Ice melting across globe at accelerating rate, NASA says (except, uh, the ANTARCTIC!)

CNN ^ | 12/17/2008 | Emanuella Grinberg

[PreciousLiberty]

(CNN) -- Between 1.5 trillion and 2 trillion tons of ice in Greenland, Antarctica and Alaska have melted at an accelerating rate since 2003, according to NASA scientists, in the latest signs of what they say is global warming. This image shows the changing rate of mass in mountain glaciers on the Gulf of Alaska.

Using new satellite technology that measures changes in mass in mountain glaciers and ice sheets, NASA geophysicist Scott Luthcke concluded that the losses amounted to enough water to fill the Chesapeake Bay 21 times.

"The ice tells us in a very real way how the climate is changing," said Luthcke, who will present his findings this week at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco, California.

NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, or GRACE, mission uses two orbiting satellites to measure the "mass balance" of a glacier, or the net annual difference between ice accumulation and ice loss.

"A few degrees of change [in temperature] can increase the amount of mass loss, and that contributes to sea level rise and changes in ocean current," Luthcke said.

The data reflects findings from NASA colleague Jay Zwally, who uses different satellite technology to observe changing ice volume in Greenland, the Arctic and Antarctica.

In the past five years, Greenland has lost between 150 gigatons and 160 gigatons each year, (one gigaton equals one billion tons) or enough to raise global sea levels about .5 mm per year, said Zwally, who will also present his findings at the conference this week.

GRACE measured that mountain glaciers in the Gulf of Alaska lost about 84 gigatons each year, about five times the average annual flow of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, according to NASA.

[cowboyway]

according to NASA scientists, in the latest signs of what they say is global warming.

I was watching a Mega Disasters program about climate change on The History Channel last night that was predicting, are you ready for this, another ice age!

Mega Disasters : Mega Freeze.
Aired on Tuesday December 02 11:00 PM
Could North America and parts of Europe be headed for a "big chill?" Many experts fear that an abrupt climate change could have catastrophic effects across the planet, including devastating winters in some northern regions. New research has indicated to scientists that the climate is changing rapidly and unpredictably. In different parts of the world, we could be facing drought, floods, storms and extreme cold. Cataclysmic climate changes, similar to what may happen to us, have happened in the past. The great Mayan civilization was knocked out by drought in a few generations. The Little Ice Age battered Europe. Within a decade, freezing temperatures increased and incessant storms brought starvation, disease, and death to millions. Could this happen again?

I guess these guys didn't get the memo.................