It turns out that Arctic melt may have multiple causes...

[Abbey Marie]

Scientific studies such as these show how much we don't yet know about the cause/effect from cyclical warming, and show the need to refrain from knee-jerk global warming policies.


Nature and Man Jointly Cook Arctic
New Study Finds Natural Causes As Well As Global Warming for Recent Dramatic Arctic Warming

By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON Jan 2, 2008 (AP)


There's more to the recent dramatic and alarming thawing of the Arctic region than can be explained by man-made global warming alone, a new study found. Nature is pushing the Arctic to the edge, too.

There's a natural cause that may account for much of the Arctic warming, which has melted sea ice, ice sheets and glaciers, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Nature. New research points a finger at a natural and cyclical increase in the amount of energy in the atmosphere that moves from south to north around the Arctic Circle.

But that energy transfer, which comes with storms that head north because of ocean currents, is not acting alone either, scientists say. Another upcoming study concludes that the combination of both that natural energy transfer increase and man-made global warming serve as a one-two punch that is pushing the Arctic over the edge.

Scientists are trying to figure out why the Arctic is warming and melting faster than computer models predict.

The summer of 2007, like the summer of 2005, smashed all records for loss of summer sea ice in the Arctic Ocean and ice sheet in Greenland. In September, the Arctic Ocean had 23 percent less sea ice than the previous record low. Greenland's ice sheet melted 19 billion tons more than its previous record.

The Nature study suggests there's more behind it than global warming because the air a couple miles above the ground is warming more than calculated by the climate models.
Climate change theory concentrates on warming of surface temperatures and explains an Arctic that is warming faster than the rest of the world as mostly because reduced sea ice and ice sheets means less reflecting solar rays.

Rune Graversen, the Nature study co-author and a meteorology researcher at Stockholm University in Sweden, said a shift in energy transfer explains the thawing more, including what's happening in the atmosphere, but does not contradict consensus global warming science.

Oceanographer James Overland, who reviewed Graversen's study for Nature, said the research dovetails with an upcoming article of his which concludes that the Arctic thawing is a combination of the two.
...
Rest of story:
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Glo...ory?id=4077083

[darin]

I wonder if Man's need to feel 'in control' stems from turning collective back on God? I wonder Man is trying to make himself 'god' in an effort to show God "we don't need you!". It's striking, really, the story of Lucifer vs. God. Every year Man is growing with more intellect - playing god with our world. I wonder if the story of Lucifer is symbolic of Man's desire to BE 'god' in a way - to control and influence our destiny, our world.

[Kathianne]

I notice that this is ABC. Seems Newsweek had to pull back a few months ago. What does the media know that they aren't putting out there? Could it be they read the paper to the Senate signed by 400 scientists ripping this Al Gore theory to shreds?

They will come up with details, after the election.

While I'm on it, did you see the final nail in the coffin of the Lancet study, you know the one: 650k killed in Iraq released 2 weeks before the 2006 election?

http://news.nationaljournal.com/arti...bomb/index.htm

No surprise here, Soros threw in $50k of the financing:

COVER STORY
Data Bomb


Cover Image
Also In This Issue

Counting Corpses
·
Unscientific Methods?
·
Hidden Patterns


Related Resources On National Journal.com

National Journal: "Iraq's Slippery Polls" (12/01/07)


Additional Resources On The Web

Risk Factor Study [PDF]
·
Households In Conflict Presentation [PDF]
·
Iraq Data Collection From [PDF]
·
Iraq Mortality Survey Questionnaire (actual) [PDF]
·
Iraq Mortality Survey Questionnaire (template) [PDF]
·
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Press Release [PDF]
·
Iraqi Child Nutritional Status Report (part 1) [PDF]
·
Iraqi Child Nutritional Status Report (part 2) [PDF]


By Neil Munro and Carl M. Cannon, National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Friday, Jan. 4, 2008

Three weeks before the 2006 midterm elections gave Democrats control of Congress, a shocking study reported on the number of Iraqis who had died in the ongoing war. It bolstered criticism of President Bush and heightened the waves of dread -- here and around the world -- about the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

Published by The Lancet, a venerable British medical journal, the study [PDF] used previously accepted methods for calculating death rates to estimate the number of "excess" Iraqi deaths after the 2003 invasion at 426,369 to 793,663; the study said the most likely figure was near the middle of that range: 654,965. Almost 92 percent of the dead, the study asserted, were killed by bullets, bombs, or U.S. air strikes. This stunning toll was more than 10 times the number of deaths estimated by the Iraqi or U.S. governments, or by any human-rights group.

In December 2005, Bush had used a figure of 30,000 civilian deaths in Iraq. Iraq's health ministry calculated that, based on death certificates, 50,000 Iraqis had died in the war through June 2006. A cautiously compiled database of media reports by a London-based anti-war group called Iraq Body Count confirmed at least 45,000 war dead during the same time period. These were all horrific numbers -- but the death count in The Lancet's study differed by an order of magnitude.

Queried in the Rose Garden on October 11, the day the Lancet article came out, Bush dismissed it. "I don't consider it a credible report," he replied. The Pentagon and top British government officials also rejected the study's findings.

Such skepticism would not prove to be the rule.

CBS News called the report a "new and stunning measure of the havoc the American invasion unleashed in Iraq." CNN began its report this way: "War has wiped out about 655,000 Iraqis, or more than 500 people a day, since the U.S.-led invasion, a new study reports." Within a week, the study had been featured in 25 news shows and 188 articles in U.S. newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times.

...