No Ice At the North Pole!!

Sub Title: Oh my Gawd!

In recent days the histrionics from the GlowBall Warming crowd have hit a crescendo over the prediction that there may be open water at the North Pole this year. "We're actually projecting this year that the North Pole may be free of ice for the first time [in history]," David Barber, of the University of Manitoba, told National Geographic News aboard the C.C.G.S. Amundsen, a Canadian research icebreaker.

You don't say? Well here's a statement from an article in 2000 wherein a similar concern was addressed.

Paleontologist Malcolm McKenna, of New York City's American Museum of Natural History, said, "I don't know if anybody in history ever got to 90[degrees] north to be greeted by water, not ice." Even more surprising, they saw ivory gulls soaring blithely overhead. The Times itself commented that the last time anyone could be certain the pole was awash in water was more than 50 million years ago.

".....First time in history...." "...50 million years ago..." Now I really hate to burst your hyperbole (not really) but take a look at to picture. Looks like water to me. Now, go read the truth.

Okay, here a snippet from the USS Skate which surfaced at the North Pole in 1959 and numerous other locations during Arctic cruises in 1958 and 1959:

"the Skate found open water both in the summer and following winter. We surfaced near the North Pole in the winter through thin ice less than 2 feet thick. The ice moves from Alaska to Iceland and the wind and tides causes open water as the ice breaks up. The Ice at the polar ice cap is an average of 6-8 feet thick, but with the wind and tides the ice will crack and open into large polynyas (areas of open water), these areas will refreeze over with thin ice. We had sonar equipment that would find these open or thin areas to come up through, thus limiting any damage to the submarine. The ice would also close in and cover these areas crushing together making large ice ridges both above and below the water. We came up through a very large opening in 1958 that was 1/2 mile long and 200 yards wide. The wind came up and closed the opening within 2 hours. On both trips we were able to find open water. We were not able to surface through ice thicker than 3 feet."

GlowBall Warming...enjoy the Kool-Aide.