Looked a little scary from late may thru mid june but the Arctic ice seems to have stabilized as of late. Search the subject above & one of you puter whizzes can post a gragh that shows this year at this time the ice mass is half way between the 1979-2000 ave & last years record low. You can see the gragh line trying to work its way back toward the 79-00 ave & away from the record low line...There will be winter this year!

July of this year compares to way back in 73...thats promising....This July also compares to 1998....keep your skis crossed...untill it starts Snowing ofcourse!

I really hope this does not make me a "puter expert".

You know, I'm really against messin' up the environment, I recycle everything, because I believe we should be good stewards of what God graciously gave us. But it amazes me how we humans think so much of ourselves and how we think we have such a great impact on our weather when in fact there is a nuclear incinerator 92 million miles away that controls our climate.

Leave it up to one of the funniest comedians in our lifetime, George Carlin, God rest his soul, to sum it up best... WARNING, the contents of this link contains some not so nice language.

http://www.habitablezone.com/flame/messages/420992.html

Ba-Bang-badda-Boom.....Thats it Puterex! Its the Sun & Plastic Stupid!

I think you missed his point -- I don't think he was saying so much that we are not technically able to do anything about it but instead he was saying that he didn't think we'd be able to do anything about it due to our own innate conflicted natures.

"The planet'll be here and we'll be long gone. Just another failed mutation. Just another closed-end biological mistake. An evolutionary cul-de-sac. The planet'll shake us off like a bad case of fleas. A surface nuisance."

I guess he didn't in the end think much of folks.

I read it differently, not with one main point but two main points and several side points.

A1) he strictly defined "it" to be "our long term self interest" not "the health of the planet"

A2) we are not capable of doing anything long term (insert conflicted notes here)

B1) natures' machinery out there is bigger than us

B2) we incur consequences that can easily have continuing existence and persistence independently of our own self-interest or survival

Taking point B1) independently of the others (and it can be, just as much as A2), hockeydave's post is actually directly on topic.

So, fishnski, the solar astronomers said "look for a cooler winter" back in April, the Arctic ice is saying "look for a cooler winter" now, what was the problem again?

Actually the problem really lies in the fact that the Ice still is below the 30 year ave which is really the period that the earth has experienced a slight warming..aka..Global warming..which means we are still in deep Do-Do as far as us Nordics are concerned. I'm hopeing that we have bottomed out & we are heading for a more healthy & larger Ice pack which to me is the most important factor in any winter. I wont be happy till the ice hits the 79-00 ave & then I can relax.

The Ice pack we have now will still work for the elevated areas here in the mid Atlantic but without some growth in the pack I'm afraid the lowlands will continue to suffer. Ive looked back at some of the Snowier & colder years for the DC area & the Pack was definetly more solid & larger than now...Air florida crash..Jan 1982..potomac frozen over..Good snow pack...95/96..Allright snow pack but not that far off from what we have now...Conclussion is that it wont take that long if things work out that we will be Skating on the C&O canal again...Stay tuned!

Does anyone remember which human factory caused global warming and ended the last ice age?

That would've been the world renowned, buffalo chip/methane production facility located somewhere near what is now Gary, IN ......