Word: opening
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...ship was well inside a region the satellites said should be choked with thick, multiyear-old ice. "That's pretty much a no-go zone for an icebreaker of the Amundsen's size," says Barber. But the ship kept going, at a brisk 13 knots - its top speed in open water is 13.7 knots - and even when it finally reached thick ice, he says, "we could still penetrate it easily...
...says Julienne Stroeve, a research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, in Boulder, Colo., "but then winds spread the ice out, so the overall coverage ended up being greater than in 2007." Without those winds, in other words, 2009 might have set a new record for open water. But as it happened, ice cover in 2008 and 2009 rebounded significantly - but perhaps deceptively so. (See pictures of the effects of global warming...
That in turn would trigger one of the many positive feedback mechanisms that could speed up the warming effects of greenhouse gases. Open ocean reflects less of the Sun's energy than ice does, so a large-scale summer melt would mean more absorption of heat in the ocean. The warmer ocean would heat the air above it, which would slow the refreezing of ice in winter, which would in turn become even more susceptible to melting in summer...
...legislation, the voters are denied their fundamental right to object. Obama wrote about laws being “uniform, predictable and transparent ... applying equally to the rulers and the ruled.” There is no transparency when a leader blatantly ignores the procedures of Congress that call for open debate because to do so is to his political advantage. When preferential treatment is given to unions, pharmaceutical companies, and insurance providers behind closed doors there is no sense of fair play. There is no equality when a Nebraskan senator is bribed with promises that benefit his state...
...from taking control too. Moreover, he argues, the safe havens they enjoy in Pakistan may actually make them vulnerable to political pressure for compromise from the Pakistani military. And many in the region doubt that the U.S. and its allies would be willing to accept the burden of an open-ended military commitment at a rising cost in blood and treasure...