Melting mania of the globo warmers
What is missing from this screed? If he is right, when Greenland was green it would have been underwater, but it was not. If he is right there should be a measurable rise in see level over the last 10 years, but there is not. What appears to be happening is that Greenland is getting more habitable land and this has the globo warmers all a twitter.The Greenland ice cap is melting so quickly that it is triggering earthquakes as pieces of ice several cubic kilometres in size break off.
Scientists monitoring events this summer say the acceleration could be catastrophic in terms of sea-level rise and make predictions this February by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change far too low.
The glacier at Ilulissat, which supposedly spawned the iceberg that sank the Titantic, is now flowing three times faster into the sea than it was 10 years ago.
Robert Corell, chairman of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, said in Ilulissat yesterday: "We have seen a massive acceleration of the speed with which these glaciers are moving into the sea. The ice is moving at 2 metres an hour on a front 5km [3 miles] long and 1,500 metres deep. That means that this one glacier puts enough fresh water into the sea in one year to provide drinking water for a city the size of London for a year."
He is visiting Greenland as part of a symposium of religious, scientific, and political leaders to look at the problems of the island, which has an ice cap 3km thick containing enough water to raise worldwide sea levels by seven metres.
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Man has a vast capacity to adapt to temperature changes. Temperatures in Iraq during the summer average 40 to 50 degrees hotter than the summer temperature in Washington, Texas this year. Yet our troops adapt and function at a high level carrying 50 or more pounds of gear and wearing more clothing than I wear in Washington. I can remember getting used to the hot humid days in Vietnam and shivering at night when the temperature dropped into the mid 80's.
In Iraq, animals and insects and vegetation all adapt to the hotter temperatures.
I think another thing that is missed about Greenland is the fact that the temperature is not always warmer. There must be times during the winter when water is frozen that adds to the ice sheet. Is there concern about shrinking sea levels in the winter? Linear projections based on a temperature rise of one or two degrees don't seem to consider all the days when the temperature will still be below freezing and new ice will be formed.
The globo warmers need to come up with something better than the Henny Penny Chicken Little forecast of doom that are reflected in this article.
I don't agree with this NY Times story projecting a Polar Bear wipe out either, but if it happens, it will just be a confirmation of Darwinism, which the globo warmers would like to repeal. I think I have seen them at Zoo's well south of the polar icecaps. You might recall Germany's fascination with Knute, the polar bear cub, this summer. Somehow, they will probably adapt. The recent data has shown an increasing population of polar bears. The article discusses the shrinking ice caps but does not adopt the bogus sea level rise projections of the Guardian. Melting ice in water does not raise sea levels at all. Scrappleface finds evidence that Polar Bears will be saved by evolution.
Greenland was all "green"? Riiiiiiiiiight! And they spoke English there...
ReplyDeleteSeriously. It is quite adventurous to imply that Greenland was all dry-land at a time language existed. Greenland's coasts are still very green (in summer of course). That has nothing to do with the ice cap. The ice core goes high up and deep down, its weight over time has actually depressed the land so that now the land in mid-Greenland is (if I remember correctly) something like 1.000 feets below sea-level. It takes more than a couple of months to do that, I hope you do realize that.
ReplyDelete(so by your own argument Greenland should have actually been called Blueland)
Greenland was discovered by the Vikings in a period when it was mostly green. Later during an advancing ice age most of the in habitants died or fled as the ice cap advanced. It was not under water then obviously.
ReplyDeleteIf the ice has caused the depression you suggest, it would appear that when it melts the water will have a deep hole to fill before it floods New York.
You cannot even guess how much I find it annoying when people just criticize the numbers because of a "feeeling" of what the numbers should be. Hey, if they say that the sea level would rise, it's because they have carefully calculated it. ALL things considered. You cannot argue with numbers and Physics, you know. Those are not opinions. If you throw an object, it falls, and at the speed caused by gravity. And that happens whatever Party you vote for.
ReplyDeleteThe ice sheet is almost two miles high in some places in Greenland. It's a vast mass of ice. Yes, the ice below sea level is irrelevant, that would stay there even if it melts. But the worry is not about the ice down, it's because of the "mountain complex" of ice topping it.
You calculate the volume of ice, you calculate Earth's surface, and you get the numbers. I did it myself to check. And it's absolutely solid correct. You may argue if it'll ever melt and when. NOT about what happens if it melts. And yes, Greenland would become an arcipelagos.
Yes, it's only 80% of Greenland that consititues the ice sheet. Have the rest how much green you want! Now, in the past, whenever. That's not the point. They've been measuring indirectly the climates of the past hunderds thousands years by going deep down into the ice sheet. If it was not there, where was it? A voulme of ice is a volume of ice, which is water. You melt it, it doesn't disappear. The water must go somewhere, and water does not defy gravity. And that ice is not floating in water, it's stored over a piece of land...