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 ...
Yes, Tennessee Ocean front property at last!!!
Besides we need the seas to rise, so that when we build desalination plants to provide the west water, the impact will be minimized.
Bigger oceans mean more seafood. More carbon dioxide means more vegetables and grains.
Snow and ice can almost never melt in Antarctica because the daily high temperature for virtually all locations is below freezing. The primary cause of snow and ice loss is through sublimation, meaning that solar activity is to blame, clearly nothing that man could do.
Hehe, you're really stretching my memory.
OMG! That makes the potential for catastrophe even greater! All that extra ice means even more water when it melts!
Oh NOOOOSSSSS! What shall we do?!?!
{/sarcasm}
Summer is just ending in the Southern Hemisphere. Of course, there will be some melting, just before it freezes again.
If I ever meet Al,I have one question to ask him.
“Al,is your breath that bad or are you standing on your head?”
That would be a LOT of weight removed from the land, and the land would RISE up from the sea level with all that mass removed.
I believe a good deal of the southern ice sits atop the continent of Antarctica. I don’t know if the melt they’re talking about is restricted to floating ice or includes the ground based ice.
I’m looking at houseboat choices. Win-Win! /s
Who the heck made some idiot "scientists" the arbiters of exactly what Mother Nature should be doing on a daily basis, and gave them the unconscionably sanctimonious task of telling the rest of us how many trillions to spend and waste in an effort to keep up with their Oracle-like decisions?!?!?!?!?
Time to party like it’s 1999.
Our only hope is immediate World Wide Communism.
Actually if all the sheet ice melted the ocean levels would fall a bit as ice takes up 9% more volume than liquid water of the same mass.
Or am I wrong about that?
Obviously continental ice shelves like on the Antarctic mainland are a different story
The article is based on misleading and fraudulent junk science issued in concert with the political assault being waged by the Junta against the American people and the rest of the west.
I’m sure if the world governments raise the carbon tax high enough they’ll have enough money to solve the problem /s
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