Antarctic Peninsula Displays Warming On Fast-Forward - RMN

[hatrack]

BOULDER - If you want to see "climate change on fast forward," look to the Antarctic Peninsula, the 1,200-mile-long arm that reaches northward toward the southern tip of South America, a Boulder glaciologist told colleagues Monday. Ice shelves there are collapsing, sea ice is retreating, glaciers are accelerating and air temperatures are rising several times faster than the global average.

"It's a more rapid response to climate change than we thought possible," said glaciologist Ted Scambos, organizer of a two-day meeting here about the Antarctic Peninsula's climate, oceanography and glaciology. "The Antarctic Peninsula is climate change on fast forward. . . . The events we're seeing there are unprecedented in the last 12,000 years," Scambos said. "It's a preview of things to come, an indicator of how warming will proceed in other icy parts of the world."

More than 50 scientists from around the world are attending the workshop. They came to discuss the latest research and work on plans for the International Polar Year, an intensive study of the Earth's polar regions set to begin next March. This week's meeting is hosted by the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado, where Scambos works.

According to researchers, Antarctic Peninsula temperatures have increased 4 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit over the last 50 years.

EDIT

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4701609,00.html

[ramapo]

1. I never thought....

I'd grow up to see the world melt. :( :(

[phantom power]

2. We are the grandchildren everybody wrote about.

Even today, a lot of people are still talking about "the grandchildren," but that ship has sailed.

I wonder if our generation will be like Moses. Maybe some of us will live long enough to shepherd our grandchildren thru the transition, but we'll not live to see the new world on the other side. Maybe that would be a kind of justice.

Assuming the new world will be habitable for any humans at all.