http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Science/story?id=1164442&page=1



POINT BARROW, Alaska, Sept. 27, 2005 —[B]This season has ushered in the warmest Arctic summer in 400 years. A NASA report to be released this week finds the polar ice pack has shrunk by nearly 30 percent since 1978, and new satellite photos show the melting is speeding up.[B]

Scientists say the Arctic may be caught in a vicious cycle of global warming. As ice melts, there's less white matter to reflect the sun's heat back into space. The dark ocean absorbs more of the sun's heat and that, in turn, melts more of the ice pack.

During the summer, people who live in the region have a practice of storing whale meat in ice cellars dug into the permanently frozen ground. But when whale hunter Eugene Brower took an ABC News crew to see his, he was shocked by what he found.

"The skin and blubber should be frozen!" he said. "It's thawing out."

Typically in the Arctic, any ground deeper than about four feet has always been frozen. But the permafrost is now starting to melt.

At Point Barrow, the northernmost tip of the United States is melting as well.

"The bluff edge was out there by about 150 feet or so just 10 years ago," said scientist Ann Jensen.

Since melting permafrost leaves the ground soft and with far less frozen surface to block the waves, the water carves away at it. Old graves are tumbling into the sea.

"They keep getting exposed," said Jensen. "People don't really want to see their ancestors getting washed into the ocean."


People, Animals Forced to Relocate

Whole villages are tumbling into the ocean, forcing people to relocate — as well as many animals.

Black guillemots began nesting this far north 40 years ago, when temperatures started to rise.

Now scientists are watching the birds get driven out by puffins, warmer weather birds from the sub-Arctic, which kill the chicks and take over the nests.

"Yesterday, it's the Arctic, and now suddenly, it's turning into the sub-Arctic!" said biologist George Divoky.

To be announced this weekend by NASA

"warmest summer in 400 years and changing the flora and fauna and culture of the region, ABC Television network quoted from a NASA report to be released this weekend."

http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=55500

This the warmest summer in 400 yrs: NASA

Press Trust of India
Posted online: Wednesday, September 28, 2005 at 1151 hours IST
Updated: Wednesday, September 28, 2005 at 1231 hours IST

New York, September 28: Caught in a ‘vicious’ circle of global warming, the polar ice pack has shrunk by 30 per cent since 1978 and melting is speeding up, causing the warmest summer in 400 years, a yet to be released NASA report said.


The new satellite photos show that the ice pack has shrunk by 30 per cent since 1978 and the melting is speeding up causing the warmest summer in 400 years and changing the flora and fauna and culture of the region, ABC Television network quoted from a NASA report to be released this weekend.

Scientists said that Artic might be caught in a "vicious cycle" of global warming. As ice melts, there is less white matter to reflect sun's heat back into space. The dark ocean absorbs more of sun's heat and that, in turn, melts more of the ice pack.

Since melting permafrost leaves the ground soft and with far less frozen surface to block the waves, the water carves away at it. Old graves are tumbling into the sea, the report said.


__________________

Arctic ice cap 'will disappear within the century'

By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
(Filed: 29/09/2005)


The Arctic ice cap is on track to disappear within a century, according to a study published yesterday.

The satellite survey by the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC), and the space agency Nasa reveals that for the fourth consecutive year there has been "a stunning reduction" in Arctic sea ice at the end of the northern summer, placing species such as polar bears at risk.




The reduction in ice levels places Arctic wildlife at risk


The survey recorded the lowest sea-ice extent yet seen - 2.06 million square miles on Sept 19 - 20 per cent below the mean average September sea-ice extent from 1978 to 2001.

That is the equivalent of 500,000 square miles - an area about twice the size of Texas.

This year "will almost certainly surpass 2002 as the lowest amount of ice cover in more than a century", said Julienne Stroeve, of the Centre. If current rates of decline in sea ice continue, the summertime Arctic could be ice-free well before the end of this century.

A recent assessment of trends throughout the past century indicates that the current decline also exceeds past low ice periods in the 1930s and 1940s.

From 1979 until 2001, the rate of September decline was slightly more than 6.5 per cent a decade. In 2002, the trend steepened to 7.3 per cent and is now approximately 8 per cent.

Walt Meier, of NSIDC, said: "Having four years in a row with such low ice extents has never been seen before in the satellite record. It indicates a downward trend, not just a short-term anomaly."

Cooler winter temperatures allow the sea ice to "rebound" after summer melting. But with the exception of May 2005, every month since December 2004 has set a new record low ice extent for that month. The winter recovery of sea ice extent in the 2004-05 season was also the smallest observed by satellites.

"Even if sea ice retreated a lot one summer, it would make a comeback the following winter, when temperatures fall well below freezing," said Florence Fetterer, of NSIDC. "But in the winter of 2004-05, sea ice didn't approach the previous wintertime level."

Compared to the past half century, average surface air temperatures from January until August 2005, were up to 3C (5.4F) warmer than average across most of the Arctic Ocean. Since 2002, satellite records have also revealed that springtime melting is beginning unusually early north of Alaska and Siberia.

This summer, the Northwest Passage was open except for a 60-mile swath of scattered ice floes, a far cry from earlier centuries when expeditions were lost as their crews tried to beat through thick ice. The Northeast Passage, north of the Siberian coast, was ice-free from Aug 15 until Sept 28.

The Arctic may be caught in a feedback loop caused by global warming. As sea ice melts there is less to reflect the sun's radiation back into space and experts fear that the downward trend is reaching a point from which the ice will not recover.

How soon might this become a possibility??

Florida in most of the Eastern sea board will be under water. The central United states will likely become a under water sea again. But I don't know how they think that the rockie mountains are going under water?
:blink:

I see a lot of that blue land in the West as the peaks and valley's,, much of the intrusion from the Pacific will follow low land passes... I saw that problem too,, until I bought the map... I am going to have it customed framed this coming weekend.. Pretty interesting,,,

That is interesting. I have had a person tell me about all of this kind of stuff. It is very likely that in within 50 years that a scenairo like this could happen. i think it is funny that the Eastern US is going to be an island! This is all proff of global warming in my opion.