"Scary" Fragmenting Of Arctic Ice

With record heat for the northern hemisphere this year, Arctic sea ice is fragmenting in places where the ice historically has been the thickest and most enduring. The sea ice north of Greenland has never seen the ice break up so extensively:

"The sea off the north coast of Greenland is normally so frozen that it was referred to, until recently, as 'the last ice area' because it was assumed that this would be the final northern holdout against the melting effects of a hotter planet.

But abnormal temperature spikes in February and earlier this month have left it vulnerable to winds, which have pushed the ice further away from the coast than at any time since satellite records began in the 1970s."

Glaciers and polar ice caps constitute an early warning system for a warming climate caused by human activity and greenhouse gasses. The impact can range from coastal flooding to stronger storms caused by slow-moving weather systems, and more:

"As well as reducing ice cover, the ocean intrusion raises concerns of feedbacks, which could tip the Earth towards a hothouse state.

Freakish Arctic temperatures have alarmed climate scientists since the beginning of the year. During the sunless winter, a heatwave raised concerns that the polar vortex may be eroding.

This includes the Gulf Stream, which is at its weakest level in 1,600 years due to melting Greenland ice and ocean warming. With lower circulation of water and air, weather systems tend to linger longer."

We may or may not have reached the point of no return in creating a permanent hot house for Earth. What isn't debatable are the growing signs that the planet is reacting to our greed, ignorance and failed stewardship. We can expect more of the same.

Liars And The Money Behind Them

A new report documents the money spent by the fossil fuel industry and industry associations to oppose efforts to mitigate climate change, and says it is at least $115 million per year. According to Influence Map, a British research organization, the largest contributors to the climate change denial campaign are the American Petroleum Institute ($65 million), followed by oil giants Exxon ($27  million) and Shell ($22 million).

Much of the money spent is on false advertising ($53 million) that tries to sow doubt about actual science that a warming climate is man-made, due to the burning of fossil fuels. Some $12 million is spent on lobbying (that's a lot of 3-martini lunches for legislators), and $40 million is spent on "corporate staff costs," shorthand for the legion of spinners,"researchers," and the like that are employed by the fossil fuel sector to manufacture doubt about the real science behind climate change.

And against this onslaught of (literally) dirty money? The report estimates that advocates climate change legislation spent just $5 million in that effort.

Denial

Washington Monthly's Kevin Drum has a nice rejoinder to the reich wing's constant focus on supposed "liberal" hypocrisy on global warming. Shorter version: it's not about how much carbon dioxide was used in the manufacture of Al Gore's suit, it's the environmental policies of the most industrialized nation on earth, the United States, that matters most. Not that the reich wing cares. . .