That’s a quote from David Barber, an Arctic climatologist at the University of Manitoba, speaking to IPS at the International Arctic Change conference in Quebec, Canada.
Read the whole article here
He thinks the Arctic will be ice-free in summer by 2015. And he’s not alone in thinking that.
Even the worst-case scenarios looked at by the IPCC didn’t consider that possibility for another 50 to 70 years.

The latest NASA satellite data also indicates continuing rapid ice melt. More than 2 trillion tons of LAND ice in Greenland, Antarctica and Alaska have melted since 2003, more than half of it in Greenland. This is all based on measurements of ice weight by NASA’S GRACE satellite. More figures will be released in San Francisco later today, at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco.
AGU website with more info
You’d think hard evidence like that using the best technology we have would convince even the staunchest sceptics and provoke action. I often tend to think it will. Normally I say I’m a born optimist. But is it optmistic to think people will be convinced by potentially catastrophic data?
That’s a question for the philosophers.
Meanwhile the World Meteorological Organization has said the past 12 months have been cooler than previous years, but longer-term trends show the world is still warming because of climate change. The MTO explain the slight dip in temperature by a La Nina event. And the organisation is concerned about the ice in the Arctic Sea having dropped to its second-lowest level during the melt season since satellite measurements began in 1979.
More on the WMO website
So in the light of all that, what do you make of the outcome of the Poznan conference and the EU’s latest climate of climate measures?

…are particularly likely to be female, poor and living in developing countries, says the International Union for Conservation of Nature IUCN.
More info on the IUCN website

The organisation used the Poznan conference, now into its 2nd week, as a platform to launch a training manual aimed at policy- and decision-makers, to make them take gender into account in climate change strategies.
The training manual

The World Bank has been running a short film/video competition on the subject of the Social Dimensions of Climate Change.
Cara Augustenborg from Ireland is in 9th place with a short film she made on the Inupiat in Barrow, Arctic Alaska. (Sound familiar? Yes, she was one of the Climate Change College ambassadors I accompanied to Arctic Alaska, the birthplace of the Ice Blog).
Social Responsibility competition, with the short-listed filma

Cara (green do-it-your-selfer in the green helmet)with Aart and Erika, filming for their projects in Alaska
And here’s a link to Cara’s site

I have quite a few colleagues from the United States working with me at the moment.
Understandably, they are very excited about the elections. Mark has been lobbying people to vote and distributing stickers to those who have. (Do they have to show you proof Mark?)
Over dinner last night, several of them joined in a lively debate over the candidates for Vice-President.One said Joe Biden is not the diplomatic “elder statesman”-type he’s made up to be and surprised us with a tale or two. Another disagreed, seeing him as an ideal future vice-president.
But Mrs Palin seems to be the one, once again, who arouses most emotions. Emily from Alaska can’t understand how she got to be governor, let alone candidate for vice-president. Her “Drill, baby, drill” slogan points to potentially disastrous consequences for the climate, your Ice Blogger is convinced about that. You’ll find a brief analysis of the two candidates’ energy policies here:
Journalist Leah McDonnel’s assessment for Living Planet
A friend and colleague from Australia came up with this extreme comment: “Drill Baby, Drill…through your foot”.
Now come on CH, you’re usually a non-violent, peace-loving guy…”
I know he doesn’t mean it literally. And I suppose the pun would be too obvious if we said he had a “point”…
So how important is (or was, so many people have voted already) climate policy to you folks in deciding who to vote for?

Find out more by clicking onto Cycle Generation

And watch the Ice Blog for more about them soon.