Polar Ice Likely to Disappear This Summer

First of all, please ignore my english since I am not a native speaker. Second, from the comment that I am going to put which will be kinda fantasy. Please aacept this 2 points before you keep reading this comment. According to the news above, I beileve earth is in a danger of gobal warning which is the cause of melting the earth. In addition, it has been keep going for over years and years. There are both good and bad effects will change people's life. Take a lot at the other artical about finding ice on Mars. That is also happening over years. I was also reading an artical that was talking about there will be an ancient ruins inside the ice or under the seabed. People had been there, but not entirelly . There is a possible that an ancient ruin under the seabed. Or maybe there is a small blackhole under the ocean that is suking just a little amount of water to the mars.( I just got this idea from the other artical about a machine which can cause asmall blackhole on earth.) Maybe we can find this ruin or blackhole and go to Mars without taking a rocket or whatever. This is just stupid lol I know this is not reasonable but isnt it possible?

First of all, please ignore my english since I am not a native speaker. Second, from the comment that I am going to put which will be kinda fantasy. Please aacept this 2 points before you keep reading this comment. According to the news above, I beileve earth is in a danger of gobal warning which is the cause of melting the earth. In addition, it has been keep going for over years and years. There are both good and bad effects will change people's life. Take a lot at the other artical about finding ice on Mars. That is also happening over years. I was also reading an artical that was talking about there will be an ancient ruins inside the ice or under the seabed. People had been there, but not entirelly . There is a possible that an ancient ruin under the seabed. Or maybe there is a small blackhole under the ocean that is suking just a little amount of water to the mars.( I just got this idea from the other artical about a machine which can cause asmall blackhole on earth.) Maybe we can find this ruin or blackhole and go to Mars without taking a rocket or whatever. This is just stupid lol I know this is not reasonable but isnt it possible?

Let's consider a few things. First, conservative estimates place the total melting of the polar cap at 25% and extremely liberal estimates put it at 50%. Secondly, "for the first time in recorded history" doesn't carry much clout with me since human recorded history is a mere drop in the bucket of time and measurements of artic ice thickness didn't begin until quite recently.

Are there any benefits to the ice cap melting? Well, this would actually be a boon for ocean shipping, reducing the distance travelled by thousands of miles. The U.S. Geological survey of the Arctic estimates that 25% of the world's untapped oil and natural gas deposits are within 200 miles of the north pole, so that would be accessible. Finally, It opens up a large fishing ground, allowing us to eat the rest of the fish in the world faster.
I doubt you will find any sunken Atlantis or black holes when the ice melts though. The U.S, British, and Russians have extensively mapped the Arctic sea bed because that's where they've been hiding all of their ballistic missile submarines (ops, now where will they hide them?).

There is also the tricky problem of territorial ownership. How will Russia, Canada, The U.S. and a few other countries split up the territory?

