On Sep 7, 11:17*am, Weatherlawyer wrote:
On Sep 7, 10:49*am, "ron button" wrote:

Just another bunch of fools calling each other names. The MP was
suckered into some propaganda from an upcoming TV show.

Looking at those pictures showing the difference between 1979 and today
seems to show that most of the ice melt is occuring on the Russian/American
side of the pole whereas it looks virtually unchanged on the European side ,
am I wrong ?

No. NOAA has pointed that out. Something to do with the thermo-haline
column.

It was actually a joint paper from NASA and Washington University:

January 04, 2012

The NASA and National Science Foundation funded study were published 5
January in "Nature".

Redistribution of freshwater from the Eurasian to the Canadian half of
the Arctic Ocean brings no change in the net amount of freshwater in
the Arctic that might change the conveyor belt.

An eastward shift in the path of Russian run-off tied to an increase
in the strength of the Arctic Oscillation result in counter-clockwise
winds changing the direction of ocean circulation.

The stronger Arctic Oscillation is associated with two decades of
reduced atmospheric pressure over the Russian side of the Arctic.
Between 2003 and 2008, the equivalent of 10 feet of freshwater was
added to the Beaufort Sea.

Arctic Ocean salinity is similar the past but the Eurasian Basin has
become more saline, and the Canada Basin has freshened. In the
Beaufort Sea, the water is the freshest it's been in 50 years, with
only a tiny fraction of that freshwater originating from melting ice
and the vast majority coming from Russian river water.

The Beaufort Sea stores more freshwater when an atmospheric pressure
system called the Beaufort High strengthens but salinity began to
decline early in the 1990s, when the Beaufort High relaxed and the
counter-clockwise Arctic Oscillation pattern increased.

Russian river run-off to feeds the Beaufort gyre,"

For more on Grace and ICESat, visit:
http://www.csr.utexas.edu/grace/ ,
http://grace.jpl.nasa.gov/ , and
http://icesat.gsfc.nasa.gov/icesat/ .

JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena.

Too long, didn't read:
Ice levels and types depends heavily on the
anticyclonic behaviour of the Arctic air.

Pretty pictures and full article:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.ph...lease_2012-002

Don't panic; don't panic!
We are not all doomed.

Trawlers can now fish the Arctic and ruin the ocean floor there for a
change. That should bring down the price of fish-fingers.