Current image from Terra Satellite, rotated 90 degrees to improve view, plus annotation and world view inset added by Anthony
Source image is available here at the NASA Terra website
Originally published 02:57 p.m., August 29, 2008
Updated 02:57 p.m., August 29, 2008
Santa can rest easy.
It’s looking like the ice at the North Pole won’t melt to water next month, as had been feared. It would have been the first time in thousands of years that the most northerly place on the planet would have been ice-free.
“It’s quite unlikely at this point,” Walt Meier a research scientist at the University of Colorado’s National Snow and Ice Data Center, said today.
The ice in the Arctic Ocean is at near historic lows, and breaks records every couple of years due to human-caused global warming, the scientists at NSIDC say.
This spring, it was looking like the ice might retreat so far that the North Pole itself would be ice-free for at least a day in September – the height of the ice-melt season.
The chances were great enough that the scientists at NSIDC were laying almost even odds on it in an office pool.
But while global warming is playing an important role, seasonal variability does, too. And this summer turned out to be a little cooler than last summer, when the record for ice retreat was set, Meier said.
“We only have about two or three weeks more of ice melt, and it’s not going to make it to the North Pole,” Meier said.
Read the rest of the article here
“The proliferation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from auto emissions, coal plants and the like is making the Arctic Ocean less resistant to the warm periods.”
What about icebreakers?
Another study this week reported that coal emissions and particulate deposits were greatest at the beginning of the 20th century. Why the ice did not melt back then?
John Riddell says,
Lewis Pugh, British kayaker will attempt to “paddle from Spitzbergen to the arctic icepack to draw attention to the thinnest ice on record”. But a month ago it was all about paddling to the north pole. “Failure will mean success” Pugh said. How the goal posts have moved. Matty, Perth
T’other Lucy Is anybody keeping count or a file of these, um, lies by the media? They seem to be piling up faster than and iceberg melting into the Titantic.
Know this funny one? Various websites like New Scientist “refute” the classic skeptic arguments and Climate Skeptic has refuted that particular set. If skeptics could have one place to refer warmists to, for instant corrections of misinformation, that would be nice. I’m thinking about it.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/08/30/eapolar130.xml
here are your nine polar bears lost at sea
not sure if this link went through so am trying again….
this is a news article in all the sunday papers here in Uk today
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/08/30/eapolar130.xml
Polar bears lost at sea as their ice berg melted
Has anyone thought that the reason there is so little ice in the North pole is cause those damn submarines keep breaking it !!
Have you seen this yet?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/08/30/eapolar130.xml
John Riddell (22:11:57) :
Matt Lague said
“So do we get an update on the guy paddling his kayak to the pole? Or has he packed it in? Could always convert it to a sled and press on? Is there a journalist out there who can follow up on that one?”
For an update go to:
http://www.lewispugh.com/expeditions.html
Lewis Pugh (the kayaker) said
“On 30 August I will attempt to kayak from the Island of Spitsbergen (in Northern Europe) across the Arctic Ocean into the Arctic ice pack. I am undertaking the expedition to highlight the dramatic melting of the sea ice.
This year the ice is the thinnest on record.”
So he is leaving tomorrow. Note: He is only saying he is going to the Arctic ice pack
Here is an article from the biggest Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten July 28 about this guy
http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/article2563654.ece
The article is in Norwegian, a Google translation is possible, but it doesn’t do a very good job.
The headline means “Will paddle to the North Pole”
and below
“The south african adventurer Lewis Gordon Pugh (38) wishes to become the first to paddle to the North Pole”
So I think it is fair to say that the goal is the North Pole, not just the Ice Pack (which isn’t far from where he is now (Svalbard).
Btw. on his blog he explains that he has visited Svalbard each year for the last six years. He has probably arrived by airplane each time.
From the article:
29. august i år starter Pugh med kajakk fra et av de nordligste stedene på Svalbard, og skal padle de ca. 1200 kilometerne til Nordpolen. Eventyreren har fått eksperthjelp og de har kommet frem til at det skal være svært lite eller ingen is på strekningen.
My translation: “On the 29th of august this year, Pugh will kayak from one of the northernmost places on Svalbard, and will paddle the ~1200km to the North Pole. The adventurer has received expert help and they have concluded that there will be very little or no ice along the way”.
Here’s another link to the journal being kept by the north pole kayaker.
http://polardefenseproject.org/blog/?p=97
The Kayak man Lewis Gordon Pugh has an expedition journal which can be found at
http://polardefenseproject.org/blog/
Last year he went for a swim in a very conveniently situated hole in the ice at the north pole. A record of the swim can be found on U-Tube
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6sS8OcEwXNs
Found another picture of submarines on the surface at the north pole
Shot: 6 May 1986.
Described “as an elevated view of the attack submarines USS RAY (SSN-653), USS HAWKBILL (SSN-666), and USS ARCHERFISH (SSN-678) surfaced at the geographic North Pole. This is the first time three nuclear-powered submarines have simultaneously surfaced at the pole.”
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Nuclear_Submarines_surfaced_at_the_North_Pole.jpg#filelinks
I just want to say “thank you” to Anthony for doing this entry. I requested he do one on this the other day. I know I wasn’t the only one, but it’s neat to have that kind of response. Keep up the great work!
It’s a good thing that we have two ice caps. The antarctic ice is actually growing ask a government scientist and they will tell you the south pole ice is a local weather event yet the same guys will say the north pole weather is clearly man made global warming. Makes your head hurt.
This issue has very little to do with actual science anymore. It is an ideology of government control. I am an engineer so I prefer to look at the science but it is not what anthropogenic global warming is. It is stacks of govenrment agencies and scientists directed through the IPCC being paid only if they find AGW.
I took a quick look at he research projects the NSIDC is operating right now. I asked myself, how many of these studies would be funded if AGW was well accepted as false? — Not too many, look for yourself.
For more information about how the UN government controls and corrupts this science
http://noconsensus.wordpress.com/environment/anthropogenic-global-warming/
Janama,
It’s not just wiki that disagrees with Phil —
http://www.hnsa.org/ships/stroch.htm, the web site of the Historic Naval Ships Association.
Sorry, Phil, but you really need to escape the cognitive dissonance cocoon you guys are living in and come out and join the real world.
Learn little things like warm is better than cold; CO2 is not a pollutant; there is nothing new under the sun; the world did not begin in 1979. Things like that!
There is a good collection of this media misinformation and the corrections here:
http://www.worldclimatereport.com/
Just a minor point, but I remember reading that there is an unusual level of [underwater] volcanic activity taking place in the Arctic Region this year; and that researchers discovered evidence of similar [past] events.
Examples:
http://www.iceagenow.com/Black_smokers_found_in_Arctic_Ocean.htm
http://www.iceagenow.com/Boiling_Hot_Water_Found_in_Frigid_Arctic_Sea.htm
http://www.iceagenow.com/Undersea_volcanic_activity_blamed_for_mass_extinction_93_million_years_ago.htm
http://www.iceagenow.com/Magma_May_Be_Melting_Greenland_Ice.htm
http://www.iceagenow.com/Arctic_seabed_afire_with_lava_spewing_volcanoes.htm
As you might suspect, these stories aren’t getting a whole lot of airtime in the ‘drive-by’ media. Hmmm…I wonder why. Any guesses, people? [Okay, snark mode off…]
“NEW”
Interview this week with Dr. David Hathaway
http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1465&category=Science
“…There has not been a spot on the sun for at least a month and this is about the third rotation of the sun this cycle where we have not seen any sunspots at all. It is suggesting that the next cycle 24 might be a small cycle – much to my consternation!…”
There needs to be some sort of highly publicized “reporter jail” to “send” reporters like Bill Scanlon of Rocky Mountain News to for saying:
“It would have been the first time in thousands of years that the most northerly place on the planet would have been ice-free.”
In his mild defense, it may be likely that that is what Walt Meier and other research scientists at the University of Colorado’s National Snow and Ice Data Center told him, but not verbatim so he didn’t quote it.
There also needs to be another similar jail to “send” research scientists and institutions who allow such inaccurate and/or out of context information to be communicated without disciplinary action being taken.
Maybe we’ll get lucky and Sarah Palin will barracuda the fraudsters. She seems like a very straight shooter. I hope McCain the maverick lets her loose.
[REPLY: Ah, not jail. They have a right of silly speech and beliefs,same as we do. Hell, maybe, but surely not jail! Let history “sort ’em out”. E]
Re: the kayak guy seeking to highlight the melt, he’s taking a big chance. If he and his chase boat get stuck in the ice and trigger a high-risk rescue attempt, you can bet every network in the world would blanket the airwaves with a rescue like that. All the public needs to see is shivering reporters in parkas, and maybe copter-shots of a hungry polar bear or two closing in on the scene as rescuers makes their way up there. So he’s taking a chance of blowing it badly.
I know there are some AGW folks on here, some of you guys might want to have a word with him, this stunt has the potential to do more damage to The Cause than to the dissenters.
Lewis Pugh, the kayaker, will not get very far if he leaves Spitzbergen from the northeast side of the island since the ocean is still frozen right up to the coast on this side.
He could go northwest and get 50 miles or so before reaching the ice pack. He could go west about 500 miles and then north and get a little closer to the north pole if he really wants a good propagan-photo-op. But he won’t get any closer than 80N.
Pete (06:48:04) :
“There also needs to be another similar jail to “send” research scientists and institutions who allow such inaccurate and/or out of context information to be communicated without disciplinary action being taken.”
No, not jail, but we do need to be taking names.
If we don’t, the same people who are selling us “AGW” “policy advice” today, a few years from now will be preaching to us that global cooling is our fault and demanding that we change our behavior and invest our tax dollars in their “solutions.”
I wonder what the satellites might have seen at the North Pole when the Norse were living in “Greenland” raising crops and live stock about 1000 to 1300 AD.
Paul Ehrlich, Dennis Meadows . . .
“Hell, maybe, but surely not jail! ” jonesee
Nah, a lifetime of shame with tail tucked between legs and NO more government grants. I agree that someone should be taking names. Don’t want to have to deal with the same ninnies more than once.