I am extremely tired of the weather predictors tying to pawn off all these predictions as science. It does not matter what is used, a flawed computer "model" or sticking a finger in the air. There are far to many co-factors acting on the earths weather. The environmentalist continue to side step scientific method and in instead use TV and politics to push there junk science through. First of all the name is "climate change" something that has been going on for millions of years. Does anyone remember the fact that late last year CBS did a series of shows about "global warming" and the NASA model that is being used and was the whole basis of the data is completely flawed! CBS did a very bad one sided attempt at a correction. Does anyone remember how many hurricanes that where predicted for last year and this year, again a predictions that played a role in our oil prices to rise (very possible scenario, speculators watch TV). The fact of the matter is the earth is a huge place not this small fragile planet that keeps being drilled into kids heads. 100 years ago we did not know a tornado had occurred in the state next to the one you live in, or a typhoon or earth quake hit another part of the world. The first time New Orleans was destroyed it took months for anyone to even find out about it and guess what they rebuilt it themselves, this has been going on since the dawn of man kind, the only thing that has changed is that we can accumulate and exchange the information. We did not even know of an ozone depletion until we had the technology to detect such a thing. You don't even hear of the "ozone hole" anymore, again something that was blamed on man, but does not take into account the huge amount of co-factors that would cause this condition, what influence does the sun play, solar flares, solar radiation, magnetic fields, volcanoes, and it goes on and on...we blamed it on air conditioners...banning a very stable and safe compound, I am sure those who played a role in banning it had stocks in the companies that would benefit the ban. The experiment that showed that chlorine bound with ozone "O3" could only be duplicated in a lab "adding" heat to get the reaction to take place, I guess there is a lot of heat in the upper atmosphere, and did not even account for volcanic action that places millions of tons of chlorine into the air, Some of us did the calculation in college at the time, taking the amount of man produced as reported and what we could find in terms of what volcanic action produces, our numbers where man produces One ten thousandth of a percent of what occurs naturally. FYI, those particles and gases that volcanoes and now "man" produces/emits also help cool the planet, a very "underreported" fact. What needs to take place is that we need to breath clean and safe air, drink clean and safe water and we must clean up and slow down our emissions not because it is harmful to the earth because it is harmful to us, we are weak and frail not the earth. The junk science just has to stop and I am so sick of it. I am so glad that there are a large number of qualified researchers and actual scientist that stand up and say this is crap, the earth changes and it will change when we are extinct. What we need to do is leave something for our children and stop the sole less money crazed cooperation from ruing the "local" rivers and pumping toxins into the air in the name of profits for there investors. I am all for making money but even animals won't urinate and defecate in there water, so we are the smart ones? Chicago killed off 1/3 of there population in the 30's because they set there sewer outlet directly into "our" beautiful "fresh water" lake...and placed it near the water intake where the sewage plume was taken in. A politician must have decided that location.

Warming brought us out of the ice age and out of the "mini" ice age, and has been responsible for our success, without it this planet would be a frozen ball supporting few forms of life. It is great that we are trying, but lets not turn this into a Armageddon and the end of earth scenario, it is simply a bag of bull.

Has anyone ever been through a year without a summer? well it will happen again, and we better have food reserves once it does because millions will starve, this occurred far before man had any supposed influence on the weather and the cause = volcanoes, specifically not man or there actions. Will we then complain about "global warming (I hate that term)" we will be praying for it, so we can grow crops again.

The earth is a giant chemical reaction, all chemical reaction seek equilibrium, it just so happens that life on earth exists in this point of equilibrium.

Although I agree with many of the points brought up before this post, some of them I will not agree with.

The ice caps melting is a huge concern in the scientific community and it should be a concern in the public community. The ice caps do a lot more than just look pretty and hold fresh water. They serve to help wind patterns, currents, and even monitor global temperature. Like the post before me said, everything is a chemical reaction- I believe this fully, but if we have an equalized reaction that is supporting life, why are we letting it slip out. The world will correct for any change whether we acknowledge it or not.

And as I have always said- putting the blame solely on the world and past history is ignorant; we as humans collectively have had an impact in the global weather change. I know there are a lot of environmental "nuts" running around shooting about info they got from a movie, but I’m not one of them. The temperature has gone up; I think we can all agree with that. This change however is out of place when looking at the total cyclic weather change. We should be in a period of slight cooling. Now I'm not saying we have caused the entire problem, but I do believe we can help correct this issue, and it is something that should take a priority. And to respond to the last part of the article, there is no positive to the icecaps melting. All the things that this article brought up as possible positives are short sided and frankly I think they are crazy. Lastly a comment made earlier stated that our planet is not a fragile entity, I think that is true. Our planet is controlled not by emotions or a higher power; its controlled by nature and the laws of physics and chemistry. Humans and life on the other hand, is fragile. If we let the current trends continue the world will continue on without us.
This is not an impossible task. We understand how it is working, and although there are many variables we can fix this. There isn’t anything driving climate change except science. And with science we can change the outcome of this situation.

I would concur that science is the answer. I do not concur with the comment that we know how it [the earths complex climate model] works, but I think that everyday we learn something new and important. A recent article about UV helping to breakdown ozone in the atmosphere shows that science is still discovering new information. There are some natural causes for climate change such as precession and the direction the pole faces during the summer and winter that can influence Arctic warming and cooling.

I think the media does a poor job of properly educating the public on climate change. If ABC tells its viewers that the melting Arctic ice will raise sea levels 200 feet, the sheep will sagely nod their heads. In reality, melting sea ice wouldn't raise the sea level about about 4mm, whereas if Greenland's land ice melted it would probably raise sea levels 20ft.

