[Vision2020] Military Rethinks Polar Command as Ice Caps Melt

[Paul Rumelhart]

I can't speak for the conservatives, because I don't think of myself as 
one, but I would hope that if the Arctic melted enough that ship travel 
through it became routine that they would take that into account in 
their strategic planning.

Most skeptics I've seen, myself included, believe that the earth is 
indeed warming, some minor inconsistencies between the various data sets 
aside.  Has been for a couple hundred years or more.  What we are 
skeptical of is the amount of warming attributed to CO2, and are 
skeptical of many of the scarier predictions of the effects of the 
steady increase of CO2 in our atmosphere.  We also disagree on what our 
priorities should be right now as a country and as a global population.

The arctic is fluctuating quite a bit year-to-year, month-to-month, and 
even day-to-day.  For example, Ted posted a while back about how the 
extent of arctic sea ice tied for the lowest amount for (I think) the 
month since at least 2002.  If you look at it now, you'll see that it is 
now about dead even between the highest and lowest extents for this time 
of year since 2002.  I wouldn't put much stock in the arctic is melting 
away theory right now, just as I wouldn't suggest that it's on it's way 
back to pre-industrial levels of ice (if we can even guess what those 
levels were).  What seems more likely to me is that it fluctuates 
dramatically all the time.

Arctic sea ice extent link:  
http://www.ijis.iarc.uaf.edu/seaice/extent/AMSRE_Sea_Ice_Extent_L.png

Paul

On 04/18/2011 07:30 AM, Joe Campbell wrote:
> Maybe if we can get the military to admit to global warming, the 
> conservatives will believe it.
>
> On Mon, Apr 18, 2011 at 6:34 AM, Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com 
> <mailto:thansen at moscow.com>> wrote:
>
>     Courtesy of the April 25, 2011 edition of the Army Times.
>
>     -------------------------------------------------------
>
>     Military rethinks polar command as ice caps melt
>
>     WHAT’S UP: Melting polar ice caps are prompting the military to
>     redraw its
>     map dividing the globe into combatant commands. Pentagon
>     projections show
>     new shipping lanes will appear around the North Pole during the
>     next 20 to
>     30 years, a senior defense official said. Previous master plans
>     essentially ignored the Arctic region, technically chopping it up
>     among
>     U.S. Northern Command, U.S. European Command and U.S. Pacific Command.
>     “Before, to be honest, I’m not sure who had the lead on it,” said one
>     senior defense official.
>
>     WHAT’S NEXT: NORTHCOM will take over the Arctic area, and EUCOM
>     will be
>     responsible for Russia’s mostly frozen northern border. PACOM was
>     squeezed
>     out of the region, according to the new Unified Command Plan. The
>     plan,
>     approved by the White House in early April, has no immediate impact on
>     troops and bases. Any further shift in strategy will “depend on how
>     climate change continues,” the senior defense official said.
>
>     -------------------------------------------------------
>
>     Seeya round town, Moscow.
>
>     TomHansen
>     Moscow, Idaho
>
>     "The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to
>     changeand the Realist adjusts his sails."
>
>      - Unknown
>
>
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