Al Gore

[Gypsea]

Impact of Climate Warming on Polar Ice Sheets Confirmed
03.08.06


In the most comprehensive survey ever undertaken of the massive ice sheets covering both Greenland and Antarctica, NASA scientists confirm climate warming is changing how much water remains locked in Earth's largest storehouse of ice and snow.

Image right: Antarctica lost much more ice to the sea than it gained from snowfall, resulting in an increase in sea level. Credit: NASA/SVS

Other recent studies have shown increasing losses of ice in parts of these sheets. This new survey is the first to inventory the losses of ice and the addition of new snow on both in a consistent and comprehensive way throughout an entire decade.

The survey shows that there was a net loss of ice from the combined polar ice sheets between 1992 and 2002 and a corresponding rise in sea level. The survey documents for the first time extensive thinning of the West Antarctic ice shelves and an increase in snowfall in the interior of Greenland, as well as thinning at the edges. All are signs of a warming climate predicted by computer models.

The survey, published in the Journal of Glaciology, combines new satellite mapping of the height of the ice sheets from two European Space Agency satellites. It also used previous NASA airborne mapping of the edges of the Greenland ice sheets to determine how fast the thickness is changing.

Image left: The Greenland ice sheet gained more ice from snowfall at high altitudes than it lost from melting ice along its coast. Credit: NASA/SVS

In Greenland, the survey saw large ice losses along the southeastern coast and a large increase in ice thickness at higher elevations in the interior due to relatively high rates of snowfall. This study suggests there was a slight gain in the total mass of frozen water in the ice sheet over the decade studied, contrary to previous assessments.

This situation may have changed in just the past few years, according to lead author Jay Zwally of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Last month NASA scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., reported a speed up of ice flow into the sea from several Greenland glaciers. That study included observations through 2005; Zwally's survey concluded with 2002 data.

When the scientists added up the overall gains and losses of ice from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, there was a net loss of ice to the sea. The amount of water added to the oceans (20 billion tons) is equivalent to the total amount of freshwater used in homes, businesses and farming i
Impact of Climate Warming on Polar Ice Sheets Confirmed
03.08.06


In the most comprehensive survey ever undertaken of the massive ice sheets covering both Greenland and Antarctica, NASA scientists confirm climate warming is changing how much water remains locked in Earth's largest storehouse of ice and snow.

Image right: Antarctica lost much more ice to the sea than it gained from snowfall, resulting in an increase in sea level. Credit: NASA/SVS

Other recent studies have shown increasing losses of ice in parts of these sheets. This new survey is the first to inventory the losses of ice and the addition of new snow on both in a consistent and comprehensive way throughout an entire decade.

The survey shows that there was a net loss of ice from the combined polar ice sheets between 1992 and 2002 and a corresponding rise in sea level. The survey documents for the first time extensive thinning of the West Antarctic ice shelves and an increase in snowfall in the interior of Greenland, as well as thinning at the edges. All are signs of a warming climate predicted by computer models.

The survey, published in the Journal of Glaciology, combines new satellite mapping of the height of the ice sheets from two European Space Agency satellites. It also used previous NASA airborne mapping of the edges of the Greenland ice sheets to determine how fast the thickness is changing.

Image left: The Greenland ice sheet gained more ice from snowfall at high altitudes than it lost from melting ice along its coast. Credit: NASA/SVS

In Greenland, the survey saw large ice losses along the southeastern coast and a large increase in ice thickness at higher elevations in the interior due to relatively high rates of snowfall. This study suggests there was a slight gain in the total mass of frozen water in the ice sheet over the decade studied, contrary to previous assessments.

This situation may have changed in just the past few years, according to lead author Jay Zwally of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Last month NASA scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., reported a speed up of ice flow into the sea from several Greenland glaciers. That study included observations through 2005; Zwally's survey concluded with 2002 data.

When the scientists added up the overall gains and losses of ice from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, there was a net loss of ice to the sea. The amount of water added to the oceans (20 billion tons) is equivalent to the total amount of freshwater used in homes, businesses and farming in New York, New Jersey and Virginia each year.

"The study indicates that the contribution of the ice sheets to recent sea-level rise during the decade studied was much smaller than expected, just two percent of the recent increase of nearly three millimeters a year," says Zwally. "Continuing research using NASA satellites and other data will narrow the uncertainties in this important issue."

