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Good news, arctic to be ice free in summer
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(AP Photo/U.S. Coast Guard, Petty Officer Patrick Kelley)
Scientists predict that the arctic sea lanes will be free from ice in summer within 20 years. This is good news for the world economy.
According to Fox News, "The data supports the new consensus view — based on seasonal variation of ice extent and thickness, changes in temperatures, winds and especially ice composition — that the Arctic will be ice-free in summer within about 20 years," said Peter Wadhams, professor of ocean physics at the University of Cambridge, U.K.
If the arctic ice does indeed melt it will result in many positive benefits to the world economy and indirectly to individual consumers. It's not that big a deal.
If there is no arctic ice the Northwest Passage opens up for shipping, at least it will be open in the summer if professor Wadhams is to be believed. This will cut from one to two weeks off the travel time for shipments of material goods traveling between Europe and Asia. Rather than having to round the Cape of Good Hope or weather the Magellan Straits, vessels can sail a more direct and shorter route across the north pole.
A week or two off this journey will result in lower shipping costs which will in turn result in lower prices for imported material goods and raw materials. It may even be feasible to ship directly to the east coast of the United States rather than unload in Seattle and use the railroads for cross continental movement.
A week or two off this journey will result in less greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution from the shipping industry. Less fuel will be consumed. Global warming theorists should be happy.
Oh but the alarmists say that sea levels will rise if the arctic ice disappears. Not really. The arctic sea ice floats on water. Any melting of this ice will have no effect on sea levels. You can check this out in your own kitchen. Put an ice cube in an empty glass and then fill the glass to the brim with water. Wait until the ice cube melts. Did any water spill out of the glass? No, so why should we expect different results from melting the floating sea ice in the arctic?
This presumes, of course, that professor Wadhams is correct and that the arctic ice is indeed rapidly melting away. Satellite measurements, on the other hand, show that the arctic ice is getting thicker with each passing year. Arctic temperatures have been higher in the not-too-distant past. Increasing global temperatures are hard to justify against measurements that show no warming, and actually cooling, since 1998.
Here in Minnesota, we just experienced an unusually early killing frost and snow on the ground this past week. July was one of the coldest on record. Where is the warming?
There is a growing number of global warming skeptics including well credentialed scientists. Al Gore, the prophet of global warming, will not take questions nor risk debate with people who hold the opposite view. Global warming alarmists always attack the messenger when their belief system is challenged. These are hardly the actions of people with truth on their side.
Ann McElhinny and Phelim McAleer have produced a documentary questioning the science and politics of the global warming hysteria. The trailer for this documentary, “Not Evil, Just Wrong,” is embedded below and a CD can be purchased.
You wouldn't know it from the main stream media, but there are two sides to this issue.
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