Pacific Spirit Marine Institute
Thursday, March 20, 2008
On March 18 NASA released a report on Arctic Sea Ice. Global Warming Nay-Sayers are spinning some facts in the report to shore up their argument that Global Warming a vast left wing conspiracy while most mainstream media have made little mention of the report.
At the heart of the study is the perennial sea ice. Perennial sea ice is “old ice”. In fact Walt Meier, National Snow and Ice Data Center calls the oldest ice “tough as nails”. Perennial ice is ice that is more than a year old.
While this March NASA’s Aqua satellite, NOAA and U.S. Defense Department satellites showed a slight increase of 3.9 percent over the previous 3 years it is still below the long-term average by 2.2 percent. The increase in the ice occurred due to surface temperatures that were colder than the historical averages.
Most troubling was the area of perennial ice has decreased to an all-time minimum.
On the heels of the ‘new ice’ comes the summer melt season. The new ice is much thinner. The thick and hardy perennial ice used to cover 50-60% of the Arctic, this year it covers less than 30%.
The ‘tough as nails’ very old ice that remains in the Arctic for at least 6 years made up 20% of the Arctic area in the mid to late 80’s. This winter the tough stuff had decreased to just a tiny 6%.
According to NASA Polar ice reflects light from the sun. As this ice begins to melt, less sunlight gets reflected back into space. The sun is instead absorbed into the oceans and land raising the overall temperature and fueling further melting. This results in a positive feedback loop called ice albedo feedback. The more the ice disappears, the more likely it is to continue to disappear.
Photo Thanks: NASA
In September 2007, the Northwest Passage was ice-free for the first time since satellite records began.
It will be interesting to see the comparison of this image with the September 2008 when it is taken.
Labels: Arctic, Global Warming, NASA, Northwest Passage, Polar Ice
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
NASA Report: Arctic still on "thin ice".
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Maybe our eyes have been turned toward the wrong venue for the long anticipated Apocalypse. Maybe the final war will not be fought for what lies under the sand, but for what lies under the ice.
Last month the United States and Canada signed a little publicized “Civil Assistance Plan”. The U.S. and Canada have a long history of working in concert with the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) being the most familiar to the public. So why not celebrate this new Civil Assistance Plan?
David Pugliese, Ottawa Citizen’s defence reporter, is asking why all the secrecy surrounding this new signed agreement. The agreement was signed without the U.S. Congress or the Canadian Parliament.
Indeed why all the secrecy? The agreement merely allows the military from one nation to support the military forces of the other during a civil emergency. It sounds like a good idea on the face of it. Maybe the agreement has nothing to do with flu pandemics, earthquakes or domestic emergencies.
Peter McKay, Canadian Defence Minister may think I have my tinfoil hat pulled down too tightly over my head but I’m thinking my idea may be as good as the next guys. I’m wondering if this agreement isn’t more about the Arctic Meltdown than anything else.
Scott G. Borgerson, international affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and former Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Coast Guard has written a nearly 6 page small font single spaced article for FOREIGN AFFAIRS, published by the Council on Foreign Relations. The Article’s Title; Arctic Meltdown. The Economic and Security Implications of Global Warming.
In his paper Borgerson points out Gazprom, the Russian state-controlled oil company has approximately 113 Trillion cubic feet of gas already under development in the Barents Sea and the calculated oil in the territory claimed by Moscow could be as much as 586 billion barrels of oil. With literally billions more barrels of oil and trillions more of gas in the region it isn’t any wonder that the former Lieutenant Commander thinks the Arctic could descend into armed conflict.
There are 5 Arctic powers already trying to carve up, lay claim and otherwise declare the vast, heretofore, uncovered resources as their own.
The trillions upon trillions of dollars of resources are only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. As Borgerson also brings forward, millions upon millions of dollars will be saved by the shipping industry as the shortcuts of the Northern Sea Route and the Northwest Passage open up due to global warming. Toss in the incredible financial boon to the mega container ships, now too large to navigate the Panama and Suez Canals, and anyone could imagine where this tale will end.
The ‘Civil Assistance Plan was signed by U.S. Air Force Gen. Gene Renuat commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command and by Lt. General Marc Dumais, commander Canada command. The signing was announced on the Northcom website
Photo: NASA.gov
Labels: Arctic, Global Warming, North Pole, Northwest Passage, civil assistance plan, greenhouse gas, oil
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Is A New Stage Being Set For Apocalypse? Theater in the round, under the Northern Lights, on top of the World.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Lief Toudal Pedersen, at the Danish National Space Center is saying we have lost about 1/2 million square miles of Arctic ice since 2005. He is feeling we will loose more ice faster than expected.
The Arctic ice is the at its lowest level since images were first taken in 1978.
Now a lip-smacking development seems to be placed upon the plates of nearly the entire world of commerce. An open Northwest Passage would cut the trip from the eastern Atlantic to the western Pacific in 1/2.
At this point it is believed that the route will not be open all year, but many scientists do believe that will not be the case in the future. There are still vast amounts of sea ice, multi-year ice packs, that remain even throughout the summer. At the rate we are seeing ice disappear this may not be the case in the near future.
Will less miles traveled by ships mean less pollution? This is naturally the case that will be made by commerce. Anyone that has ever passed by the smoking lounge in an airport when the door is being opened can’t agree with that notion.
