Antarctic glacier 'thinning fast' (16 meters a year)

[IndianaGreen]

Source: BBC News

Page last updated at 21:19 GMT, Thursday, 13 August 2009 22:19 UK

Antarctic glacier 'thinning fast'

By David Shukman
Science and environment correspondent, BBC News

One of the largest glaciers in Antarctica is thinning four times faster than it was 10 years ago, according to research seen by the BBC.

A study of satellite measurements of Pine Island glacier in west Antarctica reveals the surface of the ice is now dropping at a rate of up to 16m a year.

Since 1994, the glacier has lowered by as much as 90m, which has serious implications for sea-level rise.

The work by British scientists appears in Geophysical Research Letters.

The team was led by Professor Duncan Wingham of University College London (UCL).

Calculations based on the rate of melting 15 years ago had suggested the glacier would last for 600 years. But the new data points to a lifespan for the vast ice stream of only another 100 years.

The rate of loss is fastest in the centre of the glacier and the concern is that if the process continues, the glacier may break up and start to affect the ice sheet further inland.

One of the authors, Professor Andrew Shepherd of Leeds University, said that the melting from the centre of the glacier would add about 3cm to global sea level.

"But the ice trapped behind it is about 20-30cm of sea level rise and as soon as we destabilise or remove the middle of the glacier we don't know really know what's going to happen to the ice behind it," he told BBC News.


Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8200680.stm

[Grinchie]

1. Thats about 50 feet per year for those that refuse to believe in the metric system.

Or went to schools that refused to teach it to the students.

It's just so Old School and "Not Invented Here".

Lol

[sofa king]

2. Not good.

One of the bigger, truly catastrophic disasters I can envision is just that sort of a thing, where a huge above sea-level sheet of ice dumps into the ocean without warning. The sea-level rise would be globally instantaneous in geological terms, and nearly so in human terms. A few feet overnight could be enough to strand and kill millions.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. On top of that, all that water screws up the Gulf Stream current.

I read a detailed description of the effects of Artic ice melting, some time back.
Affects Atlantic/gulf Stream current "converyer belt" which pushes the
Jet strem furthr north, warming up the northern hemisphere ( geee...sound familar?),
creating floods and rain in some places, increasing deserts elsewhere.

Oh yeah..drought is involved because of this, too.

Meanwhile , a bunch of lunatic robotons are screaming in Town Hall meetings while their planet turns on them.

[followthemoney]

4. The (Ice) Sheet is about to hit the Fan.

He is dead, but nonetheless, we must listen very carefully to Carl Sagan.

We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.

- Carl Sagan

[Delphinus]

9. What a quote!

He definitely nailed it.

[Javaman]

5. well, we're fucked. nt

[neverforget]

6. Global warming is a liberal conspiracy. Global warming is a liberal conspiracy.

so says the wingnut with his fingers in his ears and his head firmly planted up his ass. Scientists are wrong! Rush says so so it must be true!

[sorrowspath]

7. When this catastrophe happens

and it will if we don't do something about it, can we make sure that those who denied global warming be fed to the lions just like they did in ancient times? Those who deny global warming are those ultra capitalist, who care only about their profit even if it destroys the environment not to mention a certain church out there that's so morally bankrupt and money greedy, it refuses to admit that over population leads to more pollution

[followthemoney]

17. Rush must be correct. His cognitive abilities are enhanced...

by super brain boosters like Oxycontin.

He is the smartest Republican in the whole world except for Bush.

[Heidi]

8. Recommended. (nt)

[Bragi]

10. The article says there's 100 years of ice still left

This being so, I'm sure the matter will get lots of media play 99 years from now, if we still have the economic and social wherewithal for media to exist that far into the future.

Not that I'm pessimistic. I am confident that the planet and nature will survive our inability to deal rationally with a long-term, distant threat, however real and monumental it may be.

The only major thing missing a hundred years down the road will be humanity, nature's most destructive, and ultimately defective, species.

No big loss, really.

