From Ohio State, alarming news about ice, sediments, proxy algae, and other worrisome stuff. It has a familiar ring to it, plus some luck.
ARCTIC ICE AT LOW POINT COMPARED TO RECENT GEOLOGIC HISTORY
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Less ice covers the Arctic today than at any time in recent geologic history.
That’s the conclusion of an international group of researchers, who have compiled the first comprehensive history of Arctic ice.
For decades, scientists have strived to collect sediment cores from the difficult-to-access Arctic Ocean floor, to discover what the Arctic was like in the past. Their most recent goal: to bring a long-term perspective to the ice loss we see today.
Now, in an upcoming issue of Quarternary Science Reviews, a team led by Ohio State University has re-examined the data from past and ongoing studies — nearly 300 in all — and combined them to form a big-picture view of the pole’s climate history stretching back millions of years.
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Leonid Polyak
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“The ice loss that we see today — the ice loss that started in the early 20th Century and sped up during the last 30 years — appears to be unmatched over at least the last few thousand years,” said Leonid Polyak, a research scientist at Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University. Polyak is lead author of the paper and a preceding report that he and his coauthors prepared for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program.
Satellites can provide detailed measures of how much ice is covering the pole right now, but sediment cores are like fossils of the ocean’s history, he explained.
“Sediment cores are essentially a record of sediments that settled at the sea floor, layer by layer, and they record the conditions of the ocean system during the time they settled. When we look carefully at various chemical and biological components of the sediment, and how the sediment is distributed — then, with certain skills and luck, we can reconstruct the conditions at the time the sediment was deposited.”
For example, scientists can search for a biochemical marker that is tied to certain species of algae that live only in ice. If that marker is present in the sediment, then that location was likely covered in ice at the time. Scientists call such markers “proxies” for the thing they actually want to measure — in this case, the geographic extent of the ice in the past.
While knowing the loss of surface area of the ice is important, Polyak says that this work can’t yet reveal an even more important fact: how the total volume of ice — thickness as well as surface area — has changed over time.
“When we look carefully at various chemical and biological components of the seafloor sediment, and how the sediment is distributed — then, with certain skills and luck, we can reconstruct the conditions at the time the sediment was deposited.”
“Underneath the surface, the ice can be thick or thin. The newest satellite techniques and field observations allow us to see that the volume of ice is shrinking much faster than its area today. The picture is very troubling. We are losing ice very fast,” he said.
“Maybe sometime down the road we’ll develop proxies for the ice thickness. Right now, just looking at ice extent is very difficult.”
To review and combine the data from hundreds of studies, he and his cohorts had to combine information on many different proxies as well as modern observations. They searched for patterns in the proxy data that fit together like pieces of a puzzle.
Their conclusion: the current extent of Arctic ice is at its lowest point for at least the last few thousand years.
As scientists pull more sediment cores from the Arctic, Polyak and his collaborators want to understand more details of the past ice extent and to push this knowledge further back in time.
During the summer of 2011, they hope to draw cores from beneath the Chukchi Sea, just north of the Bering Strait between Alaska and Siberia. The currents emanating from the northern Pacific Ocean bring heat that may play an important role in melting the ice across the Arctic, so Polyak expects that the history of this location will prove very important. He hopes to drill cores that date back thousands of years at the Chukchi Sea margin, providing a detailed history of interaction between oceanic currents and ice.
“Later on in this cruise, when we venture into the more central Arctic Ocean, we will aim at harvesting cores that go back even farther,” he said. “If we could go as far back as a million years, that would be perfect.”
Polyak’s coauthors on the report hailed from Penn State University, University of Colorado, University of Massachusetts, the U.S. Geological Survey, Old Dominion University, the Geological Survey of Canada, University of Copenhagen, the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, Stockholm University, McGill University, James Madison University, and the British Antarctic Survey.
This research was funded by the US Geological Survey and the National Science Foundation.
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Contact: Leonid Polyak, (614) 292-2602; Polyak.1@osu.edu
Written by Pam Frost Gorder, (614) 292-9475; Gorder.1@osu.edu
Frank K. says:
June 3, 2010 at 8:17 am
…… I’ve also recently discovered that many of our climate luminaries like Hansen, Schmidt, Karl etc. are pulling down six figure base salaries as government employees…
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Have any links to that info? I always wonder about those little Swiss bank accounts …..
Elizabeth says:
June 3, 2010 at 8:39 am
The article says the researchers hope to eventually obtain cores from Chukchi Sea and central Arctic Ocean so they can offer a more complete picture of the geologic history of Arctic ice. Yet, they are confident to say Arctic ice extent is at its lowest in the past “few thousand years.”
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Everyone here will agree that today we have a much lower Arctic ice extent compared to a “few thousand years” ago….. when we were in the middle of an Ice Age.
Twisting of words, twisting of data, however there is one thing you can be sure of, this is the larges mass transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in world history.
Seems like an awfully robust study for such a settled science.
