Will the North Pole be ice free this summer?

Padraic

Padraic

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Scientists are saying we have a 50/50 chance of having an ice-free north pole this summer.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25419299/
So what's your guess? Open ocean or ice pack?
 
This is extremely disturbing :cry: I had to vote yes.
 
Oh come on pad, done you listen to the conservative news outlets..the ice is thicker than ever and ther are more polar bears than in the last 20 years...global warming is just another money making scheme by the overly rich liberal thinking population.... :roll:
 
I do not think it will be ice free but I do think it will less than previous years and enough that there should be much concern...
 
I agree with Tom on this one. Going "green" means $$ for a lot of people/companies. Besides that, how does one become an "ice expert"?? I tended bar for about 6 years, so does that make me an "ice expert".:-D :pint:

JH
 
I feel mixed on the global warming issue. We really do need to come up with alternative neregy source. If for no other reason than affordability.

Still think America,Canada,France,UK,Germany can go totally "green" and it won't mean a thing. If China and India are not on board what's the point.
 
Paul,

The inflated egos of the first world. That's the point. You are right, the developing nations need to get on board. They, however, are steadily growing and will probably tell us to go to hell.

As to the poll,

I'm flipping a coin.
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It came up "yes". That sucks.
 
Sorry for such a pessimistic and or bellicose outlook. I feel that has been the theme for some posts lately. But in my mind, I feel it to be correct minus the emotions.

I am channeling happy thoughts as I am going cicadaing tommorrow.
 
Panama has to be shaking in their boots. A northern alternative to the canal could decimate their bisiness.

I voted Yes. As for fighting global warming, I don't think conservation efforts will be effective. I think if we want to purposely alter the course of climate change, we need to do so in an active rather than a passive fashion.
 
I would only change that last statement to read "I don't think conservation efforts ALONE will be effective" but thats just me...
 
Agreed.
 
The earth has changed many times before but it is very sad that all of those years we spent warm in our beds and taking a drive for an icecream early on could have set forth the waste that has been occuring years sense that is contributing to the demise of our ice caps.

The only good thing I see out of it is that Americans are becoming creative again. Even the corporate ones. Maybe because it looks good as a public standpoint or I'd like to hope for environmental reasons. There are more green roofs going on buildings, I see more and more hybrids and there are huge windmills on mountain ridges by us. They are looking at the geothermal that can be utilized from the past mining industries. From what I understand the Pa Governors Mansion is heated by this means.

It's not a quick fix but it's nice for the first time to hear people finally conserve. It's too bad it took $5 a gallon gas prices to drive them there.

I'm not a put my head in the sand type of person but I can not watch any more the plight of the polar bears shows. They are just too sad. So maybe that's a yes to the question. If not this year very soon to come.
 
I'm not at all surprised this is coming out even. And I am really enjoying reading everyone's reactions. But what is sad is that someone took the "I don't care option". I can believe that some people are in denial, I can't believe that anyone just doesn't care.
 
Well, not in denial that the Earth is warming. Too much hard data to dispute.

I still have not been 100% convinced that its the greenhouse gas argument. Its a perfectly fine theory, and the predicted result of warming seems to be happening, I suppose thats enough for some. However, as a scientist, correlation of variables should never be used to prove causation, and thats whats happening here, "an inconvenient truth" was the the most clear example of the misuse of science I've ever seen. It turns my stomach the way the science has been turned into a political football which really isn't looking for science at all. But, that doesn't mean they ended up with the wrong conclusion, its fairly easy to come up with the right conclusion despite using the wrong path. Earth has been much, much warmer than this, multiple times, and in the relatively recent geologic past, and yes, it happened this quickly then too. But swings this quick are rare even geologically speaking, and I've yet to hear a more likely cause than greenhouse gases. I suppose, as a human, the consequences of not acting are far more damaging than acting and finding out we didn't really need to.

On a separate note. Conservation is important and can help. However, it is not, and cannot be, nearly enough. We have to add to the supply side, there's no getting around it. We not only have to account for the increase of supply with green energy, we have to replace much of the baseline too. Its an enormous problem and requires an enormous answer, we can't nickle and dime it away. We're talking land use on the scale of entire states for solar or wind to do the job alone.

We sit here and argue whether solar, wind, clean coal, geothermal, nuclear, conservation, etc. are the answer. The real answer is "all of the above", and we need to debate HOW and WHERE to use each of the above, not whether to. Its that big. I've run the numbers, they aren't pretty.
 
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