From Jeff Masters at Wunderground:
Round-the-clock darkness usually forces a rapid growth in sea ice across the Arctic by November, but that process has been much slower than normal over the past month or so. There is now far less mid-November sea ice in the Arctic than in any other year since satellite records began in 1979. For the five-day average ending November 17, the difference in Arctic sea ice extent between this year and the next-lowest year (2012) was 582,000 square kilometers, an area about a third larger than California. It’s an especially dramatic example of the long-term decline in sea ice across the Arctic that’s been evident for upwards of 20 years….
In mid-November, temperatures across the high Arctic spiked to readings more typical of September, about 40°F above average for this time of year (see Figure 3 in our November 17 post). “Continued persistence of this pattern may significantly affect sea ice thickness into 2017,” tweeted Zach Labe (@Zlabe, University of California, Irvine) on Monday.
and down in Miami:
Hey guys, can we take a short break from Trump appointment stuff. Sea creatures are floating around Miami! Yikes!! ? https://t.co/0G2AGIPjKb
— Ana Navarro (@ananavarro) November 19, 2016
Yep, no problems at all are facing us or our futures!
Yoda dog
This is fine!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
This really is scary. Not one question on climate change in the presidential debates, but Martha and Anderson felt we had time for two halfwitted bleats about “why can’t you, and we, just get along and say nice things?”
Adria McDowell (formerly LurkerExtraordinaire)
But but but EMAILZZZZ!!!
Botsplainer
Goddamn – poor little guy. Totally lost and not in a good spot.
I quit eating octos a while back. As a diver, I think they’re awesome – saw a mating pair when diving in Bonaire a week ago yesterday.
Hunter Gathers
This is one hell of a Chinese hoax. Thankfully, our President elect sees through Chinese lies, including octopi in parking garages (obviously the work of the liberals at Industrial Light and Magic), and will make America great again by ignoring things like science and facts. He’s gonna grab the fuck out of the world’s pussy.
WereBear
I have been told repeatedly that climate change is a hoax orchestrated by scientists for that sweet sweet grant cash.
Don’t know any more; attempts to delve into this fascinating theory makes them change the subject and they won’t change it back, either.
James Powell
If the scientists are right, we are headed for a disaster of biblical proportions. We don’t have the mental capacity to grasp it and we don’t have the resources to deal with it.
James Powell
@WereBear:
What’s strange about that argument – and I’ve heard it quite often – is that the really sweet sweet cash is on the denier side.
Yutsano
Welp…time to sell the condo in Miami…
NotMax
@Botsplainer
Voyeur.
;)
Baud
Since we’ve handed over leadership of the world to China and Europe, maybe they can solve this without us.
Redshift
@James Powell: And for any scientist who is discovered to have falsified their results, their career is over.
As far I can tell, it’s a particular form of projection. It’s people who have predetermined beliefs and grab at any fig leaf that lets them pretend they have a rational basis, and therefore are absolutely certain that everyone on the other side works the same way.
Baud
@Redshift: Sounds like the election.
WereBear
@James Powell: I am astounded these people can walk, they are so determined that none of their brain parts should come near other brain parts.
They constantly demonstrate what is known in brainwashing as “thought stoppers.” When an instance of cognitive dissonance threatens, they simply repeat the mantra they have been given, and shuts down any further thought for a while.
Try it; after they make this panicked pivot, they mutter conversational placeholders, or grope for subjects they know well and require no thought. At such times, they can barely add single digit numbers.
mai naem mobile
But but but I watched Joe Kernen on Squawk Box on CNBC. He said it’s all a conspiracy. It’s all groupthink. Also f*** Florida. Ask Shit Gibbon to help you.
Citizen_X
Arctic schmarctic. We don’t have to worry about such problems, because if they get their way, NASA won’t be doing Earth observation anymore. (See also here.) So, out of sight, out of mind!
Seriously though, this is a real threat to efforts to counter AGW and other environmental threats, and needs to be resisted.
Mnemosyne
@Hunter Gathers:
Ahem. Octopuses.
And if you really want to be a Liberal Elitist, “octopodes,” which is apparently the Greek plural.
Baud
@Mnemosyne: I was expecting you to suggest Octopussies.
WereBear
@Citizen_X: and your little dog too!
What next, a ban on lattes?
Gvg
@Botsplainer: newspaper story in the link said garage security people put the octopus in a bucket and took it to the ocean.
Gindy51
@Gvg: I am glad they did that.
Botsplainer
@Gindy51:
@Gvg:
Good – they’re too special to treat badly.
J R in WV
@Gvg:
The garage security guy has more humane instincts than President-elect Trump OR his little dog VP-elect Pence. Very glad he saved the octopus, who is probably beating feet (all 8 of them) east-bound.
What is Trump going to say when Mar-a-Lago goes underwater? Declare war on China for causing his resort to flood? Something like that, no doubt. Anyone else’s fault. Nearly hoping it happens before he leaves office, but for the other folk’s lives that would shatter.
Google Earth and Weather Underground seem to indicate that Mar-a-Lago is on the beach strip / barrier island just east of the actual coast, something like 10 feet above (old) sea level. King tides should be a real problem for The Donald in the very near future, as salt kills grass, as in golf courses.
