Saturday, August 30, 2008

Kayaking to the North Pole

How many explorers want to fail?

Well here's one: Lewis Pugh is planning to try to kayak 1,200 km or 745 miles from Spitzbergen to the North Pole.

And if he does it it would be bad news, another sign of the impact of Climate Change on the shrinking polar ice cap.

But its another chance for this long distance swimmer to raise the issue on the political agenda.

More here.

2 comments:

Katinka said...

Perhaps he should try the Antarctic instead? :)

Antarctic Ice, a Global Warming Snow Job

JP said...

The evidence for the reduction in the Arctic sea ice is described here

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7585645.stm

I have grave doubts about the article reference. It ignores the fact that there was equilibrium before we created excessive C02, there never has been such a rapid increase in CO2 in recorded history, periods when there were higher levels of C02 were much hotter, there are positive as well as negative feedback mechanisms (including melting polar ice, methane in permafrost etc), the Earth has not been stable, but has rather flipped from climatic states, some of which are much hotter than present, and that such climate flips is linked to mass extinction events.

The articles I've read in journals like the New Scientist suggest that the science is well backed up by evidence, and potential risks - in terms of mega-deaths of humans and massive extinction of species - means we should take this seriously.

Note that the World Climate Report is a lobby blog founded by the coal related Western Fuels Association. But even its chief editor has agreed that "humans are warming the planet"