Well, the Northwest Passage is opening up as the northern polar ice cap melts away to oblivion (photo credits ESA). The Northwest Passage is the yellow line. All the trouble so many people went through back in the 19th Century and earlier to find a way through. So many dead. All they had to do was wait, it turns out. Scientists are expecting ice-free summers in the Arctic Ocean sometime around 2030. This summer, the total ice is over 1 million square miles less than the average ice cover.
I wonder what Sir John Franklin would say if he could see this. Probably something like, “Full steam ahead!” I have an odd taste for folk music dealing with the sea, especially when it deals with stuff from the 19th century or earlier. This probably is derived from a certain nostalgia I have for when the world of science was young and the future was brighter and less scary. I suspect this is part of the reason I love steampunk so much. Anyhow, one song I like in particular, by Stan Rogers is “Northwest Passage”:
“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.”
Did you watch the PBS Nova special on Global Dimming? I was going to write about it on my blog, but it’s easier to just post comments on yours :)
The essence of it is that all the visible pollution from planes and cars and factories and such is changing the structure of the clouds such that they are more reflective. As a result, there is noticeably less sunlight getting through to us now than there was in the past. But wouldn’t this cause Global Cooling not Global Warming? Yes, the show claims, it is causing Global Cooling. And that means that the actual problem of Global Warming is far worse than we think. And as we continue to reduce the visible pollution, we decrease Global Dimming, and the effects of Global Warming could be more severe than predicted.
Anyway, scary stuff. One of the few times I’ve been comforted by the thought “Well, hey, I’ll be dead!” :) One of the show’s predictions was a 30 degree temperature rise by 2100. Yikes!!!!
No I didn’t catch that, and scary stuff indeed. If there’s a 30 degree rise by 2100, we’re gonna be living in caves south of quebec and all that land in antarctica will finally be open to farming! The good news is that most people will be dead by then in the wars set off by the collapse of the world oil economy.
Yay for good news!