It's time to seriously petition the U. S Senate to let them know of this latest melting study of our Artic Ice Cap reported below. On October 15th Arizona Republic had this small news brief from the Green Zone Wire Services, an environmental column. It tell us the latest study and consensus says we have only 10-20 years tops before all the ice in the North Pole melts in summer.  Two days later on October 17th another news brief in the Green Zone told of told of how a NASA plane outfitted with lasers and ground penetrating radar are flying over Antarctica recording snow cover and ice thickness for the first time last Friday because a NASA satellite has been providing shocking data on how quickly Antarctic ice is disappearing.

 Yet over the past three days the front page and other headlines carried next to nothing concerning Global Warming. More interest was put on the U. S. deficit, unemployment, Afghanistan, local news, besides other political and financial related articles. No one including the media seems to be concerned!

 Saturday, October 24th is the International Day of Climate Action, let's get all the signatures we can to send to our senators by then. Remember we need Senate action before the World Climate talks at Copenhagen in December.

 LONDON ….October 15 2009

Experts: N. Pole summers will be ice-free in 10 years

The North Pole will turn into an open sea during summer within a decade, according to data released by a team of ex­plorers who trekked through the Arctic for three months.

The Catlin Arctic Survey team, led by explorer Pen Ha­dow, measured the thickness of the ice as it sledged and hiked through the northern part of the Beaufort Sea in the North Pole earlier this year during a re­search project. Their findings show that most of the ice in the region is first-year ice that is on­ly around 6 feet deep and will melt next summer. The region has traditionally contained thicker, multiyear ice that does not melt as rapidly.

“With a larger part of the re­gion now first-year ice, it is clearly more vulnerable,” said Professor Peter Wadhams, part of the Polar Ocean Physics Group at the University of Cam­bridge, which analyzed the data. “The area is now more likely to become open water each sum­mer, bringing forward the po­tential date when the summer sea ice will be completely gone.” Wadhams said Wednesday that the Catlin Arctic Survey data supports the new consen­sus that the Arctic will be ice ­free in summer within 20 years, and that much of the decrease will happen within 10 years.

Martin Sommerkorn of the World Wildlife Fund said the Arctic Sea holds a central posi­tion in the Earth’s climate sys­tem. “Such a loss of Arctic sea ice cover has recently been assessed to set in motion powerful cli­mate feedbacks, which will have an impact far beyond the Arctic itself,” he said.

He added: “This could lead to flooding affecting one-quarter of the world’s population, sub­stantial increases in green­house- gas emissions from mas­sive carbon pools and extreme global weather changes.”