Antarctic Melting May Be Speeding Up

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/03/23/25/
Antarctic Melting May be Speeding Up
by Michael Byrnes

HOBART (Australia) - Rising sea levels and melting polar ice-sheets are at upper limits of projections, leaving some human population centers already unable to cope, top world scientists say as they analyze latest satellite data.
A United Nations report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in February projected sea level gains of 18-59 centimeters (7-23 inches) this century from temperature rises of 1.8-4.0 Celsius (3.2-7.8 Farenheit).

“Observations are in the very upper edge of the projections,” leading Australian marine scientist John Church told Reuters. “I feel that we’re getting uncomfortably close to threshold,” said Church, of Australia’s CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research said. Past this level, parts of the Antarctic and Greenland would approach a virtually irreversible melting that would produce sea level rises of meters, he said.

There has been no repeat in the Antarctic of the 2002 break-up of part of the Larsen ice shelf that created a 500 billion ton iceberg as big as Luxembourg. But the Antarctic Peninsula is warming faster than anywhere else on Earth, and glaciers are in massive retreat. “There have been doomsday scenarios that west Antarctica could collapse quite quickly. And there’s six meters of sea level in west Antarctica,” says Tas van Ommen, a glaciologist at the Hobart-based Australian Antarctic Division.

Doomsday has not yet arrived.

But even in east Antarctica, which is insulated from global warming by extreme cold temperatures and high-altitudes, new information shows the height of the Tottenham Glacier near Australia’s Casey Base has fallen by 10 meters over 15-16 years.

MELTING POLES

Scientists say massive glacier retreat at Heard Island, 1,000 km (620 miles) north of Antarctica, is an example of how fringe areas of the polar region are melting. The break-up of ice in Antarctica to create icebergs is also opening pathways for accelerated flows to the sea by glaciers. Church pointed out that sea levels were 4-6 meters higher more than 100,000 years ago when temperatures were at levels expected to be reached at the end of this century.

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And we have to come to the realization that this is our fault. This is what we have done to our planet by being distracted. We are killing her. However, because so many refuse to even go past that first step in taking responsibility we will continue to see reports like this. It is a truly hard realization to see how weak the human species really is. We act so tough fighting our wars as we lose our planet.

the Ice shelfs in the bays have a peculiar phenomena.. they are under compressive stress from the expansion of the frozen water as the seaward edge starts to melt back it quickly reaches a point where it allows the entire shelf to 'Explode' out into the ocean.. it is very quickly Expelled.. it doesn't take 200 or 300 years.. it only took 30.. what dont we know.. what else are they not telling us .. maybe like when the Ocean Thermalcline stops when the glacier's quit calving and the warm equatorial currents stop and much of Europe and the North Eastern united states begin to Glaciate immediately.. where are the all going to go..??

it is likely that the some of tropics may become uninhabitable and perpetual drought in mexico causes 50 million Mexicans and many millions more of central and south americans start their famine march north are we going to machine gun them at the boarder..?? we will have enough starving here with much of canada and our northern states populations in drought relief camps run by Brownie clones..

in '73 i worked in drought relief camps in the southern sahara.. i always just thought it was PTSD from the death and suffering there.. but maybe i was just clairvoyant, it runs in my family

What will the world be like in 20, 30 years?? We are speeding towards that doomsday more and more quickly - even more quickly than many of the scientists seem to have predicted. It is truly terrifying.

Just think, if all the nations of the world were to put aside all the stupid wars, battles and disputes and were to funnel all that money, attention and effort into trying to avert this disaster. Make it clear to the populace just how serious this is and educate and give BIG incentives for people to make the necessary changes required. Ahhh, what a silly, silly dream, huh??

:scared: :cry: :scared: :cry: :scared: :cry: :scared: :cry:

This might not be happening in the first place. And yes, I do fear for the future as well, though I still try to have hope that the good in this world will rise up to this challenge with the time we have left.