Great Lakes ice down 71%

[Chris]

A published study says the amount of ice covering the Great Lakes has declined about 71 percent over the past 40 years, a drop that the lead author partly attributes to climate change.

The report, published last month by the American Meteorological Society, said only about 5 percent of the Great Lakes surface froze over this year.

“There was a significant downward trend in ice coverage from 1973 to the present for all of the lakes,” according to the study, which appeared in the society’s Journal of Climate.

Researchers determined ice coverage by scanning U.S. Coast Guard reports and satellite images taken from 1973 to 2010, the Duluth News Tribune reported. They found that ice coverage was down 88 percent on Lake Ontario and fell 79 percent on Lake Superior. However, the ice in Lake St. Clair, which is between Lakes Erie and Huron, diminished just 37 percent.

Great Lakes ice down 71% since 1973, study finds | Detroit Free Press | freep.com

 

[theHawk]

What's the percentage they are down from 10,000 years ago?

 

[CrusaderFrank]

What's the percentage they are down from 10,000 years ago?

 

[whitehall]

It wasn't my fault, I swear it even though I drive a gas guzzling 8 cyl truck. Leave it to the left to turn good news into bad news for political purposes.

 

[theHawk]

What's the percentage they are down from 10,000 years ago?

God damn those cavemen. All those open camp fires started global warming.

 

[saveliberty]

I suppose the jet stream shift was not a factor....

 

[Big Fitz]

A published study says the amount of ice covering the Great Lakes has declined about 71 percent over the past 40 years, a drop that the lead author partly attributes to climate change.

The report, published last month by the American Meteorological Society, said only about 5 percent of the Great Lakes surface froze over this year.

“There was a significant downward trend in ice coverage from 1973 to the present for all of the lakes,” according to the study, which appeared in the society’s Journal of Climate.

Researchers determined ice coverage by scanning U.S. Coast Guard reports and satellite images taken from 1973 to 2010, the Duluth News Tribune reported. They found that ice coverage was down 88 percent on Lake Ontario and fell 79 percent on Lake Superior. However, the ice in Lake St. Clair, which is between Lakes Erie and Huron, diminished just 37 percent.

Great Lakes ice down 71% since 1973, study finds | Detroit Free Press | freep.com

Yeah, longer shipping seasons thanks to less ice is SUCH a bad thing! LOL.

BTW, the lack of ice on the lakes is mostly irrelevant, as it proves little. Canada and the US have been pursuing the goals of "Project Taconite" since the 1950's for year round shipping.

Oh, and if you want to try and equate that to anything 'catastrophic', here are graphs of the lake levels measured over the last 150 years or so.

Water levels on the Great Lakes

Some lower years, some higher, and none of them trending with any hip new 'global warming' theory although if it's true it SHOULD. You know, greater evaporation, less precipitation and snow pack. That should show then a steady decline in their levels like the canary in the coal mine of the climate of the hemisphere.

Oh look! It's not getting worse!

Yet more irrelevancy from Pissy Chrissy.

 

[Zoom]

Oh yeah, well it snowed in New England this year so this global warming is bullshit.

 

[Old Rocks]

The usual morons posting idiocy. Yes, the lack of ice on the lakes on our northern border is an indictation of a warming. Will a warming climate lower the water levels in the Great Lakes? Maybe, maybe not. Very difficult to predict what will happen in any one spot. The warmer winters would tend to lower the water levels, however, an increase in precipitation could well balance that out.

 

[uscitizen]

What's the percentage they are down from 10,000 years ago?

I dunno. Do you?
Get a measuring device and go back in your Wayback machine and find out.

 

[skookerasbil]

More hysterical crap that nobody cares about.

 

[PredFan]

And Chris's intelligence is down 73%.

but the good news is that his gullibility is up 75%

 

[theHawk]

The usual morons posting idiocy. Yes, the lack of ice on the lakes on our northern border is an indictation of a warming. Will a warming climate lower the water levels in the Great Lakes? Maybe, maybe not. Very difficult to predict what will happen in any one spot. The warmer winters would tend to lower the water levels, however, an increase in precipitation could well balance that out.

