a chunk of ice the size of manhattan is hard to deny

But then maybe it’s just god’s will:

OTTAWA (AFP) — Two ice shelves in Canada’s far north have lost massive sections since August while a third ice shelf now is adrift in the Arctic Ocean, said researchers Wednesday who blamed climate change.

The entire 50 square-kilometer (19 square-mile) Markham Ice Shelf off the coast of Ellesmere Island broke away in early August and is now adrift, while two sections of the nearby Serson Ice Shelf detached, reducing its mass by 60 percent or 122 square kilometers (47 square miles).

Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, which halved in July, lost an additional 22 square kilometers (8.5 square miles).

“These changes are irreversible under the present climate and indicate that the environmental conditions that have kept these ice shelves in balance for 4,000 years are no longer present,” said Trent University’s polar expert Derek Mueller.
…
“Usually the ice shelves would use the winter to recover from the previous summer. They would reform, … but the ice shelf can’t recover in the winter anymore.”

“We have now reached a threshold where (the environment) is too warm for these ice shelves to exist anymore,” he said.

Sarah Palin’s take on the whole global warming thing?

Last month, the state of Alaska under Palin’s guidance sued Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne in an attempt to reverse his decision to list polar bears as a threatened species. Palin said that scientists’ predictions that global warming would eliminate the ice where the bears live in summer were unreliable.

Arctic sea ice shrank to a record low by the end of last summer, and satellites now show that the ice has been reduced to a level very close to last year’s with some days remaining before a new winter season begins.

Palin also favors drilling in ANWR and has opposed an initiative that would ban mines from discharging pollution into salmon streams.

Maybe she thinks killing all of Alaska’s wildlife one at a time is just too fucking slow.

Tags: Alaska, Arctic Ocean, Canada, change, elimination, Ellesmere Island, Environment, Fuck, God, Ice shelf, Markham Ice Shelf, summer, Trent University, US, Ward Hunt Ice Shelf | Category: 2008 Election, Environment, McCain, Sen John |  Print This Post |  Email This Post |