MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Antarctica floating ice shelves thinning at an unexpected accelerated rate
Scientists have their best view yet of the status of Antarctica's floating ice shelves and they find them to be thinning at an accelerating rate. Fernando Paolo and colleagues used 18 years of data from European radar satellites to compile their assessment. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesMust be all that hot air blowing out of Buenos Aires, they don't call it Casa Rosada because of the dodgy paint-job. If Cristina and her motley crew continue 'blowing-off' at the same rate, it will soon be known as the Casa Roja... then the sky might well fall down ...
Mar 28th, 2015 - 12:50 pm - Link - Report abuse 0US is fucked up! We will cut the heat that gives life!
Mar 28th, 2015 - 02:34 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The gulf stream will die! Goodbye US! Winters from now on will always be worse, until one day the winter will be eternal!
Nurse!
Mar 28th, 2015 - 04:41 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Another one is out!
Bring the tranquiliser injection!
“But the precise drivers at work and their scale are poorly understood.”
Mar 28th, 2015 - 04:55 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“ “We need three components... we've made good progress on two, but on the oceanographic side we're only just beginning.”
At least we have been spared all the doomsayers of ”Global Warming / Climate Change / pick another load of nonsense of your choice” 'stating' 20 / 30 / 40 / ?? M rise in sea levels.
#2 babaca
Mar 28th, 2015 - 07:00 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Why aren't you out complaining the environmental mess of your favela.
One day your dream to live, a really good life as those in the North do, may come true. Cross fingers.
Let me guess , it's all Maggie Thatcher's fault ?
Mar 28th, 2015 - 07:44 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Neo liberalism ?
The US ?
Apparently someone saw some argy fishing boats borrowing the ice to take home.
Mar 28th, 2015 - 08:41 pm - Link - Report abuse 0so they say.
Bras #2
Mar 28th, 2015 - 10:00 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The 'Conveyor' traversing the Atlantic may well shut down with global catastrophic results, but the effects will be felt world-wide, not just in the USA.
The calculated West Antarctic sea-ice melt is 1 metre - 3 metres of sea-level rise. This is within 90 years! 'Heaven help' the coastal cities.
The bit I like is:
'If the losses to the ocean balance the gains on land through precipitation of snows, this entirely natural process contributes nothing to sea level rise. But if thinning weakens the shelves so that land ice can flow faster towards the sea, this will kick the system out of kilter.'
Simple in itself, but it is the same principle as the UK Government's *nett* migration statistic ... input and output. It bothers me that there is no absolute immigration measure, only the relative measure. Mass emigration of UK OAPs to Spain can hide an only slightly lower mass inflow of immigrants - and be propagandised as a 'good thing' by the Government.
@8
Mar 29th, 2015 - 10:37 am - Link - Report abuse 0Dear Geoff,
I do believe you may have somewhat over-complicated your argument there.
Whilst I, (and many other posters here), may have the mental agility, and cultural experience, to juggle the two concepts in juxtaposition that exemplify one another, I do feel you might be flying over the head of your target audience.
That, is, of course, unless Brasileiro (#2) lives on Jupiter or Mars.
Which, may I say, I would be willing to take a punt on. He does seem some-what starved of oxygen.
-ilsen
PS: I enjoyed your post. You should forward it to the Daily Telegraph, for their 'Leader' column, mey-bee..?
@3 ilsen,
Mar 30th, 2015 - 09:15 am - Link - Report abuse 0Ha ha ha!
Still giggling.
“For the decade before 2003, ice-shelf volume for all Antarctica did not change much,”
Mar 30th, 2015 - 09:32 am - Link - Report abuse 0But what about the decades before that, or the centuries before that, or the millennia before that?
This is such short term nonsense and is again computer modelling etxrapolating catastrophic events from natural cycles.
World Climate Report Jan 22, 2008 “A doubling in snow accumulation in the western Antarctic Peninsula since 1850.” At the beginning of the record annual accumulation is relatively stable until about 1930 when it begins to increase steadily. Following a slight reduction in accumulation in the late 1960s, the most rapid increase occurs in the latter part of the record with the mean accumulation rate from the mid-1970s onwards increasing to 0.95 mweq y-1, (metres of water equivalent).
IPCC in their 2007 report clearly states “Antarctic sea ice extent continues to show inter-annual variability and localized changes but no statistically significant average trends, consistent with the lack of warming reflected in atmospheric temperatures averaged across the region”
BAS Press Release no.4/2005 23 Feb 2005
”The retreat of Antarctic ice shelves is not new according to research published in the journal Geology by scientists from Universities of Durham, Edinburgh and British Antarctic Survey (BAS). (24 Feb, 2005)
A study of George VI Ice Shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula is the first to show that this currently ‘healthy’ ice shelf experienced an extensive retreat about 9500 years ago, more than anything seen in recent years. The retreat coincided with a shift in ocean currents that occurred after a long period of warmth. “
This is all part of the constant ”drip drip“ of Global Warming Angst, aka ”climate change“, prior to the December UNFCCC Paris conference where they will seek to impose a global price on CO2, or ”carbon” as they so erroniously describe it. This will massively damage the poor, whereas the UN apparatchiks will be unaffected.
@10 Isolde
Mar 30th, 2015 - 12:06 pm - Link - Report abuse 0My Pleasure!
:-)
*waves madly from other hemisphere *
:)
Is Brasiliero really Ming the Merciless from the old Flash Gordon movies ?
Mar 30th, 2015 - 01:08 pm - Link - Report abuse 0He must have a matter converter sucking up heat and replacing it with icy air and water.
The nonchalance of most comments above is frightening.
Mar 31st, 2015 - 12:11 am - Link - Report abuse 0Joking posters show no concern for the state of the planet we'll be leaving to future generations.
How sad.
@14
Mar 31st, 2015 - 01:01 am - Link - Report abuse 0How fucking righteous.
Did you need a ladder to climb aboard your moral high horse?
What personal action are you taking about this?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matanza_River
Here's some 'highlights'...
”Río Matanza is a 64-kilometre (40 mi) stream in Argentina that originates in the Buenos Aires Province and defines the southern boundary of the Buenos Aires federal district. It empties into the Río de la Plata between Tandanor and Dock Sud. “
”The Matanza receives large amounts of industrial waste from the numerous factories along the river, especially tanneries, which makes the Matanza/Riachuelo a polluted river. Among the most dangerous contaminants are heavy metals and waste water from the basin's saturated layers.“
”In 1993 President Carlos Menem's Secretary of Environment María Julia Alsogaray presented a 3-year project to clean up the Riachuelo that was approved, but never started, let alone concluded. The former civil servant, daughter of conservative policy maker Álvaro Alsogaray, was prosecuted for misappropriation of those public funds.“
”According to Argentine newspaper Página/12, of the 250-million-dollar budget, only $90 million remain; $6 million were lost in punitive interests, $150 million were destined to unrelated social projects, and only $1 million was used for the actual cleanup.“
”As of December 2013, no cleanup has been done. The river contains industrial waste with high levels of arsenic, chromium, copper, zinc and lead.”
Henry Massood shows no concern for the state of the country he'll be leaving to future generations.
Hypocrite.
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