From 
NOAA: U.S. unprepared for changes in Arctic ice
McClatchy Newspapers
Excerpts:
WASHINGTON — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is being inundated with requests for weather and ice forecasts as well as navigation information about the Arctic, but isn’t able to provide all of the information that the Coast Guard, industries and native Alaskans need, NOAA chief Jane Lubchenco said on Monday.
The NOAA chief, the commandant of the Coast Guard and the chief of naval operations spoke at a symposium about challenges ahead for the U.S. as summer Arctic sea ice declines, opening the Arctic to oil and gas extraction, fisheries, tourism and shipping.
Lubchenco, a marine ecologist, said her agency doesn’t have nearly the same capacity for Arctic weather forecasting, oceanography and navigational charting that it has in other regions.
“It’s a matter of insufficient observing, insufficient information to do the modeling and forecasting. So there’s a huge disconnect between what is expected we will be able to deliver and what we are actually able to provide,” she said.
Lubchenco said NOAA needs more funding for this work, despite current pressure to cut the federal budget.
…
NOAA also needs better models to be able to show how the loss of sea ice and rising ocean temperatures will affect pollock, cod, salmon and crab, as well as other species such as ice seals and whales, she said.
…
Lubchenco cautioned that the environmental changes in the Arctic are happening faster than elsewhere and faster than ever observed in history.
…
“We have relatively little understanding of the true vulnerabilities of most Arctic ecosystems to the kinds of changes that are under way now,” she said. “And there’s a very urgent need to acquire additional information to be making better decisions.” She added that development decisions should be made cautiously, “because of the potential for either irreversible changes or changes that would take a long, long time to undo.”
h/t to WUWT reader “Old Salt”
Shouldn’t Canada be providing the navigational chart for it’s own coastlines and waters?? Why does *everyone* believe that the USA has to pay to fix *all* of the world’s problems?
By the way, what did the previous generations of explorers do without government maps and charts? Did they stay home or simply go about living their lives without expecting others to pander to their every whim. I am sick of all the whining people who don’t realize that it’s not the government holding them back, it is themselves and their fears.
wermet says:
June 21, 2011 at 11:36 am
Shouldn’t Canada be providing…
They do. Pick your ice chart; includes the north coast of Alaska as far as Barrow:
http://ice-glaces.ec.gc.ca/app/WsvPrdCanQry.cfm?CanID=11081&Lang=eng
How hard can it be: It will be freezing your butt off in a colder ‘an cold ice-scape during the winter, and it might, maybe, be ice free during a couple of weeks or so in the summer a hundred years from now. There, do I get paid now?
Here in Central Florida, we have noticed that the snowbirds have gone home. Finally. That could explain lots of weird behavior in the Arctic. On the other hand, snowbirds are coming to Florida in ever increasing numbers and staying longer and longer. I think that is probably a better measure of global temperature than anything Lubchenco can come up with.
http://www.washingtonian.com/blogarticles/people/capitalcomment/11857.html
Who Are the Wealthiest Members of the Obama Administration?
12. Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: assets of $1,907,000 to $4,705,000.
Another academic-turned-political-adviser, Lubchenco made $235,465 last year from Oregon State University along with speaker fees of just over $4,000 and $150,000 as recipient of the Zayed International Prize for the Environment. Who says being green doesn’t pay?
“It’s a matter of insufficient observing, insufficient information to do the modeling and forecasting. So there’s a huge disconnect between what is expected we will be able to deliver and what we are actually able to provide,” she said.
…
Lubchenco cautioned that the environmental changes in the Arctic are happening faster than elsewhere and faster than ever observed in history.
In the same release. Don’t these people see how self-satirizing they’ve become?
Keep ’em poor!
Incredible!
Whatever it is, it is much worst and it is happening much faster than last time we alarmed you!
Send money! (’cause you caused it)