ECLA PA's Coordinator comment posted on New York Times' Andrew Revkin's Dot Earth blog

Sometimes staying up past my bedtime to post an item pays off. I responded to an interesting item in Andrew Revkin's new blog, Dot Earth. I didn't expect it to get published but a flurry of replies led me back to: http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/30/ice-on-air/#comments. There it was, to my surprise and delight. I've reprinted it below, with a snippet of Revkin's blog.

#3.
October 30th,
2007
10:21 pm

The elephant in the living room that almost no one is talking about is that global warming may have entered a new state of disequilibrium. That could easily signal a significant, if not complete, melting in the Arctic and Greenland. This year’s ice melt was “so vast and rapid it unnerve(d) the experts” at a recent conference on the subject at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks.

The real issue seems to be that few of us are acting appropriately given the risks. The stakes could not be higher. It is quite possible that conditions in the Arctic are further proof that the warnings from eminent scientists like James Lovelock and Jim Hansen are substantially correct. It may already be too late to prevent significant sea-level rise .

If this is even possible, prudence dictates that nothing short of an all out international program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions would constitute an acceptable effort to stabilize this condition.

Of course, the psychology of catastrophe is such that we’d have to fight our natural tendency to get stuck in denial, anger, bargaining, and depression for long enough to regain whatever is left of the advantage of early, appropriate action. If we are to survive it may well require us to make a substantial shift in our thinking and actions.

— Posted by Larry Menkes

The article I was responding to was the following, with another Delaware Valley connection:

October 30, 2007, 12:44 pm
Ice on Air

By Andrew C. Revkin
icebreaker in arcticThe Coast Guard icebreaker Healy in the Arctic last summer (Credit: Dave Withrow/United States Coast Guard via Associated Press

I discussed the extraordinary retreat of Arctic Ocean sea ice this year, and the implications of opening northern waterways, on Marty Moss-Coane’s Radio Times show on Monday on WHYY radio in Philadelphia.

Here’s the station’s summary of the hour: “This summer, Arctic ice in the the Northwest passage melted enough to open up this historic travel route. We discuss the environmental, economic, and political implications of this change with Andrew Revkin, who reports on the environment for The New York Times and wrote “The North Pole Was Here” and with Michael Byers, professor of international law and politics at the University of British Columbia.” An mp3 audio file of the show is online here.

Have a listen and post your thoughts.

You can also hear the amazing chugging, huffing, crunching sounds that the thick Arctic sea ice makes as floes drift and collide on our site here."