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2007-12-10 -Signs, Portents, and the Weather-

Southern Hemisphere Icecover above normal this year

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Posted by mhw 2007-12-10 10:29|| || Front Page|| [11126 views ] Top

#1 There are now some interesting plans for using the Antarctic sea as a massive carbon sink, by generating tremendous amounts of algae growth.

This can be done because that sea has very little algae growth mostly because it has little or no free iron in it. So by adding just a few cargo ships worth of iron fertilizer, algae has explosive growth.

A test ship tried doing this a few years ago, and reported astonishing levels of growth, just prior to the cold and storm season, so it had to leave.

In turn, the algae absorbs a vast amount of CO2, which is does not release until the dead algae decomposes.

So if the iron is spread in the fall, the algae will bloom, and hold on to the CO2 until the next spring, when the ocean water warms again enough for decomposition, assuming the dead algae has not descended so low in the deep ocean so that it does not decompose.

Posted by Anonymoose 2007-12-10 10:53|| 2007-12-10 10:53|| Front Page Top

#2 Let me see if I follow. An increase in ice is evidence of global warming. Of course, a decrease in ice would also be evidence of global warming, naturally. Droughts would also be evidence of global warming, of course, unless there are floods, which are caused, obviously enough, by global warming. It's the theory of everything!

Posted by Baba Tutu 2007-12-10 11:21|| 2007-12-10 11:21|| Front Page Top

#3 It's the theory of everything!

the Southern Hemisphere is stealing something.. [hint Ice Baby Ice..]

we'd better TAX It.. definally Regulate It..

or we could just Cap the Southern Ice Cap.

Posted by RD">RD 2007-12-10 11:36|| 2007-12-10 11:36|| Front Page Top

#4 linky

Posted by RD">RD 2007-12-10 11:37|| 2007-12-10 11:37|| Front Page Top

#5 baba tutu

Its not that bad. SH and NH ice cover are fundamentally different because of the Antarctic continent.

None of the models predict an increase in arctic ice with moderate global warming (as opposed to the antarctic situation).

Of course your greater point, that is that there are so many global models that a dizzying array of phenomena can be attributed to global warming, is true. This is partly because there is so much research funding available that wanting to build a new global model is a relatively easy way to get a grant.

Posted by mhw">mhw 2007-12-10 12:15|| http://hypocrisy-incorporated.blogspot.com/]">[http://hypocrisy-incorporated.blogspot.com/] 2007-12-10 12:15|| Front Page Top

#6 It is the new lefty religion. Everything can be attributed to it and all we need to do is repent and pay for our sins (in taxes) and all will be forgiven.

Posted by DarthVader">DarthVader 2007-12-10 12:18|| 2007-12-10 12:18|| Front Page Top

#7 Something is definitely happening downunder. Our normally very predictable seasons have gone haywire. Perth had its coldest December day on record last week and it looks like being a monster wet season in the north and interior.

Posted by phil_b 2007-12-10 13:15|| 2007-12-10 13:15|| Front Page Top

#8 Look, I just heard Al Gore say that the experts have confirmed the reality of GW beyond a shadow of a doubt. So all you naysayers out there had better just open your wallets and submit! The experts have spoken!

Posted by Abu Chuck al Ameriki">Abu Chuck al Ameriki 2007-12-10 13:50|| 2007-12-10 13:50|| Front Page Top

#9 Um, any of you smart biology types want to explain what happens to a body of water when mass algae blooms die off? I seem to remember hearing about dramatic decreases in the oxygen level hence large fish kills washing up.

Also, IIRC, most whales feed on the krill and marine life of the Antarctic region. Do we have a systems issue here? Sure sounds like it to me.

Posted by AlanC 2007-12-10 14:40|| 2007-12-10 14:40|| Front Page Top

#10 Yup. Let's do algae blooms. Sounds like the same folks that introduced rabbits and cats to Australia. Or goats to the island off the coast of California. Or the folks that want to protect the seals in the Columbia River but bitch about the "endangered salmon" that the seals are eating.

