(BBC News) Polar ice caps 'melting faster'

[Up2Late]

Wednesday, 2 February, 2005, 08:08 GMT

British scientists claim to have new evidence that global warming is melting polar ice caps in Antarctica faster than previously thought.

Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey believe that the rise in sea levels around the world caused by the melting may have been under-estimated.

It is thought that more than 13,000 sq km of sea ice in the Arctic Peninsula has been lost over the last 50 years.

The findings were announced at the Climate Change Conference in Exeter.

(more at link)
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4228411.stm>

[aquart]

1. The Ross Ice Shelf is MELTING.

It's been ice for 6 MILLION YEARS AND IT'S MELTING. Some might consider that a hint.

[Blue_In_AK]

2. I've been in Alaska since 1975...

...and it's particularly noticeable here that the climate has gotten much warmer. The glaciers are receding, summers are longer, winters are not as cold. It's just a fact. Whether it's cyclical or man-made who knows, but it is what it is.

[Up2Late]

4. I heard this weekend, that Mt. Everest...

...has lost 4 Feet of it's hight, because of Global Warming, and the Snows of Kilimanjaro are almost gone.:cry:

And the Oil companies a really looking forward to the Northern Ice cap melting, It would open up the Northwest Passage. :evilfrown:

[whatelseisnew]

9. Yes it's true

The changes are significant since the 70's. Less snow, warmer temps, more dead fish washing ashore, reduction in the king salmon population. (This is inland- on the Kuskokwim.) Doesn't seem like a temporary trend to me.

[Darknyte7]

11. I have a picture of myself taken in 1977...

out at Portage Glacier. Portage is about an hours drive south of Anchorage, Alaska. At that time the glacier still extended down into the lake.

Link: http://www.alaska.net/~design/scenes/portage/portage.html

I took my wife (then fiancee) down to Portage in October of 2001, and I was shocked, SHOCKED by how much the the glacier had receded in that 25 year span. Portage Glacier isn't even visible from the multi-million dollar visitor center anymore.

It was then that I knew that global warming was real.

[Blue_In_AK]

18. Oh, yes, Portage is definitely my gauge of what's happening

It is really shocking and sad.

[Up2Late]

20. That Sucks. n/t

:evilfrown:

[VegasWolf]

12. So what do you guys do for fun up there in the winter/ n/t

[Blue_In_AK]

19. I'm kind of an indoors person myself

But a lot of the outdoor types have taken up ice skating since we haven't had much snow lately. Believe it or not, Anchorage has two inches of snow on the ground right now. TWO INCHES. That's not to say that it hasn't snowed more than that this winter, but with the thaws around New Year's it all melted away, and we had zero snow in January.

[Up2Late]

21. Hummmm, maybe S.W. Canada wouldn't be so bad

in a few more years:hippie:

[Blue_In_AK]

22. Banana Belt probably

I've been noticing that the temperatures in Southeast Alaska have been in the 40s for quite a bit of this winter. Certainly more pleasant than the Northeast US. I guess I should make it clear that it still gets pretty cold in Interior Alaska -- -50 not uncommon -- but it's the coastal areas that seem to be getting much warmer.

[Up2Late]

24. Where's Banana Belt?

Is that a town or a region?:shrug:

[Blue_In_AK]

26. It's a JOKE

I mean, like Alaska and Canada are supposed to be some kind of frozen wastelands, but instead we have this moderate climate while people down in the Lower 48 are freezing their tushies off.

[Darknyte7]

28. You got that right!

I've had frozen pipes here in DC twice this winter.

[VegasWolf]

31. LOL. I'm originally from Florida. I had never even seen snow until

I was 26. I'd seen it on TV. White stuff isn't it?

[Darknyte7]

27. That's NUTS!

I don't live in Anchorage anymore, although I did grow up there. My parents still live there.

TWO (2) inches of snow on the ground at the open of FEBRUARY?!?!?!?

Hello? Hello??? Hello??????

[Roland99]

13. Glacier National Park is all but completely missing the glaciers

[tom_paine]

30. Glad I got to see those glaciers and walk on them when I had the chance

Soon, they will be gone forever (at least in human terms)

[Byronic]

3. Doesn't matter to some

Even if polar bears were filmed wearing sun glasses, buying fans, and wandering around wearing only shorts, sweating profusely, some right-wingers would still hold to the belief that global warming is no more than a 'theory'.

[Carolab]

5. Or encourage it as a sign of the coming "Rapture". eom

[Up2Late]

6. But I bet if we told them that Santa is going to lose his Factory

I bet THEN they would care:silly:

[UL_Approved]

7. Yet again one more swept under the rug

Yet another truth that "disappeared in the night".