NASA is continuing to monitor the polar ice sheets with the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat), launched in January 2003. ICESat uses a laser beam to measure the elevation of ice sheets with unprecedented accuracy three times a year. The first comprehensive ice sheet survey conducted by ICESat is expected early next year, said Zwally, who is the mission's project scientist.n New York, New Jersey and Virginia each year.

"The study indicates that the contribution of the ice sheets to recent sea-level rise during the decade studied was much smaller than expected, just two percent of the recent increase of nearly three millimeters a year," says Zwally. "Continuing research using NASA satellites and other data will narrow the uncertainties in this important issue."

NASA is continuing to monitor the polar ice sheets with the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat), launched in January 2003. ICESat uses a laser beam to measure the elevation of ice sheets with unprecedented accuracy three times a year. The first comprehensive ice sheet survey conducted by ICESat is expected early next year, said Zwally, who is the mission's project scientist.

 

[NotDeadYet]

Ominous Arctic melt worries experts
By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science WriterWed Dec 12, 6:54 AM ET
An already relentless melting of the Arctic greatly accelerated this summer, a warning sign that some scientists worry could mean global warming has passed an ominous tipping point. One even speculated that summer sea ice would be gone in five years.
Greenland's ice sheet melted nearly 19 billion tons more than the previous high mark, and the volume of Arctic sea ice at summer's end was half what it was just four years earlier, according to new NASA satellite data obtained by The Associated Press.
"The Arctic is screaming," said Mark Serreze, senior scientist at the government's snow and ice data center in Boulder, Colo.
Just last year, two top scientists surprised their colleagues by projecting that the Arctic sea ice was melting so rapidly that it could disappear entirely by the summer of 2040.
This week, after reviewing his own new data, NASA climate scientist Jay Zwally said: "At this rate, the Arctic Ocean could be nearly ice-free at the end of summer by 2012, much faster than previous predictions."
So scientists in recent days have been asking themselves these questions: Was the record melt seen all over the Arctic in 2007 a blip amid relentless and steady warming? Or has everything sped up to a new climate cycle that goes beyond the worst case scenarios presented by computer models?
"The Arctic is often cited as the canary in the coal mine for climate warming," said Zwally, who as a teenager hauled coal. "Now as a sign of climate warming, the canary has died. It is time to start getting out of the coal mines."
It is the burning of coal, oil and other fossil fuels that produces carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, responsible for man-made global warming. For the past several days, government diplomats have been debating in Bali, Indonesia, the outlines of a new climate treaty calling for tougher limits on these gases.
What happens in the Arctic has implications for the rest of the world. Faster melting there means eventual sea level rise and more immediate changes in winter weather because of less sea ice.
In the United States, a weakened Arctic blast moving south to collide with moist air from the Gulf of Mexico can mean less rain and snow in some areas, including the drought-stricken Southeast, said Michael MacCracken, a former federal climate scientist who now heads the nonprofit Climate Institute. Some regions, like Colorado, would likely get extra rain or snow.
More than 18 scientists told the AP that they were surprised by the level of ice melt this year.
"I don't pay much attention to one year ... but this year the change is so big, particularly in the Arctic sea ice, that you've got to stop and say, 'What is going on here?' You can't look away from what's happening here," said Waleed Abdalati, NASA's chief of cyrospheric sciences. "This is going to be a watershed year."
2007 shattered records for Arctic melt in the following ways:
? 552 billion tons of ice melted this summer from the Greenland ice sheet, according to preliminary satellite data to be released by NASA Wednesday. That's 15 percent more than the annual average summer melt, beating 2005's record.
