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On Apr 7, 9:25 am, "V-for-Vendicar"
<Just...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"00BNZ" <00...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote

Why Melting Of Ice Sheets Is Impossible
Lawrence Solomon, Financial Post
November 02, 2007

If you read it in the National Post, you know it's a lie.

Hundreds of Glaciers Melting Faster in Antarctica
-------------------------------------------------
Brian Handwerk
for National Geographic News

June 6, 2007

Hundreds of glaciers in Antarctica are melting faster as the region's
climate warms, a new satellite study has revealed.

As the rivers of ice flow into the ocean, they could cause global sea levels
to rise higher and faster than scientists had previously predicted.

Satellite images of more than 300 glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula showed
that they were flowing some 12 percent faster in 2003 than they were in 1993
(see an interactive map of Antarctica).

"It is increasingly apparent that glaciers can be sensitive on much shorter
time scales than traditionally thought," said lead author Hamish Pritchard
of the British Antarctic Survey.

"What is telling about [the study results] is that so many glaciers are
behaving in such a similar way, and so quickly," he added.

"This is strong evidence for a big change in climate on a regional scale
such as has been observed."

Pritchard noted that the Antarctic Peninsula's annual average air
temperature has risen 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit (3 degrees Celsius) since 1950,
while near-surface ocean waters have warmed 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree
Celsius).

Eighty-seven percent of the peninsula's glaciers have been retreating during
the same period, he added.

The Antarctic findings may not be unique-they are similar to recent reports
from coastal Greenland.

Will the "High Seas" Get Higher?

An Antarctic glacial meltdown could have dramatic impacts for ocean level
rise.

The latest estimates for sea level rise cited by the International Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC) are based largely on the melting of nonpolar glaciers
and the expansion of warmer ocean waters.

The estimates do not account for the impact of dynamic effects like those
seen in Antarctica, because the processes are poorly understood.

Dynamic effects are happening, Pritchard said.

"They are quite large in magnitude and are likely to get larger so that they
could dominate the sea level rise signal.

"The importance of dynamic effects is that they can transfer ice very
quickly into the sea, much quicker than melting the ice *** or glacier
surface and letting it run off as water."

Just how high could seas rise? Pritchard explained that no one can be sure.

"We're not yet at the stage where we can come up with new sea-level rise
predictions except to say that it is very likely to be larger than the
numbers in the IPCC report."

Pritchard and colleagues from British Antarctic Survey published their
findings this week in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

Glacial Splashdowns Like "Stack of Dominoes"

The study suggests that faster glacier flows are caused by a thinning of the
glaciers' lowest layers, the sections that extend down through fjords and
into the sea.

The weight of these lower layers is supported by seawater rather than by
land. As the ice thins, the glaciers become more buoyant, allowing them to
flow faster toward the sea.

"What we are finding is that these glaciers are very sensitive to the
conditions at their ocean boundaries," said Ian Howat, a researcher with the
University of Washington's Polar Science Center who is unaffiliated with the
study.

"Apparently a relatively small amount of melting at this boundary, either
from the increased air or ocean temperatures, is enough to destabilize the
entire glacier.

"These glaciers act like a stack of dominoes, with a slight nudge at the
front causing the entire stack to fall over," he added.

Howat cautioned that many aspects of glacial dynamics, and how they could
react to climate change, remain mysterious.

"The question still remains as to whether the changes we're observing are
permanent or are a more regular purging of the system," he said.

In the case of Greenland the amount of ice that the glaciers has lost is
very small relative to the size of the ice ***, he said, so the ice ***
could restabilize and even grow again with a small amount of cooling or
increased precipitation.

"However the glaciers in Alaska or the Antarctic Peninsula aren't supplied
by a vast ice ***," Howat added, "so for them to regrow or even stabilize
for the long term would take a much more drastic reversal in current climate
trends."

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