Global Warming Turnaround?

September 20, 2008

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September 20, 2008

The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) reported on Wednesday ( September 17th) that the 2007 minimum sea ice was probably reached last Friday, September 12th, when “sea ice extent dropped to 4.52 million square kilometers (1.74 million square miles).” This appears to have been the lowest point of the year, as the sea has now begun its annual cycle of growth at the end of the summer season. This is 150,000 square miles less than melted last year. Does this mean the end of global warming, as the sea ice begins to build back up from it’s 2007 level?
I suppose each side of the debate will claim that this is proof of their particular view. Let’s look at the facts as seen by the anti-global warming contingent.
• Climate change is a natural cycle that has reached its maximum and the earth is now turning cooler as evidenced by the sea ice melting less than last year.
• Next year will be even less of an ice melt, therefore we need not do anything drastic to curb CO2 emissions since the earth is now on its own cooling trend.
The pro-global warming contingent says:
• Just because one year has less sea ice melt than the previous year does not mean a sweeping change in the course of climate change.
• This year’s remaining sea ice, though more than 2007, was still the second lowest total amount recorded since satellites started photographing the declining sea ice 30 years ago, and is still 2.24 million square kilometers (860,000 square miles) below the 1979 to 2000 average minimum.
• Despite overall cooler summer temperatures, the 2008 minimum extent is only 390,000 square kilometers (150,000 square miles), or 9.4%, more than the record-setting 2007 minimum. The 2008 minimum extent is 15.0% less than the next-lowest minimum extent set in 2005 and 33.1% less than the average minimum extent from 1979 to 2000.
So who are these people who claim we’re losing sea ice at a rapid pace? The NSIDC is part of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Major funding comes from NASA, NOAA, and the National Science Foundation.
Looks to me like it’s not quite time give up on developing alternates to fossil fuels.
Chicago’s Green Mayor Daley
Mayor Daley’s unveiling of plans on Thursday (Sep. 18th) to change the city’s building codes to promote energy efficiency, to install solar panels on city property, and to build alternative fueling stations prompted a director of the Union for Concerned Scientists to call the plan, “more robust and quantitative than those in any other city.”
With this aggressive plan, the city of Chicago is pledging to reduce heat-trapping gas emissions by 25% below 1990 levels, the base established by the Kyoto Protocol. Kudos to Chicago, and to the other cities that have taken similar steps to reduce greenhouse gasses, instead of waiting for the government or additional or worse natural disasters to convince those on the fence that it is prudent to take action now rather than to continue to wait for what they feel is absolute proof of man’s destructive actions as caretaker of the planet.