world as we continue to emit greenhouse gases thinking they have no effect as we amplify the hydrologic cycle, the ocean currents, acidification of our oceans, as well as the poisoning of our planet through pollution. We will see more positive feedback, more drought, more floods, and a possible reversal of the Atlantic current that could drastically effect our ability to live as it decimates agriculture and water availability.

This surpasses politics and oil company profits. This crisis is a test of who we are and it is now necessary to see an Egyptian Revolution globally for our sustainability. It is the most inconvenient truth we will have to face, but our fate is absolutely in our hands. The question we need to answer seriously now is, are we up to the task? We better be. The Arctic will not wait.

Very well said.

My biggest fear is that we may have passed the tipping point, however, I will not stop practicing my every effort to assist in working for a solution. I believe in science and I believe the science that tells us we have a chance.

If, and that's a huge if, we can create a global effort to stop the propaganda against the very idea that climate change is not fiction, but a reality that is threatening our very existence, we may, just may, have that chance.

I remain optimistic enough to not stop working towards that goal...............*¿*

You make very good points.

Hope many will read...................*¿*

Unfortunately, the politics will continue because money is involved. Take the Koch brothers [I live in their hometown, please take them]. Whether they truly believe in climate change or not will not matter. There are billions to be made continuing to burn hydrocarbon fuels and they will not give up what they worship the most -- the almighty dollar. And that is the problem. It will continue to be politicized by the money dealers.

that is our true religion ... "in money we trust."

Very good post!

The flooding starts this week in the US. Then refreeze.

It feels like spring here in Pittsburgh this week.
It was almost 50 degrees F today at midnight. It is forecasted to reach 60 midweek.
This is when we used to get below zero weather.
And everyone complains how cold it has been even though it's been an unusually warm winter staying between 20 and 30 most of the time. Not yet down to zero except for wind chill.
Last winter's "Snowmageddon" here was likewise warmer than normal but nobody noticed.
Hawaiian Taro plants I left in the ground over winter grew back last spring. That should not happen here in zone 6 which used to go down to -10 below zero. Taro is a zone 9 plant.
One good thing. My giant sequoias and black bamboo love it!

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when it becomes abundantly clear to the right
they will undoubtedly blame the elite left for not
doing something about it sooner...
.

It gets hot in summer and cold in winter.
You can't explain that.

I learned on Fox that has something to do with the moon and the tides proving God exists.....
;~}

Actually the seasons have to do with the angle of sunlight rather than distance from the Sun.

I've also thought about covering the melting tundra with a breatheable reflective fabric and collecting some of the escaping methane.
Good idea!

Overdrive coming.

Trouble is the natives have only an oral tradition that might not even go back to the last big freeze..... and ..... anecdotal information is what it is.

I trust the native oral tradition much more than the non-native written word. And I also trust science.

It's chilling listening to that.

It is chilling and sad. Why can't we collectively see what our actions are doing to cultures and indigenous people who have lived for centuries with the knowledge we need to solve this? They are the very people whose wisdom we should be using to guide us out of this and we push them aside. It is a huge mistake.

We passed the tipping point of no return under George W. Bush.
The CO2 released during his presidency has not even reached the upper stratosphere and will stay in the atmosphere for hundreds of years.

...are you high or just stupid?

don't depend on people to do the right thing when the tragedy happens but if there are laws, most of us will do as we are told by an authority.

He's ayipsis (latest guise).

Ahhh sounds about right.

And how about you?

Well sure because the same oil companies that fill Inhofe's pocket pay for ad time on these stations.

This is funny, because you have no point.
"And how much sunlight is there in the Arctic in January?"
Probably the same amount as last year. In fact, maybe last year the Arctic got even more sunlight. But did we set a record last year? No, because this doesn't have to do with the amount of sunlight per se.

It is, but the amount of sunlight is reoccurring, so your last question "And how much sunlight is there in the Arctic in January?" is irrelevant to the fact that there is a new record this year.

Then what was the point of your comment?

I said last year, not last January. Last year, the entire year, the arctic may have gotten more sunlight, but no record was set until now. That was my point. Why is it that this now, when there's no sunlight up there, we set a record? Of course we can't know if we'll break the record again this year until after the summer solstice.
And as for you asking "Then why tell me there may have been even more sunlight last year if this has nothing to do with sunlight?", you're the one who brought it up first. They just listed a factor, and you got all bent out of shape over it. Calm yourself.

I'm sorry, I honestly misunderstood sections of the article.
It turns out I was getting FOR January mixed up with IN January, like you said. My apologies.

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bad news kennymotown
the inertia of scale (earth)
makes reversal not possible

even if we pulled the plug on every conceivable carbon dioxide producing
source right NOW, this MOMENT NOW
the life cycle/degradation of CO2 in the atmosphere is approximately 20 years

i call it an industrial revolution meets over-population perfect storm

kind of an all round bummer really
but then
there's another point-of-view here
if you're into reincarnation
it means everyone's done
so
we all get to go play with lao tzu, krishna, budda, jesus and all the other
enlightened masters... woo hoo
.

That's me in a nut shell, karmatic reincarnation nut! I find that our only hope may be the real Gods (Ancient Aliens).

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in my experience kennymotown
the light in us all that comes before all light in the end
the light of all in union
the beginning and the end eternal
the one light is
god

and god gives love unending

if a person wants heaven
heaven is given
if a person wants heck
heck is given
if a person wants black
black is given

the only condemnation in all of existence and eternity
is made and given
by the person

i have found
in not wanting
truth is given

suprise suprise
what opens up your eyes!
it is nothing that can be conceived by the brain of man
only "seen" by the mind of being

and that's no cods wallop brother
mmm mmm
.

We are one with the universe
a universal truth
and our linage comes from beyond the stars
and we will return to the place of our birth!

Yesp, you have spent to much time on the internet and watching Olbermann, Stewart, and Maher. Just think of how much CO2 the libs have released into the atmosphere.

Hopefully for your sake that bubble you live in floats!

There's a weird phenomenon in america today. The people who yell the loudest and wave the flag the hardest are also the ones who have a bag of wet hammers for brains and are the most intolerant of others who do not think and act like them

Just freakin weird i tell ya. It wasn't like that when i grew up in California, New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado and North Dakota. Maybe the creepy noisy flag wavin haters are in other states i didn't
grow up in?