WP: Greenland's Melting Ice Sheet May Speed Rise in Sea Level

[DeepModem Mom]

Greenland's Melting Ice Sheet May Speed Rise in Sea Level
Study Finds No Boost in Antarctic Snowfall to Mitigate Problem
By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 11, 2006; Page A03


Antarctic snowfall was projected to increase because of higher temperatures, but a recent study rejected that idea. (NASA)

Two new scientific studies measuring Greenland's rapidly melting ice sheet and the pace of Antarctic snowfall suggest that the sea level may be rising faster than researchers previously assumed.

The papers, both published yesterday in the journal Science, provide the latest evidence of how climate change is transforming the global landscape. University of Texas at Austin researchers, using twin satellites, determined that the Greenland ice sheet, Earth's second-largest reservoir of fresh water, is melting at three times the rate at which it had been melting over the previous five years. A separate study by 16 international scientists concluded that Antarctic snowfall accumulation has remained steady over the past 50 years, with no increases that might have mitigated the melting of the ice shelf, as some researchers had assumed would occur.

Taken together, the two reports indicate that global sea level rise may increase more rapidly in the coming years, though the Greenland study is based on only 2 1/2 years of data. The melting of 57 cubic miles a year from Greenland's ice sheet could add 0.6 millimeters alone, which is higher than any previously published measurement for Greenland, according to University of Texas Center for Space Research scientist Jianli Chen....

***

Byron Tapley, one of Chen's co-authors, said the ice loss along the sheet's eastern shoreline is particularly significant because it could help weaken the counterclockwise flow of the North Atlantic Current. The more buoyant fresh water from the ice melt could lower water temperatures and ultimately make Western European winters colder, he said.

"If enough fresh water enters the Norwegian Current and you interrupt return flow, then there could be climate effects in Europe," Tapley said....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/10/AR2006081001557.html

[eleny]

1. Now that's some liquid action we ought to be terrified about

[Hekate]

2. KnR. This should be seen outside this one forum. A question...

I want to find out how far above sea-level my coastal community is (more specifically my house, which is about 3 miles from the water) but I can't seem to phrase the question in such a way as to actually find out online.

I'm sure you understand my reasons. If the sea is going to rise 20 feet (a figure I read only last week) in the forseeable future/my lifetime, and my house is 10 feet above current sea-level, perhaps I might want to move at some point.

Will some DUer brighter than I am please tell me where to go to get this information online?

Hekate

[bananas]

3. topographic maps

Enter your city and state, then zoom in.
http://www.topozone.com

on edit:
There's a list of websites with topographic maps here,
including microsoft's terraserver which allows you to put in your street address:
http://nationalmap.gov/gio/viewonline.html

[dipsydoodle]

4. If you're on broadband

then try using Google Earth. It's a huge program that's why I mentioned broadband. I know from locating my own house on the planet that I'm 270 feet above sea level.Could also see my girlfriend's husband's car parked on their driveway :) Layers only get updated occasionally and some are 3 years old. Normal use is free.

[sofa king]

6. More maps.

You may get lucky and find your neck of the woods in this EPA publication (Adobe Reader required):

http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/UniqueKeyLookup/SHSU5C3J4E/$File/maps.pdf

I think these are direct links to the same maps:

http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/content/ResourceCenterPublicationsSLRMaps.html

This is an awesome little tool, but its resolution isn't very good. Play around with the QUEST maps though and you'll see that you can map incremental rises in sea level:

http://www.discoverourearth.org/student/sea_level/sea_level1.html

I have a friend who is an ace cartographer and geologist, so naturally I tried to cash in on the upcoming disaster by asking him where the best new beachfront property is going to be. He told me not to bother, because as the sea levels rise they're going to be constantly churning up eroded soil and pooping it back ashore all along the coastline, turning most beaches into soupy, bacteria-infested mud (unless the pollution is bad enough to kill everything). In twenty years, he claims, nobody is going to want to go to the beaches that remain.

[ramapo]

9. I'm headed to the beach in a week

I'm going to enjoy it while I still can. I've already missed out on Alaska.

[Hekate]

10. Thank you bananas, edwardlindy, & sofa king!

I'll go sift through those places. Thanks again. :hi:

Hekate

[dipsydoodle]

5. This section of your link -

snip

Byron Tapley, one of Chen's co-authors, said the ice loss along the sheet's eastern shoreline is particularly significant because it could help weaken the counterclockwise flow of the North Atlantic Current. The more buoyant fresh water from the ice melt could lower water temperatures and ultimately make Western European winters colder, he said.

That was the basis of the film The Day After Tomorrow. The current stopped !

[hatrack]

7. My, what a perceptive headline from the Washington Post!!!

I'd say they certainly hit it right on the head with THAT one!

:eyes:

[theophilus]

8. Thanks for posting. I hope everybody looks at this, but I doubt

they will. I have been trying to raise consciousness about climate change on GD but the environment there is pretty "bleak" if you'll pardon the pun. I brought up sea level rise by posing a question about the rebuilding of New Orleans because that is a topic that has been discussed in GD quite a bit. The thread devolved into a sniping session about me not wanting NO to be rebuilt and wanting Gulfport and Biloxi to be rebuilt. It implied I was a racist or something. Anyway, hardly any of the traditional GD lights chimed it. There were only like six or seven people involved.

My opinion is that climate change is THE most important topic and the most significant problem we face. We need to address other problems but always in light of catastrophic climate change. We really must stop burning fossil fuels NOW. The attitudes in GD seem to be either nearly everything else is more important or there is nothing we can do. It is not looking good for the future if a liberal/progressive board is paying so little attention to this problem. Oh well. I wonder if anyone knows how Ned Lamont feels about "global warming".

Personally, I would prefer another ice age. Either way were going to lose most of life as we know it if we don't get busy. Change WILL happen.

[Boomer]

11. I get discouraged, too

Trying to keep global climate change issues going on the main forum seems to be a lost cause. The most spectacular headlines bob around for a day or two, then swiftly sink. And the traffic on this forum is isn't anywhere near what it SHOULD be.

I've also fought (and lost) the New Orleans debate. We should be relocating populations inland whenever they're destroyed by hurricanes, not trying to rebuild in the same vulnerable coastal locations that are only going to get MORE vulnerable over the next few decades. But that kind of pragmatism is declared "defeatism" (at best) by those who refuse to recognize that our essential paradigm of what is habitable land is changing.

There are so many practical steps we could be taking to prepare for the coming climate changes, but it's obvious we're not going to do anything to buffer the blow. So the hammer is going to fall force on us, or our children, and it ain't gonna be fun.

[Javaman]

12. I read this last night to my gf...

My heart just sank. I get so frustrated with the lack of understanding and perspective by our world leaders, especially moron*.

I ranted a bit and raved a bit, but at the end, I was filled with anxiety and sadness at the mess we have created, I crumbled into a helpless heap.

What really worries me is this: we pollute the most in the world, if we were to suddenly make a drastic cut in our emissions and our use of fossil fuels, that just leave more for China and India to use, they will take up the slack.

Bottom line is: we are fighting up hill. We can individually conserve and do what needs to be done, but unless something is done on a truly massive scale, the show is basically over.

The futility of human kind to work together for the common good is displayed each and every day a war continues.

If we as a world can't settle our differences, how on earth are we going to come together to solve the global warming issue?

I'm sorry, I'm just feeling very depressed about this right now.