Monday May 28, 2012

JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION

Arctic sea ice drops to 2nd lowest level on record

World Aug. 28, 2008 - 04:51AM JST ( 10 )

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10 Comments

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adaydreamAug. 28, 2008 - 09:21AM JST

Oh no, we're not seeing more signs of global warming. We're not seeing our own effect on the artic caps. That's what the current bush administration says.

So if it's not global warming, what is it? < :-)
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SezWho2Aug. 28, 2008 - 11:40AM JST

Some people say it's normal long-term cyclical fluctuation.
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smithinjapanAug. 28, 2008 - 12:40PM JST

Sez: hehehe... we all know which sarge--ahem--people those comments are coming from!

Some day, when it's too late, and they're trying to feed their kids paper money that can't be digested, they'll say... 'I can't believe it! What happened?? Why didn't we see it coming??!' and try to fob off the blame on everyone else, pretending they didn't deny what was happening.

Meanwhile... let's drill!
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SezWho2Aug. 28, 2008 - 12:50PM JST

smithinjapan,

Well, yes, the Mother Nature speeches were in the forefront of my mind.

I think we are suffering from man-made global warming and that its effects may be irreversible. However, it seems to me that the "experts" are all across the board on whether the effects are or aren't reversible and, if not, how long we have to find and make a correction.

In the meantime, though, I don't see why "normal long-term cyclical fluctuation" can't be a contributing factor to a sudden dramatic change.
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MadvertsAug. 28, 2008 - 05:58PM JST

The flat-earthers on the boards will still Deny it...
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weedkilaAug. 29, 2008 - 12:21AM JST

Another scare-mongering piece from the AP. The following web site keeps a track of polar ice cover and you can see that while Arctic sea ice has indeed diminished, sea ice cover in Antarctica has recently been at record levels. Because of this 'see-saw' effect GLOBAL sea ice cover has basically remained the same over the past 30 years. So does that mean 'global warming' is occurring only in the northern hemisphere, or is something else going on? Furthermore, there is nothing in the above story that suggests CO2 is the cause for any anomalies.

http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/

As for AP's cheap shot at pulling people's heart strings (and, eventually, your pocket book) over the apparent demise of the polar bear the following gives a more balanced picture of what's going on.

Taylor noted the estimated number of bears on the Boothia Peninsula, 1,300 kilometres west of Iqaluit, has actually increased to 1,500 animals from 900. He said environmental groups don't seem to want to take information like that into consideration when pressing their case.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2006/05/15/nor-bears-managemnet.html
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ColAmericaAug. 29, 2008 - 12:36AM JST

weedkila- global warming is a fact buddy!1

This world will be in chaos if we don`t take man made global warming seriously. think of future generations, their world will be terrible, because of our selfishness.

We MUST change, stop wasting now.
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weedkilaAug. 29, 2008 - 01:42AM JST

ColAmerica: you're right, global warming is a fact. But so is global cooling! The question is whether it is man-made or a naturally occurring phenomenon. According to satellite data and strong anecdotal evidence from around the globe since the beginning of last year the earth's climate is currently in a cooling trend, and this comes after a period of levelling out of global temperatures - the peak global temp. of the past solar cycle was in '98, which was an el nino year.

I also think that people should be more ecologically minded and that we should be more conscious of how our actions impact future generations, but I disagree that "this world will be in chaos if we don't take man made global warming seriously." The global warming issue is a big money earner, a political distraction and, unfortunately, is taking precedence over other more important ecological/enviromental issues.

The following story gives a better overview of the situation than what I can give.

http://www.libertyunbound.com/archive/2008_09/contoski-warming.html
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ColAmericaAug. 29, 2008 - 01:45AM JST

weedkila- There are periods of slight cooling, every century or so, these periods tends to last a decade.

This cool period is has an average temperature much higher than the last one, thus average temperature has risen.