Wednesday, November 23, 2016

The "Scary Arctic Heat Wave" is "happening much faster than I think anyone expected"


This is article is at Macro Business.

You need to check out the graphs to truly appreciate this level of change.  As the article states below (the last sentence I put in bold to drive home the point):

"Scientists are struggling to understand why a burst of “scary” warming at the North Pole has pushed Arctic temperatures nearly 20C higher than normal for this time of year.

…“We’ve been processing this data since 1958 and we haven’t really seen anything like this at this time of year,” said Rasmus Tonboe, a sea ice expert at the Danish Meteorological Institute. “We are watching the situation and trying to analyse what is going on but it’s very surprising.”

This had reduced the temperature difference between the Arctic and more southerly regions, causing a “wavier” jet stream — a great river of fast-moving air about 10km above the earth that acts as a barrier separating the North Pole from warmer latitudes.

…“That is scary because it is showing us how rapidly the climate system is changing … We expected for a long time to see the ice disappear and the Arctic warm up and perhaps the jet stream doing bizarre things, but it’s happening much faster than I think anyone expected."

I now have a carbon-based (specifically, human :-) that I ask individuals:

"Do you believe in global climate change?"

If the answer is either the Republican hiding/talking point of, "I am not a scientist", or as Trump has stated on Dec. 30, 2015, Trump told the crowd at a rally in Hilton Head, S.C., "Obama's talking about all of this with the global warming and … a lot of it's a hoax. It's a hoax. I mean, it's a money-making industry, okay? It's a hoax, a lot of it." or they simply don't believe in global climate change, then I try to educate them and if there is strong push back, then I simply go talk to someone else.....