Globo warmer exaggerate melting of Greenland Ice Sheet

Houston Chronicle:
New research suggests that Greenland’s vast ice sheet isn’t as fragile as some climate scientists feared.

The work, published in Nature this week (see abstract), indicates the majority of ice on Greenland could remain intact for hundreds of years even if the planet warms considerably.

The study used ice cores to study conditions during a period of natural global warming that occurred between 115,000 and 130,000 years ago, when temperatures were about 14.5 Fahrenheit degrees higher than they are today. This was known as the Eemian period.

During this inter-glacial time about 75 percent of Greenland’s ice sheet remained intact. Accordingly, the study also indicates that Antarctica, which has much more ice, must have contributed significantly more to a sea levels that were 25 feet above what they are today.

Nevertheless this paper will likely muddy the already very muddy waters of the interface scientists have with the public and their perception of this issue.

As usual, Andy Revkin zeroes in on this point, noting the widespread attention the spectacular visuals of melting ice that have appeared in climate change films and other productions. It has been a useful tool in rousing public concern about climate.

...
The sea level argument has always been suspect in my mind.  When Greenland was discovered and got its name we did not see the kind of flooding projected by the global warming climate change crowd.   I suspect one of the reasons is the intermittent higher temperatures can't sustain the kind head that would be needed to melt something this large.  In other words the temperature will dip back to below freezing often enough to reverse major melting.

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