Arctic sea ice shrinks to record low: Report

Originally posted by Eurisko2012

Originally posted by hp1229
Just a general question as per how will/does it affect the earth's wobble if the arctic is losing and antartic is gaining the ice? Would love to see a gif or animation of somesort if someone has one to see the new wobble.

edit on 24-8-2012 by hp1229 because: (no reason given)

The Earth rotates on its axis at an angle of 23.5 degrees.
The tilt gives us 4 seasons here in the USA.

I know that. I wanted to know how much does the shift in ice volume might affect the wobble or the angle of 23.5 degrees (if any). I know there were publications about the Japanese EQ from march 2011 certainly knocked the earth off the axis upto certain extent.

I would assume and take an uneducated guess that the earth might balance the irregular wobble(if any) out somehow by offloading the excess weight/internal mass due to the spin and wobble someplace else on the planet such as earthquake or volcano to counter balance its volume/itself ?

I thought about balancing a horizontally spinning bicycle wheel in the hands by itself using the axle ends. Any shift in the position of the axis resulted in change in the balance and the force on either the right or the left hand (vertical axis depending). You can also imagine a torque converter filled with oil (on automatic transmission automobiles) which has chambers of oil and if any one of them leaked, it will be wobbly upto certain extent. I tried to make sense by imagining a rotating transparent glass sphere at an angle with globs of matter within rotating at a certain speed eventually settling down against the wall of the sphere. But if the angle is tilted due to the loss of mass at the top(arctic) or the bottom (antarctic) then the glob within will re-adjust to centrifugal force/outward gravity against the walls of the sphere and re-settle). I am assuming that the volume and weight of the ice caps should not have any effect on the wobble but as I stated above, I'm throwing this strictly based on a uneducated guess.

Originally posted by srl2446
There are many ideas about actions that can be taken, but few have taken action. It could be interesting to consider the ideas of people who frequent this site and have the ability to think "outside the box."

Mine some ice from Haley's comet and drop it into the ocean from time to time ala Futurama

Originally posted by srl2446
reply to post by mc_squared

 

There are many ideas about actions that can be taken, but few have taken action. It could be interesting to consider the ideas of people who frequent this site and have the ability to think "outside the box."

Hi srl2446 -

I previously wrote about some outside the box solutions in this thread:

Fighting Global Warming Without Carbon Taxes

The idea there being that banks (and other lending institutions, incentive programs, etc) should be geared toward supporting energy efficiency and clean-tech initiatives at bare-minimum interest rates that then make those projects economically beneficial to you and me.

I used an example of some local entrepreneurs who built a hotel so energy efficient that it automatically made them money because the savings in energy expenses were more than the monthly payments required to invest in those improvements. If the amount of money you save outweighs the cost of the loan then this becomes an economic no brainer.

Another interesting solution is the idea of fee and dividend. It's a carbon tax, however the proceeds from that tax are returned directly to the public. Oil companies for example would be penalized for carbon emissions, however the impact on the consumer would be negligible as the money would be given to them so they, not the government, can choose what to spend it on.

This would effectively level the playing field between fossil fuels and renewable energy, as it would raise gas prices (without necessarily hurting the people buying the gas) but also give individuals the freedom to access alternative options without having to make any financial sacrifices to get them there.


There are plenty of environmental solutions like this that are not only good for the planet - they are good for our wallets too. The problem is they are bad for greedy, soul-sucking banks and oil companies, so they are not very popular with politicians, mainstream media, and all those other puppets who serve these people's interests instead of our own.

Antarctica ice around the continent is increasing because the ice on the continent is melting. Which is why we are seeing ancient ice shelves breaking loose at an alarming rate. There are numerous articles on Ioss if ice on the continent.

Combined with the massive loss of ice on Greenland this year, with the reports of large releases of methane, it is clear we have reached a tipping point, and will soon be seeing ocean levels rise at rates far beyond earlier predictions. Things are just starting to crazy with global climate change.

once again a great post gets lost in the denier zone. the OP presents some really great info and then the deniers don't read it but post crap some denier makes up which has been debunked but they don't care.

Global warming is a game changer on a magnitude that is hard to imagine. Canada will be a good place to invest. Where will the next CA be? Not in CA I suspect, which will most likely go from semi-arid to complete desert.