Rights, farms, environment ping.Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
I don't get offended if you want to be removed.
updated List of Ping lists vol.III(Get Your Fresh Hot Pings Here!)
Posted on 03/23/2006 10:13:01 PM PST by quantim
BEIJING, March 24 (Xinhuanet) -- Global warming appears to be pushing Earth's vast polar ice sheets toward a significant meltdown and could lead to a long and irreversible rise in sea levels within the next 100 years, according to new studies.
One study found that warming temperatures are causing glaciers the size of Manhattan to trigger quakes, and computer models of climate and ice indicate that by about 2100, average temperatures could be 2.3 degrees Celsius warmer than today and that over the coming centuries, the world's oceans could rise 3.9 to 6 meters -- conditions last seen 129,000 years ago, between the last two ice ages.
The findings, published in the latest edition of the journal Science, are consistent with other recent studies of melting and erosion at the poles. Many experts say there are still uncertainties about timing, extent and causes.But Jonathan T. Overpeck of the University of Arizona, a lead author of one of the studies, said the new findings made a strong case for the danger of failing to curb emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases.
According to the computer simulations, the global warming caused by greenhouse gases could amplify the melting around Antarctica beyond that of the last warm period, which was driven mainly by extra sunlight reaching the northern hemisphere.
The researchers also said that stains from dark soot drifting from power plants and vehicles could hasten melting in the Arctic by increasing the amount of solar energy absorbed by ice.
The future rise in sea levels, driven by melting of ice from both Greenland and West Antarctica, would occur over many centuries and be largely irreversible, but could be delayed by curbing emissions of the greenhouse gases, the researchers said.
In another article in Science, researchers say they have detected a rising frequency of earthquake-like rumblings in the bedrock beneath Greenland's ice cap in late summer since 1993.
The jostling of the giant ice-cloaked island is five times more frequent in summer than in winter, and has greatly intensified since 2002, the researchers found. The data mesh with recent satellite readings showing that the ice can lurch toward the sea during the melting season.
H. Jay Zwally, a NASA scientist studying the polar ice sheets with satellites, said the seismic signals from ice movement were consistent with his discovery in 2002 that summer melting on the surface of Greenland's ice sheets can almost immediately spur them to shift measurably, according to the New York Times.
"Models are important, but measurements tell the real story," Dr. Zwally said. "During the last 10 years, we have seen only about 10 percent of the greenhouse warming expected during the next 100 years, but already the polar ice sheets are responding in ways we didn't even know about only a few years ago."
In both Antarctica and Greenland, it appears that warming waters are also at work, melting the protruding tongues of ice where glaciers flow into the sea or intruding beneath ice sheets, like those in western Antarctica, that lie mostly below sea level.
Many experts on climate and the poles, citing evidence from past natural warm periods, agreed with the general notion that a world much warmer than today's, regardless of the cause of warming, will have higher sea levels.
But significant disagreements remain over whether recent changes in sea level and ice conditions cited in the new studies could be attributed to rising concentrations of the greenhouse gases and temperatures linked by most experts to human activities. Enditem
When it hits 200 miles, I got beach front property!
Unless, of course, we head into a new ice age.
In other words, a return to the natural state of things as the earth goes through its cycles.
"During the last 10 years, we have seen only about 10 percent of the greenhouse warming expected during the next 100 years"
Let me give you some more startling statistics:
50% of all doctors were in the lower half of their class.
2/5ths of all sick leave by american workers were taken on Monday or Friday.
62.3% of all statistics you read on the internet were made up on the spot.
If the oceans rise by meters in 100 years, how much will the level rise by December 31, 2007?
Meanwhile there's bird flu and the tali ban, which the chicoms will likely join up with to at to the misery. GW? Ya ain't gotta chance, go away.
Rights, farms, environment ping.updated List of Ping lists vol.III(Get Your Fresh Hot Pings Here!)
Hey....make it the whole LEFT Coast and you got a deal!
10 posts and I am the first to say it?
It is all BUSH'S FAULT!
And also West Nile, it's a killer.
I fail to see the downside. Warmer is good. More water is good.
And, Rush did a good piece on global warming. More stuff was thrown into the air when Karakatoa blew than all the smog by petroleum burning. Teh there's Mt. Vesuvius, Mt. St. Helens...
Garbage in, garbage out.
You've got to love these computer sims which assume future unlimited exponential growth.
Current ocean level growth rates are 3mm per year, of which only about ten percent is supposedly due to melting ice. That adds up to exactly one foot in a hundred years. By assuming exponential growth in the rate of sea level rise, they project a rise ten or twenty TIMES higher.
The reason they are posting such absurd numbers is obvious. Nobody is going to spend billions trying to avoid a sea level rise of only 1 foot.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
That looks more like 100% to me... ;>)
Unless we we have an ice age"
Global warming melts the ice so turning off the warm gulf stream and ....voila....instant ice age.
Can't do that. We already had a "coming ice age" back in the late 60's early 70's.
What will they dream up next?!
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.