Greenland's Glaciers are Melting Faster

[ThatRoundHeadedKid]

http://articles.news.aol.com/news/ar...00010000000001

ST. LOUIS (Feb. 17) - Greenland's glaciers are dumping twice as much ice into the Atlantic Ocean now as five years ago because glaciers are moving and melting more quickly, researchers said on Thursday.



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This could mean oceans will rise even faster than forecast, and rising surface air temperatures appear to be to blame, the researchers report in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

"This change, combined with increased melting, suggests that existing estimates of future sea level rise are too low," Julian Dowdeswell of the Scott Polar Research Institute at Britain's Cambridge University wrote in a commentary.

"At 1.7 million square km [656,000 square miles], up to 3 km [nearly two miles] thick and a little smaller than Mexico, the Greenland Ice Sheet would raise global sea level by about 7 meters [22 feet] if it melted completely."

The study did not explore what is causing the rising air temperatures in Greenland, but most scientists agree that human activity, notably the burning of fossil fuels, is playing an important role in global warming.

Eric Rignot of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology and Pannir Kanagaratnam of the University of Kansas used satellite data to track the movement of Greenland's glaciers, which slide slowly down to the sea and deposit ice.




They calculated that Greenland contributes about 0.02 inch to the annual 0.1 inch rise in global sea levels.

Since 1996, southeast Greenland's outlet glaciers have been flowing more quickly and since 2000 glaciers farther north have also sped up.

Rignot and Kanagaratnam found that ice loss due to glacier flow has increased from 12 cubic miles of ice loss per year in 1996 to 36 cubic miles of ice loss per year in 2005.

"It takes a long time to build and melt an ice sheet, but glaciers can react quickly to temperature changes," Rignot said in a statement.

He said the models now used to predict how much ice Greenland will lose, and what effect that will have on sea levels, may underestimate the outcome.

Rising air temperatures are clearly a factor, the researchers told a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which publishes Science.

Over the last 20 years, the air temperature in southeast Greenland has risen by 5.4 degrees F.

Warmer air lubricates the bottoms of glaciers, helping them slide faster.

"Climate warming can work in different ways, but generally speaking, if you warm up the ice sheet, the glacier will flow faster," said Rignot.

And it may melt even more quickly in years to come, he added.

"The southern half of Greenland is reacting to what we think is climate warming. The northern half is waiting, but I don't think it's going to take long," Rignot said.




This is where I get confused. i know we've actually been aware of global warning since the mid 1970s, but haven't you noticed, within the last ten or so years, it really has not been an issue that's been addressed as much as it is now. Like, I don't recall seeing unusual weather patterns hitting the top stories in the news, or the front page and now they are. I know there has been an awareness the last 30 years but its priority seemed to go down, and then suddenly jump up, since it's hitting the news everywhere, within the last few months. The warmest it has reached so far here in north NJ was 58 degrees ssometime in January.......

[Muscletang]

Well I live in Oklahoma and not on the coast so rising oceans don't bother me.

Also, maybe Greenland will be a little damn green if they get all that ice off of it.

[Chiquae07]

it is named greenland for a reason ins't it?

[vinnym86]

old news. we're all gonna die, might as well go out having fun! who's up for a killing spree?

[G-man422]

When the vikings found a land covered in ice they called it green land, and when they found iceland, they called it greenland. i heard it was so people wouldnt try and steel the land from them, and if they did, they went to the wrong place. (thinking greenland would be green) Pretty clevre really.

[imtheoneandonlyD]

Originally Posted by G-man422

When the vikings found a land covered in ice they called it green land, and when they found iceland, they called it greenland. i heard it was so people wouldnt try and steel the land from them, and if they did, they went to the wrong place. (thinking greenland would be green) Pretty clevre really.

Yeah, then the theives got to Greenland and were all like,"....those sneaky sons of bitches...."....

[G-man422]

Originally Posted by imtheoneandonlyD

Yeah, then the theives got to Greenland and were all like,"....those sneaky sons of bitches...."....

pretty much.