Monday, July 14, 2008

Arctic melting

Fox News reports:

Russian scientists are evacuating a research station built on an Arctic ice floe because global warming has melted the ice to a fraction of its original size, a spokesman said.

The North Pole-35 station, where 21 researchers and two dogs live in huts, will be taken off the floe in the western Arctic Ocean this week instead of in late August as originally planned, said Sergei Balyasnikov of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute in St. Petersburg.

The research crew landed in early September on the 1.2- by 2.5-mile floe near the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago. During its westward drift of more than 1,550 miles, the floe shrank to just 1,000 by 2,000 feet.

"The evacuation is ahead of schedule because of global warming," Balyasnikov said.
Global warming, huh, Sergei? Even though the extent of ice in your neck of the woods is significantly greater than this time last year? The whole of the northern Russian coast is still sea ice-bound, whereas last year there were areas of ice free water.

Specifically, there's more sea ice around the exact islands where the Russians landed than was the case last year.

Is there the teensiest chance this is a cock up being blamed on global warming?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Apparently the Antarctic ice is growing, except in the small area called the "Antarctic Peninsula". You therefore know which patch of the Antactic gets all the coverage - of media, that is, not ice.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Here's a good supporting evidence to the subject:

http://texasscribbler.com/blog/2008/07/global_warming_early_version.html