Greenland Glaciers Melting Much Faster

grqb writes "NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory says that satellite observations indicate that Greenland's glaciers have been dumping ice into the Atlantic Ocean at a rate that's doubled over the past five years. Greenland Ice Sheet's annual loss has risen from 21.6 cubic miles in 1996 to 36 cubic miles in 2005 and it now contributes about 0.5 millimeters out of 3 millimeters to global sea level increases. One theory as to why this is happening is that the meltwater, caused by increasing temperatures in Greenland, serves as a lubricant for the moving ice, hastening its push to the sea. Another study has estimated that the warming rate in Greenland was 2.2 times faster than the global norm -- which is in line with U.N. climate models."

Comments

Re:woo

[abigor]

Your assertion contradicts the data. Can you give me a reference to back up your claim?

Here is the real data: http://www.geo.unizh.ch/wgms/mbb/mbb8/sum0203.html As you can see, Iceland's glaciers are in a state of retreat.

Which data is correct?

[karmavDogma]

The ESA has data showing Greenland's ice mass getting bigger.
http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/greenland_ icesheet_growing.html?4112005
I don't doubt that human existence is causing some changes in the Earth's environment, but I doubt we've hit the point of no return yet. Besides, if we're ever going to colonize nearby space, we'll needs lots of water. And since this is the only planet we know of to have vast amounts of liquid water (and certainly the only one we readily have access to), perhaps it's not such a bad thing that all the Earth's ice is melting. Adaptation has worked for our species before, I'm sure it can work again.

Global warming / Global dimming

[haeger]

I found this interesting link that talks about something called Global dimming. I've read some about it and it appears as if the global warming is faster now that a lot of countries have reduced their emissions that blocks sunlight, thus making the greenhouse gases even more "effective".
It's a scary read. Some evidence seems to support that global dimming might be the cause of famine in Africa.
There's a lot about the subject on google.

.haeger

BBC Article

[A beautiful mind]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4720536. stm

Btw, it is interesting that if you go to the Science/Nature section on bbc, there are 8 articles dealing with energy crisis/global warming currently, and that number was higher a few days ago when I first checked.

Re:Haw! Where's the Skeptical Environmentalist now

[andersa]

No it doesn't. This study only measured iceloss by looking at glacier thickness and velocity around the coast line.

Inland the ice sheet is actually gaining thickness. There is always a different side to the story. The geophysics department at Copenhagen University, where I have studied (astrophysics though) has thoroughly confirmed this.

Reference:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-11/esa -eas110405.php

Greenland Glaciers Growing?

[JonBuck]

Here is an article published last year:

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/111 5356v1

Recent Ice-Sheet Growth in the Interior of Greenland
Ola M. Johannessen, Kirill Khvorostovsky, Martin W. Miles, Leonid P. Bobylev

Abstract:

A continuous data set of Greenland Ice Sheet altimeter height from ERS-1 and ERS-2 satellites, 1992 to 2003, has been analyzed. An increase of 6.4 ± 0.2 centimeters per year is found in the vast interior areas above 1500 meters, in contrast to previous reports of high-elevation balance. Below 1500 meters, the elevation-change rate is -2.0 ± 0.9 cm/year, in qualitative agreement with reported thinning in the ice-sheet margins. The spatially averaged increase is 5.4 ± 0.2 cm/year, or ~60 cm over 11 years, or ~54 cm when corrected for isostatic uplift. Winter elevation changes are shown to be linked to the North Atlantic Oscillation.

Er, don't throw away your lifevest just yet

[imrdkl]

That study boldly proclaims a net loss of 2cm/yr below 1500m, and conveniently omits steep inclines, and then to ice the cake (if you'll pardon the pun) declares a positive balance. This latest study sets the melt-rate somewhat higher than the Danes and Norwegians, if I understand correctly, not to mention the effects of erosion - and finds sheets in motion that have been stable, motionless, for literally thousands of years.

When mean temperature is raised by three degrees, ice melts. It's happeing all over the arctic, and anyone who thought that somehow Greenland would somehow avoid the trend is, literally, all wet.

Re:There will be plenty of posts talking about...

[killjoe]

'I don't know what sort of science fiction you've been reading, but global warming isn't going to make the Earth uninhabitable, or even remotely so. That sort of thing is nothing more than alarmist bullshit."

I won't make earth uninhabitable bit it will make it more miserable. We can adapt after the population has been culled and after the resource wars have been settled. The balance of power probably won't shift too much, we will probably go ahead and kill lots of people and take over their natural resources and lets face it they can't do jack shit to stop us.

I don't know if Americans will be happier when it's all said and done but for sure many other countries will be either gone or miserable. I suspect even Americans will have a lower standard of living because most of the foods they are used to eating now will simply be unavailable.

Not Good For Low-Lying Islands

[Wellerite]

Islands like Kiribati and Tuvalu in the Pacific ocean have already been experiencing rising sea-levels over a period of 13 years according to a tide-gauge project run by Australia's Bureau of Meteorology.

The rate of about 6mm (0.236 inches) per year is quite slow, but it is significant for low-lying islands like these ones.