Earth Growing Due to Melting Glaciers

Dr. Shim writes "Some interesting (and rather frightening) news over at Space.com tells that the Earth is growing around the equator due to the fact that ice in the Antarctic (and other areas) is melting at an alarming rate."

Comments

Re:*sigh*

[MindStalker]

Wow, people complain when the US thinks its responsible for the entire world. And complain when it doesn't.

Re:Alarmists...

[Oddly_Drac]

"Is it just me, or does anyone else get the feeling that this is a sensationalistic, alarmist write-up of a marginally interesting phenomena?"

It's you.

"the earth has gained 0.3 percent around the equator"

Which means that the sea level is rising. You don't consider this interesting?

"This is in my eyes neither "rather frightening" nor "an alarming rate"."

Of course by the time you consider it alarming or frightening, it's probably going to be too late to do something. I'd consider for the moment the change in albedo produced by the sea level rising, or the fact that this is going to destabilise land structures to the point where erosion can cause tsunamai from land slippage, not to mention the effect on active volcanos, or the increase in tides.

Then there's the quasi-stable structure of things like the ice-tongue that channels the gulfstream around the UK, and which have an impact on sea life, both shallow and deep. Not evolutionary scale, but within a couple of decades.

While I'm not suggesting that reporters get it wrong, I _really_ hate the implication that we should just sit on the information until we're sure, simply because it's hard to prove.

We've gone to war on less evidence.