Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Too much


So, a lot going on since the last blog post, and really no excuse since I've had quite a lot of time off. Guess I wasn't in the mood or something.
An event driven quick post this time. Two things: seems the NorthWest passage is now navigable. This should have been the lead news on every bulletin and every newspaper in the world. It seems to be incontrevertible proof that the feedback loop hs kicked in. The Arctic will now be free of ice within 30, probably within 20 years. If the feedback escalates, it could be a mere handful of years. Put it this way - there are 3 million square kilometres of ice coverage left. That is fully 1 million less than last year's minimum (which was a record). We know how feedback escalates such an event - it is not unrealistic to expect that the Arctic might - and I say might - be ice free within 2-3 years.
Looking back, I'm pleased we had such a lousy summer, and desperately hoping for a really cold winter!

The other thing that's driving a midweek blog, is that it looks like Hurricane Jerry is going to form on Thursday. At the moment the models give it a good chance of blowing into Nola. I guess that would be pretty much the death knell for that city. I gather it's already not really recovering - got a lot of problems with crime and people leaving - so another direct hit and levee failure would probably finish the place off.

Within 5 years - no Arctic and no New Orleans. Almost as surprising as the Berlin Wall coming down I guess. But that happened too, real sudden.