From Greenland To Carribean, Colorado To Alaska, Warming Sign Proliferates - Denver Post

[hatrack]

A torrent of water blocked Konrad Steffen from his base camp on a spring afternoon in Greenland last year. Hot weather - for Greenland - had turned a trickle below an ice sheet into a wide river. For more than five hours, Steffen - a University of Colorado glaciologist - waited on his snowmobile for the air to cool and the river to dwindle. Then he built a snow ramp, revved his ride and jumped across.

Global warming, scientists say, is reshaping the landscapes in which they work, forcing some researchers to carry shotguns to fend off stranded polar bears and leaving others to watch once- vibrant coral reefs die. In Siberia, CU soil biologist Jason Neff has seen melting permafrost create sinkholes in tundra, which fill with murky water. "Things that you'd think would take hundreds of years are happening before your eyes," Neff said.

Last month, the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported that the world is heating up and that it's "very likely" the fault of people. Burning fossil fuels in power plants and cars releases heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the air.

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In northern Alaska, 1,000- pound polar bears normally stalk seals on sea ice floating off the coast, waiting for their prey to swim up for a breath. That ice is disappearing beyond the horizon, said U.S. Department of Energy physicist Bernie Zak, who works at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque. Two decades ago in summertime, ice receded just a few dozen miles offshore in the summer, Zak said. Now, it is often 100 or 200 miles away.

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http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_5415000

[Divernan]

1. As one who scuba dives in the Caribbean, this makes me physically ill.

I knew it was coming. I've seen dead patches of ocean bed/coral reefs in the Bahamas, in areas where the water temps were in the high 80's in the summer, but it's happening so very quickly now. At least I have my videos and my memories of the ocean's magnificence, including the elkhorn corals.
(More from the OP's link):
Tropics heating up

Joan Kleypas, a biologist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, has been studying coral reefs for more than two decades. Oceanographers once thought global warming would be great for coral reefs, Kleypas said.

"With time, we realized the oceans were warming too fast," Kleypas said. "They cannot adapt, and it's killing them." In the Caribbean, she once snorkeled among elegantly branched elkhorn corals.

Today, the elkhorn are almost gone, victims of pollution, warmer water and acidification from the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide seeping into oceans. "They're unbelievably magnificent," Kleypas said. "In my lifetime, these things have gone from being absolutely dominant, like a weed, to being hard to find. "This is astounding to me."

[Shallah Kali]

2. humanity real is in deep trouble & those in power continue to argue & fight against taking action

that might reduce how severely deep that trouble is :banghead:

[al bupp]

3. So many canaries, so many coal mines...

thanks for the link.

[nam78_two]

4. K&R.nt