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Flood former: A new study suggests Greenland's massive ice sheet - already melting at a record pace - could accelerate much more than earlier predicted. Credit: FICSU NEW YORK: Rapid melting of Greenland's ice sheet this century, once considered unlikely, is now a real possibility. If proved right, many of the world's coastlines could soon be inundated by rising seas, a new study suggests. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a global panel of more than 2,000 leading climate scientists, estimate that sea levels may rise up to half a metre over the next century. They attribute 70 per cent of this rise to global warming. Double trouble They had calculated that the slow melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet – the largest ice mass in the Northern Hemisphere – might contribute up to one millimetre of sea level rise per year. However, the latest study suggests that it could contribute over twice that amount. The authors of the report, published this week in the British journal Nature Geoscience, looked at data from the ancient Laurentide Ice Sheet. This existed in North America between 1.6 million and 10,000 years ago, and the researchers used it as a model to predict future melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet. “We have a natural global warming experiment here, and we can see how quickly [ice sheets] retreat under a particular climate forcing, which may be similar to what we will have at the end of this century,” said Anders Carlson, a geologist at University of Wisconsin in Madison, USA, who led the research. The melting of the Laurentide ice sheet is the most recent occurrence of the disappearance of a large ice sheet in the Northern Hemisphere, and happened under climate conditions similar to those predicted over the next century, making it a good candidate to estimate the melting rate of the Greenland ice sheet. Comparable conditions Carlson and his team used a general circulation model, one of the modeling systems used by the IPCC, to understand the climate forcing that caused the Laurentide to melt. They also compiled sets of records that showed the ice record through time to see how fast the ice sheet retreated, which inferred the volume of water that was emptied into the sea. Extrapolation of this data to the Greenland Ice Sheet shows that it could increase global sea levels from just five millimeters to up to one centimetre per year over the next century. According to Mark Siddall, an oceanographer at the University of Bristol in Britain, who penned an accompanying commentary in the same issue of the journal: “[Carlson’s] work suggests that, in principle, future melt rates on the order of one metre per century are certainly not out of the question.” However, Siddall, who was not an author of the study, also noted that the extent to which the dynamics of Laurentide Ice Sheet can be compared to the Greenland Ice Sheet “remains unresolved.” Readers' comments
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Ice Sheet
Uh huh ... according to the same hysterical experts there is no Arctic ice cap NOW. This isn't about global warming it is about global socialism. Yup and 90% of you mush heads are laughing, pointing at the brainwashed "Right wing nutball." Last year's leftwing messiah has stepped from the light to lead us from the darkness, this years new messiah has risen from the ground (ie., death, for the slow learners) to stride from the Temple of Obama raising his hand in blessing to the assembled multitude but it is me who is brainwashed uh huh ...
mate i hate you
wots the point in wasting your life writing crappy long replys?????!?!??!?!
hate is common theme with
hate is common theme with the left. the need for an enemy, makes it easy for you not to think, as indicated by short stupid replies.
Full of sheet
So instead of talking science, you act like a lunatic and spew BS about messiahs.
A guy went swimming at the North Pole last year since it was open water.
The ice is melting.
And yes, you are brainwashed. Clearly.
Science vs What they tell you
I am still not quite sure which is truth and which is fiction but am leaning toward the better safe than sorry attitude. Much like Plato's "I don't know if there is a God or not but I am going to behave as if there is one."
Not believing in global warming makes people a lot of money. It lets us continue to use as much energy as we wish and to continue our lives as we wish.
Believing in global warming forces consideration of conservation (i.e. - not spending money on energy) and thoughts about other ways to produce energy.
I am sure that you will tell me, quite forcefully, that even to question your word is heretical. But, what if you are wrong? Acting to prevcent global warming is a bit like chicken soup: it might not help but it surely won't hurt.
