Three cheers that the Artic Ice is not going going away forever.
Decrease in sea ice a 'cyclical' event
Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow
Although Arctic sea ice has dropped to its second lowest level since 1979, one scientist says there is no cause for alarm.
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=237486According to a recent article from The Associated Press, the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, says sea ice in the Arctic is down to 2.03 million square miles, which is up slightly from last year's record-setting low level of 1.65 million square miles. However, with only three weeks left in the summer, scientists fear this year's melting could continue and break last year's low record.
The AP article quoted a NASA ice scientist saying these new data could mean that climate warming is coming faster than the models are predicting. However, Joseph D'Aleo the executive director of the website IceCap.us disagrees.
"I don't believe it has anything at all to do with global warming, or at least carbon dioxide or greenhouse gases. It's a normal cyclical change that we've observed in the Arctic going back centuries," D'Aleo contends. "The Arctic ice diminished in the [19]30s, 40s, and 50s. It diminished in the 1800s so much so that the Northwest Passage was open and they were catching codfish off of Siberia. This is a cyclical phenomenon that relates to periodic, very predictable warming in the Atlantic and the Pacific."
D'Aleo notes the Pacific Ocean has cooled to pre-1977 temperatures, and he believes the Atlantic will follow within a decade. He also says that Arctic sea ice will recover and possibly increase as a result.