If all the Arctic ice melted several bad things will probably happen.

1) The jet stream might move farther north increasing precipitation in the Artic region and creating more drought in the mid latitudes. This in turn will impact the food producing regions and increase the demand for irrigation, which is already under stress. Southern Japan, for example, has been dealing with drought conditions for several years now.

2) More open water in the Artic will increase the strength of storms and the associated land errosion in that region.

3) The strength of monsoons and recurvature of hurricanes will change with the shift of the jet stream.

We should do what we can to minimize our contribution to climate change. I think we can safely use nuclear power and store waste. I think nuclear power is the fastest method to reduce our dependency on coal for electricity. I'm not thrilled about it, but given the options it is a lesser evil at the moment. I also think that we have to continue to develop and build alternative energy sources, solar, algae, etc. I think we need to improve our water storage and distribution networks. I think we need to reduce fertilizer runoff which appears to be increasing algae blooms and dead zones in the oceans.

Cool, more beaches.

There have been many good points brought up here. although I dont agree with them all. Here are a few comments id like to make.

As far as I am concerned there is nothing good about the North pole melting. It is just another telltale sign that things are changing quicker than the "experts" predicted.

Firstly, the Earth is alive, it is a living organism so therefore it can be killed. It is not as young as scientists and archaeologists first thought. It should be thought of no differently than any other ageing living organism. Earth may not be frail in our terms, but that does not mean it can withstand everything we expect it to cope with. Eventually, as with everything alive, it will die. The better you look after it the longer it should live.

The Ozone Layer is still a problem, they just dont talk about it like they used to. In http://www.wmo.ch/pages/prog/arep/gaw/ozone/7thORM.html

Global warming is a combination of natural AND man made processes. The Sun, which is central to earths orbit, is the power of Earths momentum. Using that theory, then it would make sense that when the Sun is disturbed, the earth would be as well, even if it isnt always noticeable. It is possible the Suns radiance differentials could be the reason the Earth wobbles? There is no doubt CO2 and methane is also a contributing factor. That is really the only control over global warming that we have.

In 1971 experts predicted it was possible a new Ice Age could occur within the next 50 years. They did not know then the extent of how man would contribute to Earths warming though. Although many years must pass before the Ice Age to occur and enviromental changes need to take place like volcanos erupting emitting sulfate helping block the sun (along with our CO2 and methane), it is also known Dinosaurs were found with food frozen in their throats and stomachs telling us it was an instant freezing when it did finally occur.

So taking into account the "naturally" occuring reasons + "man-made" reasons, the coming Ice Age should be a double whammy for the Earth to cope with, remembering she is ageing now and does not have the resources she used to have. Weve turned alot of her iron ore (which keeps Earth stable) into building frames and machinery etc.

Ill also add, we mustnt forget plant Eris approaching which some say may be causing disturbances as well.
http://www.solstation.com/stars/ub313.htm

And the precession of the Sun which some also say could have some effect here on Earth.
http://www.shareintl.org/archives/Science-tech/sci_rrPisces2Aquarius.htm

So after looking into it all, I dont think the melting of the Northern Ice Cap is good at all ...

We are mearly creatures borrowing the planet. We have pushed our way onto this planet to be one of the dominanting yet over-sized beings that are self-consuming this planet to no end. Nature nor the planet knows GDP. Yet, GDP and fuzzy money dictates the show. We govern the land based on big homes and big fine cars etc...
Yet, can the planet sustain our ways?

We need a drastic change in our economic models.
That's the real problem.
And, population growth.

We consume upwards of 85,000,000 barrels of oil a day during boom times. That's over 10965E10 calories consumed every day of energy sourch (each gallon is 30000 calories! It takes one human 800 calories a day just to survive on the planet).
Personally, I think we have over consumed the planet. There is no turning back now.

The only real solution is wait and see I take it...
Much too late I take it.

Humans, we are reactive creatures. Not unless we have a fire under our rear end do we move...
Scientists have stated so. Yet, ignorance is bliss on the planet earth.
Sometimes we are stupid creatures.