? A record amount of surface ice was lost over Greenland this year, 12 percent more than the previous worst year, 2005, according to data the University of Colorado released Monday. That's nearly quadruple the amount that melted just 15 years ago. It's an amount of water that could cover Washington, D.C., a half-mile deep, researchers calculated.
? The surface area of summer sea ice floating in the Arctic Ocean this summer was nearly 23 percent below the previous record. The dwindling sea ice already has affected wildlife, with 6,000 walruses coming ashore in northwest Alaska in October for the first time in recorded history. Another first: the Northwest Passage was open to navigation.
? Still to be released is NASA data showing the remaining Arctic sea ice to be unusually thin, another record. That makes it more likely to melt in future summers. Combining the shrinking area covered by sea ice with the new thinness of the remaining ice, scientists calculate that the overall volume of ice is half of 2004's total.
? Alaska's frozen permafrost is warming, not quite thawing yet. But temperature measurements 66 feet deep in the frozen soil rose nearly four-tenths of a degree from 2006 to 2007, according to measurements from the University of Alaska. While that may not sound like much, "it's very significant," said University of Alaska professor Vladimir Romanovsky.
- Surface temperatures in the Arctic Ocean this summer were the highest in 77 years of record-keeping, with some places 8 degrees Fahrenheit above normal, according to research to be released Wednesday by University of Washington's Michael Steele.
Greenland, in particular, is a significant bellwether. Most of its surface is covered by ice. If it completely melted ? something key scientists think would likely take centuries, not decades ? it could add more than 22 feet to the world's sea level.
However, for nearly the past 30 years, the data pattern of its ice sheet melt has zigzagged. A bad year, like 2005, would be followed by a couple of lesser years.
According to that pattern, 2007 shouldn't have been a major melt year, but it was, said Konrad Steffen, of the University of Colorado, which gathered the latest data.
"I'm quite concerned," he said. "Now I look at 2008. Will it be even warmer than the past year?"
Other new data, from a NASA satellite, measures ice volume. NASA geophysicist Scott Luthcke, reviewing it and other Greenland numbers, concluded: "We are quite likely entering a new regime."
Melting of sea ice and Greenland's ice sheets also alarms scientists because they become part of a troubling spiral.
White sea ice reflects about 80 percent of the sun's heat off Earth, NASA's Zwally said. When there is no sea ice, about 90 percent of the heat goes into the ocean which then warms everything else up. Warmer oceans then lead to more melting.
"That feedback is the key to why the models predict that the Arctic warming is going to be faster," Zwally said. "It's getting even worse than the models predicted."
NASA scientist James Hansen, the lone-wolf researcher often called the godfather of global warming, on Thursday was to tell scientists and others at the American Geophysical Union scientific in San Francisco that in some ways Earth has hit one of his so-called tipping points, based on Greenland melt data.
"We have passed that and some other tipping points in the way that I will define them," Hansen said in an e-mail. "We have not passed a point of no return. We can still roll things back in time ? but it is going to require a quick turn in direction."
Last year, Cecilia Bitz at the University of Washington and Marika Holland at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado startled their colleagues when they predicted an Arctic free of sea ice in just a few decades. Both say they are surprised by the dramatic melt of 2007.
Bitz, unlike others at NASA, believes that "next year we'll be back to normal, but we'll be seeing big anomalies again, occurring more frequently in the future." And that normal, she said, is still a "relentless decline" in ice.
___
On the Net:
National Snow and Ice Data Center on 2007 Arctic sea ice:
http://nsidc.org/news/press/2007_seaiceminimum/20070810_index.html
NASA's "Tipping Points" panel and slide show materials:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/tipping_points.html

