Mark Serreze - Arctic Ocean Ice Pack Has Entered "Death Spiral" - Summer Cover Likely Gone By 2030

[hatrack]

The Arctic Ocean's sea ice has shrunk to its second smallest area on record, close to 2007's record-shattering low, scientists report. The ice is in a "death spiral" and may disappear in the summers within a couple of decades, according to Mark Serreze, an Arctic climate expert at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado.

EDIT

With the climate feedbacks kicking in," Serreze said by email, "we'll lose the summer ice cover probably by the year 2030."

The 2007 melt last year smashed a previous record set in 2005.

But 2007 saw special conditions that favored melting, researchers say. "The most important factor in 2007," Serreze said, "was an unusual pattern of atmospheric circulation in summer that brought warm, southerly winds north of eastern Siberia, promoting strong melt."

EDIT/END

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/09/080917-sea-ice.html?source=rss

[phantom power]

1. We lost almost as much cover this year, with no special conditions.

[tom_paine]

2. Plus every year now it's thinner, shorter-aged ice.

[Nihil]

3. Shush you two!

People need to believe in "unusual patterns of atmospheric circulation"
or they might wake up before that last short period when realisation
sinks in ... err ... wait a minute ...