Arctic Ice Melt "has the momentum of a runaway train."

m.guardiannews.com...

In early April, Duarte warned that the Arctic summer sea ice was melting at a rate faster than predicted by conventional climate models, and could be ice free as early as 2015 - rather than toward the end of the century, as the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projected in 2007. He said:

"The Arctic situation is snowballing: dangerous changes in the Arctic derived from accumulated anthropogenic green house gases lead to more activities conducive to further greenhouse gas emissions. This situation has the momentum of a runaway train."

What was predicted to happen at the end of this century is now likely to happen in 2 years.

Major climate is not something that will effect humanity at the end of this century, but in the next couple of years.

www.alaskadispatch.com...

After a record loss of summer sea ice in the Arctic Ocean last year, the 2013 melt season has begun at the top of the world, with ice vanishing in April at a faster pace than it did this time last year.

METHANE OUTBREAK ALERT

www.ukprogressive.co.uk...

A cadre of the world’s top climate scientists have seen enough evidence of prospective runaway climate change that they are now sounding the alarm, putting the world on notice that an extinction event may be in the cards. The principal actor in this macabre tragedy: Methane.
...
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, as of February 2013, methane levels in the atmosphere are measured at 1,874 ppb (parts per billion.) This level, in an historical context, is more than twice as high as any time since 400,000 years before the industrial revolution. In the past, methane has ranged between 300-400 ppb during glacial periods and 600-700 ppb during warm interglacial periods.
...
“We carried out checks at about 115 stationary points and discovered methane fields of a fantastic scale – I think on a scale not seen before. Some of the plumes were a kilometer or more wide and the emissions went directly into the atmosphere – the concentration was a hundred times higher than normal,” says Dr. Igor Semiletov of the International Arctic Research Centre at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, who led the 8th joint US-Russia cruise of the East Siberian Arctic seas, Ibid.
...
According to David Wasdell, International Coordinator, Meridian Programme: “A runaway climate change is now clear and beginning to be quantified for the first time… the greatest threat we face as a planet… The rate of change we’re generating in the current situation is between 200-300 times faster than that experience of any extinction event apart from the asteroidal impact.

You have been shown the future, and it is here now.

Compared to what is happening In the Arctic as we speak, everything else is meaningless.

We will kill ourselves trying to stay alive, how ironic

There's those words again.

Could - Climate Models - Predicted

Climate models are fantasy, that's why they are MODELS!
Where's all the flooding? I thought we were supposed to be under hundreds of feet of water when the ice had even half melted!! I remember them saying that!

So, in two years time when we're all still here can we dispense with this highly profitable nonsense?

Not enough time for technology to save us, unless there are super-advances hidden from the public.

Only woo-woo can save us now...

Our past ignorance has come to bite us in the butt. We ignored the people that were worried about this stuff saying they had no evidence. Well, here is the evidence, twenty years too late and irreversible. The most we can do now is to keep our extinction from happening within the next twenty five years. I doubt if people will change their ways enough though. I predict that there is going to be a major "natural" dieoff of humans in the next five years. Maybe a world wide bunch of unrelated diseases.

reply to post by VoidHawk


Um, the flooding isn't supposed to happen until the Antarctic glaciers melt, on the other side of the planet from the Arctic Ocean.

Ocean rises where expected in a hundred years, but we could start seeing a serious rise in sea levels within a decade.

reply to post by poet1b


Politics bit us in the ass again. Many scientists are furious with the IPCC for toning reports down too much. I don't think it's too late and I hope I'm not suffering from wishful thinking. There are lots of variables to be sure of outcomes. The definites are this, ice-free summers are coming much sooner than expected and that's because of our fossil fuel usage/deforestation practice. We can't turn back time but I think we can halt progress.

reply to post by BlueMule


At this point it really is too late.

Your best shot is to move the family someplace where you have the best shot at survival.

reply to post by Kali74


The problem is that people don't want to change their wasteful ways. It is this that is going to make it impossible to solve the problem. Science cannot help us, their tests aren't working and may actually be backfiring.

reply to post by rickymouse


It is hard to imagine how this is all going to go down.

At this point the debate about whether or not this is happening is a waste of time.

Now is the time to start preparing.

The problem for a while is that we have been told how much AREA of sea ice has been melted every year.

Seldom have we been told what the volume of sea ice has melted.

Since 1980s the thickness of the arctic ice has been decreasing.

The BBC Documentary Frozen Planet part 7 was the only source I found that gave the figure and this is from 2010. The Arctic ice has lost 50% of its thickness, ie volume in that 30 year span together with an additional loss of 33% of the area.

If you put those two figures together you get a loss of 2/3rds of the ice. It is completely understandable then that the loss will accelerate. It is a concern But:

Climate change is natural! It has always happened and always will. It is part of Mother Nature's Cycle. Every other time this has happened the planet has been on the cusp of an ice age!

Buy some thermal underwear!

P

reply to post by Kali74


Honestly, I don't see the political will to change ever arriving.

What I wonder is if civilization as we know it will collapse. I think changes could be that big.

Food shortages will hit first. We are likely to see super storms that massively damage infrastructure.

The most fragile system is the economy. An Economic break down could start shutting down things before actual climate change.

reply to post by pheonix358


Read the articles in the Op.

Change at this rate has only happened once, and that is when there was a massive impact of a comet or something that large.

Call it natural if you want, but this isn't going to be anything like humanity has ever faced.

This is like a major eruption at Yellowstone, except it will be a lot slower.

reply to post by poet1b


Perhaps it was a giant methane explosion and not a giant meteor that caused the last extinction with levels so high. I don't remember where, but I remember not that long ago reading about the gulf of mexico exploding millions of years ago due to methane deposits warming and eventually exploding on a huge scale....

Would explain the high readings from last event.

Nothing to worry about kids.

This is just another lie by those damn liberal tree huggers!

Will they still be saying that when their in water that is neck high?

reply to post by Darkblade71


I think it's possible.

At this point the possibilities are massive.

I would say the least probable outcome at this time is that nothing globally catastrophic will happen.

This is the real McCoy.

The release of Methane from the Permafrost was predicted years ago. Must have been some of those darn pesky climate models that foretold this happening.

I highly recommend checking out a recent documentary called "Chasing Ice" It is likely the best visual explanation of the destruction of the ice. One of the things that quickly becomes clear is that there is a large amount of black soot that came from, wait for it......... Mankind! Funny but all that black soot absorbs heat and melts deep holes in the ice, those holes then undermine the ice sheet. I could keep going but one really need not listen to me. Check the movie out and see exactly what has happened. Complete with time lapse pictures over the course of a couple years...... Chasing Ice

Of course I am certain some armchair scientist that has never been out of the backwoods (much less to the Arctic) will say something that proves themselves much smarter than real scientists that have been there. Well at least they will prove it to themselves.

Originally posted by poet1b
reply to post by pheonix358

 

Read the articles in the Op.

Change at this rate has only happened once, and that is when there was a massive impact of a comet or something that large.

Call it natural if you want, but this isn't going to be anything like humanity has ever faced.

This is like a major eruption at Yellowstone, except it will be a lot slower.

This should explain it for you.



P

reply to post by Mamatus


Thanks for the link.

I will have to check it out.

reply to post by pheonix358


Your graph is outdated.

It is now warmer than it has been for over a million years, possibly longer.

Soils frozen for millions of years are now unfrozen.

But hey, believe what you want to believe.