Posted on 05/12/2014 5:03:12 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Two forthcoming reports on the western Antarctic ice sheet confirm previous fears that the ice's melt will increase ocean levels by as much as 13 feet within the next few centuries. They also suggest that the process has already begun — and is likely not reversible.
The New York Times reports that both papers — one by NASA scientists, to be published in Geophysical Research Letters, and one by University of Washington scientists to appear in Science — find that the West Antarctic ice sheet is melting because of naturally-occurring warm water welling up from deep in the ocean.
None of this is surprising to those paying attention to the state of the West Antarctic, per the Times, which reports that the late Dr. John H. Mercer predicted the unstoppable melt back in 1978:
The basic problem is that much of the West Antarctic ice sheet sits below sea level in a kind of bowl-shaped depression [in] the earth. As Dr. Mercer outlined in 1978, once the part of the ice sheet sitting on the rim of the bowl melts and the ice retreats into deeper water, it becomes unstable and highly vulnerable to further melting.
Now, scientists are saying that the situation in the Antarctic has passed a crucial threshold. "There's no stabilizing mechanism," said Dr. Ian Joughin, lead author of the paper slated to appear in Science. Even if if the melt rate was too slow, it would be "too little, too late to stabilize the ice sheet," he adds. And NASA's Thomas P. Wagner said "this is really happening. There's nothing to stop it now."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
There was an article last week here that said that the ice was INCREASING in the Antarctic!The ice had not melted completely in the Great Lakes! Can’t these IDIOTS get their stories straight
If it has already begun, how high is sea level now from say 10 years ago? How does that amount extrapolate out to one hundred years or “the next few centuries”.
In 300 years it’ll be 13 feet higher? That means the sea level rise now should be close to 5 inches from 10 years ago.
Is it?
Love the “Why We Can’t Beat The Soviets” at the top of that magazine cover!
The media is always wrong!!
That's why they turned their attention from the Arctic (floating ice) to the Antarctic which is a land mass covered in glaciers.
Now...won't the land mass heave upward as the glaciers melt since huge amounts of weight will be removed? That happened at the end of the last ice age, didn't it?
I have a simple experiment that even a 3rd grader can do: put an ice cube in a glass, fill the glass (to the brim) with water and wait for the ice to melt.Record the results.
How many are a few centuries? Less than five, but more than two? Will the 13 feet rise happen as a tsunami like wave or in centimeter increments and starting when?
I have rubber boots, but they don’t go to 13 feet. They barely go above my knees. Will I have to go with inflatable waders?
“Rise of Oceans Due to Melting Antarctic Ice Sheet Is ‘Unstoppable’ “
Total codswallop. There’s nothing that new taxes and lifestyle regulations can’t stop.
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