NASA - Greenland Ice Melting at Increasing Rate

Don Beck | 31.05.2007 19:31 | Ecology

NASA released two reports today on climate change.
A research team has been in Greenland measuring
the ice sheet and glaciers for three weeks with new
laser and radar equipment. They say that "Greenland
has experienced a significant loss of ice." " ...the ice
sheet and glaciers have been melting at an increasing
rate over the past several years."

"Some of the island's major glaciers have sped up since
the turn of the century, with documented thinning from
65 to nearly 100 feet per year."

In the other report, The chief climatologist at NASA Dr.
James Hansen again states that the earth is close to
'tipping points' that will make it impossible to slow the
warming. Only here he reveals that it will not take much
more warming to hit those points.

“If global emissions of carbon dioxide continue to rise at
the rate of the past decade, this research shows that there
will be disastrous effects, including increasingly rapid sea
level rise, increased frequency of droughts and floods, and
increased stress on wildlife and plants due to rapidly shifting
climate zones.”

On a bazzarly ironic note, head NASA Administrator (non-
scientist, political appointee) Michael Griffin said on NPR
"To assume that (global warming) is a problem is to assume
that the state of the Earth's climate today is the optimal climate,
the best climate that we could have or ever have had and that we
need to take steps to make sure it doesn't change..." He also said
aid he doubts that global warming is an issue mankind should
address. Do these statements sound like what the top guy at NASA
should be saying ....especially the day that research is released on
Greenland's ice melting at an accelerating pace?

Sing along with the briliant Michael Griffin -
By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea.
Oh how hap, oh how hap, oh how happy we'll be.

Here are the reports:
NASA Mission Checks Health of Greenland's Ice Sheet and Glaciers

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2007/greenland_glaciers.html

Research Finds That Earth's Climate is Approaching 'Dangerous' Point

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2007/danger_point.html

NASA chief doubts global warming is front-burner issue

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4849501.html

Don Beck

Comments

Hide the following 4 comments

Did "The Man" really invent Climate Change??????

31.05.2007 22:43

OK, I know that a lot of people have posted a lot of stuff (or at least it seems that way!) on Indymedia saying that Climate Change is some kind of establishment conspiracy whereby we are all fooled. It always seemed an unlikely double-bluff that oil companies and their political appointees would spend millions to disprove a theory that they (according to some) invented, but the above article surely gives the true picture. Climate Change is real, millions will die and entire ecosystems will disappear.

The scientists know it, but the politicians can high-jack the message, or obscure it, with the help of people who object to "taxation" or the idea that we are actually powerful enough (and stupid enough) to destroy our own environment. I think that sometimes a person's ideology can get in the way of their brain working - and we really don't have time for that. So: get with the programme or get out of the way - we have a planet to sort out and not much time left.

Climate Change is real, we caused it, and we're running out of time. Get used to it, get angry, get active.

Masterdon "Buckwheat" Potemkin
mail e-mail: info@climatecamp.org.uk
Homepage: http://www.climatecamp.org.uk

Go and take the Exxon job now, Griffin

01.06.2007 05:24

You have done what they wanted you to do, you rotten bag of scum.

Now go and get your monitary reward from the most incredulous bunch of rats that have ever walked the earth, and try to figure out what you will say to your grandchildren when they ask "Why didn't you do something to stop the global warming, Grampa?"

Making climate change visible

01.06.2007 09:16

Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, with line marking 7m above sea level

Zorrozaurre (a waterfront district in Bilbao), with 7m line

If the Greenland ice sheet melts completely it would raise global sea levels by about 7m. The West Antarctic ice sheet would contribute 5m to sea level rise. This would be more than enough to cause devastation to coastal cities worldwide.

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2006/06/ice-sheets-and-sea-level-rise-model-failure-is-the-key-issue/

Nobody knows how quickly this melting might happen, but it seems that once the ice starts to melt, the meltwater seeps down to the base of the glacier and makes it move quicker and quicker. The IPCC's "worst-case" sea-level rise estimates to not take this into account, perhaps for political reasons, or because it is not possible to model it accurately.

How about this for a direct action to highlight the dangers of climate change: paint a line on high-visibility buildings to mark a point 7m about sea level. Here are a couple of simulated images for Bilbao, where I live.

emigre

corrections

01.06.2007 11:03

sorry - that should have read

"The IPCC's "worst-case" sea-level rise estimates DO not take this into account,"

and

"paint a line on high-visibility buildings to mark a point 7m ABOVE sea level."