More Evidence of Global Warming, but World Still Seeks More Oil

September 10, 2006 – Vol.11 No.25

MORE EVIDENCE OF GLOBAL WARMING, BUT WORLD STILL SEEKS MORE OIL.

In research published this week in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) document that perennial Arctic sea ice - ice that lasts all year round - shrunk 14 percent in area between 2004 and 2005. Scientists noted that in recent decades the extent of summer ice - seasonal ice that forms in winter but melts in summer - has been getting smaller at a rate of about 0.7 percent per year or between 6.4 and 7.8 percent per decade.

The 2004 - 2005 perennial ice shrink is 18 times what had been previously considered the annual rate.

Since the Arctic ice cap floats, its demise would have little effect on sea levels. However, receding ice at the top of the planet may be an early indicator of an increased rate of ice melt in Greenland and the Antarctic, where melting ice would cause sea levels to rise.

In another report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 19 scientists from 10 institutions concluded that there was an 84 percent chance that two thirds of the rise in ocean temperatures in the tropical Atlantic and Pacific can be attributed to an increase in greenhouse gases from human activities. In turn, the authors say, warmer water temperatures have caused an increase in hurricane strength and activity in both basins. Sea surface temperatures in those regions have risen 0.6 and 1.2 degrees F since 1906 they say.

The official word from the US National Hurricane Center is that hurricanes are cyclical and warmer waters play only one part of many in hurricane development.

Yet while rising greenhouse gases, shrinking ice caps and increased hurricane activity are growing concerns in the scientific community, some in the oil community are still concerned about the supplies needed for growing world economies in the future. The connection isn’t being made as to the potential damage to the planet that increased levels of burning oil could cause.

In an attempt to relieve concerns about world oil supplies, Abdallah S. Jum’ah, president and chief executive of the state-owned Saudi Arabian Oil Company (aka Saudi Aramco), the world’s largest oil producing company, said in a statement that he believed there was 4.5 trillion barrels of recoverable oil on the planet - enough for another 140 years at current levels of consumption. Today’s proven reserves are about 1.2 trillion barrels. (The word “proven” in the oil industry means educated guess.)