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Greenland Is Getting Darker
sciencehabit (1205606) writes "Greenland's white snow is getting darker. Scientists have generally attributed that darkening to larger, slightly less white snow grains caused by warmer temperatures. But researchers have found a new source of darkening taking hold: impurities in the snow. The new darkening effect could easily add 2 centimeters to the projections of 20 cm sea level rise by 2100—and perhaps more if impurity levels grow with time."
And Leon's Getting Larrrrrrrrrrrrger
Of course they will grow. As snow melts the impurities at the top get added to the impurities deeper in the snow.
The only thing that can reduce it is if the melt water floats/washes the impurities way.
More climate lies. Climate hysterics have never needed that much justification to adjust their projections up 2cm.
Everything we do causes global warming, and every consequence of global warming is a catastrophe. I used to read the global warming stories with interest, and agreed strongly with the bloc that says we need to take action to try to prevent it.
But over the last few years I've realized that it's all horseshit. Every story you read is meant to generate alarm at how bad things are going to be. There is never a positive consequence, EVERYTHING IS ALWAYS HORRIBLE. Statistically this is very improbably.
And everything that global warming does ALWAYS CAUSES MORE GLOBAL WARMING!
It's as if the earth never has experienced higher temperatures before and survived.
Count me out of the global warming activist crowd. They've lost all credibility in my mind. It's obvious to me that they are alarmist lemmings who only see half of the big picture, and use questionable tactics to try to get the media to help them.
As long as China insists on NOT using their pollution controls (they built them on new plants per the treaty with japan, but japan forgot to require china to turn them on; besides as we have seen with their money, they really do not care about treaties; only winning a cold war ), this pollution will continue.
And yes, the pollution really carries that far. 10-15% of the western America's pollution is from China.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
I just took a poop. Scientists predict this will increase sea levels an additional millimeter by year 3,000.
... when do we rename it Dark Greenland?
"Is the Chief Priest an Offlian? Do dragons explode in the wood?"
That's totally racist. Claiming "whiter is more pure".....Obama needs to use an executive order to ban the term white. Only then can things be not racist!
I find it hard to get angry or excited or frustrated by environmental programs, in much the same way that I don't lose sleep over the inevitable heat-death of the universe. If there's one thing that Americans, (producers of most of the world's CO2 emissions) hate, it's "going green" (e.g. wearing sweaters in the winter, taking showers less than 10 minutes, turning lights off, and not buying Jeeps). Problem? Yes. Bigger problem? The rest of the world covets our "lifestyle" and has near 20x as many people. Just look at the mess China is making and they aren't even close to the emissions rate per capita of the U.S. (Though they are certainly headed in that direction). As for international agreements, yeah right, many American politicians are basically owned by the oil industry and the rest of the World isn't going to take "only the U.S. gets to pump CO2 in the air." Tragedy of the commons, really. My advice? Move inland, preferably north as well. I head Canada has a great beach climate, or at least will soon. Scotland and Sweden are also nice if you don't mind the respective haggis and socialism.
-1 Comment Contains Portal Reference
Scientists have generally attributed that darkening to larger, slightly less white snow grains caused by warmer temperatures.
Actually I cannot believe that scientists are that stupid. Maybe they should visit here in Winnipeg Canada where we see this every year from the tonnes of sand they put on our streets in the winter. As warmer temps rise the snow banks go from white piles to brown/grey mud piles and as more snow melts the darker it gets and the faster it melts.
No wonder people doubt climate change when scientists say things like this.
The only thing that can reduce it is if the melt water floats/washes the impurities way.
Actual in 90% of the time this is not the case, we get rain in the spring with the piles of mud and all it does is causes the snow pack to compress more (unless the snow pack is already compressed).
The measured rate of rise has been averaged out at 1.1 millimeters per year, so who in their right mind with the credentials to back it up would predict 20cm by 2100? Desperate people trying to keep the funding going and con people in to dumping billions on the study and "solution" to it. With all the money that has been spent on global warming/climate change with little to no results do they think the American public will keep pushing billions their way with no results? The whole thing reminds me of a gambler that has "a sure thing" bet on some team or something.
The chronically uninformed and uninformable* will find some way to deny this is happening.