Ships rolling through the small Passage, in large numbers will no doubt have the same effect on the environment as placing 15 smokers in a contained room.
Without having any science to back up my assertions I see a world of problems that will open up when the Northwest Passage is opened up to regular, reliable shipping schedules. In my mind, it isn’t a far reach to compare Italian Granita to the Arctic ice. In a granita liquid is poured into a container and placed in the freezer. When ice crystals begin to form a fork is run through the crystals before they have a chance to freeze solid. Running a fork over an ice cube that is already frozen certainly has a very different affect on that ice. The constant scraping and agitation never allows the granita to freeze into a solid hunk of ice.
Would not constant shipping through the Northwest passage produce the same result? Now consider constantly stirring the granita with a hot fork.
Beyond not letting the ice rest so that if it can refreeze it might refreeze; what about the dangers of oil spills, accidents and waste being dropped by ships along the way?
There is no question that the hole in the earths protective Ozone layer is in the same neighborhood as well. Burdening the already weakened Ozone layer in that area will have profound and incalculable results. How could there be any doubt that ship after ship spewing pollutants directly under our already weakened protective Ozone layer will only create more problems?
Good for business, bad for the environment and the entire world. It shouldn’t take the worlds scientific community to figure this one out.
Labels: Bisphenol, Environment, Global Warming, Northwest Passage, oil spill
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Northwest Passage Open
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
George Bush says the Northwest Passage is an ‘international passageway’. That seems like a lot of syllables for Bush to be using in only two words, but Bush says a lot of things. Bush also used a lot of syllables when he said ’serious consultations’ need to take place regarding border security. Some language attributed to Bush just don’t sound very Bush’esque. Though he followed up with a Bushism we can believe when he added they were “working hard to get a plan ready”…now that is some Bush language we’ve all grown familiar with.
Paul Cellucci, US ambassador to Canada recently said it would benefit the US if Bush would accept Canada’s claim to the Northwest Passage.
I think we can safely read that as ‘if we all agree the Passage belongs to Canada, then it will be up to Canada to fund, protect and oversee the Passage.
Canada gearing up with a C$100m military training center in Resolute, and a deepwater facility near the Northwest Passage is certainly the first step toward giving Canada the ability to protect and oversee the Passage.
11 ships were able to use the Passage in 2006. With more and more of the polar ice melting more and more ships will be attempting to cut thousands of miles off their voyages.
No good deed goes unpunished. After the US handed the Panama Canal over to Panama they found the monumental canal in the hands of the Chinese. This illustrates the desperate need for another passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific if the opportunity arises.
It would do the free world quite a lot of good to assess in what hands the Northwest Passage should rest. The canal was cut through the very core of the Continental Divide. Until and if the Northwest passage opens up and becomes a truly viable route, the Panama Canal remains the most vital piece of water on the planet. Illustrating the importance of the this little bit of water is the fact that it shaves 4,500 miles off a trip by sea from Tokyo and London. Forget what that means to commerce, and just consider the meaning in military terms.
Ah, for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea
Tracing one warm line through a land so wide and savage
And make a northwest passage to the sea
Stan Rogers
Photo American University ICE project
Labels: Arctic, Canada, Global Warming, North Pole, Northwest Passage, Ocean, Russia, USA
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Whose Line is it Anyway? Whose Passage is it Anyway?
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
A Russian expedition expected to send divers into the Arctic waters around the pole yesterday or today.
This development ups the ante for the Canadian Arctic Rangers who protect Canada’s sovereignty in the Arctic.
Is the Lomonosov Ridge an extension of the Siberian continental shelf? If so the ridge that runs under the Arctic Ocean would belong to Russia. Russia is wanting to prove that the Arctic is Russian. In fact they are intent on proving the North Pole is an extension of the Russian Coastal shelf.
Malery Kuznetsov, is head of a Russian expedition team who thinks they may even discover as yet…”unknown Organisms”…
If the Arctic is found to be Russian the Geopolitical ramifications would be huge. Some geologists believe as much as 18% of the world’s oil reserve may be underneath the Arctic. 18% of the world’s oil reserve would put the Arctic in the same league as Saudi Arabia.
As it stands now, any country that borders the Arctic Ocean can “exploit” resources within a 200-nautical mile economic zone of its territory. Russia needs to prove with scientific evidence that the Region does belong to them.
Canada and Denmark also have a dog in this fight, both claiming the Lomonosov Ridge is connected to their territories.
The Canadian Government recently placed a $7 Billion C order for new naval patrol vessels. Prime Minister Harper said they would be designed to ‘defend its sovereignty over the Arctic’.
The North West Passage is opening up due to melting ice from ‘Global Warming’.
As temperatures heat up the North West Passage could possibly remain open all year. This little development could shave 2,000 nautical miles off the trip from Europe to Asia.
The ramifications of that would be rather astounding. Holy Cod Fish Batman, Oil isn’t the only precious item that could be ‘exploited’ in the Arctic. There are large mineral deposits, coal beds, and perhaps large fish reserves.
As the planet heats up, the cold war may also be heating up.
Photo thanks goes to “Bob Shavelson/Marine Photobank”.
Labels: Arctic, Canada, Environment, Global Warming, Northwest Passage, Ocean, Russia
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Global Warming Heats up Cold War: Planet feeling the heat, neighbors feeling the cold
