Less ice means less heat is reflected and more is consumed in the water, which warms more rapidly. In Nature Magazine after-most May, begin a cutting majority of behavior changes in arctic hemisphere flora and fauna - insects moving to cooler climates, birds shifting their seasonal breeding patterns - were improbable to be made by anything except climate change due to acceleration in greenhouse gas.

READ MORE... (http://planetischanging.blogspot.com/2009/11/arctic-sea-ice-is-melting-quickly.html)

Planet is Changing !!! (http://planetischanging.blogspot.com)

There are a lot of feedbacks associated with ice melt too.

Less ice means less heat is reflected and more is consumed in the water, which warms more rapidly

True, less ice means less UV radiation reflection back into the atmosphere and into space. Instead it's absorbed by the oceans, warming them and thus causes sea level rise, due to the thermal expansion of water. The temperature of the ocean itself causes sea level rise. Basically, the volume of water increases as it heats. When you take huge oceans, smaller temperature changes, regional or global, can have a global effect on the sea level.

With permafrost (http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/maps/environment/land/permafrost) melting as well within the Arctic Circle, it will only increase the amount of GHG's released and UV radiation absorbed, further increasing temperatures regionally. This is a lot of warming too:

A new study has determined that the rate of climate warming and permafrost thaw over northern Alaska, Canada, and Russia could more than triple during periods of rapid sea ice loss.

Conducted by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), the study raises concerns about the thawing of permafrost, or permanently frozen soil, and the potential consequences for sensitive ecosystems, human infrastructure, and the release of additional greenhouse gases.

Our study suggests that, if sea-ice continues to contract rapidly over the next several years, Arctic land warming and permafrost thaw are likely to accelerate, said lead author David Lawrence of NCAR.

Simulations by global climate models show that when sea ice is in rapid decline, the rate of predicted Arctic warming over land can more than triple.

The melting of permafrost alone will increase sea level, as it's water that was on land previously. This is what makes the melting of the East Antarctica Ice Sheet dangerous for us, this ice sheet rests on land. Land that would look like this (without sea level rise): http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/AntarcticBedrock2.jpg

That's a lot of ice to lose, currently Antarctica with all of it's ice is larger than Europe (excuse the poor image, but it gives a vague idea):
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Europe_antarctica_size.png


I think we will have a better understanding of all of this as this (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/26/antarctica-iceberg-global-ocean-circulation) develops, I hope they will analyze it thoroughly and see how it affects ocean currents and levels.

Good posts, but the elephant in the room, methane release going self sustaining in the tundras then the oceans, is not mentioned. This is far worse than just sea level rise.:GEEK:

Good posts, but the elephant in the room, methane release going self sustaining in the tundras then the oceans, is not mentioned. This is far worse than just sea level rise.:GEEK:


Self sustaining? I haven't come across that before, could you explain further? :)

See the article in the global warming section "CO2 is causing CH4 releases"