Selfsufficientish.com

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19330307

worst ever loss of arctic ice.

and that's not just bad news for polar bears but it also means ever more methane getting into the atmosphere.

which in turn is *likely* to mean more (and more) erratic weather for northern europe (floods and cold winters to become the norm).

could be a good time to buy skis and a snow blower. if you dont have them already...

From The Independent August 27th

"Scientists have already observed a link between disappearing sea ice and the release of methane, a greenhouse gas that is more than 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide, from beneath the Arctic Ocean. Researchers flying over the melting sea ice reported last May that significant quantities of methane are being released from between the cracks in the ice.

"“When we flew over completely solid sea ice, we didn’t see anything in terms of methane. But when we flew over areas were the sea ice had melted, or where there were cracks in the ice, we saw the methane levels increase,” said Eric Kort of Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

"“We were surprised to see these enhanced methane levels at these high latitudes. Our observations really point to the ocean surface as the source, which is not what we had expected,” he said.

"Other scientists have observed huge plumes of methane being released from beneath the permafrost of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf off northern Russia. The Arctic is known to have huge stores of trapped methane in the form of gas hydrates, which some experts fear may be released if Arctic permafrost continues to melt.

"John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace, said that the latest data on how fast the sea ice is in retreat should be a warning to the world.

"“Let’s be clear about what today means - our planet is warming up at a rate that puts billions of people’s future in jeopardy,” Dr Sauven said".


I dont think a 3rd runway - or any more air traffic at all - is such a good idea....

gdb wrote:
I dont think a 3rd runway - or any more air traffic at all - is such a good idea....

Well, no.

I see a shift in the patterns of denial as more and more evidence is brought forward, the processes that are occurring are better understood and the consensus amongst scientists that anthropogenic climate change is real edges into the high-90's percent. Increasingly they abandon any attempt to play the ball rather than the man and gibber on about how we cannot afford to deal with what even some of them acknowledge is a real issue.

Two more northern summers like we've just had and we'll start to see some proper food shortages, I fear.

And to go further......many seem to attribute the beginings of the 'Arab Spring'to food shortages..........the Greeks(no less) seem to have a whole new line n soup kitchens.......the UK middle classes are digging up their lawns (again) and blogging about it........

We had a speaker explaining climate change at our Womens' Institute last year. I was really saddened that most of the older members just didn't seam to understand. One even remarked that it didn't matter as we'd all be living on the moon by then.

oldjerry wrote:And to go further......many seem to attribute the beginings of the 'Arab Spring'to food shortages..........the Greeks(no less) seem to have a whole new line n soup kitchens.......the UK middle classes are digging up their lawns (again) and blogging about it........

I remember my parents doing just this during the 73 oil shock when prices rocketed. It was a revelation to me that not only could citizens grow food without permission but that vegetables could actually taste good. My father had been brought up during the war, so had experience, but at the time quite a lot of our younger neighbours hadn't really got a clue. I suppose that there it is a good thing that so much info is on the interwebthingy these days, but I find some of these blogs just a little irritating, I confess.