Melting Arctic ice spells trouble for Hokkaido tourism

National Geographic warns of a threat to Hokkaido’s natural beauty:

Free-floating pieces of ice that form each winter in the Sea of Okhotsk travel about 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) to Hokkaido’s Shiretoko Peninsula. The ice, which normally lingers near the coast for up to four months, is key to the region’s rich biodiversity, including many rare seabirds and marine mammals.

In recent years, however, the peninsula has seen noticeably less drift ice, raising fears that global warming is to blame.

Arctic sea ice overall has been disappearing much faster than initially predicted, with some experts saying that the region’s summer ice could be gone within five years.

According to the article, the ice carries nutrients that are vital to the survival of plankton, which form the base of the food chain around Hokkaido. Reduced ice drift could seriously damage the ecosystem of Shiretoko National Park.

11 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - August 15, 2008 at 7:53 am

Categories: General Japan Tags: japan, nature

bender

If anyone wants to see the drift ice, go there in February, and the nearer to Shiretoko (Utoro) the more you’ll have a chance to see them. Monbetsu and Abashiri are famous and accessible by air, but you might not have luck there. If you’re going to Shiretoko, you have to drive there, and the roads are packed with snow, plus the visibility might be bad. But the road patrol is always there, so don’t worry about being stranded and having to spend the night…lots of Steller’s Sea Eagles (a relative of the Bald Eagle). They are huge!

I think the road that crosses the Shiretoko Peninsula from Utoro into Rausu is closed during winter. Rausu is nice, you can see Kunashir in the distance and there’s a free onsen that you can plunge into. Be careful- it’s damn hot! And the jimoto people won’t let you use the water hose to cool it down. At Rausu, some of the stores serve Steller’s Sea Lion (“Todo”) but it wasn’t my taste. The best season I think is in the beginning of July when the wildflowers bloom (there’s nobody there so you can have the whole field to yourself!) or in Autumn when the leaves are absolutely beautiful…it’s a mixture of evergreen conifer and deciduous trees…the best in Japan, IMHO.
Level3

Anyone remember the predictions just a few months ago by ‘some experts’ that the Arctic Ice would “competely melt” or whatever THIS SUMMER.

Turns out it didn’t. No surprise there.

Alarmism doesn’t help the issue.

And whenever and article uses the word ‘some’ as in ‘some experts’, ‘some people’, ‘some believe ____’, ‘some predcit _____’ then you might as well just substiture the words “I think ______” because it’s basically a lazy journalist writing his personal opinion into a news story, Editors can’t allow the word “I” in a ‘news’ story, “I” is for the opinion pages. But using the “some people” trick, most journalists can put their opinions into ‘news’ pages.

“Some experts”
WHICH experts? Nobel Peace Prize winner, frequent flier, and 100-foot luxury house-boat owner Al Gore?

At the very least, any “news” story about the climate that doesn’t prominently feature actual climatologists (who aren’t working for a politically activist group on the left OR right) should be seen for what it is, propaganda.

Level3

I followed the links to the original source in National Geographic, a quote from that source article:

“One scientist even speculated that summer sea ice could be gone in five years.”

Changing “one expert” to “some experts”?!

Again, lazy and/or deliberately misleading journalism.
The deliberate removal of the term “even speculated” and changing to the less-wild-seeming “could be” makes some think it isn’t mere journalistic laziness.

At least the one scientist works for NASA and not for Greenpeace or something. Although from experience, finding a left-leaning scientist at NASA is about as easy as getting your wildest speculative doom scenario [but not your more reasonable or even conservative estimate] on global warming published in a magazine. [That's means it's easy.]

kabocha5000

The main point of the articles are that the ice sheets seem to be melting faster than predicted. This is something that has actually happened, not some guess left to debate. If anything, the situation for the ice sheets is actually worse than what your left-leaning alarmist scientists said it would be.

Now, anything can happen in the future, and maybe it all won’t be so bad, but for now, I would tend to trust one scientist, who’s statements and speculation are based on actual data than I would some poster on a blog who’s statements and speculation are based on actual opinion.

edwardhasnewgoggles

On the defense of Al Gore, you can’t expect him to live in a shack. He flies a lot to spread his messages across the world to impact millions. Last I heard, people don’t bust out sails to boat to their wordly destinations.

Regardless of what data is out there, it all follows a trend that climate change is happening, whether is happens this summer or 100 summers from now.

Level3

Last I heard, telecommuting was supposed to revolutionize the world and make travel unnecessary except for pleasure. I don’t expect Al Gore to live in a shack either, but come on, his hypocrisy is unbelievable. To defend it is to show a serf’s attitude.

“Climate change” is happening. No denial there. It’s always happening. Always has. Always will. Happens every day. And the biggest cause, The Sun.

How to explain?
Did you notice that the Sun can cause the temerature to rise 10 degrees C in a few hours? Every single day!
The Sun’s output goes in cycles, even a boost in output of 0.1% has an effect, which is the main cause of climate change. And there’s nothing we can do about that.

Best measure to make life tolerable?
Plant more trees in cities.
Simple and cheap. But boring. Not very profitable for doomsayers and those who want to control the world from their palaces and limousines.
The saddest part is so many don’t even care about this hypocrisy. But religions, including environmentalism, do blind many.

The Overthinker

The key here is the difference between “the biggest cause” and “the only cause.”
edwardhasnewgoggles

Telecommuting is different than hiring a guest speaker. Telecommuting is used for routine meetings within companies, between companies, etc. The key difference here is that you’re failing to acknowledge that he is famous, and people expect him in person for a fee. Would you pay the same amount and expect the same satisfaction watching a concert on tv? You’re comparing apples and oranges there.

Sure, temperatures rise and fall within the course of time…but the current data suggests that it is off the map. That’s the difference. To “blame it on the sun” is the first time I’ve heard that one.

A serf’s attitude? Stop listening to so much Anti-Flag, captain conspiracy.

http://whatjapanthinks.com Ken Y-N

Just saw this related article on The Reg:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/15/goddard_arctic_ice_mystery/

Summer ice is actually up this year.
Blacknimbus

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/15/goddard_arctic_ice_mystery/

“Arctic ice refuses to melt as ordered”

“NASA Marshall Space Flight Center data shows 2008 ice nearly identical to 2002, 2005 and 2006. Maps of Arctic ice extent are readily available from several sources, including the University of Illinois, which keeps a daily archive for the last 30 years. A comparison of these maps (derived from NSIDC data) below shows that Arctic ice extent was 30 per cent greater on August 11, 2008 than it was on the August 12, 2007. (2008 is a leap year, so the dates are offset by one.)”
Blacknimbus

Lol…once again I’m beaten to the punch!

Melting Arctic ice spells trouble for Hokkaido tourism

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