No shit its warming. As it has been for over 10,000 years. Try to keep up.

 

[theHawk]

What's the percentage they are down from 10,000 years ago?

I dunno. Do you?
Get a measuring device and go back in your Wayback machine and find out.

Yes, North American ice is down 99.99999999% from 10,0000 years ago.

 

[Big Fitz]

What's the percentage they are down from 10,000 years ago?

I dunno. Do you?
Get a measuring device and go back in your Wayback machine and find out.

Yes, North American ice is down 99.99999999% from 10,0000 years ago.

Oh gawd! We're all gonna dieeeeeeee!!!

 

[saveliberty]

The usual morons posting idiocy. Yes, the lack of ice on the lakes on our northern border is an indictation of a warming. Will a warming climate lower the water levels in the Great Lakes? Maybe, maybe not. Very difficult to predict what will happen in any one spot. The warmer winters would tend to lower the water levels, however, an increase in precipitation could well balance that out.

The jet stream has been further north than usual OR, at least make an attempt at honesty.

 

[Old Rocks]

The usual morons posting idiocy. Yes, the lack of ice on the lakes on our northern border is an indictation of a warming. Will a warming climate lower the water levels in the Great Lakes? Maybe, maybe not. Very difficult to predict what will happen in any one spot. The warmer winters would tend to lower the water levels, however, an increase in precipitation could well balance that out.

The jet stream has been further north than usual OR, at least make an attempt at honesty.

The reason for which is?

 

[waltky]

Coastal towns soon to face rising sea levels...

As seas rise, researchers say devastating floods could soon wreak havoc on Shore towns
Thursday, March 15, 2012, Living along New Jersey’s 127 miles of coastline has always posed something of a risk.

Terms like coastal flooding, erosion and nor’easter have long been a part of the vocabulary of residents on the Shore. But new research predicts rising sea levels due to global warming will more than triple the likelihood of devastating coastal flooding by the year 2030, putting more than 230,000 beach and bay-side residents in the flood zone. Put simply, the once in a lifetime coastal storm may soon come around once in a generation. "Sea level rise is not some distant problem that we can just let our children deal with. The risks are imminent and serious," said Ben Strauss, lead author of "Surging Seas" a new report by the Princeton-based Climate Central, a foundation-funded non-profit organization. "Just a small amount of sea level rise, including what we may well see within the next 20 years, can turn yesterday’s manageable flood into tomorrow’s potential disaster."

The report, published yesterday, comprises one of the most comprehensive studies on sea level rise in decades. It states that nationally, more than 6 million people live in areas less than five feet below the high-tide line and will become far more vulnerable to the threat of coastal flooding with sea levels predicted to rise several inches in the coming decades. In Toms River, where, according to the report, more than half the population is at risk for increasingly severe coastal flooding, Mayor Thomas Kelaher knows the risks well. He said at times, even a stiff wind off the ocean can back up storm drains and flood the streets.

"It shows you how vulnerable you can be here," Kelaher said. "Very frankly, I’m not too sure what the hell we can do (on a local level). We respond when we have to. We keep our residents informed. We have a strong evacuation plan. But short of having a magic wand, I don’t know how you can solve the risk that we have." In New Jersey, the report said, 236,000 people are at an approximately 30 percent risk of a 100-year flood affecting them by the year 2030, and sea levels could rise 15 inches by 2050. Without the effects of global warming, which scientists say is melting the polar ice caps and expanding the volume of water in the oceans, that risk drops to 8 percent.

MORE

 

[Big Fitz]

Coastal towns soon to face rising sea levels...

As seas rise, researchers say devastating floods could soon wreak havoc on Shore towns
Thursday, March 15, 2012, Living along New Jersey’s 127 miles of coastline has always posed something of a risk.

