[Antarctic] Ice shelf collapse was unprecedented event in last 10,000 years

New Zealand Herald ^ | August 4, 2005

[Shalom Israel]

It's the length of time called the Holocene, the period of time since the last glacial epoch. Therefore it's an important period of time, even if it's short.

So an ice age ends, and 10K years later an immense ice shelf becomes weak enough to collapse. This seems quite believable; the implication that humans are somehow at fault for this is a serious stretch--especially since they appear to be clearly admitting that the same shelf has collapsed before.

[cogitator]

See reply 38. Also, read the whole article. Plus, it's the scientists who wrote the Nature paper who ultimately blamed the collapse on the warming trend occurring since the 1970s, not the New Zealand Herald journalists.

[SolidRedState]

Researchers have measured a 2.5C increase in average temperatures in the Antarctic peninsula over the past 50 years and many scientists believe there is little doubt that this rise can be linked to global warming and climate change exacerbated by man-made pollution.

Or, to be more precise, since hoards of science teams have been roaming the antartic on highly polluting snowmobiles and burning diesel fuel and fuel oil to keep warm in their huts.

[cogitator]

Right, but the collapse of that ice shelf isn't unprecedented, either--otherwise the headline would be, "Collapse of ice shelf without precedent for last billion years". The headline tells me that it quite probably collapsed a bit over 10K years ago.

It's more likely that the sediment cores used to infer the status of the ice shelf don't go back a lot further than 10,000 years, hence the status of the ice shelf was unknown. (During the last glacial epoch, it was probably there.)

[Tribune7]

It's Jane Fonda's fault.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

135 million years of global warming. See here.

It's the fault of the dinosaur leader, Bushgar.

[Conservative_Jedi]

This is so stupid. IMO we are heading for another Ice Age. It doesn't take a scientist to realize that when the polar ice caps start to melt, glaciers from it will start floating southward and bring cooler air with them. Of course this has been talked about for long time by geographers for a long time. It just doesn't get the attention that global warming gets. My Geography teacher in college talked, 10 years ago, about believing another ice age was coming. I would believe him before I believe some Media scientist.

[Ruth A.]

roughly the size of Luxembourg

Didn't Steyn call Luxembourg the city pretending to be a country?

[AuH2ORepublican]

"Been tried before (with the middle east as a destination) and it didn't work. It'll melt long before it gets there."

---

It did so work! Didn't you watch Richard Pryor's classic Brewster's Millions? There was only minimal melting. It was in a movie, so it must be true. : )

[cogitator]

The Holocene has been remarkably stable, climate-wise. The rapid collapse of a shelf that has existed for 10,000 years is therefore a notable event. If the shelf was more "delicate", i.e., more responsive to small temperature changes, then the cores would have shown a repeating pattern of collapse and regrowth.

[Political Junkie Too]

Researchers have measured a 2.5C increase in average temperatures in the Antarctic peninsula over the past 50 years and many scientists believe there is little doubt that this rise can be linked to global warming and climate change exacerbated by man-made pollution.

Since Antarctica is at the pole, does the 14,000 year precession cycle have anything to do with which parts of the continent get direct sunlight at what angles for how long?

-PJ

[Shalom Israel]

The Holocene has been remarkably stable, climate-wise. The rapid collapse of a shelf that has existed for 10,000 years is therefore a notable event.

Did you miss the admission that the shelf has been thinning fairly steadily for the entire Halocene period?

[FourtySeven]

We also have Ice Ages every 11,000 years and we are due for one now.

Ever notice how no matter what the criteria, we're "due for another" now?

A supervolcano eruption (in Yellowstone).
Another ice age.
A warming trend brought on by global warming.
An earthquake in California.
An asteroid impact.

And the list goes on. If all these things are true, we're really screwed I'd say!

[dmz]

I don't know of another animal species that is involved in clear-cutting, can you "male" commentators enlighten me?

WTF does her gender have to do with it?

[FreePaul]

...the Larsen B ice shelf has been thinning throughout the Holocene [from the present to 10,000 years ago...

Coincides with the introduction of the SUV and man's use of fossil fuels.

[dmz]

I am unfamiliar with the use of the term "watermelon" in this context. Can you explain?

[TexasTransplant]

>>>"I am unfamiliar with the use of the term "watermelon" in this context. Can you explain?"<<<

GOOGLE is your friend, I don't even know you.

[Smedley]

Ice 'thickens' in West Antarctica

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1766064.stm

http://www.usatoday.com/news/science/cold-science/2002-01-18-wais-thicker.htm

East Antarctica ice cap thickening

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05140/507684.stm

http://www.rednova.com/news/science/151122/report_antarctic_ice_sheet_thickening/

*******************************************

The sky is falling!

[ghost of nixon]

Researchers have measured a 2.5C increase in average temperatures in the Antarctic peninsula over the past 50 years

classic statistic fudging! - avg temperatures for the Antarctic continent AS A WHOLE are significantly down durning this same 50 years. This shows how biased this source is that they feel the need to cherry pick just the Antarctic peninsula data, which is the only region (and a small region, comparitively) on the Antarctic continent showing a rise in temps.

[dmz]

On an anonymous internet forum, none of us, well few of us, know the other. In your case, I'm thinking that's a good thing, rutabega