West Antartic Ice Sheet began melting away 10,000 years ago: study

The West Antartic Ice Sheet began melting away some 10,000 years ago and should continue to shrink, according to a study released Friday.

A team of researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle found that rock fragments were left behind by glaciers that disappeared over 10,000 years ago, according to the study out Friday in the latest issue of Science.

"This work establishes a background pattern of steady decline in the West Antarctic ice sheet," said John Stone, an associate professor of Earth and space sciences at the University of Washington.

According to Stone, the 360,000 square miles (932,000 square km) of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, would completely melt away in another 7,000 years if the current rate of melting holds.

But "a rapid melting event that released even a small fraction of this amount could have disastrous consequences for coastal regions," Stone said.

The ice sheet, about the size of France and Italy combined, contains enough water to raise global sea levels by about five percent, the study said.

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Several interesting objects from this article. First, it was written by the Earth Sciences crowd, who basically analyze actual materials (objects that exist...namely...rocks). This is not from the environmental crowd or the weather crowd. When they present a fact...it is a fact...and you have a tough time in denying that fact. The fact that they just handed the public...is that the Earth simply is not constant...the ice shelf has decreased from a massive size down to a medium size today, and could...underline that word 'could' go down much more.

The second object of the article is that our dear fantasy crowd...dreaming of various scenarios with pollution or GW or SUVs or American waste...just suffered their worst nightmare. It simply happens...((kinda like the bumper stickers you see on the highway)). You can't stop it anymore than you can start it or reverse it. Basically, you can attend as many environmental conferences as you want, and even save the entire Brazilian rainforrest...but it really doesn't matter.

The third object of the article is really the worst news that you can guess...at some point...global cooling will likely occur (again) and you cannot prevent it. It may be 5,000 years from now, perhaps even 20,000 years from now...but the odds are that global cooling will occur. And if you understand the last cooling period (from the 1300s to the 1700s, which was just a minor league threat), then you have to worry about civilization as we know it.

For the environmental crowd, they will make a strong attempt to overlook this report. I would suggest that we not let them pass on this. Science Friday on NPR has a environmental nimwit on about every six to eight weeks. We need to get a series of questions on the air...very direct...that simply center around this earth sciences report. Make the guy actually answer the question. Has the Earth gone through cycles...and if so...why? Thats the simplest question, and I don't think the environmental crowd wants to face this one. The answer is rather simple and they already know that.

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