Posted on 09/12/2008 7:00:10 AM PDT by milwguy
This year will see the second-biggest loss on record of Arctic sea ice -- a sign that the area of ice coverage is shrinking at a pace faster than once expected
Mark Serreze, a senior scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, said Tuesday that the sea-ice minimum, which will be reached later this month, won't hit last year's record because the amount of daylight is decreasing in the Arctic and a new freeze is beginning.
But the minimum amount of ice at summer's end this year will be near last year's total. In 2007, the extent of Arctic ice was 23 percent lower than the previous record in 2005. That 2007 total, which set a record, was 1.65 million square miles. As of Monday, satellite observations showed 1.78 million square miles.
(Excerpt) Read more at adn.com ...
The worst is not saying the sea ice increased 7.9% this year, and with a few more years of 7-8% increases, we are back to 'normal' sea ice extent. Last year they were trumpeting an ice free north pole and lowest ever sea ice because first year ice is thinner and melts easier, but that did not happen. If the old farmers almanac is right about a bitter cold winter, we may see a big increase in sea ice extent this winter and next summer.
In 1000 AD, Leaf Ericsson founded colonies on Greenland and present day Newfoundland, which he called Vinland because of the grapes that grew freely then. Many scientists claim the average temperature was 7 degrees warmer then than it is now. The polar bears survived this natural phenomena and will also survive this one.
The only man-made global warming that I am aware of is from the hot air that Al Gore espouses.
The weather is more like it is today than it has ever been before.
nice chart! Thanks....I have been looking at the daily sea ice sat photos and siberia looks to be getting early snow and cold. The sea is building off the Russian coast earlier than last year.
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