The legacy of Bush... :nuke:

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

8. What Bush has to say about this...

"no it's not."

[Up2Late]

10. I have a Question

Would a rise in ocean levels of say 6-12 inches (or more) cause the current Ice shelfs to crack and break apart faster than normal?

I mean, even if the oceans temperatures stayed about the same? :shrug:

[Shakespeare]

14. It's not so much the rise in ocean levels....

...that we need to be concerned about. The truly frightening potential of the melt-off is that it may change the ocean's salinity, which will wreak havoc with currents and weather patterns. The most immediate threat for the US is the change or disappearance of the gulfstream. If that happens, we will see some dramatic weather changes on a level not seen by modern mankind.

[Up2Late]

17. Yes, I know about that problem too, but...

We,in this country, have a huge amount of coastal and beach front development, that is only a few feet above sea level(5 to 25 feet), and at almost 1 inch per year, and with the rate increasing faster, this could quickly become a major problem.

I has already become a problem in places like Bangladesh, too.:evilfrown:

[hatrack]

16. Not necessarily

They're already floating, although changes in currents might speed up shelf breakups.

What matters more is the behavior of continental ice sheets - Greenland, WAIS, and the really big grounded glaciers in places like Ellesmere island, Axel Heiberg Island and other High Arctic areas.

Increased melt and movement rates will, with these formations, produce a net gain in sea level (in addition to thermal expansion of seawater).

[Ezlivin]

15. But Michael Crichton says we're just fine!

Since he's sold more books than any British scientist, he must be right.

And we must remember (as Dr. Crichton tells us), the real problem is extreme environmentalists.

[lovuian]

23. Bush not signing the Kyoto treaty was a disaster and

so mankind will have to suffer from what these corporations and countries and people have put in the air!!! We are in big trouble thats for sure. Coastal areas are in for a big disaster!!!

[Up2Late]

25. Gail Norton claimed last week, on the Radio...

...that the only "industrialized" country, that had signed it, at the time * shunned it, was Romania, is that true?:shrug:

[Barrett808]

29. Study bolsters greenhouse effect theory, solves ice age mystery

STUDY BOLSTERS GREENHOUSE EFFECT THEORY, SOLVES ICE AGE MYSTERY

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Critics who dismiss the importance of greenhouse gases as a cause of climate change lost one piece of ammunition this week. In a new study, scientists found further evidence of the role that greenhouse gases have played in Earth’s climate.

In Thursday’s issue of the journal Geology, Ohio State University scientists report that a long-ago ice age occurred 10 million years earlier than once thought. The new date clears up an inconsistency that has dogged climate change research for years.

Of three ice ages that occurred in the last half-billion years, the earliest ice age posed problems for scientists, explained Matthew Saltzman, assistant professor of geological sciences at Ohio State.

Previous studies suggested that this particular ice age happened during a time that should have been very warm, when volcanoes all over the earth’s surface were spewing carbon dioxide (CO2) and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

With CO2 levels as much as 20 times higher than today, the late Ordovician period (460-440 million years ago) wasn’t a good time for growing ice.

Taken together, the evidence suggests that the ice began to build up some 10 million years earlier than when volcanoes began pumping the atmosphere full of the CO2 that ended the Ordovician ice age. For Saltzman, the find solves a long-standing mystery.

Critics have pointed to the inconsistency as a flaw in scientists’ theories of climate change. Scientists have argued that today’s global climate change has been caused in part by buildup of CO2 in the atmosphere resulting from fossil fuel emissions.

But, critics have countered, if CO2 truly raises global temperatures, how could an ice age have occurred when a greenhouse effect much greater than today’s was in full swing?

The answer: This particular ice age didn’t begin when CO2 was at its peak -- it began 10 million years earlier, when CO2 levels were at a low.

“Our results are consistent with the notion that CO2 concentrations drive climate.”

(more)

http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/earlyice.htm

[Dcitizen]

32. Any scientists please re-estimate rise of sea level.

IPCC said in 1995 maximum level of ocean rise was 50cm, and last year they changed estimation to 11-77cm by 2100. If ice melting is 6 times faster then about 75% ice water should be additional to the current estimation or about 130cm by 2001. If this is correct then we still dont have any serious problem yet along coast line in next 30 years? ;)

[Up2Late]

35. Are you forgetting the home of the Mardi Gras

You could probably kiss Louisiana Good-bye :hurts:

[are_we_united_yet]

33. Bush Administrations reply:

"We are working to strengthen frozeness of the polar Ice Caps. We've made significant progress but there is more work to be done"

[are_we_united_yet]

34. Oh yeah and don't forget

"Ice Caps are on the freeze"