NASA Suddenly Finds Its Voice In Ice-Sheet Studies' Press Release

Following two recent studies on changes to Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, NASA is touting a survey that it says confirms “climate warming is changing how much water remains locked in Earth’s largest storehouses of ice and snow.”

In a press release for the survey, NASA directly tied the changes to warming and described the survey as “the most comprehensive” ever in both regions.

That stand can in part be explained by lead author Jay Zwally’s warning. “If the trends we’re seeing continue and climate warming continues as predicted, the polar ice sheets could change dramatically,” he said in the press release last Wednesday. “The Greenland ice sheet could be facing an irreversible decline by the end of the century.”

But Zwally, a scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., told MSNBC.com that the press release also follows an internal NASA change that seems to be taking place to allow scientists greater freedom. A change in policy appears to be occurring after NASA scientist Jim Hansen complained about being silenced because of the Bush administration’s opposition to mandatory curbs on greenhouse gases that many scientists tie to global warming.

“A few months ago this press release might have been seriously edited or not approved,” Zwally said.

EDIT

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11745704/