Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Arctic is melting

Global warming is causing the polar icecap to melt. This year for the first time in recorded history the northwest passage was ice free. We are seeing an ominous arctic melt.

The situation is bad because it is a vicious circle. As more ice melts the remaing open ocean absorbs even more solar radiation; add to that the climate change is bringing warmer surface temperatures.

In fact, our biggest problm is that sea ice reflects 80% of the suns energy back into space; whereas, open ocean absorbs 90% of solar radiation and reflects back only 10% of the light that hits it. So as more ice melts it drives the process to melt even more.

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