Posted by Throger Thains8048 2007-12-10 14:48|| 2007-12-10 14:48|| Front Page Top

#11 I have a vague memory that the antarctic has the world's highest brine reading BECAUSE, of the icebergs forming from sea water and expelling the salt.

Posted by Redneck Jim 2007-12-10 15:18|| 2007-12-10 15:18|| Front Page Top

#12 Some in the geologic community believe that we are in the end of the interglacial period. The final 50-120 years of it are marked by truly bizarre weather patterns, which we seem to be experiencing. It's considered that this may have started in the 1920's or 1930's.

Ice Age here we come!

Posted by Silentbrick">Silentbrick 2007-12-10 15:41|| 2007-12-10 15:41|| Front Page Top

#13 I wouldn't mind some ice over here in Queensland, Australia....It is soooo damn hot ! I guess it's going to be another Christmas spent swimming at the beach. Wo0T!

Posted by Oztralian 2007-12-10 15:43|| 2007-12-10 15:43|| Front Page Top

#14 I'll remember to empathize with your problem as I dig my car out from under the ice & snow. ;-)

Posted by lotp 2007-12-10 16:20|| 2007-12-10 16:20|| Front Page Top

#15 There is NO WAY their model is detailed enough to foresee the outcome of any action they want to propose as a potential solution.

I concur with #10. Let's not fuck with it.

History shows again and again
How nature points up the folly of men

Posted by eLarson 2007-12-10 16:21|| http://larsonian.blogspot.com]">[http://larsonian.blogspot.com] 2007-12-10 16:21|| Front Page Top

#16 Was Al Gore at that climate "change" conference? Wasn't that in the southern hemisphere? Hmm?

Posted by Excalibur 2007-12-10 16:30|| 2007-12-10 16:30|| Front Page Top

#17 If the folks Silentbrick referenced in the geologic community are correct-- and of all the climate theories currently swirling about, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if they were-- does this not mean that global warming may be our only hope for preventing or forestalling the impending Ice Age?

Does this mean I can start driving my civillian HUMVEE again?

Posted by eltoroverde 2007-12-10 16:34|| 2007-12-10 16:34|| Front Page Top

#18 The increasing mass in China due to an increasing population has caused an axial tilt of the planet towards the sun in the northern hemisphere and away from the sun in the southern hemisphere thus causing global warming in the north. O.K. where's when can I pick up my Nobel Peace Prize, give my speech and pick up the loot that goes with the prize? Gore got something like $3000/minute for his speech. I'll do it for less and make a big contribution to Rantburg.

Posted by JohnQC 2007-12-10 17:05|| 2007-12-10 17:05|| Front Page Top

#19 Ironically, if we do swing towards another ice age, all the efforts to prove MMGW may become useful in forestalling the ice. For example, we now know that a thin layer of soot can be used to melt ice.

And we also could set up a lightweight, geosynchronous orbiting reflector that would slightly increase the illumination over a several hundred square mile area, day and night.

If things got too bad, we could mine a bed of methane ice under the ocean, and release hundreds of thousands of tons of the highly efficient global warming gas into the atmosphere. Typically, it would stay in the atmosphere for many years, so it could be a measured response.

Posted by Anonymoose 2007-12-10 18:55|| 2007-12-10 18:55|| Front Page Top

#20 The detectable vagaries of the climate can be attributed to a greater wobble in the earth's precessional axis rotation created by the immense accumulation of generations of National Geographic magazines stored in basements through out North America.

Posted by Procopius2k 2007-12-10 19:13|| 2007-12-10 19:13|| Front Page Top

#21 Now, look, this is really very simple and I'm surprised no one has come up with the solution previously. Simply tow the southern ice north and drop it off at the North Pole. Save the polar bears! What's Nancy's phone number again?

Posted by KBK 2007-12-10 21:02|| 2007-12-10 21:02|| Front Page Top

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