The New York Times’ Article, 2 October 2007

“Arctic Melt Unnerves the Experts”; By Andrew C. Revkin[1]

The Arctic malaise is obvious. The Polar area permanent ice cover retreat is the biggest ever observed. The suddenness is unexpected and Arctic experts do know little regarding the chain of possible causation, some of them explaining to Andrew C. Revkin that “ things are not that simple”. But could the situation not have been more clear if more attention had been given to the Big Warming at Spitsbergen which started at the end of WWI in winter 1918/19.

It is more than a half century ago that Birkeland regarded temperature rise in the Arctic since 1918/19 as the biggest ever observed, while Ahlmann named it a “climatic revolution”[2]. As the deviation from means had been even more pronounced, as during the recent two decades, it seems reasonable to understand the preliminary Arctic warming in the first place for not being too unnerved with the situation now. This site offers the interested reader a lot of clues, as it investigates the event step by step: Where, When, and Why.

On the principle observation that the rise in temperatures occurred during winter when the direct influence of the sun is zero, the next step is at hand, that only the sea could have started and sustained the warming. But that is still speaking too broadly, as it all could only have started with the permanent supply of warm water from the South and at the West Coast of Spitsbergen, due to the extensive sea ice during the winter season, which usually culminates in April. The presented images illustrate the situation well (for details see Chapter C & D).

• The plain graph (from 1914) indicate the usual situation in the Northern North Atlantic between Land, Sea, and Sea Ice in the month April.
• One further graph (April 1919) shows the flow of the water current carrying warm water from the Gulf Current and brackish water from the North Sea northwards.
• The third graph (April 1919) with the read triangle at Spitsbergen indicates that the warming impulse could only have been generated in this small section.

This scenario reveals that the sea has generated the Artic warming 90 years ago, and that it would be of big help for understanding the current situation better if this would be acknowledged and the matter vigorously investigated since long. This website, which is fully dedicated to this topic, hopes to be a contribution, and for the interested reader the early Arctic warming issue is plainly explained.

Footnotes

[1] Andrew C. Revkin, Arctic Melt Unnerves the Experts , The New York Times , SCIENCE / ENVIRONMENT | October 2, 2007

[2] B. J. Birkeland (1930); and W. H. Ahlmann (1946) see Chapter B

Al Gore and WE

“Moving Beyond Kyoto”, The New York Times, July 1, 2007 1

“We – the human species – have arrived at a moment of decision.”

“What is at risk of being destroyed is not our planet itself, but the conditions that have made it hospitable for human beings”.

“We – all of us – now face a universal threat. Though it is not from outside this world, it is nevertheless cosmic in scale.”

With these empathetic words Al Gore claims, that this is not a political but a moral issue that affects the survival of human civilisation, in a recent article in The New York Times1.

Should WE – all of us – be happy that Al Gore not only makes ‘Live Earth’ concerts available around the globe, but also demands the rapid conclusion of a tougher climate change pact, to reduce carbon emission, as it appears to him, that there is, after all, a planetary emergency; or

Should WE – all of us – be on high alert when being advised by someone who seems to care little for historical context when saying:

“Just in the last few months, new studies have shown that the north pole ice cap – which helps the planet cool itself – is melting nearly three times faster than the most pessimistic computer models predicted” 1;

Such claim is imprudent, superficial and grossly misleading as long as the dramatic arctic warming at Spitsbergen from 1918 to 1940 is ignored and not sufficiently explained.

WE – all of us – should be very reserved, if a well-documented climatic event only 90 years ago has neither been thoroughly investigated nor reasonably explained until now.

(see on this site: Chapter D – 20th Century Climate)

WE – all of us – and Al Gore should ask 2:
ARCTIC WARMIG – Where? When? Why?

Footnotes:

1. Al Gore, “Moving Beyond Kyoto”, in:
   THE NEW YORK TIMES, OP-ED, Sunday, July 1, 2007, WK 13
2. Click here: http://www.arctic-warming.com

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