Real Climate Science

23 June 2013

Melting ice has opened up the Northern Sea Route along Russia’s Arctic coastline, changing international trade patterns in profound ways — even if so far it looks more like a sleepy county road than a busy, four-lane highway.

In a change of potentially revolutionary significance, the travel time between the Japanese port of Yokohama and Hamburg in Germany has been cut by 40 percent, while fuel expenditure is down by 20 percent.

Melting ice pulls Norway closer to Asia

Just one minor problem. The entire Russian coastline is blocked with ice.

N_daily_extent.png (420×500)

Originally the ice was supposed to be gone in 2013

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Arctic summers ice-free ‘by 2013’

But Wadhams has granted the ice a two year reprieve

“in 2015-16 ….. the summer Arctic (August to September) would become ice-free. The final collapse towards that state is now happening and will probably be complete by those dates”.

Arctic expert predicts final collapse of sea ice within four years | Environment | guardian.co.uk

Summer sea ice extent is the highest since 2002, with record summer cold in the Arctic

Sea_Ice_Extent_prev_L.png (1440×900)

The Drought That Ravaged US Crops Is Only Going to Get Worse | Mother Jones

As usual, NOAA got it exactly backwards

Intellicast – Weekly Precipitation in United States

May 23, 2013

The “Global War on Terror” is over, President Barack Obama announced Thursday,

Obama: ‘Global War on Terror’ Is Over – US News and World Report

That was right before he told us that he needs to track every American’s phone and E-mail as part of the War On Terror.

YearTDeptUS.png (688×531)

arctic.io – Arctic Terra – (2013/173)

Fresh snow is currently visible on the ice across most of the Arctic Basin.

10-Day Temperature Outlook

COI | Centre for Ocean and Ice | Danmarks Meteorologiske Institut

Barrow Sea Ice Webcam

Last summer, Obama knew that even the 1.5 million dead voters registered in Ohio might not be enough to win him the election. So he pretended for a few weeks that he was a big supporter of coal.

Everyone knows election season is a time of craven politicking. But a new radio ad the Obama campaign is running in Ohio might be a new low, dinging Mitt Romney for remarking that coal “kills people.”

Here’s a clip of the ad, which is running in Ohio, via Politico:

“When he ran for President, Barack Obama pledged to support clean coal and invest in new technologies,” the ad says.

Obama Knocks Romney for Saying True Things About Coal | Mother Jones