Effects of Global Warming Evident, As Polar Ice Cap Melts

[saraphen]

This season has ushered in the warmest Arctic summer in 400 years. A NASA report to be released this week finds the polar ice pack has shrunk by nearly 30 percent since 1978, and new satellite photos show the melting is speeding up.

Scientists say the Arctic may be caught in a vicious cycle of global warming. As ice melts, there's less white matter to reflect the sun's heat back into space. The dark ocean absorbs more of the sun's heat and that, in turn, melts more of the ice pack.

ABC News traveled to the northern tip of America – Point Barrow, Alaska – to document the other dramatic effects of global warming.

During the summer, people who live in the region have a practice of storing whale meat in ice cellars dug into the permanently frozen ground. But when whale hunter Eugene Brower took an ABC News crew to see his, he was shocked by what he found.

"The skin and blubber should be frozen!" he said. "It's thawing out."

Typically in the Arctic, any ground deeper than about four feet has always been frozen. But the permafrost is now starting to melt.

At Point Barrow, the northernmost tip of the United States is melting as well.

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Science/st...1164442&page=1

What does our Fearless Leader have to say about global warming?...."Not enough evidence."

[Gorilla]

I read somewhere else that they're saying it maybe past the point of no return.

Once we start to effect permafrost theres the very dangerous risk of releasing all that trapped methane in some regions of the world. Western Siberia is going to probably be the region that'll accelerate global warming with methane (i think its a huge peat bog).

They're saying my generation might be the one that feels it, so much for the Kyoto Protocol Treaty and the Clinton Initiative.

[LadyNoir]

Please visit the following web site: http://www.stopglobalwarming.org
There is a LOT of scary information there. Also, the documentary that former VP Al Gore produced entitled An Inconvenient Truth is featured there.

The Discovery channel put together a 2 hour documentary on global warming and it aired in my city tonight from 9 PM to 11:00. As a matter of fact, I'm watching it now. This is serious business and for me, personally, it is very scary. I've been reading articles, viewing TV programming, and reading the information on the stopglobalwarming.org and other sites, trying to learn all I can about this dilemma. This is not a fairy tale. This is serious! It's scary! It' real!

Originally Posted by Gorilla

I read somewhere else that they're saying it maybe past the point of no return.

Once we start to effect permafrost theres the very dangerous risk of releasing all that trapped methane in some regions of the world. Western Siberia is going to probably be the region that'll accelerate global warming with methane (i think its a huge peat bog).

They're saying my generation might be the one that feels it, so much for the Kyoto Protocol Treaty and the Clinton Initiative.

Last night on one of the major news channels they aired an interview with one of NASA's scientists on the subject. To get straight to the point, we have 10 years to before the effects are pretty much irreversable. So no, it's not past the point of no return yet but you may as well say it is with the way the Govn't is carrying on about it. The Bush administration is investing billions into this research but what researchers are saying is that's all good but we're at a point where we absolutley have to start acting to get this under control. Personally I don't think it'll happen.

Although I have to admit it wont all be the Govn'ts fault. It's also people such as myself who absolutley refuse to drive those ugly *** hybrid Hondai's n' such. I'll keep my dual flowmaster exhaust '84 Chevy SS, thank you very much :)

[jcsump]

Is it really global warming and so on,or is it just patterns the earth has been going through since the earth was formed. I'm just playing devil's advocate.

[jimihaze]

THe bush adm. can no longer hide there heads in the sand about this. That ice melting and the polar bears a drowing. Somethinf has to be done fast.

[UglymanCometh]

The government's not the ONLY ones responsible... :whistles:

...but I'm sure yall knew that.

[DBlack]

Even if the scientists were wrong, Global warming gives all humans a reason to take care of the earth we have been so blessed to live on. Man has a tendency to violate and fully consume any natural resource he can for profit.

We all should learn not to piss in our own bathtub...

[MadameX]

Originally Posted by DBlack

Even if the scientists were wrong, Global warming gives all humans a reason to take care of the earth we have been so blessed to live on. Man has a tendency to violate and fully consume any natural resource he can for profit.

We all should learn not to piss in our own bathtub...

Well its unfortuante but, you can't undue the damage that humans have done by the Industrial Revolution of the 1800's. Now, we can only pray that mans lust for greed doesn't over power natures pace of healing its self. And so far, man is off to a horrible start by cutting down the trees in the rain forests which give oxygen to the earth.