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It’s only June, and Arctic sea ice already hit a new low

It’s only June, and Arctic sea ice already hit a new low

By on Jul 9, 2016 7:08 amShare

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

The summer sea-ice cover over the Arctic raced towards oblivion in June, crashing through previous records to reach a new all-time low.

The Arctic sea-ice extent was a staggering 260,000 square kilometers (100,000 square miles) below the previous record for June, set in 2010. And it was 1.36 million square kilometers (525,000 square miles) below the 1981-2010 long-term average, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

That means a vast expanse of ice — an area about twice the size of Texas — has vanished over the past 30 years, and the rate of that retreat has accelerated.

Aside from March, each month in 2016 has set a grim new low for sea-ice cover, after a record warm winter.

NSIDC

January and February obliterated global temperature records, setting up conditions for the further retreat of the Arctic summer ice cover, scientists have warned.

Researchers did not go so far as to predict a new low for the entire 2016 season. But they said the ice pack over the Beaufort Sea was studded with newer, thinner ice, which is more vulnerable to melting. Ice cover along the Alaska coast was very thin, less than 0.5 meters (1.6 feet).

The loss of the reflective white ice cover in the polar regions exposes more of the absorptive dark ocean to solar heat, causing the water to warm up. This goes on to raise air temperatures, and melt more ice — reinforcing the warming trend.

Scientists have warned the extra heat is the equivalent of 20 years of carbon emissions.

From mid-June onwards, ice cover disappeared at an average rate of 74,000 square kilometers (29,000 square miles) a day, about 70 percent faster than the typical rate of ice loss, the NSIDC said.

Sea ice loss in the first half of the month proceeded at a lower pace, only 37,000 square kilometers (14,000 square miles) a day.

The overall Arctic sea-ice cover during June averaged 10.60 million square kilometers (4.09 million square miles), the lowest in the satellite record for the month, according to the NSIDC.

There was more open water than average in the Kara and Barents seas as well as in the Beaufort Sea, despite below average temperatures, the NSIDC said.

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It’s only June, and Arctic sea ice already hit a new low

Posted in alo, Anchor, ATTRA, FF, GE, LAI, ONA, solar, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on It’s only June, and Arctic sea ice already hit a new low

RIP, obsolete gadget you once thought would change your life

how ’bout them (old) apples?

RIP, obsolete gadget you once thought would change your life

By on 8 Jun 2015commentsShare

Today, the great and powerful god of tech and neutral colors, Appleus, descends from the heavens of Silicon Valley to announce our next digital obsessions. The much-anticipated event, known as Apple WWDC (translation: Women Wanted, Dudes Copious) will last for five full days and likely end in a mass migration to glass temples around the world, where people will pay hundreds in tribute to the god.

Devout worshipers have been speculating for days about what Appleus will announce (A new music streaming service? A better Apple TV? Improvements to the all-holy smart watch? An updated operating system?). In a curiously redundant tradition, those same worshipers will now spend days liveblogging the actual announcements.

But not everyone falls to their knees every time Appleus descends. Many question the materialism and planned obsolescence that the great silver deity often promotes; they feel uncomfortable mindlessly marching forth with technological progress while casting off old, perfectly functional devices. So for those who, frankly, don’t give a damn about Apple WWDC and would rather take a look back at what technologies lie in our wake, The New York Times has this:

Source:
Digital Vintage

, New York Times.

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RIP, obsolete gadget you once thought would change your life

Posted in Anchor, Everyone, FF, GE, Hipe, ONA, Radius, Ultima, Uncategorized, Vintage | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on RIP, obsolete gadget you once thought would change your life

The fracking industry just got more tech savvy

Shale 2.0

The fracking industry just got more tech savvy

By on 3 Jun 2015 6:43 pmcommentsShare

It looks like the U.S. fracking industry is becoming a little less “Wild West” and little more West Coast Silicon Valley. And no — I can’t decide which one sounds worse, either.

True, low oil prices recently brought the industry to its knees: The number of rigs nationwide fell by more than half since October of last year. But at the same time, the industry has been getting smarter about how it operates. Here’s the scoop from MIT Technology Review:

Much of the new technological innovation in shale comes from a simple fact: practice makes perfect. Tapping hydrocarbons in “tight,” geologically complex formations means drilling lots and lots of wells—many more than in conventional oil fields. Drilling thousands of wells since the shale revolution began in 2006 has enabled producers—many of them relatively small and nimble—to apply lessons learned at a much higher rate than their counterparts in the conventional oil industry.

Some innovations in fracking hardware include “walking rigs” that move from hole to hole, better drill bits, remote-controlled drilling capabilities, and advanced fracking liquids, Technology Review reports. Big data — like an annoying party guest who has something deep and insightful to say about everything — has also entered the picture:

Thanks to new sensing capabilities, the volume of data produced by a modern unconventional drilling operation is immense—up to one megabyte per foot drilled, according to Mills’s “Shale 2.0” report, or between one and 15 terabytes per well, depending on the length of the underground pipes. That flood of data can be used to optimize drill bit location, enhance subterranean mapping, improve overall production and transportation efficiencies—and predict where the next promising formation lies. Many oil companies are now investing as much in information technology and data analytics as in old-school exploration and production.

And with rigorous data analysis comes another important life lesson: how to take a chill pill. Here’s more from Technology Review:

At the same time, producers have learned when to pause: more than half the cost of shale oil wells comes in the fracking phase, when it’s time to pump pressurized fluids underground to crack open the rock. This is known as well completion, and hundreds of wells in the U.S. are now completion-ready, awaiting a rise in oil prices that will make them economical to pump. Several oil company executives in recent weeks have said that once oil prices rebound to around $65 a barrel (the price was at $64.92 per barrel as of June 1), another wave of production will be unleashed.

We’ll know these fracking companies have gone full-on Silicon Valley when they ditch their old names (Pioneer Natural Resources Co., EOG Resources, etc.) for something a bit more trendy — drlr? FrackIt?

Source:
Big Data Will Keep the Shale Boom Rolling

, MIT Technology Review.

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