Musical climate change

I tell you, reading climate change science while listening to Sigur Ros in the background is quite problematic. It makes the thing more biased. Sigur Ros are not quite known for their jovial mood in their music. And alas, they are from the cold north ie Iceland.

So imagine listening to the soothing music, imagining yourself in some Icelandic village walking about like a huge mammoth with all the clothes on. And you decide to trek and walk to and on the beautiful pure whiteness. The ice and snow after which Iceland has its own name.

However, deep down you realise that the place may change completely, and that is in a few years time. I tell you, reading climate science on the Arctic (Ok, Iceland is not quiet in the Arctic but close enough) is quite depressing. It makes you loose hope.

I was reading an interesting article from the guys at Real Climate and my God are we in deep shite! Of course, much of the scary observations observed now can never really indicate if all hope is already lost. But, things do not look good.

Read below on what is going on in the Arctic:

Since 2005 there has been a 25% decline in Arctic sea ice at the time of minimum, equal to the combined area of Texas and California

The state of ice thickness observed in 2007 is quite similar to the modelled state in 2020

Will 2007 be remembered as the tipping point for sea ice? Only time will tell.

There has been a decline in prime polar bear habitat in many places, but also some increase in polar bear habitat in the central Arctic. The latter will disappear eventually, as summer sea ice continues to retreat.

The Northwest Passage has opened. The Arctic will be increasingly opened to economic activity like oil drilling, with all the attendant environmental hazards and chances for political dispute

the estimated (see level rise rate) ... is now 2.2mm/yr, of which 30% is due to Greenland and 20% due to Antarctica (ice melt).

Moving on to another blog post, the issue is glacier ice retreat. Another threat that will further decrease albedo, reduce the ice-water reservoir and make history the much frequented skiing pistes..

98% of the named Alaska glaciers are retreating,
95% of 612 studied Tibet glaciers are retreating, and
98% of monitored Alpine glaciers are retreating.

I think I should listen less to Sigur Ros