Sept. 6 News: With Arctic Ice ‘Heading For Oblivion,’ Record Melt Is ‘Like Adding 20 Years Of CO2′

First published on ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, which was recently named one of Time magazine’s Top 25 blogs of 2010.

The loss of Arctic ice is massively compounding the effects of greenhouse gas emissions, ice scientist Professor Peter Wadhams has told BBC Newsnight. [BBC]

White ice reflects more sunlight than open water, acting like a parasol.

Melting of white Arctic ice, currently at its lowest level in recent history, is causing more absorption.

Prof Wadhams calculates this absorption of the sun’s rays is having an effect “the equivalent of about 20 years of additional CO2 being added by man”.

The Cambridge University expert says that the Arctic ice cap is “heading for oblivion”.

In 2008, Al Gore strode onto the stage at Denver’s Invesco Field to a hero’s welcome, throwing his support behind Barack Obama to take on the “global climate crisis.” When Obama takes the stage this week, Gore will be nowhere in sight. [Politico]

This year’s outbreak of West Nile virus is the worst since the illness was first observed in the United States in 1999, officials from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday. [Los Angeles Times]

In a new report titled “Game Changer: How the Sports Industry Is Saving the Environment,” the Natural Resources Defense Council presents case studies of greening initiatives by sports leagues and franchises like switching from fossil fuels to solar energy, installing low-flush toilets to save water and conspicuously displaying recycling bins. [New York Times]

Forecasters say Leslie has strengthened into the sixth hurricane of the Atlantic season but still remains far from land. [Associated Press]

A new race for water is rippling through the drought-scorched heartland, pitting farmers against oil and gas interests, driven by new drilling techniques that use powerful streams of water, sand and chemicals to crack the ground and release stores of oil and gas. [New York Times]

There are a couple of things going on that are more curious than scary, showing that tropical storms and hurricanes can do some pretty strange things. The first has to do with Isaac, which could be giving birth to a new storm in the Gulf of Mexico. [Climate Central]

A 3,600-acre fire in the San Gabriel Mountains near Los Angeles chewed through thick brush in steep terrain that hadn’t burned in two decades amid hot, dry conditions. [Businessweek]