Terms like coastal flooding, erosion and nor’easter have long been a part of the vocabulary of residents on the Shore. But new research predicts rising sea levels due to global warming will more than triple the likelihood of devastating coastal flooding by the year 2030, putting more than 230,000 beach and bay-side residents in the flood zone. Put simply, the once in a lifetime coastal storm may soon come around once in a generation. "Sea level rise is not some distant problem that we can just let our children deal with. The risks are imminent and serious," said Ben Strauss, lead author of "Surging Seas" a new report by the Princeton-based Climate Central, a foundation-funded non-profit organization. "Just a small amount of sea level rise, including what we may well see within the next 20 years, can turn yesterday’s manageable flood into tomorrow’s potential disaster."

The report, published yesterday, comprises one of the most comprehensive studies on sea level rise in decades. It states that nationally, more than 6 million people live in areas less than five feet below the high-tide line and will become far more vulnerable to the threat of coastal flooding with sea levels predicted to rise several inches in the coming decades. In Toms River, where, according to the report, more than half the population is at risk for increasingly severe coastal flooding, Mayor Thomas Kelaher knows the risks well. He said at times, even a stiff wind off the ocean can back up storm drains and flood the streets.

"It shows you how vulnerable you can be here," Kelaher said. "Very frankly, I’m not too sure what the hell we can do (on a local level). We respond when we have to. We keep our residents informed. We have a strong evacuation plan. But short of having a magic wand, I don’t know how you can solve the risk that we have." In New Jersey, the report said, 236,000 people are at an approximately 30 percent risk of a 100-year flood affecting them by the year 2030, and sea levels could rise 15 inches by 2050. Without the effects of global warming, which scientists say is melting the polar ice caps and expanding the volume of water in the oceans, that risk drops to 8 percent.

MORE

I never realized that NJ was a great lake state.

 

[Peach]

Coastal towns soon to face rising sea levels...

As seas rise, researchers say devastating floods could soon wreak havoc on Shore towns
Thursday, March 15, 2012, Living along New Jersey’s 127 miles of coastline has always posed something of a risk.

Terms like coastal flooding, erosion and nor’easter have long been a part of the vocabulary of residents on the Shore. But new research predicts rising sea levels due to global warming will more than triple the likelihood of devastating coastal flooding by the year 2030, putting more than 230,000 beach and bay-side residents in the flood zone. Put simply, the once in a lifetime coastal storm may soon come around once in a generation. "Sea level rise is not some distant problem that we can just let our children deal with. The risks are imminent and serious," said Ben Strauss, lead author of "Surging Seas" a new report by the Princeton-based Climate Central, a foundation-funded non-profit organization. "Just a small amount of sea level rise, including what we may well see within the next 20 years, can turn yesterday’s manageable flood into tomorrow’s potential disaster."

The report, published yesterday, comprises one of the most comprehensive studies on sea level rise in decades. It states that nationally, more than 6 million people live in areas less than five feet below the high-tide line and will become far more vulnerable to the threat of coastal flooding with sea levels predicted to rise several inches in the coming decades. In Toms River, where, according to the report, more than half the population is at risk for increasingly severe coastal flooding, Mayor Thomas Kelaher knows the risks well. He said at times, even a stiff wind off the ocean can back up storm drains and flood the streets.

"It shows you how vulnerable you can be here," Kelaher said. "Very frankly, I’m not too sure what the hell we can do (on a local level). We respond when we have to. We keep our residents informed. We have a strong evacuation plan. But short of having a magic wand, I don’t know how you can solve the risk that we have." In New Jersey, the report said, 236,000 people are at an approximately 30 percent risk of a 100-year flood affecting them by the year 2030, and sea levels could rise 15 inches by 2050. Without the effects of global warming, which scientists say is melting the polar ice caps and expanding the volume of water in the oceans, that risk drops to 8 percent.

MORE

I never realized that NJ was a great lake state.

No problem. The Industrial Revolution is a myth also.............................