Ice sheet melting faster than ever

[mom cat]

August 25, 2006
Ice sheet melting faster than ever

The meltdown of Greenland’s ice sheet has been speeding up since 2004 satellite measurements show melting at a rate of about 239 cubic kilometres per year.

These measurements came from NASA’s Grace (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) satellite, which was launched in 2002.

Grace also detected a loss of ice from Greenland’s glaciers, although these measurements weren’t part of the study.

The new figure for melt is about three times higher than an earlier estimate of the loss from Greenland’s ice sheet, which was made using the first two years of Grace measurements.

More at:
http://www.nunatsiaq.com/news/climate/60825_01.html

[mike_c]

1. kiss coastal cities goodbye if the Greenland ice melts....

Wow.

[mom cat]

7. The Big Dig will be for submarines only!

[nam78_two]

2. kick :(/nt

[AlienGirl]

3. That will be interesting if it shuts down the Gulf Stream conveyor...

[mom cat]

4. It will be frankly devistating.

[Uncle Joe]

11. Yes, without the energy of the gulf stream to move them along,

storms will linger longer over one location causing massive flooding and other areas may not get the rain causing severe drought.

[Tace]

17. My Understanding Is That It's Already Being Disrupted

I've been reading some stuff about that. That's why we've got allegators showing up in the Long Island Sound. (Slight exaggeration).

[mom cat]

23. A manitee was just spotted off Long Island. And another off RI.

[Double T]

And still no countries will begin taking immediate drastic actions........

to curb the affects of global warming.

[gorbal]

6. And once coastal cities are submerged...

It will be all people can do to survive:(

[Ezlivin]

5. Irwin Allen must be getting good Disaster Movie ideas from this

How long before we have a "Greenland Express" disaster movie?

I told my wife that all of this stuff was supposed to happen in the future, not MY future. Damn.

(Yes, Irwin Allen is dead.)

[NotGivingUp]

8. f'n shit....i KNEW it...i just always figured it would come down this way.

since all these greedy assholes always wanted to diminish what was going on.

[JuniperLea]

9. Exponentially faster...

I guess someone didn't think in terms of multiplying effects.

So when are the governments of the world going to wake the hell up?

A business associate just returned from China and he had to go see his allergist. He says the pollution is horrific. He also said China is clearly gearing up to be the new world leader... among other things.

[Porcupine]

10. No Worries

Think of all the new opportunities for aquaculture! Everyone in Florida gets waterfront housing! Think how cheap a Bangledeshi houseboy will be; you could have a PhD cleaning your toilets! New York city could have gondolas like Venice. Cape Cod will be the new Cancun. Plus, everybody already has a house in the Hamptons anyway.

Everybody on DU is always such nattering kabobs of negatorism.








:sarcasm:

[JuniperLea]

14. Way to find a silver lining... I think! eom

[DavidDvorkin]

12. Some say the world will end in fire

Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

-- Robert Frost


Turns out the world will end in melting ice. I suppose Frost hadn't heard of that possibility, back then.

[skids]

25. The world will end...

In a giant cascade of methane released from permafrost and then later ocean clathrates.

Or in other words, see my sig.

[truthisfreedom]

13. whelp, all i can say is, at least the property value in my neighborhood

will start climbing again.

[Gregorian]

15. The surface area to volume ratio is going up.

And so is the number of people living in a modern way. We either stabilize world population, or else. That is the first step in this process. Simultaneously, we get noncombustive energy conversion going. Fuck military spending.

[Bosso 63]

16. Beer

Yeast consumes sugar and excretes alcohol. The process continues until the alcohol level rises to a point that it kills off the yeast. Then Ta-da! we have a nice beverage. I would have thought that we were smarter than yeast, but here we are.

That reminds me, I'm kinda thirsty.

[ronnie624]

21. A fascinating analogy.

I'll have to remember that one.

[leesa]

18. Oh, don't worry, Feinstein is going to "coax" the energy barons to

control emissions and she's going to clamp down and make autos get 10 MORE mpg within 10 years...from 17mpg to 27 mpg maybe!!! We'll be saved!

[ronnie624]

22. I'm convinced they're all lunatics.

Those with the ability to see to the changes that are so desperately needed are far too consumed with the drive to accumulate wealth and power.

What is needed is a global, international effort to ween ourselves off oil as quickly as possible - some sort of emergency international conference to coordinate a plan of action for transitioning to sources of energy that do not release into the atmosphere, chemicals that do not belong there. We must, as soon as possible, cease the burning of hydrocarbons as a source of energy if we expect our species to survive indefinitely.

But I don't expect the necessary leadership from those in power. At the very least human civilization is heading for radical change, not the least of which is a dramatic reduction in human populations. In the not too distant future, our numbers will be reduced one way or another.

[mom cat]

24. We also need to take every possible individual action we can to

conserve like our lives depended on it. They do.

[barb162]

19. There goes the country of Bangladesh, NYC, London,

all of Florida, etc

[Ilsa]

20. And Ilsa reiterates those immortal words...

"Oh fuck!"

I wish I had been born earlier.