[followthemoney]

18. War is a great emitter of green house gases.

We haven't been able to act in our own self interest in that field.

Global Waring will be a great competitor with Global Warming in killing us all off.

[Odin2005]

11. Gee, it's always "faster than we expected".

[hatrack]

12. Milankovitch Cycles! Cosmic rays! Sunspots! Volcanic eruptions! HAARP! Purity Of Essence!

Scientific conspiracy! Trilateral Commission! Bilderburgs! Zionists! Communists! Liberal elitist weather satellites!

[Bragi]

13. Easy for you to say /nt

[GreenPartyVoter]

14. You forgot

Acorn and the Clenis.

[hatrack]

19. How could I POSSIBLY have forgotten CLENIS (all hail its mighty climate-changing power!!)

Simi Valley Residents Detect Gigantic Clinton Penis in Forest Fire Smoke Cloud
November 1, 2003
Satire by David Albrecht

SIMI VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, November 1, 2003 — Residents of this conservative Los Angeles suburb, already stunned after a week of devastating forest fires, are now trying to recover from yet another shock - a huge smoke cloud hanging high above the blaze that scorched their homes - an enormous, cylindrical cloud closely matching descriptions of the penis of former president Bill Clinton.

AM radio talk show phones have been ringing off the hook, and dozens of photographs of the vast, vaporous member surfaced on the Internet within hours of the sighting. The cloud, which was visible throughout the metro area on Monday evening, is the talk of Los Angeles and Orange County, and has provoked strong reactions throughout the region.

Paramedics were called to a Young Republicans meeting on the campus of Claremont-McKenna College Wednesday night. Although details remain unclear, apparently the group of some 25 students worked themselves into an emotional frenzy upon viewing pictures of the cloud.

Some gashed their own faces with their fingernails, while others threw themselves repeatedly against concrete-block walls until rendered unconscious by their injuries, none of which are considered life-threatening. "It was pretty weird," said Stan Jackson, a Claremont paramedic. "We were bandaging one guy's hands, and he caught sight of photograph of the fires on a coffee table. He just started screaming "Clinton! Clinton! Clinton!" at the top of his lungs. We ended up having to give him some Oxycontin just to calm him down."

Orange County authorities also took television evangelist Dr. Robert Schuller into what they termed "protective custody" Monday. Dozens of witnesses spotted Schuller, dressed only in sandals and gym shorts, frantically scattering fragments of an unknown substance around the edges of the parking lot of the famed Crystal Cathedral. Variously described as "manic" and "drooling", the minister had no comment for reporters at the time police arrived. He simply screamed "Eeeee!! Eeeee!!" in a piercing voice while pointing in the direction of the fire.

The fragments were later identified as pieces of communion wafers from within Schuller's church.

Most Simi Valley residents had no doubts as to the identity of the fiery phallus. "I read the Starr Report from cover to cover," said retired aerospace engineer Dave Eggert, "and I'll tell you what, that cloud fit the description to a T! It had that kind of bend that Paula Jones talked about - and look at this!" Pointing to a photograph of the cloud, Eggert pointed out an area at its base. "Look at that - where it sticks out," Eggert said, indicating a protruding segment at the base of the cloud. "If that's not a 'distinguishing physical characteristic,' I sure as hell don't know what is!"

Eggert, whose shake-shingle-roofed home, closely surrounded by dry eucalyptus trees and tall yucca plants, was located high in a canyon on a narrow cul-de-sac road, lost no time in blaming the former president for the loss of his house. "Controlled burning and brush clearance, my ass!" he stated. "With Clinton's penis behind these fires, you could put the whole LAFD (Los Angeles Fire Department) on the line and it wouldn't make a bit of difference."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/03/11/01_...

[RedCloud]

15. What happens when you throw an ice cube in a glass of water?

Do the levels rise slowly or dramatically? Antartica is the tallest planet and those are some mighty big ice cubes.

[Individualist]

16. "Antartica is the tallest planet"

Words fail me.