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NASA Satellite Measurements Show Unprecedented Greenland Ice Sheet Melt
NASA reports that measurements taken from orbiting satellites indicate the Greenland ice sheet underwent melting over a larger area than they've seen in 30 years of observations. On July 8, the satellites found evidence that about 40% of the ice sheet's surface had melted. Observations just four days later showed 97% of the surface had melted.
"This extreme melt event coincided with an unusually strong ridge of warm air, or a heat dome, over Greenland. The ridge was one of a series that has dominated Greenland's weather since the end of May. 'Each successive ridge has been stronger than the previous one,' said Mote. This latest heat dome started to move over Greenland on July 8, and then parked itself over the ice sheet about three days later. By July 16, it had begun to dissipate. Even the area around Summit Station in central Greenland, which at 2 miles above sea level is near the highest point of the ice sheet, showed signs of melting. Such pronounced melting at Summit and across the ice sheet has not occurred since 1889, according to ice cores analyzed by Kaitlin Keegan at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather station at Summit confirmed air temperatures hovered above or within a degree of freezing for several hours July 11-12."
Photos also surfaced last week showing the Petermann Glacier in Greenland 'calving' — some very large chunks of it broke off and started to drift away.
To all those who ignored the actual scientists who warned about global warming in favor of the very very few oil industry sponsored hacks, enjoy your global warming and oceanic acidification that is destroying shellfish and crops worldwide.
It's called consequences.
Adapt or die.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
"... er 40% melted away, 97%...er wait. What does this really mean?"
If you ask me, this is misleading in a way that HAS TO be deliberate. It states that some melting as been observed over close to 97% of the ice sheet, but doesn't say how much has actually melted... and I am guessing damned little since they make a big point of one place being close to zero or a few hours.
But when expressed the way this is, it gives the unwary an impression that 97% of the ice has melted away... but that is not even close to the truth.
"So don't blame the sun, it makes you look stupid."
It makes YOU look stupid to conflate "weather" with "climate".
Regardless of whether it's "lower than normal" for a peak, it's STILL the peak of the 11-year cycle, and it can STILL be expected to be WARMER THAN NORMAL for the last 11 years, give or take, because it's STILL the peak solar activity for that period.
Get a clue.
If it gets hotter, it's Global Warming. If it gets colder, it's Climate Change. If it's the same - well, where is weather the same all the time? Nowhere. What we have here is the best of all worlds - to quote the Arab sheik arms dealer in Chevy Chase's 1983 comedy 'Deal of the Century' - "Whoever wins, we win. Whoever loses...we win." Ain't it sweet being on the right side of every argument?
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!