Ice Reality Check: Arctic Ice Now 31.3% Over Last Year, plus Scientists Counter Latest Arctic ‘Record’ Warmth Claims as ‘Pseudoscience’

From warwickhughes.com

There is another way of looking at solar cycles. Solar cycles actually start with the magnetic reversal near the peak of the previous cycle. The sunspots take seven years to surface and become visible. Almost all sunspot cycles tend to be about 18.5 years long, measured from the peak of the previous cycle.

Two hundred years of glacial shrinkage in Alaska, and then came the winter and summer of 2007-2008.

Unusually large amounts of winter snow were followed by unusually chill temperatures in June, July and August.

"In mid-June, I was surprised to see snow still at sea level in Prince William Sound," said U.S. Geological Survey glaciologist Bruce Molnia. "On the Juneau Icefield, there was still 20 feet of new snow on the surface of the Taku Glacier in late July. At Bering Glacier, a landslide I am studying, located at about 1,500 feet elevation, did not become snow free until early August.

Remember all those dire warnings in the media of an ice-free North Pole this (northern) summer? Remember the British eco-explorer, Lewis Gordon Pugh, announcing he’d paddle to the Pole to draw attention to the frightening lack of ice?

But....

Like every October, when the Santa Ana winds strengthen wildfires in southern California, the debate is on. Is the seeming increase in recent California fires, as Gov. Schwarzenegger suggested this summer, due to higher temperatures and droughts brought about by global warming? Or are the fires a lot like hurricanes—similar in strength and number over the past century, but perceived as a lot more damaging now because there are simply a lot more houses (and camera crews) in the way?

One of the Los Angeles-area wildfires, whipped by Santa Ana winds gusting to 50 miles per hour, threatened to break out to the Pacific Ocean Tuesday, forcing the evacuation of thousands of residents and torching parts of Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency for the area.

The Toledo Blade's Tom Henry is writing a three-part series about global warming impacts on the residents of Greenland. In part one of this series, Henry discusses the positive and negative impacts of the warming from direct conversations with the locals. Henry visited the fishing community of Ilulissat, which has a population of 4,500 people and is located at 69 degrees north latitude.

Positives

--Summer fishing season is longer.
--Crops are being grown in areas that were never thought possible. It did not specify what types of crops.
--Increasing hydropower potential (glacier meltwater) is attracting many new projects, which could lead to more jobs.
--Beer! Supposedly, Greenland beer tastes great with that pristine water from melted inland ice.