GorillaOffTopic, Everything But Gorilla Trades

The sight of a beautiful polar bear walking across the Arctic ice has long been admired and awed by many, but today the Gorilla was disturbed by a photo, which showed a polar bear walking on a small patch of ice surrounded by water. The result of extreme global warming is, of course, to blame. So how bad is the outlook for this precious part of the world, which affects the entire globe? To give you an idea of just how quickly and furiously it’s all happening, listen to this. Greenland’s ice sheet melted almost 19 billion tons more than the previous high mark, and the volume of Arctic sea ice at the end of summer was half what it was four years earlier according to data from NASA. Just last year, two top scientists projected that the Arctic sea ice was melting so rapidly that it could disappear entirely by the summer of 2040!

Folks, that’s a mere 38 years away! And since the time of those reports, the outlook is even more grim. This week, after reviewing his own new data, NASA climate scientist Jay Zwally said, “at this rate, the Arctic Ocean could be nearly ice-free at the end of summer by 2012, much faster than previous predictions.” Scientists of course blame carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of coal, oil, and other fossil fuels. For the past several days, government diplomats have been debating the outlines of a new climate treaty, calling for tougher limits on these gases, but is it too late? Has the damage already been done? How can we “refreeze” the Arctic ice sheets?

NASA scientist James Hansen, often referred to as the “godfather of global warming,” said, “We have passed some tipping points (referring to this year’s ice sheet melt) in the way that I define them,” and went on to say, ”We have not passed a point of no return. We can still roll things back in time — but it is going to require a quick turn in direction.” Scientist’s say that it can, in fact, be done, and that the clocks can be turned back to prevent further damage to the environment. However, like all of you, the Gorilla wonders exactly how? Geez! It sure seems as if Al Gore arrived a little late to the ball game! Mr. Gore, you are doing great things. Too bad you weren’t born a century earlier!