`It's not a gradual change. It's like flipping a switch,'

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1143154016386&call_pageid=968332188774&col=968350116467


Ice caps melting faster than forecast
`It's not a gradual change. It's like flipping a switch,' researcher says
New reports warn of sea levels rising up to 5 metres, extensive flooding


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The findings are a stunning about-face from previous expert forecasts that such massive melting would take millennia to kick in, even with rising global atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

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Marshall and the other researchers acknowledged they were taken by surprise by the breakneck escalation in the melting of glaciers and ice sheets in recent years. Since 1980 the portion of the Greenland ice cap experiencing annual melting has increased by 40 per cent.

"It's not a gradual change. It's like flipping a switch. Areas that haven't experienced melt in centuries suddenly do," said Marshall.
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we've all watched ice melting

how hard it is one minute and the next has turned to water

sigh

And Miami.

And just about any coastal city in the world.

:kick: thanks for the OP.

the post makes it a tad more alarming then it has to be. The only reason i criticise is because I go to DU to avoid misleading headlines. I rely on others to be capable of finding the stories of intrest, which you have done. I'm still glad I read the article because it is a dramatic change, but, I thought we were all going to drown from the post. :-D

By Elizabeth Kolbert
snip>
Known for her insightful and thought-provoking journalism, New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert now tackles the controversial subject of global warming. Americans have been warned since the late nineteen-seventies that the buildup of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere threatens to melt the polar ice sheets and irreversibly change our climate. With little done since then to alter this dangerous course, now is the moment to salvage our future. By the end of the century, the world will likely be hotter than it's been in the last two million years, and the sweeping consequences of this change will determine the future of life on earth for generations to come.

In writing that is both clear and unbiased, Kolbert approaches this monumental problem from every angle. She travels to the Arctic, interviews researchers and environmentalists, explains the science and the studies, draws frightening parallels to lost ancient civilizations, unpacks the politics, and presents the personal tales of those who are being affected most — the people who make their homes near the poles and, in an eerie foreshadowing, are watching their worlds disappear. Growing out of a groundbreaking three-part series for the New Yorker, Field Notes from a Catastrophe brings the environment into the consciousness of the American people and asks what, if anything, can be done, and how we can save our planet.

http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=1596911255

Any long-time Alaskan can tell you. I think we have reached the tipping point and there's no stopping it...not to say we shouldn't try to minimize its effects.

at extreme and unending expense, by Halliburton and the Army Corp of Engineers.

at the very least so we shouldn't worry our pretty little heads. Just make sure that your tickets to Disneyworld are refundable and everything will be fine and you won't be inconvienenced.

Now where's my guitar.