Possibility of ice-free North Pole set at 50-50

Associated Press
“WASHINGTON — There's a 50-50 chance that the North Pole will be ice-free this summer, which would be a first in recorded history, a leading ice scientist says.

The weather and ocean conditions in the next couple of weeks will determine how much of the sea ice will melt, and early signs are not good, said Mark Serreze. He's a senior researcher at the National Snow and Ice Data Center and the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colo.

The chances for a total meltdown at the pole are higher than ever because the layer of ice coating the sea is thinner than ever, he said.”

-It’s been twenty years since NASA’s Dr James Hansen testified before Congress that our emissions of greenhouse gases are changing earth’s climate.

Last week he said that the only thing that has changed in those twenty years is that we’ve lost any slack built into the timeline.

“Climate is nearing dangerous tipping points,” he said. “Elements of a "perfect storm," a global cataclysm, are assembled.”

“Climate can reach points such that amplifying feedbacks spur large rapid changes. Arctic sea ice is a current example. Global warming initiated sea ice melt, exposing darker ocean that absorbs more sunlight, melting more ice. As a result, without any additional greenhouse gases, the Arctic soon will be ice-free in the summer. “

-That’s when things really start to happen. Thawing of the Greenland and Antarctic ice shelves accelerate, and rising sea levels flood coastlines, displacing millions worldwide. We’ll have drought in some places, and flooding in others, along with more and more severe storms. Sounds apocalyptic, doesn’t it?

Or hear this from Indian scientist Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change :

“If there’s no action before 2012, that’s too late. What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment.”

-This is another reason why I can see becoming a yellow dog Democrat and voting a straight ticket this year. I want to preserve, as Dr. Hansen says, "a planet similar to that on which civilization developed."

When the Dems took over the Senate, Barbara Boxer replaced James Inhofe as Chairman of the Committee on Environment and Public Works. Inhofe has said that global warming is a “hoax,” and “a ruse to raise taxes.”

Now under Chairman Boxer, the Senate has passed the Climate Security Act, which sets a declining cap on US greenhouse gas emissions. Our Senator John Cornyn called this the “Boxer climate tax.”

Cornyn’s got to go. I like to go to the beach: I don’t want the beach to come to me.