Alexander Agassiz, a preeminent oceanographer of the 19th century, attributed the first scientific basis for exploring the Gulf Stream to American statesman Benjamin Franklin. Franklin published this map of the Gulf Stream in 1769, 200 years before a submersible named after him drifted below the surface to study this river in the ocean. (click here)
(Graph derived from Rothrock et al.: Thinning of the Arctic Sea-Ice Cover, 1999) - Click here.
...Although the U.S. Navy has collected ice data for decades, it has only allowed their use in research since the end of the Cold War. Many of the submarine sonar data on sea ice draft collected in the 1990s were acquired through the Scientific Ice Expeditions (SCICEX) program. Because these data cover most of the deep Arctic Ocean basin, they enabled an analysis of variations in ice draft over a much broader region than was previously possible....
Urgency to USA Federal Policy is an understatment.
Repeat Photography of Glaciers (click here title to entry - thank you)
High-resolution image
Image Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center, W. O. Field, B. F. Molnia
On the left is a photograph of Muir Glacier taken on August 13, 1941, by glaciologist William O. Field; on the right, a photograph taken from the same vantage on August 31, 2004, by geologist Bruce F. Molnia of the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
According to Molnia, between 1941 and 2004 the glacier retreated more than twelve kilometers (seven miles) and thinned by more than 800 meters (875 yards).
Ocean water has filled the valley, replacing the ice of Muir Glacier; the end of the glacier has retreated out of the field of view. The glacier’s absence reveals scars where glacier ice once scraped high up against the hillside. In 2004, trees and shrubs grow thickly in the foreground, where in 1941 there was only bare rock.
Local Time :: 11:34 AM AKST (GMT -09)
Lat/Lon :: 58.8° N 137.0° W
Elevation :: 33 ft
Temperature :: 32 °F
Conditions :: Overcast
Windchill :: 26 °F
Humidity :: 87%
Dew Point :: 28 °F
Wind :: 6 mph from the SE
Pressure :: 29.70 in (Rising)
Visibility :: 10.0 miles
UV :: 0 out of 16
Clouds :: Overcast 3500 ft
(Above Ground Level)
It sounds to me as though the 'little black freezing cloud' over Al Gore's head was summoned by the Devil if that is your pleasure.
If it's Al Gore, it's cold (click here)
By Jeff Dufour and Patrick Gavin
POSTED January 27, 2009 1:56 PM
Stormbringer
Former Vice President Al Gore is set to testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this morning on global climate change. Which means, of course, that it's been cold and snowing here. More of the same (freezing rain, actually) is expected while he speaks. Today's high temperature is forecast at 36 degrees, and a Winter Weather Advisory is in effect until noon.
This always seems to happen to the global warming crusader. Last October, freezing temperatures followed Gore to Boston, as he gave a speech at Harvard.
In November 2006, Gore flew to Australia. Cold and snow came with him, despite that the country was nearing its summer months.
In January 2004, a Gore speech in New York was marked by a low temperature that day of 7 degrees.
In fact, climate-change skeptics and other thorns in Gore's side have dubbed the coincidental phenomenon "The Gore Effect."
Sam Kazman, general counsel with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, says it "proves that God has a really good sense of humor."
Ditto Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, who often does battle with Gore: "The ‘Gore Effect’ proves Mother Nature has a sense of humor; she seems to enjoy mocking global warming fear promoters.”
January 26, 2009, 3:08 PM
Clinton Names Special Envoy For Climate Change (click here)
On the day that President Obama took steps to change U.S. energy policy, his secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, named a special envoy for climate change.
"American leadership is essential to meeting the challenges of the 21st century, and chief among those is the complex, urgent and global threat of climate change," Clinton said at a State Department ceremony, according to the Associated Press.
The special envoy is Todd Stern, who was a key negotiator for the U.S. over the Kyoto Protocol during Bill Clinton's administration. Clinton said his appointment sends "an unequivocal message that the United States will be energetic, focused, strategic and serious about addressing global climate change and the corollary issue of clean energy."
The Bush administration abandoned the Kyoto Protocol, an international effort to curb emissions, arguing that it favored other nations. There are now international efforts to draft a successor to that agreement.
"The time for denial, delay and dispute is over," Stern said, according to the AP. "The time for the United States to take up its rightful place at the negotiating table is here."