Ceri Phipps says:
June 3, 2010 at 2:29 am
Do these people seriously believe that there was more sea ice when the Vikings colonised Greenland? It seems unlikely to me.
Well, ya see? It’s like this: Way back yonder, in ye olden tymes of yore, there was such a thing a ‘warm ice,’ and it was only because of said ‘Vikings’ that it disappeared because ya know, the Vikings used it all to make fish soup and such.
So, there you have it.
Gail Combs says:
June 3, 2010 at 5:18 am
House Committee Investigation: http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20040830154236-07181.pdf
Follow the money: google Maurice Strong and David Rockefeller, his mentor.
Would happen to have an alternate URL for the above? Clicking on produces a 404 message: “Not Found
The requested URL was not found on this server.”
Pier Revue says:
June 3, 2010 at 4:26 am
[–snip–]
By the way, what is meant by the expression: sarc off?
Sarc Off is the sister of Knock Off, Pissed Off, Jack Off, and Hacked Off.
Their parents are Passed Off and Sawn Off.
Hope that helps … 🙂
Patrick Davis says:
June 3, 2010 at 6:16 am
“Frank K. says:
June 3, 2010 at 5:45 am
Caleb says:
June 3, 2010 at 1:05 am
[–snip–]
This is scary! If there is seriously reduced economic activity, there will be seriously reduced tax revenue. Where do these people think all the money comes from? Oh yeah, that’s right. It’s plucked right out of the air we breathe, and our wallets, just to be sure.
Well, if you think ~that~ is scary, then consider this: The Dems in the Congress —right along with their fellow traveler Republicans— have it in mind to ‘nationalize,’ i.e., confiscate,’ everyone’s 401k and IRA accounts.
Yep, that’s right! From thence you’ll get a stipend predicated upon what some bureaucrat ‘thinks’ you need to live on.
Word has it that both of those accounts will be zeroed-out and you’ll just get the minimum FICA payment to subsist upon.
Feeling the ‘change’ yet?
Hu McCulloch says:
June 3, 2010 at 7:18 am
From his posts on WUWT, we know that Steven has a deep knowledge of the arctic sea ice data. However, this claim doesn’t seem so preposterous to me — If open sea generates certain planktons or whatever that do not appear when the surface is frozen, years (or at least centuries) with September thaws might be easily spottable in the sediment record.
Let’s take a look at the paper first.
And of course you’ll be regaling the rest of us with all kinds of tales of how said plankton would never be found under the ice, right?
That the oceanic currents in the polar region never flow under the ice either, right?
Oh, and should those currents actually do happen, why they’d never contain materials for sedimentation either, right?
I can’t wait to read of that!!!
Amino Acids in Meteorites says:
June 3, 2010 at 7:30 am
Even though he is wrong I would suppose he and his team are putting food on the table anyway.
Food on his is food take out of the mouths of yet other people’s mouths.
Remember: Government cannot give to one without taking from another.
Food on his table is food taken out of yet other people’s mouths.
Phil. says:
June 3, 2010 at 6:47 am
Gail Combs says:
June 3, 2010 at 5:18 am
Here are the Greenland temperatures from Ice Core data. The temperature at that time was 2C warmer than today. http://jonova.s3.amazonaws.com/graphs/lappi/gisp-last-10000-new.png
A minor detail but the most recent temperature data on that graph is 150 years old so that would be 2ºC warmer than 1855.
And of course you have a problem with that, right?
Now you’ll begin to ~absolutely~ prove that it wasn’t such, right?
GOT DATA?
We await.
mike sphar says:
June 3, 2010 at 1:06 pm
Seems like an awfully robust study for such a settled science.
Well, you see, Mike? In order for the ‘robustness’ to be seen as robust, it needs to be made robustiously robustious!
Consider it to be the Dolly Parton, the Lonnie Anderson, and the Mae West equivalent of ‘fully developed.’
And another thing: Polar undersea volcanoes.
WHY has that NOT been mentioned at all?
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080625140649.htm
Gail Combs says:
June 3, 2010 at 12:23 pm
Phil. says:
June 3, 2010 at 6:47 am
Gail Combs says:
June 3, 2010 at 5:18 am
Here are the Greenland temperatures from Ice Core data. The temperature at that time was 2C warmer than today. http://jonova.s3.amazonaws.com/graphs/lappi/gisp-last-10000-new.png
A minor detail but the most recent temperature data on that graph is 150 years old so that would be 2ºC warmer than 1855.
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You missed the red line adding in the more recent data just after the Little Ice Age
No, that includes the red line! Which by the way was part of the original Alley data.
This approach may have possibilities. My guess is another 10-20 years to work out all the problems. So, where does that leave this piece of propaganda?
It’s like claiming a just fertilized egg is ready to graduate from college.
My guess is this (and probably more yet to come) paper is a response to ClimateGate and the severe blow to credibility that the AGW has seen over the last 6 months. I believe publishing this crap demonstrates desperation for the parties involved.
