[Tuike]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('EurekAlert!', 'A') new analysis of data from twin satellites has revealed that the melting of Greenland's ice sheet has increased dramatically in the past few years, with much of the loss occurring primarily along one shoreline potentially affecting weather in Western Europe.

The loss of ice has been occurring about five times faster from Greenland's southeastern region in the past two years than in the previous year and a half. The dramatic changes were documented during a University of Texas at Austin study of Greenland's mass between 2002 and 2005.

"This melting process may be approaching a point where it won't be centuries before Greenland's ice melts, but a much shorter time-frame," Tapley said, noting that it isn't possible to tell how much sooner this will be.

[Zardoz]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '"')The sobering thing to see is that the whole process of glacial melting is stepping up much more rapidly than before."

[rwwff]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Zardoz', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '"')The sobering thing to see is that the whole process of glacial melting is stepping up much more rapidly than before."

[Zardoz]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('rwwff', '.')..Now imagine a billion or so Chinese, Indians, and Indonesians getting their first cars, and stomping on the gas as we go whizzing down hill.

[rwwff]

Soccer mom in Houston wakes up one morning to take her kids to school in her new Lexus SUV... Driving down Shepherd accross the Buffalo Bayou bridge, the son looks out the window.

"Mom... why's the bayou almost touching the bridge?"

"Don't worry bubba, its probably just a water main broken somewhere."

Queu 1: Sinking feeling in the gut.

Queu 2: Brief moment of terror or panic, as appropriate.

pause briefly to allow fermentation to begin

Queu 3: McMuffin no longer in stomach... now on purse. hmmmmmm.


"Mom... why did you just throw up, are you ok."


"Bubba, we're going to grandpa's house today. Hold on."

[pedalling_faster]

to use a Long Island Iced Tea metaphor -

the energy that was going into melting the ice cubes in the drink, is now raising the temperature of the drink, because the ice cubes are half melted.

my feeling from emailing with some of the climate change folks and asking them questions about their analyses is that there analyses are conservative.

[JoeCoal]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Zardoz', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('rwwff', '.')..Now imagine a billion or so Chinese, Indians, and Indonesians getting their first cars, and stomping on the gas as we go whizzing down hill.

[NEOPO]

Hypothetically speaking could the northern loop of the TA conveyor belt cease yet the rest of it continue and if so what would a frozen europe mean to a post PO world?

[savethehumans]

Snowfall in Antarctica wasn't enough to compensate for the ice melt THERE this year, either.

Funny, how this ain't being widely reported....

[perdition79]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('NEOPO', 'H')ypothetically speaking could the northern loop of the TA conveyor belt cease yet the rest of it continue and if so what would a frozen europe mean to a post PO world?

[rwwff]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('savethehumans', 'S')nowfall in Antarctica wasn't enough to compensate for the ice melt THERE this year, either.
Funny, how this ain't being widely reported....

[Zardoz]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('perdition79', '.')..almost like an exponential effect. The streams of water runoff actually bore their way through the glacier, and melt the surrounding ice even faster.

[shakespear1]

Exactly, this is a none story. I try to tell my parents about this but there is no "Ohhh" because they have not seen it in the mainstream media

[doomed]

And people call homo sapiens the most intelligent animal? How bout the dumbest.

[Ayame]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('perdition79', '
')I get a kick out of glacial melting. From what I've watched on the Discovery channel, it's almost like an exponential effect. The streams of water runoff actually bore their way through the glacier, and melt the surrounding ice even faster.

[EnergyUnlimited]

You are overreacting guys.

It is good, that this ice is melting.
Once the process is complete, we will move all those starving Africans to Greenland.
They will get new land for free...we will teach them some farming...
We will develope Inuit + African multicultural society...we will get more wealthy consumers to support our expanding economy...

We will also get more water to our oceans... and more water equals more fish...

[perdition79]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Zardoz', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('perdition79', '.')..almost like an exponential effect. The streams of water runoff actually bore their way through the glacier, and melt the surrounding ice even faster.

[Zardoz]

Another story on this:

Greenland's ice cap is melting at a frighteningly fast rate

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'B')ut, according to Chen and his Texas team, the melting of Greenland's ice cap is already raising global sea levels by six-tenths of a millimeter each year, and the Colorado group estimates that melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet alone is adding up to four-tenths of a millimeter of fresh water to sea levels each year. In other words, the global sea level, due to melting of the ice in Greenland and Antarctica combined, is already rising 10 times faster than the IPPC's tentative estimates, the two analyses indicate.

[rwwff]

Problem is, people won' t really care until it rises a foot or so, of course by then, we'll be in a world of ******.

After all, its only a milimeter, Galveston Bay can vary by two feet or so just as the result of a change in sustained wind direction.

[sjn]

Given the lack of sea ice in the Greenland Sea this isn't too surprising. http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/IMAGES/ARCHIVE/20060813.jpg
Also look at the size of that iceberg forming just off Alaska!