www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/08/antar...ice-flow/#more-70959

Hi Guys,

I have just been looking through the posts on this topic and it is quite interesting.
Down here in the Southern Hemisphere we have a different perspective on the issue. Here it is all about rising sea level and loss of farm land to aridity and erosion.
I think that the general consensis in Australia is that global warming is real but the issue is that noone wants to pay for any changes.
Australia is largely now an open cut mine for China and it massively reliant on coal for export and electricity generation. It is very difficult for us to contemplate a lower standard of living to protect the planet and our current federal government is doomed because they are proposing a carbon tax on big polluters.
Whether the tax is good or not I don't know but the massive public service army required to administer it is ridiculous. Plus all the generated carbon credits from here and around the rest of the world just provide the platform for another artificial market ,a la Wall St. There you go I have slagged off at both public and private enterprise in one paragraph!
So my point is that as individuals we have the ability to make minute changes to global warming and if you lump everyone together they start to add up. Drive a small car, use public transport, insulate your house, use a corn stove, have solar hot water, install fluoro lighting. All small things but they do add up and by doing these things you are not feathering the nest of some mega corporation or big noting your government, what you are doing is helping the environment and saving yourself money. That to me is a win/win. Even if global warming is a massive hoax, making little changes like these benefits us all.
Thank you and goodnight.

Occam wrote:


In a couple weeks it is going to be a photo finish in this race to the bottom, 2011 is very close to the 2007 record low Arctic Ice Extent. Sea Ice Area is even closer.

While record lows of Arctic Sea Ice Extent are auspicious, we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that sea ice throughout the year has been receding, but most importantly throughout the summer months when it impacts Earth's albedo.



Distribution of record minima and record maxima of Arctic sea-ice extent (NSIDC). The years with the five lowest values of sea ice extent for a certain month are marked in red, those with the five highest values of sea-ice extent are marked in blue. The darkness of the color indicates the ranking: the darkest red marks the lowest value, the darkest blue the highest.


www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2.../the-unnoticed-melt/

2011 Minimum Ice Extent: Second Lowest

nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/

Occam wrote:


Oh darn, the death spiral took a wrong turn, and so soon. No graph showing the photo finish?

Occam wrote:


Oooh, pretty. If you hold it close and pretend you are looking at something in the distance, it turns into a sea monkey!

Glad you are back, I was afraid something nefarious may have happened to you. Just returned from your Wall Street protest?