February 27, 2013
Arctic Sea Ice is Cracking Under the Strain
I'm currently engaged in a debate on Twitter with @Cornishview. His avatar doesn't reveal a gender, so I'm guessing here, but it does suggest that he understands the part that coal and the latent heat of vaporisation of water played in the beginning of the industrial revolution down here in not so sunny South West England. Cornishview says over on Twitter that:
I prefer to look at facts not idealism. Fact – No link between CO2 & Climate change. Fact – Renewable energy causing Fuel Poverty.
Personally I strongly disagree with the first of those so called "facts". Here's a bit more evidence for my side of the argument. Regular readers may recall that at the end of last November the temperature in the North East of Greenland was twenty degrees Celsius above "average". As I pointed out to a somewhat sceptical commenter on that story, if that doesn't count as at least "local warming" what on Earth does?
This morning, over on the Pacific side of the Arctic for a change, comes further evidence. This is what the situation looks like from space, courtesy of an Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (or AVHRR for short):
The ice in the Beaufort Sea coming apart at the seams, at 5:09 GMT on February 27th 2013
As you can plainly see, if you have eyes to so do, whatever little that's left in the way of sea ice covering the Beaufort Sea north of Alaska and Canada is currently cracking at the seams. According to an expert in such matters on the Arctic Sea Ice Blog:
The mid-February breakup we're observing in the Bering and Beaufort appears to be very unusual, possibly unprecedented in recent millenia, for this time of year. In the spring of 2012, something rather similar happened but in April.
"A-Team" also kindly provided a "video" of what happened in April 2012 in the same vicinity. Here it is:
The Beaufort Sea coming apart at the seams in April 2012
According to A-Team once again:
If taken as a simplistic predictor of the 2013 melt season, we are 51 days ahead of last season.
I'm off to Twitter now, to tell @Cornishview the good news.
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Comments on Arctic Sea Ice is Cracking Under the Strain »
The Arctic Sea Ice is cracking, the world is changing and it will be never the same. USA, very soon, will be independent of the Arab's oil, and it will become the exporter of oil in shale rocks. Europe will become a historical skansen and cultural curiosity for the rest of the world. The big oil companies do not wish to change anything and they do not allow the renewable energy to take over from the traditional energy. We suck. I am curious what Buckminster Fuller would say about the world of today. A long time ago he created unbelievable and free solutions for the energy problems in the world. Nothing changed since then. It is a time for civil wars and revolutions all around the world.
What is the source of the Beaufort Sea image?
The Climate Change Debate Thread - Page 2194 @ 8:23 pm
[…] this time of year. In the spring of 2012, something rather similar happened but in April.[/img] Arctic Sea Ice is Cracking Under the Strain The cracks of dawn – Arctic Sea Ice Sign in or Register Now to […]
Hi Killian,
First of all, here's how things in the same vicinity looked earlier today:
Spot the difference! Notice in particular the clouds rising above all the open water near the CAA.
Images are courtesy of Environment Canada, and downloadable from:
ftp://arwguest:[email protected]/HRPT-Resolute–Beaufort/
The one above comes from the .4 series. As far as I know they're not archived, so get them while they're hot!
Melt Season’s First Signs in Arctic | Climate Denial Crock of the Week @ 1:32 am
[…] fellow commenter Jim Hunt picked up on that and wrote a blog post on his Econnexus blog called Arctic Sea Ice is Cracking Under the Strain with a spectacular image of the ice pack in the Beaufort Sea on February […]
Climate change denial in school | Be informed @ 11:36 am
[…] is legion. The pictures of the sea ice cracking over the Beaufort Sea north of Alaska and Canada (left) may be extraordinary, but the causes and consequences seem not be being […]