Some of these links are a month or two old but worth checking out as end-of-year stats for 2008 are starting to be published.
One of the key climate drivers is the Ocean. Periodic cycles cause warming and cooling and seasons of higher and lower precipitation.
The Pacific Decadal Oscillation is one of the biggies for this neck of the woods and it is firmly in a cooling trend. This report (PDF format) outlines what is up and what we can expect:
Alaskan Cold and Glacial Advance Due to PDO
The PDO not Greenhouse Gasses are responsible for changes in Alaska
The money quote (a chart):
Moving on, we have this article in the Christian Science Monitor regarding Polar Bear population:
Canadian controversy: How do polar bears fare?
Despite global warming, an ongoing study says polar bear populations are rising in the country's eastern Arctic region.
And the money quote:
"There aren't just a few more bears. There are a ... lot more bears," biologist Mitchell Taylor told the Nunatsiaq News of Iqaluit in the Arctic territory of Nunavut. Earlier, in a long telephone conversation, Dr. Taylor explained his conviction that threats to polar bears from global warming are exaggerated and that their numbers are increasing. He has studied the animals for the Nunavut government for two decades.
There is a bit of information that not many people talk about:
Of the 13 polar bear populations in Canada, at least two are in decline, Derocher says. The number of polar bears along the western edge of Hudson Bay, for example, has fallen by 22 percent over the last decade.
And a bit more from Small Dead Animals:
It also turns out that most of the alarm over the polar bear's future stems from a single, peer-reviewed study, which found that the bear population had declined by some 250, or 25%, in Western Hudson Bay in the last decade. But the polar bear's range is far more extensive than Hudson Bay. A 2002 U.S. Geological Survey of wildlife in the Arctic Refuge Coastal Plain concluded that the ice bear populations "may now be near historic highs." One of the leading experts on the polar bear, Mitchell Taylor, the manager of wildlife resources for the Nunavut territory in Canada, has found that the Canadian polar bear population has actually increased by 25% -- to 15,000 from 12,000 over the past decade.
How about Overall Global Ocean Temperatures? #From a 2006 article at NASA:
Short-Term Ocean Cooling Suggests Global Warming 'Speed Bump'
The average temperature of the water near the top of the Earth's oceans has significantly cooled since 2003. New research suggests global warming trends are not always steady in their effects on ocean temperatures.
And finally, in related news (about the vanishing arctic sea ice) From DailyTech:
Sea Ice Growing at Fastest Pace on Record
An abnormally cool Arctic is seeing dramatic changes to ice levels. In sharp contrast to the rapid melting seen last year, the amount of global sea ice has rebounded sharply and is now growing rapidly. The total amount of ice, which set a record low value last year, grew in October at the fastest pace since record-keeping began in 1979.
The longer the politicians keep up with the Global Warming hooey as a form of economic crowd-control, the bigger their fall. I am 100% an environmentalist; I just like to put my efforts where they will do real work and not some sub-prime political-masquerading-as-scientific posturing.
