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Jim Hunt

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Life On Thin Ice
« on: February 11, 2015, 11:57:45 AM »
Jenny E. Ross posts on the Arctic Sea Ice Blog about her article "Global Warning - The Arctic Meltdown - Why the Disappearance of Arctic Sea ice Matters". You can download a copy from:

http://www.lifeonthinice.org/data/web/JERoss_ArcticSeaIce_OceanGeographic_201410_LowRes.pdf

It's full of amazing photographs, as is her web site:

http://www.lifeonthinice.org/

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JER

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Re: Life On Thin Ice
« Reply #1 on: February 13, 2015, 01:22:47 AM »
Thanks, Jim!
Jenny
As a result of climate change, "The Arctic is the ecological equivalent of a war zone." -- Jenny E. Ross

Jim Hunt

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Re: Life On Thin Ice
« Reply #2 on: February 13, 2015, 11:09:22 AM »
Thanks for the photo Jenny.

I note you have some videos on Vimeo. Here's one interview:



Quote
The Arctic is the ecological equivalent of a war zone

Unfortunately, as you can see, Vimeo doesn't seem to embed properly on here. I don't suppose you have any on YouTube as well do you?

P.S. I found one, courtesy of Green@Google!



Here's my answer to your question. "Why should it make a difference to you?"

http://econnexus.org/why-should-i-care-where-the-arctic-sea-ice-went/


« Last Edit: February 13, 2015, 11:57:13 AM by Jim Hunt »
"The most revolutionary thing one can do always is to proclaim loudly what is happening" - Rosa Luxemburg

JER

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Re: Life On Thin Ice
« Reply #3 on: February 13, 2015, 07:16:18 PM »
Thanks very much, Jim.

If anyone is interested in the effects of sea-ice loss on indigenous people in Greenland, you can check out this TV documentary focusing on those issues that Arirang TV produced several years ago, using me and my work as a story-telling tool: http://www.lifeonthinice.org/#mi=1&pt=0&pi=7&p=-1&a=0&at=0
As a result of climate change, "The Arctic is the ecological equivalent of a war zone." -- Jenny E. Ross

viddaloo

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Re: Life On Thin Ice
« Reply #4 on: February 13, 2015, 08:09:04 PM »
Great to have you onboard, JER!

I'd see all your vids right away if my connection was decent.
[]

JER

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Re: Life On Thin Ice
« Reply #5 on: February 13, 2015, 08:26:44 PM »
Thanks, Viddaloo!
As a result of climate change, "The Arctic is the ecological equivalent of a war zone." -- Jenny E. Ross

JER

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Re: Life On Thin Ice
« Reply #6 on: February 13, 2015, 09:12:46 PM »
There was a post by Andreas T in the Arctic Wildlife topic wondering about walruses:

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This is from one of the blogs by researchers on board the Oden north of Wrangell island.http://ciresblogs.colorado.edu/icebreaker/2014/08/11/feeding-frenzy-2/
I wonder whether it is normal for walrus to be so far from land? At the moment the ice they are on is heading north (not sure whether the coordinates give position where photos were taken or posted). Apart from being surrounded by polar bears, are these walruses on the way into trouble?

Since he asked this question quite a long time ago and I'm not sure whether anyone is checking that topic at this point, I thought I'd respond here. I hope that's not a violation of protocol -- let me know if it is.

Andreas, walruses strongly prefer to use sea ice rather than land as a resting and feeding platform for a variety of reasons. They also feel safer (and are, in fact, safer) when they're clustered closely together in a herd rather than being off by themselves. So the fact that these walruses were resting on floes of sea ice, bunched together, is not unusual and does not itself indicate they're in trouble. However, the less sea ice there is, the less likely that there's sufficient room for all walruses in an area to find a spot for resting. Regarding the location of those floes, and whether it means trouble for the walruses: 73N, 178E is still over the continental shelf, so it's fine for the walruses to be there. They feed on the seafloor in continental shelf regions, and they certainly can still dive down to the bottom at that particular location. But as sea ice progressively melts and shrinks northward toward the central polar basin, walruses will definitely be in big trouble. In my recent article about why the disappearance of sea ice matters(http://www.lifeonthinice.org/data/web/JERoss_ArcticSeaIce_OceanGeographic_201410_LowRes.pdf), I included a long section about walruses that explains these issues in more detail.

As for the polar bears feeding on a kill in the same region there, I think it's quite unlikely that the kill was a walrus. It's extremely difficult and dangerous for a polar bear to try to kill a walrus, and only large adult male bears attempt it. It would be very rare for that to happen on sparse, small floes of sea ice. The most likely place for it to occur would be on land, when walruses are forced ashore in large numbers due to a lack of sea ice (and polar bears are as well). So that kill was almost certainly a seal.
As a result of climate change, "The Arctic is the ecological equivalent of a war zone." -- Jenny E. Ross

JER

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Re: Life On Thin Ice
« Reply #7 on: February 13, 2015, 09:18:52 PM »
For more detailed info about polar bears, please take a look at another article of mine: http://www.lifeonthinice.org/data/web/JERoss_PolarBears_OceanGeographic_201201_LowRes.pdf
As a result of climate change, "The Arctic is the ecological equivalent of a war zone." -- Jenny E. Ross

Jim Hunt

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Re: Life On Thin Ice
« Reply #8 on: February 16, 2015, 12:51:15 AM »
I'm not sure whether anyone is checking that topic at this point, I thought I'd respond here. I hope that's not a violation of protocol -- let me know if it is.

I know the forum software warns about old threads, but it seems to me directly answering such a question doesn't really cause any problem. I've added a link over there, just in case.
"The most revolutionary thing one can do always is to proclaim loudly what is happening" - Rosa Luxemburg

Neven

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Re: Life On Thin Ice
« Reply #9 on: February 21, 2015, 02:13:08 PM »
Jenny, I've finally come around to referring to your excellent article at the end of the latest Arctic Sea Ice Blog post: Shock news!

A great comprehensive article that shows what the whole story is about: consequences.
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Andreas T

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Re: Life On Thin Ice
« Reply #10 on: February 21, 2015, 02:48:22 PM »
Thank you, Jenny for the detailed information, I'm very impressed to see this question answered, makes me glad I asked it!

JER

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Re: Life On Thin Ice
« Reply #11 on: February 25, 2015, 05:10:04 AM »
Thank you very much, Neven!

Andreas T, you're welcome!
As a result of climate change, "The Arctic is the ecological equivalent of a war zone." -- Jenny E. Ross