But that’s just a hoax, right? ! !
Right!
Maybe he can sell it as a condo to the members…
;-)
Hunter Gathers
@Mnemosyne: Octopi sounds more sophisticated.
If my fellow crackers can just make shit up and get away with it, then I get to as well. And if Webster’s Dictionary doesn’t change the plural of octopus to what I want it to be, then I’m going to boycott all dictionaries. Fuck a bunch of spelling. This is Trump’s America now. Correct spelling makes you a limp wristed elitest who hates middle America. Why do you have to opress me with your so-called ‘facts’? Can’t you tell how filled I am with economic anxiety?
SiubhanDuinne
I’ve held on to this Elizabeth Kolbert New Yorker piece for nearly a year. It seems pertinent here.
I’m glad the garage guy rescued and released the octopus. They are very smart creatures, octopodes.
Another Scott
@SiubhanDuinne: If I remember that Miami piece correctly (no time to read it again now), a huge problem is the fact that Florida is basically porous rock, so building sea walls and the like ultimately won’t help – the water will just seep up through the ground.
And dissolve in the process.
AFAIK, the US isn’t too good at filling in and repairing giant sink holes quickly, as the people in Fukuoka just did. It might be a huge business opportunity in Florida soon…
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
Van Buren
@WereBear: “But this goes up to 11”
SiubhanDuinne
@Another Scott:
Yes, good memory you have. Limestone, which is full of holes, which are already full of water.
Adria McDowell (formerly LurkerExtraordinaire)
@Another Scott: Yup! During some storms (i.e. hurricanes) storm surge can actually travel a distance inland and bubble up to the surface.
Plus, they are overusing the Florida Aquifer down there- I believe they already have saltwater intrusion in some places. It will only get worse from here. So South Florida is fucked- either from lack of freshwater or rising sea level.
That being said, all these folks who go around claiming scientists only want grant money- do they realize just how difficult it is to get a grant of any kind? That shit isn’t just falling from the sky.
Adria McDowell (formerly LurkerExtraordinaire)
Sorry, not Florida Aquifer. It’s actually the Biscayne Aquifer.
Elie
Alls I know is that the cast of Hamilton MUST not apologize. In fact they should admonish Trump for trying to coerce them. This is a free country STILL and no way should they.
Libarbarian
@James Powell:
Didn’t you know that climate scientists is one of the highest paid professions in the world, whereas Oil company executive is somewhere down around “Experienced Starbucks barista”?
Sweet
Bess
For the next few years it’s likely the US government will not work to avoid extreme climate change. Each of us who cares needs to work individually to lower our CO2 emission levels to help.
At this point all the lights in your house, the ones you use more than a few minutes a year, should be LEDs. I bought 10 watt LEDs yesterday at our home/building supply store for $1.50. They give as much light at a 60 watt incandescent. They should pay for themselves in a few months in electricity savings and cut that part of fossil fuel use by over 80%.
Your office/business should be using LEDs. Your city should be using LED stoplights and streetlights.
There are now LED light bulbs that look like incandescents. Sneak them into your right-wing friends’ and relatives’ lamps when they aren’t looking. 14% of US household electricity is used for lighting, we could cut that to just over 2% and save money at the same time.
That would close coal plants and cut back on natural gas use. Less CO2 would be shoved into our atmosphere. That’s just one little thing you can do.
James Powell
@Libarbarian:
Right. I hear they can make as much as some philosophers.
Zinsky
Liberals have done a really poor job of explaining the many dangers from the pollution caused by using hydrocarbons and burning fossil fuel – climate change is just one of the many bad outcomes from using this toxic goo. Acidification of the oceans, 40,000+ deaths from lung cancer or COPD, the oceans are full of plastics, seabirds and sea fish are full of plastics, drinking aquifers are being polluted beyond any reasonable means of purification, etc. But, the right-wing doorknobs like Trump think the problem is the thermometer only went up one or two degrees – so what’s the big deal? We should be flooding the airwaves with stark, vivid pictures of the foul, vile world we will have if we allow these reckless criminal to continue to pollute with impunity.
Bill Arnold
The rest of the scary ice extent graphs can be found at
sea ice extent area
In particular,
area 1978-2016
extent 1978-2016
(difference explained here: What is the difference between sea ice area and extent?)
I expect that we will be seeing more of these graphs (feel free to make it happen if you’re in a position to do so.)
2016 – the year we first realized we are in deep trouble with climate change.
E
An easy site to follow the whole thing while it unravels is
https://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/
which shows the graph updated every day. You can also investigate the “Charctic” link that allows you to compare any two years in the record, and which shows average and +/- 2 standard deviations.
I have been visiting this site daily in the summer and weekly in the winter since 2007. Fascinating to watch. For more a more thorough discussion, there is the arctic sea-ice forum, which is quite active in the summer months. http://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/
I believe that arctic sea ice is going to provide us our first physical demonstration of the apocalyptic shit-storm to come, and it is at least theoretically possible that if enough people educate themselves about what is happening there, we can start to make people see how important it is to take serious action for the sake of our grandchildren and, most likely, our children as well. I am 50 and I expect to live to see the death of the oceans as a major food producer. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/11/061102-seafood-threat.html