Global Warming does not exist . . . but the ice is melting

Conservatives say Global Warming Does not Exist: 
But as the ice melts Canada is staking its claim to Arctic waterways and mineral resources - as are Russia, the US, Norway and other regional powers.


DISCLAIMER
LEFTIST - COMMIE SCUM:  I hate phony brain-dead Liberals, Socialists, Greens, Modern Luddites and Marxists.  They are fools of the highest order and are to be crushed by all means possible.  In the case of Global Warming the Leftists have taken over the subject as their own.  Not to stop Global Warming, but to crush Capitalism, build a Worker's Paradise of "Fairness", advance Marxism and to make money.

With that out of the way we can move on.

2 + 2 = 4

Simple math.  2 + 2 = 4.  Math and science do not care about your religion or your politics.  Commie, Royalist, Republican or Fascist it does not matter. 

There is a warming of the planet.  The fact that Leftists are whores and want to use the Science to advance Marxism should not make Conservatives reject Science itself.  Leftists use all subjects to advance Marxism.
 
Weather is a complex mix of vulcanism, sun spots, ocean temps, deforestation, and gasses in the atmosphere.  Personally I believe there is Global Warming.  How much of it is due to the activity of man is hard to say.  20%  -  30%  -  40% ????   We don't know.  Scientists will argue over this for years.

But while the politics goes on there is a mad Gold Rush by clear thinking people for the minerals of the North Pole and control of ice free shipping lanes.

It's Melting

Two major Arctic shipping routes have opened as summer sea ice melts, European satellites have found.

Data recorded by the European Space Agency's (Esa) Envisat shows both Canada's Northwest Passage and Russia's Northern Sea Route open simultaneously.

This summer's melt could break the 2007 record for the smallest area of sea ice since the satellite era began in 1979, reports the BBC.

Last year, the Peter 1 yacht sailed around the
Arctic using both passages.

Shipping companies are already eyeing the benefits these routes may bring if they remain open regularly.
The two lanes have been used by a number of small craft several times in recent years.

But the Northern Sea Route has been free enough of ice this month for a succession of tankers carrying natural gas condensate from the northern port of Murmansk to sail along the Siberian coast en route for Thailand.

"They're often open at the same time in the sense that with some ingenuity you can get through them," observed Peter Wadhams, an Arctic ice expert from the University of Cambridge.

"But this time they've really been open, with a proper Suez-size tanker going through the Northern Sea Route with a full cargo - that's a real step forward," he told BBC News.

A number of major shipping companies are looking to the opening of these routes to shorten journey times and make their businesses more efficient.

But environmental groups are concerned that the progressive ice loss will lead to increased exploration for oil and gas.

This, they argue, presents major safety hazards in the often inclement Arctic, as well as strengthening the world's reliance on fossil fuels and so ensuring the progression of man-made global warming - and the disintegration of summer sea ice cover.


BBC science and environment correspondent David Shukman joined the Canadian Coast Guard research vessel, the Amundsen, made a trip through the now ice free Northwest Passage.  (See BBC)


The Northwest Passage

In the far north, ice is permanent. At lower latitudes it is seasonal. And as the earth warms up, polar ice is melting more quickly and over a greater area. In fact latest surveys recorded the amount of summer polar ice at the third lowest level on record.

The result is that in the summer, stretches of sea that are normally blocked are now opening up to shipping.

"Global warming is going to change the face of the north," Captain Richard Lambert told me on the bridge of the Hudson Bay Explorer. He has nearly 40 years experience in this business, and he predicts upheaval.

"The tug and barge industry will be reduced because larger ships can come and they will bring more cargo in bulk," he said, "Ships are going to be able to leave Atlantic Canada and go to the Pacific coast through the north, which they could never do before. The Northwest Passage was open last year. A couple of tugs did get through."

The Northwest Passage is the holy grail for shipping.

For centuries sailors searched in vain for an Arctic shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It would slash weeks off journey times and millions off costs; this was commercially valuable and strategically important.

The Arctic sea ice has been melting fast this year, and for a while it appeared set to break the 2007 record for the smallest minimum area in the satellite record.

However, in recent weeks it has been running a narrow second to 2007.


The two Arctic passages combine to form a route
 right around the region


"The minimum ice extent is still three to four weeks away, and a lot depends on the weather conditions over the Arctic during those weeks," said Leif Toudal Pedersen, senior scientist at the Danish Meteorological Institute.

"Whether we reach an absolute minimum or not, this year again confirms that we are in a new regime with substantially less summer ice than before.

"The last five summers are the five minimum ice extent summers on record."

The volume of sea ice continues to decline annually.

Professor Wadhams believes the advent of summers where the two sea routes are routinely open is not far away.

"The Northwest Passage is probably the less reliable because you've got so many small passages in it where chance variations in wind will pile ice up and block it," he said.

"But so long as the ice retreats from the coast of Siberia, you'll have a route there."

Some computer models forecast that the Arctic could be completely clear of summer sea ice within a decade, though others recently published say there may be high years and low years en route to the final disappearance.

Canada and Russia are among the governments jockeying for position as new areas of the seabed open up for exploitation.


Global warming does not exist say Conservatives.  Meanwhile the Arctic nations are taking
advantage of the melting ice to lay claims to mineral rights and now ice free shipping lanes.

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