 

[Bob]

OK Bob, you tried to trash Thomas Jefferson a few weeks back, now you want to demolish Abe? What exactly is your point? Do you think Lincoln was a bad President? Do you harbor ill will against Abe because a class of gas guzzling cars are named Lincolns?
Like any other man we can easily view his flaws in retrospect. You really should think twice about taking snippy potshots at a man who made something of himself out of nothing and surrendered his LIFE for having the guts to preserve the Union. Shame on you, seriously.

My point was to show your reference was a cheap shot at Gore. Lincoln took the Union Army and commenced to slaughtering the Plains Indians before the ink was dry at Appamattox. Most Americans have no idea this happened. Most Americans have no idea Lincoln ordered Federal troops to fire on civilians in New York City over the draft resistance. Lincoln, of course was a great president, but he was a flawed human, just like you and I, therefore you do great disservice to deify him. Many innocent people died at his hand with the very Union generals that fought to "preserve" the Union. It's not taught in public schools, because it's an embarassing, inconvenient truth. Honest Abe commited genocide? Thomas Jefferson, slaveholder and illegitimate father? Can't be! These folks are perfect.

 

[30A Skunkape]

My point was to show your reference was a cheap shot at Gore. Lincoln took the Union Army and commenced to slaughtering the Plains Indians before the ink was dry at Appamattox. Most Americans have no idea this happened. Most Americans have no idea Lincoln ordered Federal troops to fire on civilians in New York City over the draft resistance. Lincoln, of course was a great president, but he was a flawed human, just like you and I, therefore you do great disservice to deify him. Many innocent people died at his hand with the very Union generals that fought to "preserve" the Union. It's not taught in public schools, because it's an embarassing, inconvenient truth. Honest Abe commited genocide? Thomas Jefferson, slaveholder and illegitimate father? Can't be! These folks are perfect.

Actually, my point in bringing up Lincoln's speech was to illustrate that an enduring masterpiece of personal conviction need not be an essay, as Gore's speech was. Nothing more, nothing less. And again, I remind you that Jefferson signed the law that forbade the importation of slaves. I never said anyone was perfect, I just think an attack on Lincoln (and posting a link to a college student's history paper) is unrelated to the global warming debate. If you want to trash presidents, why not start a new thread entitled 'convicts on your coins, bad dudes on your bucks' and have at it.

 

[Bob]

Actually, my point in bringing up Lincoln's speech was to illustrate that an enduring masterpiece of personal conviction need not be an essay, as Gore's speech was. Nothing more, nothing less. And again, I remind you that Jefferson signed the law that forbade the importation of slaves. I never said anyone was perfect, I just think an attack on Lincoln (and posting a link to a college student's history paper) is unrelated to the global warming debate. If you want to trash presidents, why not start a new thread entitled 'convicts on your coins, bad dudes on your bucks' and have at it.

There's no need to trash Presidents anymore than to attack someone for doing good. I posted the link to illustrate Lincoln's direct order. Read some of the letters written back and forth between Lincoln and his Generals regarding my post would make your stomach turn. Please feel free to read and educate yourself on a very dark part of our history. Just don't try to find it in public schoolbooks. It's the kind of stuff we usually attach to the likes of dictators. Jefferson was a brilliant, slaveholding hypocrite. We can all acknowledge the good with the bad, and the world will not come to an end.....Al "what's my electric bill?" Gore included.

 

[30A Skunkape]

Gypsea and Notdead, there might be other causes of the melting of northern ice. I posted this above and maybe you guys didn't see it?

NASA Sees Arctic Ocean Circulation Do an About-Face
November 13, 2007

PASADENA, Calif. ? A team of NASA and university scientists has detected an ongoing reversal in Arctic Ocean circulation triggered by atmospheric circulation changes that vary on decade-long time scales. The results suggest not all the large changes seen in Arctic climate in recent years are a result of long-term trends associated with global warming.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2007-131


And my question to those who speculate that the northern ice is melting as a result of global increases in temperature, why is the southern hemisphere ice intact? Seems to me that if the whole world was turning into a hothouse we would see similar melts down south as well. It is global warming, right?

The north:
http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/IMAGES/current.area.jpg
The south:
http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/IMAGES/current.area.south.jpg

 

[30A Skunkape]

http://www.blog.newsweek.com/blogs/labnotes/archive/2007/12/10/climate-change-censored.aspx left wing propaganda??

Maybe you called it, Bob. Good job!
http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=3982079

 

[30A Skunkape]

Hooray for the pope!

Pope Benedict XVI has launched a surprise attack on climate change prophets of doom, warning them that any solutions to global warming must be based on firm evidence and not on dubious ideology.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li...in_article_id=501316&in_page_id=1811&ito=1490

 

[scooterbug44]

Because if the Catholic Church is against it, it can't be scientific fact :roll:.

These would be the same people who had someone burned at the stake for the crazy idea that the Earth rotated around the Sun.

Firm evidence versus dubious ideology - does he REALLY want to open that can of worms?

 

[Bob]

Hooray for the pope!

Pope Benedict XVI has launched a surprise attack on climate change prophets of doom, warning them that any solutions to global warming must be based on firm evidence and not on dubious ideology.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li...in_article_id=501316&in_page_id=1811&ito=1490

Uh oh, someone's reaching into the big Vatican wallet.