In an article peddled by the Associated Press, Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) acolytes received a dosage of red meat, in the news that this summer the North Pole might be ice free.
Part of a never-ending AGW doom-and-gloom we're-all-gonna-die media barrage designed to scare people into accepting the pseudo-science that surrounds cataclysmic climate change caused by man, the article presents the impression that this is an event unprecedented in human history.
WASHINGTON (AP) — 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.
This report has spawned like-minded apocalyptic press accounts all over the media. ABC News reports the story, with the inclusion of this:
Increased rates of Arctic melt have altered the region in unprecedented ways. Arctic sea ice dwindled to a record low in September, clearing a route through the fabled Northwest Passage that runs from Greenland to Alaska. Opening of the path has provided ships a shorter, more direct route between Asia and Europe.
"It's got a shock level for people because there's always ice at the North Pole, but there are also real implications," Mahoney said. "If the North Pole melted out, the shipping industry would be paying very close attention to that."
Without delving too deeply into the issue of "recorded history," since satellite records from the Norse exploration period of Erik the Red and his son Leif, are scant at best, the suggestion that the Arctic Ocean has never before been open water in "human history" is bunk.
Notice the scant mention of the benefit to shipping of the creation of a much shorter route for shipping across the top of the world? A Northwest Passage, the dream of a world of commerce a few centuries ago, could well become a reality in the next year, reducing world shipping costs and transit times. That CBS article goes on to say:
The disappearance of Arctic sea ice may mean an even hotter planet, since the region's ice pack helps cool the earth by bouncing the sun's rays back into outer space. This reflective property, known as albedo, also prevents the rays from reaching the ocean, where heat is absorbed.
Less sea ice means more dark open water to absorb the heat, which melts the sea ice even further.
"Losing the ice sheet means losing an important way of cooling down," Mahoney said. "As a result, global warming would accelerate as the ice retreats."
While the CBS article does not specifically blame the warming on man, the implication is always there; the accepted conventional wisdom being that AGW is the culprit.
It is interesting, therefore, the lack of interest the Mainstream Media (MSM) has taken in the second story, concerning the discovery of major volcanic activity under the Arctic Ocean. In fact, the article from the French Press Agency (AFP); while reporting what is a most interesting story of tectonic activity beneath the ocean surface; never mentions global warming at all.
Reading the AFP article, it appears that there is no interest in even attempting to connect the dots between natural activity and the environment.
PARIS (AFP) - Recent massive volcanoes have risen from the ocean floor deep under the Arctic ice cap, spewing plumes of fragmented magma into the sea, scientists who filmed the aftermath reported Wednesday.
The eruptions -- as big as the one that buried Pompei -- took place in 1999 along the Gakkel Ridge, an underwater mountain chain snaking 1,800 kilometres (1,100 miles) from the northern tip of Greenland to Siberia.
Scientists suspected even at the time that a simultaneous series of earthquakes were linked to these volcanic spasms.
But when a team led of scientists led by Robert Sohn of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts finally got a first-ever glimpse of the ocean floor 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) beneath the Arctic pack ice, they were astonished.
What they saw was unmistakable evidence of explosive eruptions rather than the gradual secretion of lava bubbling up from Earth's mantle onto the ocean floor.
Previous research had concluded that this kind of so-called pyroclastic eruption could not happen at such depths due to the crushing pressure of the water.
So, volcanic activity, thought impossible by scientists, far below the surface of the Arctic Ocean has been spewing volcanic magma into the ocean since at least 1999. These sudden increases in Arctic ice melt, even in the face of evidence that global climate temperature has not risen, but instead has declined since 1998, would suggest to an open minded observer that natural causes might be involved.
I found the answers from Dennis Avery, who co-authored the book, "Unstoppable Global Warming -- Every 1500 Years," as cited in the link above, to be of particular interest.
Well, our records go back about a million years in ice cores and sea bed sediments and it seems to be a solar length cycle based on our records of sunspots that go back several centuries and the Carbon-14 and Beryllium-10, that are produced here on earth. The Carbon-14 and Beryllium-10 cycle -- they follow the 1500 year cycle as do our temperatures.
Dr Avery goes on to lay out a compelling argument to demonstrate why AGW does not pass the smell test. If man were responsible, there would be a more linear relationship of temperature to industrial activity. Instead, there is an erratic trend, that would suggest no relationship of manmade activity.
Well, if this were a human caused warming, it should have started about 1940 and trended strongly upward as global industrialization followed World War 2. That isn't what happened. The warming started about 1850. We had a surge of warming from about 1850 to 1870. We had another surge from 1916 to 1940 and then, when the greenhouse gasses began to spew from the factories, the temperatures went down for 35 years. 1976 to 1998, we had another surge of warming, but we've had no warming in the last 8 years. So, what we have is an erratic warming that started too soon to be blamed on humans and is not following in the footsteps of the CO2 levels in the atmosphere.
NOW, before our new-found liberal lurkers jump all over this piece, and claim that I am a "Denier" because I disbelieve that man is the cause for world climate change, I suggest a remedial reading class, then a re-read of the above articles.
also good find - the volcano article very enlightening