Some watch the grass grow, some watch the poles melt
June 27, 2011 5:05 AM Subscribe
Every summer the arctic melt season plays out as the ice retreats in the summer sun. Are the monthly releases from NSDIC too infrequent for you? Is Cryosphere today lacking context? Neven's blog to the rescue.
As someone who spends a lot of time on the arctic sea ice (I'm just about to head up there for a week), let me just say that anyone who denies the effects of climate change are upon us big time has no idea what they are talking about.
With all due respect, personal observations and anecdotal evidence are not the same thing as scientific evidence. There are viable models for climate change which predict that the polar ice will grow in depth and range as the Atlantic conveyor shuts down.
Living in Scandinavia, I am happy to see the ice melting instead of advancing.
posted by three blind mice at 7:33 AM on June 27, 2011
With all due respect, personal observations and anecdotal evidence are not the same thing as scientific evidence. There are viable models for climate change which predict that the polar ice will grow in depth and range as the Atlantic conveyor shuts down.
Living in Scandinavia, I am happy to see the ice melting instead of advancing.
posted by three blind mice at 7:33 AM on June 27, 2011
Nice. I've been looking for ice-related resources to add to my blogroll; I added the Arctic Sea Ice Blog last week, but hadn't yet run across Cryosphere Today. Anyone know of other good ones?
posted by fermion at 4:41 PM on June 27, 2011
posted by fermion at 4:41 PM on June 27, 2011
With all due respect, personal observations and anecdotal evidence are not the same thing as scientific evidence.
With all due respect, he said passive-aggressively, I didn't say anything of the sort. Nor did I specify the exact nature of the evidence I was citing. Nor is the science unequivocal, but it's pretty damn overwhelming on a statistical level that polar ice, while shifting, is also receding and thinning. I don't know where you are or what you do, but I have spent hundreds of hours on sea ice with elder Inuit hunters, whose knowledge of that terrain is so deep that many of them are principle consultants to major league climate scientists and environmental biologists also out working on that ice, funded by the same major scientific granting agency that I am. Please don't be so patronizing.
posted by fourcheesemac at 5:48 AM on June 28, 2011
With all due respect, he said passive-aggressively, I didn't say anything of the sort. Nor did I specify the exact nature of the evidence I was citing. Nor is the science unequivocal, but it's pretty damn overwhelming on a statistical level that polar ice, while shifting, is also receding and thinning. I don't know where you are or what you do, but I have spent hundreds of hours on sea ice with elder Inuit hunters, whose knowledge of that terrain is so deep that many of them are principle consultants to major league climate scientists and environmental biologists also out working on that ice, funded by the same major scientific granting agency that I am. Please don't be so patronizing.
posted by fourcheesemac at 5:48 AM on June 28, 2011
And to my point, three blind mice, are you trying to say climate change is either not upon us, or not evident from the changing character of sea ice, whether advancing, retreating, thickening, thinning, or otherwise acting like the dynamic entity it is? Because the only way your little snipe makes any sense is if you are accusing me of making a specious statement about something, and the only statement I am making is that climate change (note I did not say global warming) is quite evident to anyone who lives or works in the arctic.
And I mean the arctic. I have spent many months now north of the 71st parallel, in all four seasons. What's your latitude?
posted by fourcheesemac at 5:54 AM on June 28, 2011
And I mean the arctic. I have spent many months now north of the 71st parallel, in all four seasons. What's your latitude?
posted by fourcheesemac at 5:54 AM on June 28, 2011
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Thanks for this post. As someone who spends a lot of time on the arctic sea ice (I'm just about to head up there for a week), let me just say that anyone who denies the effects of climate change are upon us big time has no idea what they are talking about.
posted by fourcheesemac at 5:34 AM on June 27, 2011 [1 favorite]