Northwest Passage Open For Business  

The BBC reports that the fabled northwest passage has finally opened up - your carbon emissions at work.

The most direct route through the Northwest Passage has opened up fully for the first time since records began, the European Space Agency (Esa) says. Historically, the passage that links the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through the Canadian Arctic has been ice-bound. But the agency says ice cover has been steadily shrinking, and this year's drop has made the passage navigable. The findings - based on satellite images - have raised concerns about the speed of global warming.

The Northwest Passage is one of the most fabled sea routes in the world - a short cut from Europe to Asia through the high Arctic. Recent years have seen a marked shrinkage in its ice cover, but this year it was extreme, Esa says. It says this made the passage "fully navigable" for the first time since monitoring began in 1978.

"We have seen the ice-covered area drop to just around 3m sq km (1,2 sq miles)," Leif Toudal Pedersen of the Danish National Space Center said. He said it was "about 1m sq km (386,000 sq miles) less than the previous minima of 2005 and 2006". "There has been a reduction of the ice cover over the last 10 years of about 100, 000 sq km (38,600 sq miles) per year on average, so a drop of 1m sq km (386,000 sq miles) in just one year is extreme," Mr Pedersen said.

The Northeast Passage through the Russian Arctic has also seen its ice cover shrink and it currently "remains only partially blocked," Esa says.

Scientists have linked the changes to global warming which may be progressing faster than expected. The opening of the sea routes are already leading to international disputes. Canada says it has full rights over those parts of the Northwest Passage that pass through its territory and that it can bar transit there. But this has been disputed by the US and the European Union. They argue new route should be an international strait that any vessel can use.

TreeHugger reports that the first geoengineering experiment is about to begin in the South Atlantic - "International Team Of Scientists To Test South Atlantic Carbon Sink In 2009". Yikes - isn't reducing our carbon emissions a lot easier than conducting these sorts of dangerous experiments for evermore ?

In an attempt to test the possibility of mitigating the effects of global warming, scientists from India, Germany, Italy and Chile plan on “sinking” carbon emissions into the Scotia Sea, off the Antarctic Peninsula in the South Atlantic, during January to March 2009.

By depositing 20 tonnes of non-toxic iron sulfate into a 1,000 square kilometre area of the sea, it is hoped that the iron particles will create fertile conditions for the explosive growth of phytoplankton or algae and microorganisms that will soak up carbon dioxide.

Carbon sinking (also called ocean seeding, iron fertilization, carbon capture and sequestration) was first tested 15 years ago as alternative method of “managing” global warming, though there are questions to the long-term environmental ramifications of experiments on this kind of scale.

Earlier this year, companies such as Planktos have conducted trials in seeding an area near the Galapogos to observe the effects. According to Planktos, the process involves dilute infusions of iron over large areas and if ocean seeding is successful in the long term, it will apparently not only restore plankton populations but also improve water quality, buffer the surface water acidity and assist in sinking large amounts of carbon into the ocean to slow climate change.

However, the amount of carbon absorbed or “sunk” will hinge on how much plankton sinks to the sea bed. There are concerns that the increase in plankton will result in more methane and nitrous oxide being released into the atmosphere – possibly worsening the situation.

Nevertheless, it is obvious that the sea’s capacity to absorb carbon has decreased: recent data published in Science shows that the Southern Ocean’s ability to absorb carbon from the atmosphere has been reduced approximately 15% every decade since 1981, due to changing levels of substances such as iron sulfate. The result is a possible feedback loop from the intensification of increasing carbon emissions, coupled with the ocean’s declining ability to absorb carbon. It is a worrying scenario and only time will tell if large-scale, international experiments such as these will have a positive impact on slowing climate change.

Links:

* Peak Energy (US) - the surge. Northern hemisphere branch is back from an extended holiday.
* CNN - The end of oil. Run of the mill introduction to peak oil story. Only covers 2 extremes - Heinberg saying peak oil is now, some guy from Oppenheimer and Rex Tillerson from Exxon saying we have 3 trillion barrels left - reality nowhere to be seen. Hasn't the basic story been done everywhere now ? I feel like I'm reading repeats...
* Courier Mail - End of the Oil Age is near and Report warns of petrol chaos. Articles on Andrew McNamara's yet-to-be released report on peak oil and its impact on Queensland.
* Courier Mail - Crude Awakening reveals all about peak oil
* The Oil Drum - Declining Net Oil Exports Versus “Near Record High” Crude Oil Inventories: What is going on?
* Energy Bulletin - OPEC and $80 oil
* Dave Roberts - 10 things we can do: Rebuilding civil society
* Grist - The desertification-global warming feedback loop
* Grist - Bill to phase out incandescent light bulbs gains steam in U.S. Congress
* Energy Bulletin - UK Conservatives issue green blueprint
* TreeHugger - Razing Buffalo: Why is This Happening?
* WorldChanging - Making City Streets Safer for Bicycles. My main bicycle safety issue at the moment is homicidal over-protective magpies attacking me every day when I ride past their tree. This article has no useful hints on that front.
* Open The Future - Greetings from Rüschlikon. "Sometimes, being a futurist means acting as a civilizational therapist."
* Mobjectivist - Ambiguity
* Mobjectivist - Hooky Bump'in, and other parasitic relationships
* Inventor Spot - Crowded Japan