Yesterday, the extent of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean reached a record low for its date. Ice covered the Arctic Ocean in a smaller area on November 6, 2009 than in any other year on November 6 since observations began in 1979:
During the entire year of 2009 so far, the extent of sea ice has been more than 2 standard deviations below the 1979-2000 mean.
Source: National Snow and Ice Data Center
Perhaps as little as 5 years hence we’ll be lookin’ at old photos of ice up there with longing. By now, even if the entire world could reverse course and actually take carbon OUT of the atmosphere at some small rate each year, it is too late to undo the course of the earth’s climate in trying to balance out all the damage we’ve done. We may be in for some difficult times as the chaotic systems lurch one way then another (too hot too fast/too dry then far too wet interspersed with a surprise frost just after the crops are coming along . . .for example) and we find it almost impossible to grow the food we need to sustain even LOCAL communities, let alone the world.
Tom, Australian Professor Clive Hamilton would agree with you. See his lecture to the Royal Society of the Arts, October 21: “Is It Too Late to Prevent Catastrophic Climate Change?” http://www.clivehamilton.net.au/cms/media/documents/articles/rsa_lecture.pdf.
I’m hoping you’re both wrong and that if we cut emissions to zero in the next few years and the geo-engineer the excess 300+ billions of megatons of CO2 out of the atmosphere, we can save the life of our planet.
We can’t afford to give up, even in the face of the really terrible news as we learn more about the threat of runaway global warming.