Gore Warns Polar Ice May Vanish in Five Years
By Charles J. Hanley
The Associated Press
Updated: 12/14/2009 06:10:02 PM MST
Copenhagen » New computer modeling suggests the Arctic Ocean may be nearly ice-free in the summertime as early as 2014, Al Gore said Monday at the U.N. climate conference.
One U.S. government scientist Monday questioned the new prediction as too severe, but other researchers previously have projected a quicker end than 2030 to the Arctic summer ice cap.
It’s really astonishing to watch before your very eyes the alarming disappearance of glaciers and ice in the Arctic Ocean and at the same time hear the cacophony chorus from the right urging us, “don’t believe your eyes.”
It doesn’t take a scientist to watch what is happening and recognize that the Arctic ice is disappearing. These very vocal right wing doubters would have you believe that Al Gore is performing a some sort of magical sleight of hand and that while we are watching the Arctic ice melt he is stealing our wallet.
The naysayers are mostly faith based people who think that God is in control and there is nothing to worry about, and that we shouldn’t be messing with the hand of God, and that liberals are cookin’ the books for their own political agenda.
The Bible taught that the sun revolves around the earth, and now the true-believers are convinced that there is no global warming, but if it is happening it isn’t caused by mere men, and we don’t need to do anything because ‘God is still in charge.’
Why don’t religious people believe that “The Glory of God Is Intelligence!?”
“It is hard to capture the astonishment that the experts in the science of ice felt when they saw this,” said former U.S. Vice President Gore, who joined Scandinavian officials and scientists to brief journalists and delegates. It was Gore’s first appearance at the two-week conference.
The group presented two new reports updating fast-moving developments in Antarctica, the autonomous Danish territory of Greenland, and the rest of the Arctic.
“The time for collective and immediate action on climate change is now,” said Denmark’s foreign minister, Per Stig Moeller.
Last April, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted that Arctic summers could be almost ice-free within 30 years.
“Some of the models suggest that there is a 75 percent chance that the entire north polar ice cap during some of the summer months will be completely ice-free within the next five to seven years,” Gore said. His office later said he meant nearly ice-free, because ice would be expected to survive in island channels and other locations.
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Gore in Copenhagen
Ice research » Gore cited new scientific work at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, whose Arctic ice research is important for planning polar voyages by Navy submarines. The computer modeling there stresses the “volumetric ,” looking not just at the surface extent of ice but its thickness as well.
‘Possible but not likely’ » Asked for comment, one U.S. government scientist questioned what he called Gore’s “aggressive” projection. “It’s possible but not likely,” said Mark Serreze of the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo. “We’re sticking with 2030.”