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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums1941 to 2004 - Looks like a totally different place......
Centuries from now, a large swath of the West Antarctic ice sheet is likely to be gone, its hundreds of trillions of tons of ice melted, causing a four-foot rise in already swollen seas.
Scientists reported last week that the scenario may be inevitable, with new research concluding that some giant glaciers had passed the point of no return, possibly setting off a chain reaction that could doom the rest of the ice sheet.
For many, the research signaled that changes in the earths climate have already reached a tipping point, even if global warming halted immediately.
We as people see it as closing doors and limiting our future choices, said Richard Alley, a professor of geosciences at Pennsylvania State University. Most of us personally like to keep those choices open.
But these glaciers are just the latest signs that the thawing of earths icy regions is accelerating. While some glaciers are holding steady or even growing slightly, most are shrinking, and scientists believe they will continue to melt until greenhouse gas emissions are reined in.
Its possibly the best evidence of real global impact of warming, said Theodore A. Scambos, lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
More at: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/20/science/the-melting-isnt-glacial.html?hpw&rref=science&_r=0
Scientists reported last week that the scenario may be inevitable, with new research concluding that some giant glaciers had passed the point of no return, possibly setting off a chain reaction that could doom the rest of the ice sheet.
For many, the research signaled that changes in the earths climate have already reached a tipping point, even if global warming halted immediately.
We as people see it as closing doors and limiting our future choices, said Richard Alley, a professor of geosciences at Pennsylvania State University. Most of us personally like to keep those choices open.
But these glaciers are just the latest signs that the thawing of earths icy regions is accelerating. While some glaciers are holding steady or even growing slightly, most are shrinking, and scientists believe they will continue to melt until greenhouse gas emissions are reined in.
Its possibly the best evidence of real global impact of warming, said Theodore A. Scambos, lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
More at: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/20/science/the-melting-isnt-glacial.html?hpw&rref=science&_r=0
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1941 to 2004 - Looks like a totally different place...... (Original Post)
Logical
May 2014
OP
Warpy
(111,270 posts)1. Wow, vegetation?
That hasn't happened there for millions of years unless you're counting bacteria and a few lichens.
Brother Buzz
(36,444 posts)2. That's Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska
and the receding glacier (Muir Glacier) is only 4,000 years old in it present incarnation.
http://www.nps.gov/glba/faqs.htm
Warpy
(111,270 posts)3. Oh, whew!
That had me really worried for a second or two.
SeattleVet
(5,477 posts)4. You can see a fast change in glaciation
in documentary 'Chasing Ice'. We watched it a few weeks ago - it's *extremely* powerful!
At about 3:45 in this segment they put it into scale for us.
Once they lay an image of Manhattan Island over a *portion* of what went away you realize the full scale of what they caught.
merrily
(45,251 posts)5. In old photos in books and in old movies, mountains are heavily capped with snow and ice.
I've been noticing for years how that does not match up with modern photos.
For one thing, it's easier to "summit" Mount Everest than when Sir Edmund Hillary's sherpas did it. (I somehow missed when summit became a verb.)