Greenland Melting
A sobering article, which undoubtedly deserves priority reporting and emergeny status public, and government level discussion. There is good reason to take the news as far graver than what is predicted - there is the situation of the West Antarctic peninsula, a very similar situation, experiencing perhaps tenfold accelerated melting as well, and the warming of the Arctic, and permafrost boreal forest of the Northern hemisphere, melting as we speak, experiencing unbelievable warm temperatures, billions, or trillions of tons of organic matter on the verge of being released into the atmosphere as methane, or CO2.
Boreal forest worldwide appears to be becoming a net carbon source. Greenland has undergone a tenfold increase in ice loss in 10 years. It seems frighteningly likely this snowball effect will continue. We may already have unleashed catastrophic events over which we will find ourselves too diminished to handle, much as those who drive too fast on poor road conditions may come to regret their imprudence, too late.
Will future legends be told about a time when people, who had it all, the power of giants, material resources without end, the knowledge of gods, but were so selfish that they brought their children and future generations into hell on earth? The alarm bells are ringing - the authorities seem to be lining us up for a future hell - is the public ready to take emergency, or war time level efforts? We could hope...
blahblahblah who cares
Greenland Melting
A sobering article, which undoubtedly deserves priority reporting and emergeny status public, and government level discussion. There is good reason to take the news as far graver than what is predicted - there is the situation of the West Antarctic peninsula, a very similar situation, experiencing perhaps tenfold accelerated melting as well, and the warming of the Arctic, and permafrost boreal forest of the Northern hemisphere, melting as we speak, experiencing unbelievable warm temperatures, billions, or trillions of tons of organic matter on the verge of being released into the atmosphere as methane, or CO2.
Boreal forest worldwide appears to be becoming a net carbon source. Greenland has undergone a tenfold increase in ice loss in 10 years. It seems frighteningly likely this snowball effect will continue. We may already have unleashed catastrophic events over which we will find ourselves too diminished to handle, much as those who drive too fast on poor road conditions may come to regret their imprudence, too late.
Will future legends be told about a time when people, who had it all, the power of giants, material resources without end, the knowledge of gods, but were so selfish that they brought their children and future generations into hell on earth? The alarm bells are ringing - the authorities seem to be lining us up for a future hell - is the public ready to take emergency, or war time level efforts? We could hope...
Where do we go from here?
I live in a town which seems to have it all- and yet I feel extremely vulnerable.
We comment as if we are bystanders watching an event unfold, when in fact, we are part of it.
I have children. I care more about their future than my own. I buy organic, I recycle, I conserve, I preserve. I do this not because I believe in Global Warming....I don't know what to believe anymore.
My actions are based completely on the love I feel for my children and the responsibility I have to do the best I can with the power I have.
Is it possible to change the world for the better regardless of our political views on environmental change?
I believe the answer is yes.
Allowing ourselves to trust in our love for children, along with educating the public on environmental facts, and finally, living our lives to reflect this love and knowledge, can only improve the future.
Realizing this, I don't feel quite as powerless anymore
The Main Problem
Stories like this, regardless if they are fact or speculation, tend to be misused. That is, they are used as evidence for support of man-made CO2 climate forcing.
The simple thought by most people is: Greenland is melting faster than we thought, sea levels will rise faster, it will cause problems for millions of people, we need to do something NOW. However, anyone with an ounce of logic can conclude that melting ice has nothing to do with supporting the theory that increases in CO2 are causing global temperatures to rise.
We are being played upon our emotions and sea levels rising is just one of many like polar bear extinction or worse hurricane activity (both of which are false by the way). With regard to man-made global warming, there is more emphasis on "What if it were true?" than "Is it true?"
All that pales however in comparison to the real question: "We know that man has some effect on global climate but what is that effect compared to natural effects and what can we do to make a change that is actually beneficial?"
In other words: "Should we spend all our money trying to reduce warming with minimal effect or should we save our money and spend it adapting to the possible environmental changes that are probably likely in any event".
Even worse, if the earth is entering a multi-decade cooling cycle, any policies to reduce global warming or prepare for global warming will be the largest waste or resources in the history of mankind. Google "global cooling" and do some reading.