899 says:
June 3, 2010 at 5:03 pm
House Committee Investigation: http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20040830154236-07181.pdf
Follow the money: google Maurice Strong and David Rockefeller, his mentor.
Would happen to have an alternate URL for the above? Clicking on produces a 404 message: “Not Found
The requested URL was not found on this server.”
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Sorry it ended up a dead URL, I am surprised… well maybe not given the ties between Obama, Al Gore and Maurice Strong. It is not the first time the US government has disappeared or changed a controversial internet source. It seem many sources have been “disappeared” recently.
However there is this which gives several story leads.
http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/DOE-Incinerating-Cash.htm#B.%20Hearings%20on%20OST%27s%20Funding%20of%20Molten%20Metal
“OPENING STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE JOE BARTON, CHAIRMAN Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Hearing on the Department of Energy’s Funding of Molten Metal Technology November 5, 1997, 10:30 a.m.
Today, this Subcommittee will begin a series of hearings on the Department of Energy’s funding of Molten Metal Technology, a small company that in less than 4 years has received a 33 fold contract expansion on a non-competitive basis.
The facts surrounding the award of more than 33 million taxpayer dollars to this private company on … “
Gail Combs says:
June 3, 2010 at 12:27 pm
Frank K. says:
June 3, 2010 at 8:17 am
…… I’ve also recently discovered that many of our climate luminaries like Hansen, Schmidt, Karl etc. are pulling down six figure base salaries as government employees…
________________________________________________________________________
Have any links to that info? I always wonder about those little Swiss bank accounts
Yes, I do have a link that I came across recently. It’s a publicly available search engine for salaries of individuals working for the government (the data for which are apparently in the public domain). I’ll post it if Anthony says it’s OK, but you may be able to find it yourself…
My main message, however, is that it is the huge amounts of money flowing to the climate research groups in academia and government that is driving these ridiculous press releases (like the present example) and the countless global warming-related studies we see everyday. If there were no funds, there would be no projects, no papers, and no press releases…
Phil. says:
June 3, 2010 at 6:46 pm
No, that includes the red line! Which by the way was part of the original Alley data.
My gawd! Your arrogance has overtaken your condescension!!
And YOU are STILL incorrect!
Gail Combs says:
June 3, 2010 at 7:46 pm
However there is this which gives several story leads.
http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/DOE-Incinerating-Cash.htm#B.%20Hearings%20on%20OST%27s%20Funding%20of%20Molten%20Metal
However there is this which gives several story leads.
http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/DOE-Incinerating-Cash.htm#B.%20Hearings%20on%20OST%27s%20Funding%20of%20Molten%20Metal
And I thank you kindly for that!
“Underneath the surface, the ice can be thick or thin. The newest satellite techniques and field observations allow us to see that the volume of ice is shrinking much faster than its area today. The picture is very troubling. We are losing ice very fast,”
Are there some new, raging currents that are eroding away the underside of the ice or something?
Only a fool would believe this man—and there’s plenty of them.
“a team led by Ohio State University has re-examined the data from past and ongoing studies — nearly 300 in all”
Anybody want to bet that Briffa’s Yamal and Mann’s Hockey Stick are among them?
Polyak’s coauthors on the report hailed from Penn State University
Of course Michael Mann with his Stimulus money is involved.
“Even less confidence can be placed in the original conclusions by Mann et al. (1999) that ‘the 1990s are likely the warmest decade, and 1998 the warmest year, in at least a millennium.”
~~ from the NAS report on the Mann Hockey Stick
So if Leonid Polyak work uses Mann’s work even less confidence can be put into it.
Jeff Id says:
June 3, 2010 at 3:39 am
I can’t wait for this one. We need a new paper to beat up on. If someone can get this when it comes out, please send to me.
May Dresden look like paradise in comparison after all of you are through with it.
Amino Acids in Meteorites says:
June 3, 2010 at 9:13 pm
“a team led by Ohio State University has re-examined the data from past and ongoing studies — nearly 300 in all”
Anybody want to bet that Briffa’s Yamal and Mann’s Hockey Stick are among them?
Well, you know? Hockey pucks were originally made from wood, so using a Mann-Gore-Pig hockey stick would be most fitting!!
Maybe someone will end up using the tree rings to knock the stick around?
And while I’m on that matter of tree rings, allow me this: It occurs to me that it would behoove a proper researcher in dendrochronology to analyse tree rings in the proper way: Instead of merely counting rings and thicknesses thereof, that they might actually undertake to do a chemical analysis, along a spectrographic analysis of each ring such as to shed light upon the matter more fully.
I get the drift that they are missing the forest for the trees …
Amino Acids in Meteorites says:
June 3, 2010 at 9:10 pm
“Underneath the surface, the ice can be thick or thin. [–snip rest–]”
Wow! I missed that line! Thanks for pointing it out.
Yeah, someone could also say: “Under the surface of a body of the ocean, the water can be shallow or deep.”
Shhhhhh! Don’t tell the fish!!!
:o)