The Independent UK: Global warming 'past the point of no return'

[terip64]

http://www.independent.co.uk/
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Published: 16 September 2005
A record loss of sea ice in the Arctic this summer has convinced scientists that the northern hemisphere may have crossed a critical threshold beyond which the climate may never recover. Scientists fear that the Arctic has now entered an irreversible phase of warming which will accelerate the loss of the polar sea ice that has helped to keep the climate stable for thousands of years.
They believe global warming is melting Arctic ice so rapidly that the region is beginning to absorb more heat from the sun, causing the ice to melt still further and so reinforcing a vicious cycle of melting and heating.

The greatest fear is that the Arctic has reached a "tipping point" beyond which nothing can reverse the continual loss of sea ice and with it the massive land glaciers of Greenland, which will raise sea levels dramatically.
Satellites monitoring the Arctic have found that the extent of the sea ice this August has reached its lowest monthly point on record, dipping an unprecedented 18.2 per cent below the long-term average.
Experts believe that such a loss of Arctic sea ice in summer has not occurred in hundreds and possibly thousands of years. It is the fourth year in a row that the sea ice in August has fallen below the monthly downward trend - a clear sign that melting has accelerated.
Scientists are now preparing to report a record loss of Arctic sea ice for September, when the surface area covered by the ice traditionally reaches its minimum extent at the end of the summer melting period.

Sea ice naturally melts in summer and reforms in winter but for the first time on record this annual rebound did not occur last winter when the ice of the Arctic failed to recover significantly.
Arctic specialists at the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre at Colorado University, who have documented the gradual loss of polar sea ice since 1978, believe that a more dramatic melt began about four years ago.
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[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Important Possibility. Nominated.

[MamaBear]

2. Scary stuff.

Good to know what's being reported. Thanks, and nominated.

[Richard D]

3. Probability more than possibility

[tex-wyo-dem]

4. Most important issue of our time...

and it's being ignored by our "leaders."

[Gregorian]

5. There are only two things that can be done about it.

-One child only law. (Or something similar, to bring the population down, or stabilize it.)
-Develop renewable energy conversion.

Neither of these is going to happen within a meaningful timeframe. the ice cube is already melting. If we stopped all combustion related thermal activity today, right now, the problem would sit as it is right now. And furthermore, the increased carbon dioxide that has been pumped into the atmosphere by the same processes, and deforestation, would take 120 years to dissipate.

Get solar cells, stop having kids, and practice treading water.

Like Bush doesn't believe in global warming, many people don't want to believe that the population is THE factor in this equation that plays the most important role. Whatever...

[Greenbeard]

6. Perhaps it would be a good idea for governments to begin accepting ...

the truth and discussing solutions.

Sea levels will rise. Storms will become more intense.

Does any nation have a plan? Eventually we will have to fall back from the coastlines around the world.

Rebuilding will not be an option, then. :(

I am afraid NO may be the last major city we rebuild.

[SnoopDog]

7. Our Earth is but a huge chemistry and biology experiment…

Over the millennia, our Earth has basically reached what is known as a ‘steady state’. This is when the basic changes to our Earth have remained constant (although changes will occur and can be significant) and predicable.

The inputs (heat, cold, life, chemicals) have remained in a steady state and therefore the outputs (changes to our environment) have equalized. Note: ‘equalized’ only means that changes are present but predicable – not ‘no changes occur’.

This steady state allows for certain creations – the most significant is life – plants and animals (of which we are but one of the many).

So, when the inputs are changed – as we have done with ‘gases’ – we change the steady state. The Earth Experiment now is in the ‘throes’ of regaining a steady state. Ice caps melting, ocean temperatures change, etc. The Earth will equalize again. The only problem is that Life (the biology part) will change. Humans can die off just as easy as the dinosaurs did. Ma Nature truly does not care – she just runs the Earth – she is happy with whatever life shows up.

This occurrence, global warming, is like a ‘fire that is encompassing the earth’ and every nation, every leader, every person should be SCREAMING. We are KILLING ourselves. And especially the USA and especially this administration, and especially those ‘rapture’ people are doing absolutely nothing about it. In fact they are accelerating the process. Bush put in laws relaxing pollution controls for power plants, etc.

These ‘god’ people, these religious people, these rapture people can go right to hell. Hey, if you all want to die, don’t wait for me – go right ahead and die already. You have NO RIGHT to take us all with you into your stupid rapture death.

I believe in life – a clean environmental life.

Our existence is in jeopardy. This (global warming) will KILL us all – it’s just what happens when you change the variables in a steady state experiment.

We have to stop this now – before it is really to late. The good news is that Ma Nature does heal herself. When 911 occurred and when that power outage occurred in the East (remember the large power outage) – Ma Nature was already cleansing herself. When the planes were removed from the air on 911, scientists were amazed by how the air was remarkably and immediately cleaner. Same for the power stations going offline and not dumping crap into the air.

So while stupid people are spending BILLIONS to kill people in Iraq, and while we continually drive are smog machines, and while we have are power plants spew the toxins into our air and land, we are killing ourselves. It won’t take long till we are gone.

[i miss america]

8. Note to self ... TIVO Survivor

- Learn how to make fire
- Learn how to feast on local crops and insects
- Build ark

[Junkdrawer]

9. Direct Link:

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article312997.ece

[truebrit71]

10. But the movie "The day after tomorrow" was left-wing fantasy right?

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight...:eyes:

The fossil-fuel corporations and their bought-and-paid-for whores in power will not admit that global warming is real until the entire Eastern Seaboard looks like NO after Katrina...

The problem with what is being reported is that the time scale for total melt gets quicker the more the ice melts. The increase in the melt will be exponential...When the North Atlantic current changes, all of Europe will suffer the consequences, as will the the Eastern US. The jetstream will be altered dramatically too...

If we truly are past the tippin-point the end will come sooner ratehr than later...