North Pole temperature above freezing - December 30, 2015

[Rockie]

The storm that caused the tornados in the US and whacked Ontario and Quebec earlier in the week has a long reach.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/cap ... ve-normal/

[HiLo]

But climate change is a hoax....

[NunavutPA-12]

Has this ever happened before? Nobody knows because there is no historic data. I suspect that this is not as unusual as one might think. The north pole sits atop a very large ocean and so it's not uncommon for the temperatures in mid-winter at the pole to be many degrees warmer than a place 2,000 miles south that sits in the middle of a cold land-mass.

And climate change is not a hoax. The nature of climate is that it changes, and has done so since the beginning of time.

[Rockie]

Has this ever happened before? Nobody knows because there is no historic data. I suspect that this is not as unusual as one might think. The north pole sits atop a very large ocean and so it's not uncommon for the temperatures in mid-winter at the pole to be many degrees warmer than a place 2,000 miles south that sits in the middle of a cold land-mass.And climate change is not a hoax. The nature of climate is that it changes, and has done so since the beginning of time.

You're absolutely right. Oceans have a huge moderating influence on local climate - except when they're covered in ice as the arctic ocean is supposed to be up in the North Pole. Really, do you guys have to have sea water up to your armpits 364 days of the year to allow that maybe the planet is warming up? You think above freezing temperatures at the North Pole is normal despite what NASA, NOAA, Environment Canada and every other scientific organization - not to mention common sense - is telling you?

Jeez...

[Go Juice]

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/na ... han-losses

[B208]

Hey Rockie,
You do realize that most of Canada had a subtropical to tropical climate in the past, right?

Also, what does this have to do with aviation?

[photofly]

Oceans have a huge moderating influence on local climate - except when they're covered in ice as the arctic ocean is supposed to be up in the North Pole.

Interesting choice of words. Supposed to be? Who's doing the supposing?

[esp803]

Climate change happens, and I'm sure we are contributing to it. That being said, 10,000 years ago NA was covered in Ice during the last ice age...

E

[FICU]

The planet has been warming continuously since the last ice age and will continue to do so with or without our help.

[HiLo]

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/na ... han-losses

From your article:

“The good news is that Antarctica is not currently contributing to sea level rise, but is taking 0.23 millimeters per year away,” Zwally said. “But this is also bad news. If the 0.27 millimeters per year of sea level rise attributed to Antarctica in the IPCC report is not really coming from Antarctica, there must be some other contribution to sea level rise that is not accounted for.”

From the same agency:
http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
Emphasis on the "extreme events" section.

Also, this:
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ ... s-debunked

To any pilots who doubt that climate change is man-made, that it exists or that it will have severe consequences, I say this: the science surrounding climate change is not the discovery of some new scientific principle (like the Theory of Gravitation, or Newton's Laws of Motion), but it is simply the combination of hundreds of years of scientific theory and law. Saying climate change is a hoax, or that it is not man-made, or that it will not have consequences for humans is tantamount to saying that hundreds of years of scientific knowledge is bogus, from the Theory of Gravitation to Termodynamics, Plate Tectonics and Electromagnetism. As a pilot, you should know better.

[HiLo]

Oceans have a huge moderating influence on local climate - except when they're covered in ice as the arctic ocean is supposed to be up in the North Pole.

Interesting choice of words. Supposed to be? Who's doing the supposing?

Umm...scientists. And a whole bunch:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Featur ... ea_ice.php

[NunavutPA-12]

Oceans have a huge moderating influence on local climate - except when they're covered in ice as the arctic ocean is supposed to be up in the North Pole.

The fact is that an ocean full of water at -1C, even if covered by ten feet of ice, will have some effect on the air temperature above it. Couple that with the invasion of an "unusual" (not necessarily "un-precedented") warm air mass, and you have a great story for the CBC.

Aviation related? Aren't all pilots interested in this stuff?

[Rockie]

You do realize that most of Canada had a subtropical to tropical climate in the past, right?

Earth used to be a molten slag of basic elements. What does that have to do with today?

The planet has been warming continuously since the last ice age and will continue to do so with or without our help.

That's possible, however human activity has increased it to a rate that puts us at risk and that's what we need to change. If you live in Florida or any other low lying place on the planet you should be very worried about it and pressing government to do something about it. The mass human migration has already started and is causing huge problems, but some people just don't recognize the cause.

[B208]

HiLo,
It's more closely related to black body radiation and quantum physics.

While the theory behind it is sound, (Carbon Dioxide is a double carbonyl, and as everyone knows the C=O double bond absorbs strongly in the IR part of the spectrum), I believe the unscrupulous are using this issue to fleece the unthinking.

[Rockie]

The fact is that an ocean full of water at -1C, even if covered by ten feet of ice, will have some effect on the air temperature above it.

I guess you don't know why they call it the "arctic". It's supposed to be the coldest place on the planet.

[HiLo]

Oceans have a huge moderating influence on local climate - except when they're covered in ice as the arctic ocean is supposed to be up in the North Pole.

The fact is that an ocean full of water at -1C, even if covered by ten feet of ice, will have some effect on the air temperature above it. Couple that with the invasion of an "unusual" (not necessarily "un-precedented") warm air mass, and you have a great story for the CBC.

Aviation related? Aren't all pilots interested in this stuff?

In an ocean, having liquid water below zero is not possible.

[Rockie]

I believe the unscrupulous are using this issue to fleece the unthinking.

So, is the entire world wide, multi-disciplinary scientific community the unscrupulous or the unthinking in your opinion?

[HiLo]

HiLo,
It's more closely related to black body radiation and quantum physics.

While the theory behind it is sound, (Carbon Dioxide is a double carbonyl, and as everyone knows the C=O double bond absorbs strongly in the IR part of the spectrum), I believe the unscrupulous are using this issue to fleece the unthinking.

Care to expand on who the "unscrupulous" are? And how they "fleece" the "unthinking?"

[B208]

You do realize that most of Canada had a subtropical to tropical climate in the past, right?

Earth used to be a molten slag of basic elements. What does that have to do with today?

Which it will be again, which is exactly the point. The Earth has been warming and cooling in a cyclical nature over its entire history, most likely due to carbon trapping in plant life.

Also, slag is the solid left over after metals have been smelted, (i.e. if it's molten it's not slag)

[Rockie]

Which it will be again, which is exactly the point. The Earth has been warming and cooling in a cyclical nature over its entire history, most likely due to carbon trapping in plant life.

Whenever someone claims the worldwide scientific community doesn't know what they're talking about it begs the question - what makes you right and them wrong?