Arctic Sea Ice

Sabbatical (I hope)

I've alluded to it a couple of times already, but I'm really going to take a break from blogging, as I have been struggling with an Arctic burn-out since 2012. On the one hand it's caused by everything that has been and still is going on in the Arctic. The learning curve, the excitement, but most of all the depression that comes with watching this steamroller just plough forward, is taking its toll.

On the other hand, for the past three years I've been trying hard to walk the walk as well by building a sustainable house with my wife and daughter, and we are now slowly entering the final phase. Just one more year to go to finish things and then fully focus on our garden (plant more trees, grow 50% of our food, etc). This also takes a lot of extra work to finance, and in this respect I want to thank everyone who contributed to the 17 thousand Euros in donations I have received over the years. It was a huge help.

Nevertheless, all this working, building and blogging has left me with little time do other things, and I feel I also need to reach out to my local community and do more things that help directly with dealing with AGW and other systemic problems our global society is facing. On top of that we are homeschooling our daughter, and as she enters puberty, I feel I need to jump in more to support my wife. In short: life.

I will be posting PIOMAS updates and maybe some occasional stuff (that I don't put on my to-do-list to stay on there forever), but I won't be covering the next melting season like I've done since 2010. Don't worry, the Arctic Sea Ice Forum is still there (HTTPS version, ignore security warning) and it's rocking hard, with over 1000 members and traffic records getting broken almost as often as Arctic sea ice records. You can find all the latest data there, and lots of interesting analysis, maps and graphs to explain what is going on up North. And I will also be updating the Arctic Sea Ice Graphs website on an irregular basis.

So, yes, a sabbatical, it all sounds great in theory, but in practice there's this:
It's called reality, and it's kind of hard to ignore.

But I'm going to try. For a while.

To end on a positive note (end of the song):

If it's gonna get better, it starts with a feeling
If it's gonna get better, it's gonna take time
If it's gonna get better, we've gotta start now
'Cause I know everybody can feel it
And I know everybody will see it
'Cause it shows, and that shows I'm not dreaming
'Cause you know, I know, it's time for a change

Getting ready

With the melting season getting ready to go full speed, I'm also busy getting everything ready.

First of all on the virtual level by updating the Arctic Sea Ice Graphs page. I've slightly altered the daily graphs page, by adding a couple of links, graphs and category names to make it easier to see what graphs and maps stand for. I've also fully updated the Uni Bremen sea ice concentration map page that allows to compare this year's progress to all other years in the 2007-2013 period. You can see, for instance, how the ice pack's current retreat from the Alaskan coast stands out in relation to previous years.

I've also prepared the sea level pressure patterns page, and will try to regularly update it as soon as a 6-day period is finished. This page allows us to compare atmospheric conditions between years. The webcams page will be updated as soon as the North Pole cameras have been deployed and go live.

So, that's the virtual level. On the reality level the building of Arctic Sea Ice Blog headquarters has been progressing slowly, but steadily:

As we're doing everything ourselves now (you have to if you want to build cheap and environmentally responsible), it's a bit like re-inventing the wheel at times. Or at all times actually. It's going well, but takes a lot of time. If the Gods will allow it, we should be able to move in somewhere in July (probably August).

We have to wait and see how things work out, but my hope is that the house will be so efficient that we can cover our energy needs with the 5.25 kWp solar panel array on the roof, and still have a surplus of about 2,000 kWh per year. There's a sustainable building thread on the Arctic Sea Ice Forum where I occasionally describe elements of our project, and at some point I will give a full description here or on a separate blog/website.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

This one of the things I wanted to get done before the melting season started, because I won't have time for it then.

That big red arrow points to the biggest change on the Arctic Sea Ice Blog. In an effort to make it more visually appealing than just a bunch of links (I suck at graphic design), it may not be clear to all that in the top of the right hand bar there are actually links to the Arctic Sea Ice Graphs page, the Arctic Sea Ice Forum, the About moi page (Climate Disclaimer) and a new link to a Paypal donation page for anyone who wants to support the blog, or thank me or whatever.

I had been thinking about putting up a donation button for a while now (also because I received several e-mails requesting it), but you know, doing things like this for free makes you look more credible, and it makes you feel more independent, and you don't feel much of a responsibility. I'm also lucky that I have enough work as a free-lance translator. The pay isn't that great, but I can work as much as I want and I was born to do this work, so I'm not complaining (too much).

The downside, however, is that I'm spending a lot of time behind the computer working, blogging and distracting myself in between. And that's not too healthy in many respects, and also doesn't jive too well with this inner feeling I have of wanting to do something useful in the real world as well, like building an ecopassiveblahblah-house and gardening. So donations help, because I can step away from the boss/computer more, and that also makes my wife happier, which reduces stress for everyone.

I will occasionally write an update on donations received, but I can tell you in advance that some of it is used to cover blog hosting costs, software I use to track and make stuff, and if the forum keeps growing like it is, it might be wise to spend some money on that too (like a security certificate for instance).

Okay, with that out of the way, I can now also announce a couple of changes I made to the Arctic Sea Ice Graphs page: