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   We are on course to have a ice-free arctic during the summer months.  This is yet another indicator of traumatic warming of our world due in part to our activities and policies.  The climate is changing rapidly and a new dynamic equilibrium is being established.

  “Waves rearing as high as the second-floor windows of a building have been detected in the Beaufort Sea for the first time.

Arctic waves are normally kept in check by sea ice, which has traditionally covered large areas of the Arctic Ocean even in the summer. But warmer temperatures as a result of climate change are melting away more and more of that ice.

A wave gauge deployed in the Beaufort Sea in the western Arctic in 2012 has already measured some of the consequences, recording wave heights of almost five metres during a September storm.”

Daaaamn, waves in the Arctic Ocean – here is the bit on the positive feedback loop being established.

“Those waves, in turn, may gain enough power to smash away more sea ice, generating a “feedback mechanism which drives the Arctic system toward an ice-free summer,” they wrote in their paper.

In his blog post on the website of the American Geophysical Union, Thomson added, “Bigger, more powerful waves could also accelerate erosion of the Arctic Ocean coasts, which are already breaking down rapidly from the effects of climate change and melting of permafrost.”

   The stories about the changing climate are often mixed in with stories about companies contemplating the new shipping routes that will become available and the resources that can be exploited once the ice is gone.” 

The gradual nature of AGW is the perfect villain in this situation precisely because of our human tendencies toward short-term thinking.

Short term thinking will be the end of us.

[Source:cbc.ca]