Tuesday, July 08, 2014

Arctic Meltdown


Greenland experienced its  highest temperature ever for the month when it recorded on June 15 23.2 degrees Celsius (74F).

The volume of sea ice during the 1990s was roughly 15,000 cubic kilometers, by 2006 it was 10,000, and by 2012 it was down to 3,000.

The rate of change of ice mass loss was stable in the 1980s, but losing 4,500 cubic kilometers/decade in the 1990s, 9,000 in the 2000s, and at a 13,000 rate by 2013.

Once the Arctic is ice-free in September, which has not happened yet, all of the sun’s energy that formerly melted the ice is then available to warm the water and the permafrost. Thus, when the next freeze occurs, it comes later, the ice is thinner, and the next melt is sooner, and the subsequent window of free ice in September is wider, and on it goes in a self-perpetuating fashion: (1) releasing methane (CH4), which is the most effective feedstock for runaway global warming, but which has been capped by the ice for millennia;  (2) triggering an eventual collapse of Greenland’s 1-2 mile thick ice cap (potentially adding up to 21 feet to sea water levels); (3) distorting the drivers of the Gulf Stream; (4) disrupting the jet streams above 30,000 feet altitude, creating anomalous weather all across the Northern Hemisphere, which is already a problem.

From here

1 comment:

Geza said...

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