Thursday, September 04, 2008

19-square-mile ice sheet breaks loose in Canada

Hellooooooo! Is there anyone out there?
Anyone??

There's this:
A chunk of ice shelf nearly the size of Manhattan has broken away from Ellesmere Island in Canada's northern Arctic, another dramatic indication of how warmer temperatures are changing the polar frontier, scientists said Wednesday.


And this:

The loss of these ice shelves means that rare ecosystems that depend on them are on the brink of extinction, said Warwick Vincent, director of Laval University's Centre for Northern Studies and a researcher in the program ArcticNet.

"The Markham Ice Shelf had half the biomass for the entire Canadian Arctic Ice Shelf ecosystem as a habitat for cold, tolerant microbial life; algae that sit on top of the ice shelf and photosynthesis like plants would. Now that it's disappeared, we're looking at ecosystems on the verge of extinction,' said Mueller.


Read the whole thing here

And what sayeth our esteemed Prime Minister Harper? Who will, incidentally, be running in a newly called general election on October 13th. No grand election hoopla circus here folks. Apart, of course, from the pronouncements of the above Minister Harper who says on this catastrophic tipping of the balance of the arctic:

Harper announced last week that he plans to expand exploration of the region's known oil and mineral deposits, a possibility that has become more evident as a result of melting sea ice. It is the burning of oil and other fossil fuels that scientists say is the chief cause of manmade warming and melting ice.

Harper also said Canada would toughen reporting requirements for ships entering its waters in the Far North, where some of those territorial claims are disputed by the United States and other countries.


In other words: "Oh goody, more oil! Buzz off, it's ours."

10 comments:

  1. Hi WWW

    Well, to be fair (so unlike me), no politician is going to acknowledge an environmental disaster. It's really up to the rest of us to vote with our feet, or perhaps snow shoes - whatever fits.

    xxx

    Pants

    ReplyDelete
  2. Just ask the Swiss to point that black hole they are creating next Wednesday towards that orphan ice sheet and hey presto, problem solved!

    Or not.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Welcome, Dave and thanks for the link, between that and The Onion I'll get my satiric links of the day but I find I'm laughing less and less.
    ---------------------------------

    Pants:
    Or the freshly mothballed snowpants.
    ---------------------------------
    Laura:
    is that a square peg thing, or the other way round?
    ---------------------------------
    XO
    WWW

    ReplyDelete
  4. The world's population is now so huge and consumption levels so massive it's hard to see what any government can do to stop the rot. It's like the proverbial oil tanker that takes 10 miles to turn around. Except in this case nobody's even bothered to engage reverse gear.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nick:
    I agree, it will probably take a cataclysmic event to bring us all to our knees, that is if we have a pair left.
    It is horribly dismal.
    XO
    WWW

    ReplyDelete
  6. When will those in power wake up?

    I followed a couple of links from the one you provided, WWW.

    In an article from The UK Guardian

    Yesterday in the Guardian, Rajendra Pachauri suggested that an impending recession could force us to confront the flaws in the global economy. Sadly it seems so far to have had the opposite effect: a recent Ipsos Mori poll suggests that people are losing interest in climate change. Opportunities for energy populism abound: it cannot be long before one of the major parties abandons the pale green consensus and starts invoking an oil cornucopia it cannot possibly deliver.

    I suppose that was referring to the UK, but could easily apply to the USA - even more so in fact.

    It's almost as though they think there IS no solution, so we may as well accept the inevitable - rather like someone with a terminal illness. It's seriously depressing!

    ReplyDelete
  7. And this was predicted eons ago by sages, elders and shamans.
    That we would all continue to fiddle as the planet collapses around us.
    Right before our eyes, T.
    Gaia will shrug us off like the troublesome fleas that we are.
    XO
    WWW

    ReplyDelete
  8. Half the problem is that the politicians know combating climate change would involve such monumental chaos for the electorate, they're not prepared to risk their positions by attempting to implement it. The other half involves pressures from their masters, the corporates, not to do anything that will lose the multi-nationals' profits. As a result they take the easy road. I think it's obvious that climate change will never be reversed. Gaia will take her course; the human race will take its chances; the politicians and their masters will survive come-what-may. As for the rest of us.....

    ReplyDelete
  9. Of course they are going to lay claim to all that oil and exploit it and rub there hands together and say, "What a windfall for us!"

    My ex always said, "Look at all those roofs on all those houses. There are no solar panels on any of them!"

    We are wasting the sun's energy and the tidal energy and the wind energy and pretty soon they'll be building nuclear power stations, because we need them so badly. You'll see, that's what will happen, because all these other measures aren't being taken seriously.

    There is not a government in the world that wants to inconvenience it's voters and adopt strict laws about the creation of individual or communal energy.

    I'm glad I can't afford and don't need a car. At least I don't have that moral decision to make.

    ReplyDelete
  10. RJA:
    Yes, of course, the corpo-crats are the real bosses and they call the tunes. I am horrified out here in Newfoundland at the money being poured into the highway infrastructure and zero on public trans.
    -----------------------------------
    Irene:
    You are lucky to live in a bike-friendly town and it is alarming at how little funds are being spent on renewable resources.
    -----------------------------------
    XO
    WWW

    ReplyDelete

Comments are welcome. Anonymous comments will be deleted unread.

Email me at wisewebwomanatgmaildotcom if you're having trouble.