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Arctic sea ice disappearing: scientist

First-hand evidence gleaned during annual tour

By: Aldo Santin

28/11/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 2

The cold hard facts of the polar meltdown are in, according to a leading researcher from Manitoba, who says it is high time we recognize the way climate change is dramatically altering the Arctic.

Arctic ice expert Dave Barber said first-hand evidence shows Arctic sea ice is disappearing, contrary to what scientists had believed was happening over the past three years.

"It's quite a remarkable difference when you expect to see (ice) that is six metres thick and you find stuff that's less than a metre thick," said Barber, a University of Manitoba professor of environment and geography and a world-acknowledged Arctic sea ice expert.

Barber spent the month of September on his annual tour of the Arctic basin aboard the research vessel Amundsen and his findings have been accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed journal of the American Geophysical Union, the Geophysical Research Letters.

"I think it's important... what this means to us as a society on the planet and what we're going to do with trying to grapple with ... climate change."

Barber said some people were taking comfort from false information gleamed from satellite images that appeared to show Arctic sea ice had been expanding.

But Barber said the satellite imaging technology was actually recording thin, slush ice.

"We thought it (the Arctic sea ice) was recovering and this was a positive thing," Barber said of the commonly-held scientific view. "We found the satellites were mis-classifying the ice that was there.

"We found very little, true multi-year ice at all and it was all this rotten slush ice that we were driving our ship through."

Barber has been conducting research in the Arctic every year since 1981. His findings took him by surprise.

"This is not something we were expecting at all. It was a total surprise to everybody who works in the Arctic -- what does the ice actually look like."

The new findings have implications for development in the Arctic and the ongoing debate over climate change, he said.

"The multi-year sea ice covered the entire Arctic basin in the summer and it did that for the last million years, so the ecosystem that takes advantage of all that ice has been affected by this."

Multi-year ice is a deterrent to ship navigation through the Arctic but this new, slush ice isn't, he said. "The potential for shipping in the Arctic continues to increase and that has many ramifications for marine vessel traffic in the area and development of resources that are there."

Decision-makers in government and industry need to realize that the ice is disappearing and base their decisions on that reality, he said.

"If you don't fully understand what's going on, you can make some wrong decisions."

Barber said the new findings will undermine the climate change sceptics who told him that the satellite images of the Arctic over the past three years were proof the planet was cooling off.

"The evidence from our field project this year is absolutely contradictory to that," he said. "The research we are doing is showing with hard evidence that the rate of reduction of the multi-year sea ice is increasing in speed, not decreasing, and we should all be concerned about that."

�Äaldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 28, 2009 C19

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2 Comments

Posted by: JLR

November 28, 2009 at 11:51 AM

And how much research money will Mr. Barber get if he says "All is well, no problems here"? NASA reports that the loss of ice in 2007 had little to do with temperatures and much to do with variation in the prevailing wind and sea currents. wattsupwiththat.com/.../nh-sea-ice-loss-its-the-wind-says-nasa There has been no statistically significant global warming in more than ten years in any of the global temperature data sets. This article is fearmongering. The misanthropic MSM is quick to print any scary story that paints the human race as evil, polluting monsters without the slightest bit of fact checking and ignores all stories that say otherwise. Pitiful. Climate change is NATURAL. Get used to it. There is not one speck of evidence to indicate that mankind has any significant impact on climate or arctic ice. The IPCC, which was founded to find a human effect on climate, has corrupted science to meet it's own agenda. Anyone who doubts this needs to spend some time reading the climategate emails and other leaked files. The Canadian environment is dramatically cleaner and healthier than it was 50 years ago by any rational measure. CO2 is not a pollutant, it is plant food.

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Posted by: mememine69

November 28, 2009 at 8:58 AM

Daddy? Does CO2 cause bad weather too?

Yes my little one. And unfortunately you and your children will be seeing a lot more of this bad weather as the planet slowly dies to a hell on earth.

Thanks Dad. You the best!

The media’s non coverage of the other side of CarbonGate makes them just as complicit in this crime along with Al Gore and David Nutzuki who we deniers promise will be called to explain why they were leading us to war against a non existent enemy of climate change.

Hello? – CLIMATE GATE? – Smoking Gun?
We don’t care anymore so please
stop scaring my kids.