* - people who feel that their ignorance outweighs the knowledge of any scientist and so nobody with an IQ over 125 has anything to tell them.
I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
Cannot figure out if you're being serious or not ..
Am fairly sure no-one is spreading sand across Greenland, in the same way they do on the streets of Winnipeg Canada [sic].
The Kamchatka peninsula in the far eastern Russia is a very active volcanic place. more interesting the dominant wind direction goes directly towards Greenland.
Nasa article with pictures of 4 Kamchatka volcanos erupting at the same time in 2013.
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=80226
This article doesn't actually say when they started erupting. I'm having problems finding historic activity for those volcanos, but I know they were somewhat active during the Icelandic eruption in 2011 meaning they have been on and off for a noteworthy part of the 2009-2013 period where Greenland's reflection was studied, possibly more or less the entire time.
For some reason the article only mentions volcanic activity in Iceland.
Well, if you had RTFA instead of being a dork, you would have noted that they're blaming volcanic activity in Iceland as a contributing factor.
Or are you too dumb to read?
Greenland Is Getting Darker - its the niggers arriving
GREENLAND IS MOST SUICIDEDS!! ...
NO ONE WANTES TO LIVE THERE!!
Germany.
The following is a list of suicide rates by country according to data from the World Health Organization, in which a country's rank is determined by its total rate deaths officially recorded as suicides in the most recent available year, last updated in 2011. The WHO statistics are based on the official reports from each respective country, and therefore, no more accurate than the record-keeping in the specific country.
Incidence of suicide tends to be under-reported due to both religious and social pressures, and possibly completely unreported in some areas. Since the data might be skewed, comparing suicide rates between nations is statistically unsound.
Male and female suicide rates are out of total male population and total female population, respectively (i.e. total number of male suicides divided by total male population). The total rate of suicides is based on the total number of suicides divided by the total population, rather than merely the average of the male and female suicide rates, because the gender ratio in most countries is not 1:1. Year refers to the most recent year that data was available for a particular country.
A world map showing countries according to their number of suicides per 100,000 people.
——————————————————————————————————————————
Suicides per 100,000 people per year[1] Rank Country Male Female Average Year
1 Greenland[2][3] (more info) 116.9 45.0 83.0 2011[4]
Enjoy your life, keep consuming faster and faster. Consume toxic plastic products that go in the landfill 6 months to a year after you buy them. Continue to consume as inefficiently as possible the last of the oil that makes everything in our modern society run including mechanical farm equipment, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and fertilizer. Buy a giant unsustainable house and fill it with crap that doesn't make you happy. Maybe someday you will burn that house and the crap in it to stay warm.
Global warming is just one of our problems. If we run out of coal and oil without a suitable replacement for most of us what happens next won't matter...
America is the best country.
Other countries are not as good.
Particulates from coal-burning, wildfires, dust storms, volcanoes, Etc all contribute to the darkening of the snow. This is true thruout the northern temperate and arctic areas, not just Greenland.
Right? Doesn't the moisture initially form around ash or a dust mote like with sand and a pearl?
I do NOT want to buy cheap crap. Nor do I want to buy overpriced crap that is made in China or anywhere else - like paying too much or getting a shoddy product just because it says "Made in USA".
I buy cheap stuff because that is all I can get or I cannot afford an American or European made product.
I needed a miter saw because I couldn't get parts for my old one. After calling Stanley-Black&Decker-DeWalt-Delta-Porter&Cable (All the same company), they told me that my 12 year old saw is no longer supported and I should look at DeWalt because they are "very good tools".
DeWalt makes all their stuff in Mexico or China now.
never the less, I cannot afford DeWalt. I ended up fixing the saw myself and it's chugging away - an old USA made Delta.
See? I'm buying Chinese or more comonly SE Asian made shit because my real income has fallen. I cannot afford to buy American even when there is an American product available.
Cars? I have a 20 year old Chevy that I maintain myself because I cannot afford a mechanic. It is barely passing emmissions and I don't know when the particulates per million gets to high what i'm going to do.
Do you understand?
People - us peons - are buying cheap Chinese shit NOT because we want to, but because we HAVE to.
