Thunder? It's the sound of Greenland melting

[DeepModem Mom]

CNN/Reuters: Thunder? It's the sound of Greenland melting
June 6, 2007


Greenland's ice cap is melting, and faster than scientists had thought possible.

ILULISSAT, Greenland (Reuters) -- Atop Greenland's Suicide Cliff, from where old Inuit women used to hurl themselves when they felt they had become a burden to their community, a crack and a thud like thunder pierce the air.

"We don't have thunder here. But I know it from movies," says Ilulissat nurse Vilhelmina Nathanielsen, who hiked with us through the melting snow. "It's the ice cracking inside the icebergs. If we're lucky we might see one break apart."

It's too early in the year to see icebergs crumple regularly but the sound is a reminder. As politicians squabble over how to act on climate change, Greenland's ice cap is melting, and faster than scientists had thought possible.

A new island in East Greenland is a clear sign of how the place is changing. It was dubbed Warming Island by American explorer Dennis Schmitt when he discovered in 2005 that it had emerged from under the retreating ice.

If the ice cap melted entirely, oceans would rise by 23 feet, flooding New York and London, and drowning island nations like the Maldives.

A total meltdown would take centuries but global warming, which climate experts blame mainly on human use of fossil fuels, is heating the Arctic faster than anywhere else on Earth....

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/06/06/greenland.warming.reut/index.html

[BeHereNow]

1. "And the beat goes on...the beat goes on..."

The fucking world is on fire and the madmen just keep pouring
gasoline on the flames.

Makes your head spin, does it not?

BHN

[proud patriot]

3. It's so aggravating

:grr:

[BeHereNow]

4. Aggravating and DEPRESSING. Never has it been so clear- WE ARE ON OUR OWN.

We have no representation in our government- we have no
say in what happens on any matter concerning our collective future.
Not as a nation and not as global citizens.
In the end, only the elite will weather the coming storm, and
that IS, THE PLAN.
To mistake the illusion over the reality is to be consumed by both.

People who speak of "hope" at this point are
SERIOUSLY deluded.

We are fucked in a most dreadful way.

BHN

[Decruiter]

5. Please BHN, not so. We are in for many trials and tribulations,

it is going to be bad, but you I know, I know you to be one of the most hopeful there is.

Annie, with people like you and the people you know, this world will come out okay on the other side.

It is going to be rough, but you will help us find a way.

I still have hope.

Peace.

[here_is_to_hope]

6. well, here is to hope!

[Mind_your_head]

7. I can't help but believe that the 'elite' will be surprised by the unintended

consequences.

Kind of like the scene from "Titanic" were the evil chap was offering hundreds of thousands of dollar for a seat on the lifeboat. His money was useless/meaningless/ludicrous to someone who knew he would be dead in a few hours.....

[Virginia Dare]

10. Take what happened in New Orleans during and after Katrina..

and multiply that by millions, and that's what we're facing. That is our future I'm afraid.

[BeHereNow]

12. Katrina and the aftermath was the "writing on the wall..."

as far as the future of America goes.
Hard to conceive, but absolutely necessary
if one intends to survive.

Unless, of course, you happen to be one of the
global elite who are making sure they will
weather the global storm just fine.

BHN

[nam78_two]

2. K&R.nt

[Nordmadr]

8. Hope for the best, but plan for the worst.

The evidence I see from the scientific community, and the inaction I see by our government does no make me particularly optimistic.

I am becoming more and more convinced that we have missed our window of opportunity on setting these things straight in a non-painful way. Cry for us and the species dying 'in the now', but the Earth is simply solving the problem on its own. We didn't handle the problem so the problem is handling us.

The Earth is rebooting and we may just find ourselves left out of the update.

Olafr

[Virginia Dare]

9. The human race has reached it's apex it seems...n/t

[progressoid]

11. What? I can't hear you...The TV is telling me all about Paris getting out of jail.