August 7, 2008
Dr Iceploit or: How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love Global Warming I saw Marian Wilkinson’s report on Four Corners a few days ago. Truly an amazing piece of journalism. You should check it out. As it happens she and some Herald journalists travelled to the North pole to check out the quickly receding sea ice. Last summer had the lowest recorded mass of sea ice in the North Pole ever; this year wasn’t much better. The scientists that were interviewed, said they believed by 2012 or 2013, there may not be any ice in the Arctic during summer. That hasn’t happened since before human beings set foot on the Earth. Figures. We’re a right lot. They suggested that while humans weren’t entirely to blame (natural variance in weather patterns plays a role), we’ve had a big hand in creating global warming through the burning of fossil fuels and the decimation of rainforests. The scientists also said without ice in the arctic, weather patterns and sea currents were likely to change and consequently we’ll see unprecedented climate change, possibly including long droughts in some parts of the world and wild storms in others. What is most alarming is that scientists said as the sea ice melts, it will release the thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide trapped in permafrost (ice which usually never melts and has been there for eons), which will have a catastrophic impact on global warming. One scientist, Dr Vladimir Romanovsky, said there was as much carbon dioxide trapped in the ice as there was in the atmosphere. If released, it would immediately double current CO2 levels in the atmosphere, which would cause rapid global warming. Scientists also said if the sea ice disappears, animals like the polar bear, which are already finding it tough to survive, could become extinct. The five powers that control the arctic; Norway, Russia, Canada, Denmark and the US, are looking on the bright side. As the ice recedes, the possibility of opening a shorter shipping route through the North West Passage is being investigated; they are also considering whether to allow mining companies to exploit the area’s vast natural resources, which were previously inaccessible. According to a recent US geological survey 13 per cent of the world’s undiscovered oil and 30 per cent of the undiscovered natural gas are in the Arctic. Cha-ching! The irony is that the burning of fossil fuels like oil are the very reason the ice is melting. How people could even think of mining the arctic for its resources is unfathomable. You’d think the receding ice would be a wake up call. Alarm bells are ringing people, why are we all suddenly deaf? What is all that money going to matter when the planet becomes uninhabitable? What is anything going to matter? It’s not like we have a back-up (make friends with Richard Branson people, he’s probably the only dude with a plan-B. When the planet goes to hell, he and his buddies will probably be sailing through space till they cark it and or use their obscene wealth to find the key to immortality). The way we are going we’ll be the architects of our demise and if we don’t do something soon the end is nigh. I’ll leave you with this quote from the program. “Eventually we have to quit producing these greenhouse gases and putting them in the atmosphere or we will see warming continue until levels that are much more dire. We’ll see increasing difficulty in making enough food, having enough water to keep six, seven, eight-billion people on earth alive and happy. “Eventually these things will become critical, will become things that people are willing to go to war over. And that’s I think the ultimate threat, that it will destabilise the world because we’ll be in such a fight for our very lives, our existence, based on the changes, based on the re-partitioning of all the resources that we thought we had, due to climate change”, said Dr Ted Scambos of the National Snow Ice and Data Centre USA.

Dr Iceploit or: How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love Global Warming

I saw Marian Wilkinson’s report on Four Corners a few days ago. Truly an amazing piece of journalism. You should check it out.

As it happens she and some Herald journalists travelled to the North pole to check out the quickly receding sea ice. Last summer had the lowest recorded mass of sea ice in the North Pole ever; this year wasn’t much better.

The scientists that were interviewed, said they believed by 2012 or 2013, there may not be any ice in the Arctic during summer. That hasn’t happened since before human beings set foot on the Earth. Figures. We’re a right lot.

They suggested that while humans weren’t entirely to blame (natural variance in weather patterns plays a role), we’ve had a big hand in creating global warming through the burning of fossil fuels and the decimation of rainforests.

The scientists also said without ice in the arctic, weather patterns and sea currents were likely to change and consequently we’ll see unprecedented climate change, possibly including long droughts in some parts of the world and wild storms in others.

What is most alarming is that scientists said as the sea ice melts, it will release the thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide trapped in permafrost (ice which usually never melts and has been there for eons), which will have a catastrophic impact on global warming.

One scientist, Dr Vladimir Romanovsky, said there was as much carbon dioxide trapped in the ice as there was in the atmosphere. If released, it would immediately double current CO2 levels in the atmosphere, which would cause rapid global warming.

Scientists also said if the sea ice disappears, animals like the polar bear, which are already finding it tough to survive, could become extinct.

The five powers that control the arctic; Norway, Russia, Canada, Denmark and the US, are looking on the bright side.

As the ice recedes, the possibility of opening a shorter shipping route through the North West Passage is being investigated; they are also considering whether to allow mining companies to exploit the area’s vast natural resources, which were previously inaccessible.

According to a recent US geological survey 13 per cent of the world’s undiscovered oil and 30 per cent of the undiscovered natural gas are in the Arctic. Cha-ching!

The irony is that the burning of fossil fuels like oil are the very reason the ice is melting. How people could even think of mining the arctic for its resources is unfathomable. You’d think the receding ice would be a wake up call. Alarm bells are ringing people, why are we all suddenly deaf?

What is all that money going to matter when the planet becomes uninhabitable? What is anything going to matter? It’s not like we have a back-up (make friends with Richard Branson people, he’s probably the only dude with a plan-B. When the planet goes to hell, he and his buddies will probably be sailing through space till they cark it and or use their obscene wealth to find the key to immortality).

The way we are going we’ll be the architects of our demise and if we don’t do something soon the end is nigh. I’ll leave you with this quote from the program.

“Eventually we have to quit producing these greenhouse gases and putting them in the atmosphere or we will see warming continue until levels that are much more dire. We’ll see increasing difficulty in making enough food, having enough water to keep six, seven, eight-billion people on earth alive and happy.

“Eventually these things will become critical, will become things that people are willing to go to war over. And that’s I think the ultimate threat, that it will destabilise the world because we’ll be in such a fight for our very lives, our existence, based on the changes, based on the re-partitioning of all the resources that we thought we had, due to climate change”, said Dr Ted Scambos of the National Snow Ice and Data Centre USA.

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