Meltfactor.org

I depart mid-June for what has shaped up to be a major expedition; actually two expeditions.

The first expedition involves meeting a ship*. I meet the ship in Sisimiut, west Greenland. We make way with little to no stops to far northwest Greenland, ice conditions permitting. We have contingencies that in the event the sea ice in Nares St. is not navigable, we’ll work glaciers along northeast Baffin Bay. Work involves setting up temporary time lapse cameras to capture predicted continued disintegration of the Petermann Glacier ice tongue. A piece larger than Manhattan Is. seems very likely to break off. We plan to place GPS on a number of glaciers and track their speed changes with high time resolution (seconds to minutes). Tidal forces, daily melt cycles, and glacier structural changes cause speed changes. When a large ice island breaks away, the upstream effect is analagous to a champagne cork being freed…the glacier speeds up, but it’s no party!

* Specifications

Name: Arctic Sunrise
Number of berths: 28
Inflatable boats: 2 Ribs and 2 inflatabes
Helicopter capable: Yes
Gross tonnage: 949 tonnes
Length O.A: 49.62 m
Breadth: 11.50 m
Maximum Draught: 5.30 m
Maximum Speed: 13 Knots

The second expedition begins when Arctic Sunrise drops me and Alun Hubbard off in Uummannaq to meet with Hubbard’s sail boat Gambo. We’ll use gambo as an oceanographic research vessel and the means to get into position to hike in to time lapse camera sites. We might even do some first-ascent climbing.

successful debate with The Internet Skeptic. I am convinced that an objective view has yours truly as winning the science-of climate change debate. Unfortunately, for him, Bob Wagner is unqualified to debate climate science. Wagner, to his credit, has some common ground ideas that address important economic challenges. Wagner knows economics well enough to generate useful suggestions. Wagner should list some of these in is comments here.

I now understand that Wagner’s supporters come from the perspective that government should not be trusted. Why should they trust government that has manipulated the US public? The distrusters should, however, be cautiously optimistic that a new administration is more concerned than the last to corporate lobby control of politics. I think we all agree that we need special interests out of policy making. Give the new administration a chance. If they manipulate, we’ll hold them accountable by voting them out. Let’s hope that US democracy still works.

My input: The solution to the climate challenge involves economic development that creates clean energy jobs in the USA. At the same time, we need to be sensitive to perceived loss dirty energy jobs by developing carbon capture and storage and “clean coal” technology. Note that fewer and fewer coal miners are involved in coal extraction. The profit/wealth from coal does not seem re-invested in Appalacia! I’m not saying doing “clean coal” will be easy. “Clean coal” may prove to be a myth and play on words. Still, we must find the solutions. We have to take the challenge.

One should take an objective look at the the following testimony on “both sides” of the climate-energy-economy issue. One will see there are plety of GOOD IDEAS that address the challenge and at the same time lead the US out of economic recession!