Posted on 04/21/2005 12:30:47 PM PDT by Pete
Glaciers in the Antarctic are retreating at an increasing rate, in what scientists said on Thursday was a clear sign of climate change.
Most of the glaciers on the Antarctic peninsula, near the southernmost tip of South America, have retreated over the past 50 years as temperatures have warmed, according to a study from the British Antarctic Survey and US Geological Survey. Inland glaciers appear to be accelerating their descent to the ocean, threatening to raise the sea level.
David Vaughan, one of the authors of the study, said: "The widespread retreat of the glaciers on the Antarctic peninsula over the past 50 years was largely caused by climate change. Are humans responsible? We can't say for sure but we are one step closer to answering this important question."
The survey joins a growing body of research on climate change. A study of the Arctic last year found that the ice cap was half the thickness it was 30 years ago and a tenth smaller.
An American study in February found that warming in the world's oceans could have been caused only by human activity in increasing the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The gas, generated by burning fossil fuels, traps heat on Earth.
Nicola Saltman, a climate change policy adviser for the environmental group WWF, said: "This is another piece of evidence showing that climate change is real and happening and all governments should prioritise emissions reduction."
Of the 244 glaciers surveyed in the Antarctic, 87 per cent had retreated, by an average of 600 metres. The rate of retreat accelerated to 50m per year in the past five years, faster than at any other time in the past half century.
The survey, published on Friday in the peer-review journal Science, is the first comprehensive study of glaciers on the coast of the Antarctic peninsula. It examined more than 2,000 aerial photographs going back to the 1940s and satellite images from the past 40 years to map the ice's retreat. Temperatures have risen by about 2° Celsius in the past 50 years, a "dramatic" rise, said Alison Cook, a co- author of the report.
Climate change has become a more contentious issue since the entry into force of the Kyoto protocol in February. While most developed nations have ratified the treaty, which requires that they cut the emissions of carbon dioxide, the US and Australia have rejected it. There are also fierce tussles over whether developing nations should be required to cut emissions.
Talks on global warming among European Union and US officials this week produced "a frank exchange of views", said Lord Whitty of the UK.
One more thing: This article looks like one of the press releases from the corrupt Environmental groups in Crichton's book. It's uncanny.
Won't the melting ice just displace itself?
And if you think that's silly, re-read this posted article.
Just in time for earth day, maybe we can move there if it warms enough, or drill for oil.
Compared to what? What about a breakdown of the 50 years to see what's happened decaded by decade, or year by year? What was it like in the previous 50 years?
And what is the proof they're going to find that man is responsible for this?
I just finished State of Fear myself. You hit it right on the head. The title of the article makes it sound like all of Antarctica is melting, yet several times throughout the article it is specifically stated that while in some areas ice is thinning, in others its thickening.
Kind of hard to say its "global" warming when the ice is thickening in some places even as it is thinning in others. Much more likely that this is the way it always is and we just recently (150 years) started studying it.
In the Arctic, yes. In the Antarctic, the ice is mostly glacial, resting on a continent.
There's land under that thar ice, unlike the arctic cap......so no, it wouldn't just displace itself.
Good questions but that is not even the half of it. The Antarctic peninsula, the area in this study, has been warming in recent years. However, it only represents 2 PERCENT of the antartic ice cap. Most of the rest of the ice cap has been getting colder and the ice is getting thicker.
Add to that the whole Kyoto sham. The goal of Kyoto was to lower the average temperature in the next 100 years. By how much? .04 degress. The is 4 one hundreths of a degree.
Don't even get me starting on the whole CO2 thing.
"An American study in February found that warming in the world's oceans could have been caused only by human activity in increasing the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The gas, generated by burning fossil fuels, traps heat on Earth."
Since historic records show that the world climate has been considerably warmer in the past than it is currently, this assertion is absurd.
They also fail to notice that human activity in burning fossil fuels contributes only a tiny fraction of the amount of CO2 generated naturally.
Any credibly scientist would have nothing to do with these statements.
Although I wouldn't consider "State of Fear" the end-all source for all things global-warming, it was a terrific book. This article does bear an uncanny resemblance to the tripe published by the environmentalists in the book, however.
As you probably know, Crichton's footnotes in the book were real even though the story was fiction. So, to that extent, I consider it a pretty good source - especially since we can check the footnotes ourselves.
Hell, Antarctica was once tropical to temperate. No reason why it shouldn't be again.
we've got them on the run...now we just have to press home our tactical advantage!
Sounds to me like the world supply of fresh drinking water is going up.
Oh sob! And me so young and fair!
I have a stupid question. What are the temp changes? I mean if it's warming from -50 to -47, who cares? What is the summer temp? Does it get above freezing? If the average summer temp goes from 42F to 44F, how much more ice melts?
"Won't the melting ice just displace itself?"(ET(end tyranny))
I often thought about this and asked similar questions and I have yet to get a perfect answer. Isn't frozen water approx. 10 times the volume of liquid water (like when a beer in the freezer pops when frozen or why we use radiator fluid)? Aren't the ice caps mostly floating and displacing water? If they melted could the net effect be that the ocean levels don't change at all because it's weight and volume are already accounted for?
The article is BS though, we have no idea what is going on in the Universe that our Earth is a part of. Our science and technology are great, but we have hardly scratched the surface yet.
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