We see our neighbors get canned because WalMart insists that their manufacturers cheapen their products even more.
Its a sprial down to the bottom - all because of Globalisation, automation, and short-term thinking from our leaaders.
...IQ over 125 has anything to tell them.
IQ doesnt impress me - accident of birth like big tits. Just because someone scores well on a test that was designed to find deficiencies and was NEVER inteded as a measuring stick doesn't mean they are automatically correct.
What impresses me is years of study and data. And the cliimate scientists impress me.
...under "Even MORE of the sky is falling!"
News at 11.
-Styopa
Well, No Shit. With every tanker jet spraying the chemicals, heavy metals, nanochips and radioactive compounds into the atmosphere and boiling the ionosphere with HAARP technology, its just a matter of time before someone powerful enough gets completely pissed about it. Wars between great nations have been started for a hell of a lot less.
Will they have to rename the country Dark-Greenland?
Melting snow freezes at night making a shiny reflective surface. Have they factored this into their estimates?
love is just extroverted narcissism
The primary cause of glaciers shrinking is particulates in the atmosphere. This has been reported many times, but it doesn't fit with the whole Global Warming sound bite so it's generally ignored.
I have existed from the dawn of time, and I shall I live beyond its end! In the meantime, I shall feed, and this time I do not need a knife. You will all die horribly in searing pain!
He is being serious. In Colorado we get dust storms that leave layers of dark dust in the mountain snowpack. Once those layers become exposed the snow melts faster, sometimes causing minor flooding issues.
It would be easy for dust, pollution, or volcanic ash to get caught up in the jet stream and deposited amongst the Greenland snow/ice. Only political clowns would try to make a case that this is related to global warming.
Don't eat the yellow snow.
qatar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...
china(nearly twice as much as the US)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Dont forget all the intentional particulates put there by chem planes.
No wonder people doubt climate change when scientists say things like this..
I'm just guessing here based on nothing but a few decades of involvement in the scientific community, but I'd say it's pretty likely that a) the scientists in question have thought of your objection already and b) they have quantified the relative contributions from increased grain size vs increased dark pollutants.
What would be incredibly stupid is assuming that people who study this stuff professionally can be out-thought by a random Internet commenter who has just encountered the question for the first time.
But just in case, let me ask you: what is the quantitative relationship between grain size and reflectivity of snow? Please respond with a graph or formula. You must have access to this information to judge the relative importance of grain size vs pollutant cover, and it would be a positive contribution to this discussion to share it.
Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
The trend that is presented seems to acknowledge the two volcanic eruptions and their contributions as being 'important sources of material' but does not explain how they account for two uncontrollable events in their trend. If the trend moves forward with an assumed rate of dust/soot/microbiology deposits that is skewed higher than it should be because of the inclusion of the volcanic events, then the trend will be higher. This is not stated in the article, and the abstract of the study.
Also, though this Georgia Institute of Technologies PDF (http://irina.eas.gatech.edu/EAS_Spring2006/Choi.pdf) is from 2006, it points out that Albedo measurement via satellite is not necessarily a clear cut measurement, and points out that direct correlations are not always possible.
well then we should just plow it under to make it whiter?
Is that racist?
bark-bark-bark-howl
It's obviously the particulates from Al Gore's jet as he jets around the world trying to jack up taxes and build a cap and tax economy.
Cannot figure out if you're being serious or not ..
Am fairly sure no-one is spreading sand across Greenland, in the same way they do on the streets of Winnipeg Canada [sic].
Why exactly are you fairly sure no-one is spreading sand across Greenland, in the same way they do on the streets of Winnipeg Canada? Is it because you think the island is unpopulated? Its not. Have you considered that maybe the inhabitants might be trying to increase their land space? Or maybe the sand from Europe and Canada is being deposited there. Don't be ignorant like those scientists.
Well, if you had RTFA instead of being a dork, you would have noted that they're blaming volcanic activity in Iceland as a contributing factor. Or are you too dumb to read?
According to the AC above, apparently he is. I will miss Slashdot when it goes to the dark side (ie beta).
[somewhere in greenland]
Scientist: OMG... My whole life has been a waste
Call me when it starts to increase the amount of Magenta
-- 29A the number of the Beast