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The ice caps are melting...


Neo

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The fact that the Arctic is losing sea ice due to warming (whether or not you believe in human caused global warming or not) is not news to anyone, but it seems that only a small percentage of the population really knows to extent of the loss, what it could mean, etc. Most seem to view it as an annoyance by the media or something that will have little to no impact on our daily lives.

Today, findings that the melting of Arctic sea is roughly 50% faster than projected can be found in the news from various media outlets. New projections are saying that within 5-10 years the Arctic could be ice free during summers. Note that just a few years ago projections had the Arctic being ice free during the summer by 2080 and even more recently projections showed an ice free summer ~2030-2050. It seems that the more we learn about the warming that is happening, particularly at the caps, the shorter the projections become for disaster striking thus leaving us with even less time to properly prepare and possibly to avoid such a situation where we would see ice free summers.

Here is a time-lapse generation of Arctic sea ice caps through 2007 by NASA showing a decline (particularly in the last couple of years):

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We should all be worried about ice free summers in the Arctic as it affects populations around the world in terms of sea level rise and affected winters. If cooled air from the Arctic is weakened then it affects rain, snow, etc. in climates further south, particularly areas such as the southeast US.

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Very scary. CNN has an article up today stating that the North Pole may be briefly ice-free by September of this year. While it's mostly a symbolic thing that that particular geographic location would be briefly free of ice, as Neo mentioned earlier it's happening decades ahead of the initial projections. Last September the Northwest Passage opened up briefly for the first time in recorded history. Sadly, there seems to be little movement toward the conservation efforts needed to avoid the coming train wreck.

North Pole could be ice-free this summer, scientists say

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