Pack ice in Summer - pipTalk Forums

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Jaime Fradera
Senior Member

since 2000-11-25

Posts 843
Where no tyranny is tolerable

0 posted 2008-07-31 10:46 PM

The last weeks of Arctic summer,
The last weeks of Arctic summer.
Where sunshine lasts all night, all day,
and winter is never far away.
Ant though the August Sun shines bright,
it won't be long
till it is Arctic Night ...
From Point Barrow west...
large amounts of ice pack
have moved into
the Barrow area. The ice pack
is 8 to 9 tenths first year medium ice.

Stranded ice covers most of the shoreline.
Strips of open water lie
from a few hundred feet offshore
to about 1/2 mile offshore. Near
shore current is carrying loose ice northeast.

The final weeks of Arctic summer ..

Compared with this Yearly cosmic natural drama,
why would anybody want to watch
whatever idiotic junk they put on television?

Alison

Member Rara Avis

since 2008-01-27

Posts 9318
Lumpy oatmeal makes me crazy!

1 posted 2008-08-01 02:42 AM

Jaime,

This is a wonderful poem and I love how you see things.  I love this one and kept it.

Sadly, pack ice is one of the most impacted parts of the warming trend we are seeing.  The ice is farther from shore and does not come in like it used to.  I saw a picture recently of a walrus resting on the beach at Barrow.  There were signs asking people to leave the walrus alone as they needed a place to rest.  They are used to resting on the ice, but there is no ice.  Walrus, unlike the seal, need to have a place to pull into and just loll around.

Polar bear are being studied and there is a concern how the warm weather and ice melt with impact their future.  Last year a polar bear was seen about two hundred miles south of its normal range.  It had crossed the Brooks Range and was moving through the tundra.  This had never been seen before.  This year a Polar Bear was shot in one of the upper northern Indian villages where Polar bear had never been before.

Makes one wonder if the bear will survive or adapt and breed with other bear to create a new type of bear.

It's all interesting but these times that we live in are very interesting.  The world is changing in a rapid manner.

Thank you for this poem and making me think as you do.

A

Midnitesun

Member Empyrean

since 2001-05-18

Posts 28647
Gaia

2 posted 2008-08-01 10:21 AM

Wonderful post, Jaime.
Thanking Alison for her detailed comment.
As Dylan sang (not so long ago):
"The times they are a-changing..."
I fear the polar bear will soon disappear,
along with billions of other species of fauna (and flora). Humans are not far behind.

OwlSA
Member Rara Avis

since 2005-11-07

Posts 9347
Durban, South Africa

3 posted 2008-08-01 01:46 PM

Thank you for your interesting poem and response, Jaime and Alison.

My heart goes out to all those wonderful creatures who have done nothing to deserve what is happening to them.

- Owl

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