[AlCzervik]

This can't be good.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')omething seems amiss with mighty Superior, the deepest and coldest of the Great Lakes, which together hold nearly 20 percent of the world's fresh surface water.

Superior's surface area is roughly the same as South Carolina's, the biggest of any freshwater lake on Earth. It's deep enough to hold all the other Great Lakes plus three additional Lake Eries. Yet over the past year, its level has ebbed to the lowest point in eight decades and will set a record this fall if, as expected, it dips three more inches.

Its average temperature has surged 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit since 1979, significantly above the 2.7-degree rise in the region's air temperature during the same period. That's no small deal for a freshwater sea that was created from glacial melt as the Ice Age ended and remains chilly in all seasons.

A weather buoy on the western side recently recorded an "amazing" 75 degrees, "as warm a surface temperature as we've ever seen in this lake," says Jay Austin, assistant professor at the University of Minnesota at Duluth's Large Lakes Observatory.

[frankthetank]

There was a warm spot in Lake Michigan a week or so ago that recorded near 80F. A lot of it i think has to do with the fact that Superior hasn't been icing up like it has in the past. Even in winter, with all that surface area, a large amount of moisture is lost to the atmosphere. I don't think they should worry too much. We still get a lot of rain up in the midwest and that lake is over a 1000ft deep in some spots. I think its more property owners and business owners who are making the biggest deal of it.

[Eli]

Yeah, I couldn't care less.

Call me when it has dried up and blown away, Lake Superior isn't going anywhere, and we will have long ago burned the last bit of oil before anything happens to that lake.

[MD]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Eli', 'Y')eah, I couldn't care less..

[Lore]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MD', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Eli', 'Y')eah, I couldn't care less..

[Eli]

Thanks MD, most of the time I screw things up, I type in a hurry and sometimes I do not proof read enough.

Lore, I just think the immediacy of PO trumps all global warming concerns. Trying to solve global warming is a luxury of the rich. When we see 12% declines year over year in Oil we are going to be burning everything we can to try and make up the loss in energy.

No one is going to give a hoot in hell about global warming when they don't have a job and bread costs 100 bucks a loaf.

[Lore]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Eli', 'L')ore, I just think the immediacy of PO trumps all global warming concerns. Trying to solve global warming is a luxury of the rich. When we see 12% declines year over year in Oil we are going to be burning everything we can to try and make up the loss in energy.

No one is going to give a hoot in hell about global warming when they don't have a job and bread costs 100 bucks a loaf.

[Eli]

Yeah, that will be about the size of it.

I think we are headed for the suck.

People are going to be pissed because it is hot, they are riding a bike their house has been reposed and they are friggin hungry. I doubt they will care that lake Superior has a 75 degree surface temperature.

Their response will be "whoopdy friggin doo!, give me some food or I will kill you!"

[Armageddon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Eli', 'Y')eah, I couldn't care less.

Call me when it has dried up and blown away, Lake Superior isn't going anywhere, and we will have long ago burned the last bit of oil before anything happens to that lake.

[Zardoz]

75 and 80 degrees on Lake Superior? Gimme a god-damned break.

How can GW be progressing at such a breakneck, full-throttle, balls-to-the-wall speed? This is flat, fricking nuts!

If you had suggested such a thing to any reputable climatologist five years ago you would've been laughed right out of their office. Everybody's response would've been derisive laughter and knee-slapping guffawing.

This is just like the crazy Arctic ice melting we're getting right now. Nobody on this planet saw this coming. Nobody had the vaguest clue how fast it was going to happen. Anybody would've said massive ice loss and and 80-degree temps on Superior was well over 25 years away.

We...are...screwwwwwwwwwed. Period. End of discussion.

Game over.

[Armageddon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Zardoz', '7')5 and 80 degrees on Lake Superior? Gimme a god-damned break.

How can GW be progressing at such a breakneck, full-throttle, balls-to-the-wall speed? This is flat, fricking nuts!

If you had suggested such a thing to any reputable climatologist five years ago you would've been laughed right out of their office. Everybody's response would've been derisive laughter and knee-slapping guffawing.

This is just like the crazy Arctic ice melting we're getting right now. Nobody on this planet saw this coming. Nobody had the vaguest clue how fast it was going to happen. Anybody would've said massive ice loss and and 80-degree temps on Superior was well over 25 years away.

We...are...screwwwwwwwwwed. Period. End of discussion.

Game over.

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Zardoz', '7')5 and 80 degrees on Lake Superior? Gimme a god-damned break.

How can GW be progressing at such a breakneck, full-throttle, balls-to-the-wall speed? This is flat, fricking nuts!

If you had suggested such a thing to any reputable climatologist five years ago you would've been laughed right out of their office. Everybody's response would've been derisive laughter and knee-slapping guffawing.

This is just like the crazy Arctic ice melting we're getting right now. Nobody on this planet saw this coming. Nobody had the vaguest clue how fast it was going to happen. Anybody would've said massive ice loss and and 80-degree temps on Superior was well over 25 years away.

We...are...screwwwwwwwwwed. Period. End of discussion.

Game over.

[Lore]

How fast can it all happen? Faster then most scientists have predicted!

There is a good article and interview with NASA physicist James Hansen in the latest addition of "NewScientist Magazine - GOODBYE MIAMI". They also have a special report link at their website. The pictures in the article suggest that the Disney World, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Submarine Voyage, (needs to reopen) would soon be a much bigger ride!

Huge sea level rises are coming – unless we act now

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') believe there is pressure on scientists to be conservative. Caveats are essential to science. They are born in scepticism, and scepticism is at the heart of the scientific method and discovery. However, in a case such as ice sheet instability and sea level rise, excessive caution also holds dangers. "Scientific reticence" can hinder communication with the public about the dangers of global warming. We may rue reticence if it means no action is taken until it is too late to prevent future disasters.

So why do I think a sea level rise of metres would be a near certainty if greenhouse gas emissions keep increasing? Because while the growth of great ice sheets takes millennia, the disintegration of ice sheets is a wet process that can proceed rapidly.

The broader picture strongly indicates that ice sheets will respond in a non-linear fashion to global warming - and are already beginning to do so. There is enough information now, in my opinion, to make it a near certainty that business-as-usual scenarios will lead to disastrous multi-metre sea level rise on the century time scale.

LINK

[Eli]

Huge sea level rises are coming – unless we act now


This is the part that gets me. We aren't going to do shit about global warming period, Zardoz is correct.

I will tell you why me, you and everybody you ever knew is going to burn anything they can find if the gas is cut off in winter. If that means the Amazon dries up and lake superior hits 90 we will not care one wit.