Just a short post this. There's the feeling that the UK is sleepwalking into a Police state. Usually I take all this with a pinch of salt - or rather a hefty bag of the stuff, but now I'm not quite so sure!
A friend of mine was at the recent protests at Heathrow. Lots of fun I hear, no real bust ups between the protesters and police, just everyone playing their part. During the course of this my friend had a number of stop-and-searches, for things like, cycling. The normal thing is to not give name and address unless they have a particular reason. But on one occasion they took the IMEI number from his cheapo Nokia 1112 phone. Pretty wierd that, they had a laptop somehow connected to to the phone network or something when they were doing it. We thought it was probably just to keep track on him.
But this week, his phone has been mysteriously security locked (which they only do if it has been reported stolen, which it hasn't been). So he's now phone-less! Anyone know why the phone has been locked?
Friday 14 September 2007
Thursday 13 September 2007
Arctic Sea Ice Extent
I’ve finally gotten around to creating a blog, so I need to start it off somehow with a post, hopefully not a completely purile one. Since I obsess a bit about global warming and climate change I’ll start with a thrilling post about the Arctic sea ice extent.
If you didn’t know, the Arctic sea ice extent has already broken the previous record of 5.32M Km2 set in 2005 by 1.08M Km2 - it’s now 4.24M Km2 and could easily fall for another 2 or 3 weeks (although it may stop any day now). It’s not just that it’s smaller than ever, but that it’s breaking records of all kinds:
But how bogus is my guess? Well, I’m not a climate scientist, so probably very! But it’s worth noting that my estimate is based on a current rate of decline when it’s fairly obvious that the rate of decline is accelerating. Secondly, not only is the rate increasing, but it’s becoming more consistent. Year to year increases since 2001 haven’t exceeded 0.45M Km2 (average 0.26M Km2), which prior to 2001 averaged 0.68M Km2. Thirdly, there's a good reason to believe ice melt will increase and be more consistent - namely that the arctic ocean is playing a greater rôle, absorbing more summer heat, because the cap is shrinking. And the ocean will act as a massive heat exchange, preventing the cap from fully recovering in the winter, and by regulating heat release during the yar.
Scary isn’t it?
If you didn’t know, the Arctic sea ice extent has already broken the previous record of 5.32M Km2 set in 2005 by 1.08M Km2 - it’s now 4.24M Km2 and could easily fall for another 2 or 3 weeks (although it may stop any day now). It’s not just that it’s smaller than ever, but that it’s breaking records of all kinds:
- It’s the largest single fall recorded for a single year.
- Highest temperatures Recorded.
- It’s the first time the Northwest Passage has opened.
- It’s melted perennial sea ice the size of California (Ice that’s been around every day of every year since at least 1979).
- Ocean warming itself is now contributing to ice melt.
But how bogus is my guess? Well, I’m not a climate scientist, so probably very! But it’s worth noting that my estimate is based on a current rate of decline when it’s fairly obvious that the rate of decline is accelerating. Secondly, not only is the rate increasing, but it’s becoming more consistent. Year to year increases since 2001 haven’t exceeded 0.45M Km2 (average 0.26M Km2), which prior to 2001 averaged 0.68M Km2. Thirdly, there's a good reason to believe ice melt will increase and be more consistent - namely that the arctic ocean is playing a greater rôle, absorbing more summer heat, because the cap is shrinking. And the ocean will act as a massive heat exchange, preventing the cap from fully recovering in the winter, and by regulating heat release during the yar.
Scary isn’t it?
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