Area Of Thick Arctic Ice Has Doubled In The Last Two Years
H/T to ex-Texan for gif
Posted on 01/28/2011 11:14:21 AM PST by NormsRevenge
OSLO (Reuters) – A North Atlantic current flowing into the Arctic Ocean is warmer than for at least 2,000 years in a sign that global warming is likely to bring ice-free seas around the North Pole in summers, a study showed.
Scientists said that waters at the northern end of the Gulf Stream, between Greenland and the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, averaged 6 degrees Celsius (42.80F) in recent summers, warmer than at natural peaks during Roman or Medieval times.
"The temperature is unprecedented in the past 2,000 years," lead author Robert Spielhagen of the Academy of Sciences, Humanities and Literature in Mainz, Germany, told Reuters of the study in Friday's edition of the journal Science.
The summer water temperatures, reconstructed from the makeup of tiny organisms buried in sediments in the Fram strait, have risen from an average 5.2 degrees Celsius (41.36F) from 1890-2007 and about 3.4C (38.12F) in the previous 1,900 years.
The findings were a new sign that human activities were stoking modern warming since temperatures are above past warm periods linked to swings in the sun's output that enabled, for instance, the Vikings to farm in Greenland in Medieval times.
"We found that modern Fram Strait water temperatures are well outside the natural bounds," Thomas Marchitto, of the University of Colorado at Boulder, one of the authors, said in a statement.
The Fram strait is the main carrier of ocean heat to the Arctic.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
All I needed to read.
Maybe they can tell how hot it was in Chicago last summer buy how much snow falls in New York City in January.
This study, like many others of its ilk cannot make any connection between the data and human activity. But, such an unfounded statement is required in order to keep the grant money flowing. Its an unprecedented deception and marks the end of science.
“And just what type of high-tech thermometers were they using 2,000 years ago to establish that benchmark temp?”
They got em from the aliens, ask George Noury. Coal was once mined from Svalbard (Spitsbergen) Its a hub of artic weather studies and somebody needs some grant money.
It could be a sign that ocean currents have shifted due to global cooling. It could be a change in ocean currents that are cyclical. It could be a temporary shift. It could be erroneous inferences from flawed data. It could be poor methodology. It could be because of unlikely asssumptions.
The finding is interesting.
Using the words "global warming" reflects bias and poor judgment, IMO. A warm spot here or there does not imply global warming, unless a global systems approach is applied to account for all warming spots and all cooling spots on the Earth, with a net cooling or warming trend identified and supported.
The changing weather is apparently connected with differences in the amount of energy that the earth's surface receives from the sun. Changes in the earth's tilt and distance from the sun could, for instance, significantly increase or decrease the amount of solar radiation falling on either hemisphere—thereby altering the earth's climate. Some observers have tried to connect the eleven-year sunspot cycle with climate patterns, but have so far been unable to provide a satisfactory explanation of how the cycle might be involved.
Man, too, may be somewhat responsible for the cooling trend. The University of Wisconsin's Reid A. Bryson and other climatologists suggest that dust and other particles released into the atmosphere as a result of farming and fuel burning may be blocking more and more sunlight from reaching and heating the surface of the earth. (See an infographic on the effects of the changing climate.)
Climatic Balance. Some scientists like Donald Oilman, chief of the National Weather Service's long-range-prediction group, think that the cooling trend may be only temporary. But all agree that vastly more information is needed about the major influences on the earth's climate. Indeed, it is to gain such knowledge that 38 ships and 13 aircraft, carrying scientists from almost 70 nations, are now assembling in the Atlantic and elsewhere for a massive 100-day study of the effects of the tropical seas and atmosphere on worldwide weather. The study itself is only part of an international scientific effort known acronymically as GARP (for Global Atmospheric Research Program).
Whatever the cause of the cooling trend, its effects could be extremely serious, if not catastrophic. Scientists figure that only a 1% decrease in the amount of sunlight hitting the earth's surface could tip the climatic balance, and cool the planet enough to send it sliding down the road to another ice age within only a few hundred years. (See TIME's video, "This Changing Earth.")
The earth's current climate is something of an anomaly; in the past 700,000 years, there have been at least seven major episodes of glaciers spreading over much of the planet. Temperatures have been as high as they are now only about 5% of the time. But there is a peril more immediate than the prospect of another ice age. Even if temperature and rainfall patterns change only slightly in the near future in one or more of the three major grain-exporting countries — the U.S., Canada and Australia — global food stores would be sharply reduced. University of Toronto Climatologist Kenneth Hare, a former president of the Royal Meteorological Society, believes that the continuing drought and the recent failure of the Russian harvest gave the world a grim premonition of what might happen. Warns Hare: "I don't believe that the world's present population is sustainable if there are more than three years like 1972 in a row."
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,944914-2,00.html#ixzz1CMQbj3Ha
I’ll be honest.
I don’t trust that the Roman thermometers were that accurate. Esp. the Celsius ones.
If he had just been representing the “Academy of Science” I might pay a little attention, but when he adds “Humanities and Literature” I say No.
how reliable could thermometers have been 2,000 years ago?
Let’s say for the sake of argument that these guys are spot on. The Earth is warming. The Arctic Ocean will be an ice-free lake.
In the past, every warming period has been associated with human prosperity. On the other hand, cold spells have caused famine, destruction, and decline.
So we need to return to some previous colder era? What loons. Assuming that they know what they’re talking about, which isn’t likely.
Absurdity! X 3
Notice how all these studies stop at 2007, which was the lowest ice level. Of course in the last 4 years the ice has been recovering so their results won't have as scary numbers. Chopping off cooling years at the end was the "Hide the Decline" trick
I would also bet their other years are similarly cherrypicked. The Arctic was very warm during the 1930's, so I'd bet their numbers wouldn't have been as scary if they started there.
sure am glad those Vikings who were sailing around in Jesus’ time had their thermometers with them /sarc
New paleo reconstruction shows warmer periods in Alaska over the past 3000 years
It's cooling down .
According to 'scientists', this past summer was the hottest on record.
If we take both of these things to be 'true', then the net result is ZERO.
No thermometers.
The information was obtained from interviews with tiny microorganisms that buried their heads in the sand.
So which is it? If the gulf stream brings warm water north then it's proof of AGW, and if it doesn't bring warm water north, then it's proof of AGW?
Got it. Now I understand what this is all about.
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