Posted on 01/13/2010 5:39:13 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY
A major Antarctic glacier has passed its tipping point, according to a new modelling study. After losing increasing amounts of ice over the past decades, it is poised to collapse in a catastrophe that could raise global sea levels by 24 centimetres.
Pine Island glacier (PIG) is one of many at the fringes of the West Antarctic ice sheet. In 2004, satellite observations showed that it had started to thin, and that ice was flowing into the Amundsen Sea 25 per cent faster than it had 30 years before.
Now, the first study to model changes in the ice sheet in three dimensions shows that PIG has probably passed a critical "tipping point" and is irreversibly on track to lose 50 per cent of its ice in as little as 100 years, significantly raising global sea levels.
The team that carried out the study admits their model can represent only a simplified version of the physics that govern changes in glaciers, but say that if anything, the model is optimistic and PIG will disappear faster than it projects.
Richard Katz of the University of Oxford and colleagues developed the model to explore whether the retreat of the "grounding line" – the undersea junction at which a floating ice shelf becomes an ice sheet grounded on the sea bed – could cause ice sheets to collapse.
Warm seas
Climate change is warming the Amundsen Sea, which is at the southern margin of the Pacific Ocean. As rising sea levels push the warm water beneath the ice shelves, it melts them from below, pushing the grounding line higher up the continental shelf.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
Well, screw it then...no point worrying about it now.
Antarctic sea water shows no sign of warming:
When are we the people gonna rise up and DEMAND that anybody that puts forth a THEORY without ANY EVIDENCE using HARD SCIENCE, where ALL RAW DATA is available to EVERYONE, A CAPITOL OFFENSE. These people need to have the OPPORTUNITY to Make their claims UNDER OATH, Under Penalty of TREASON AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES.
My thoughts exactly.
“As your attorney, I advise you to drink heavily...”
I’m beginning to think that these bonehead “scientists” watched to many “disaster” movies while growing up.
West Antarctica is a series of islands covered by ice. Think of it as a frozen Hawaii, with penguins. (Image credit: National Science Foundation)
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/20100108_Is_Antarctica_Melting.html
” i is poised to collapse in a catastrophe that poised to
collapse in a catastrophe that could raise global sea levels by 24 centimetres. “
Excellent! Now I won’t have to wait for a high tide in order to get my sailboat out of the slip.
Ya think?
At the end of the article, we get the TRUTH.
“Ours is a simple model of an ice sheet that neglects some important physics,” says Katz.
“The take-home message is that we should be concerned about tipping points in West Antarctica and we should do a lot more work to investigate,” he says.
I.E. SEND MORE MONEY.
Notice all the bad stuff happens 100 years from now. And the stuff that was supposed to happen earlier has been pushed back due to this inconvinient global cooling.
PRay for America's Freedom
...and there is no evidence that sea levels have actually risen. If they have, it’s in the millimeter range
Yesssssssssssssssssssssssss!!!!
These stories ALWAYS refer to events in the West Antarctic. That is because there are local ocean currents which at the present time are warming up the Seas nearby. The vast majority of the continent is cooling and building up its ice and snow load.
This report like others is tantamount to fraud all by itself. The "Catastrophic" predictions are, of course, BS by any definition. They just made up that crapola.
“...the first study to model changes in the ice sheet in three dimensions...”
It’s all over now, these models are in 3D! It’s gotta be true — it’s in 3D!
Everything happens 100 years from now because I, my kids, and my grandkids will not be here to hear "See, we told you so!" Nobody alive now will be alive then, with the one exception of possibly Al Gore.
Some of you may think this large chunk of ice bobbing around unsteady is funny.
But if it tips over and splashes away my beach vacation is a few monthis...I’m gonna be ticked.
Does that mean I have to wear those funny paper glases to see it?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.