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Mysterious, Ice-Buried Cold War Military Base May Be Unearthed By Climate Change (sciencemag.org)
Slashdot reader sciencehabit quotes Science magazine: It sounds like something out of a James Bond movie: a secret military operation hidden beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet. But that's exactly what transpired at Camp Century during the Cold War. In 1959, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the subterranean city under the guise of conducting polar research -- and scientists there did drill the first ice core ever used to study climate. But deep inside the frozen tunnels, the corps also explored the feasibility of Project Iceworm, a plan to store and launch hundreds of ballistic missiles from inside the ice.
The military ultimately rejected the project, and the corps abandoned Camp Century in 1967. Engineers anticipated that the ice -- already a dozen meters thick -- would continue to accumulate in northwestern Greenland, permanently entombing what they left behind. Now, climate change has upended that assumption. New research suggests that as early as 2090, rates of ice loss at the site could exceed gains from new snowfall. And within a century after that, melting could begin to release waste stored at the camp, including sewage, diesel fuel, persistent organic pollutants like PCBs, and radiological waste from the camp's nuclear generator, which was removed during decommissioning.
The military ultimately rejected the project, and the corps abandoned Camp Century in 1967. Engineers anticipated that the ice -- already a dozen meters thick -- would continue to accumulate in northwestern Greenland, permanently entombing what they left behind. Now, climate change has upended that assumption. New research suggests that as early as 2090, rates of ice loss at the site could exceed gains from new snowfall. And within a century after that, melting could begin to release waste stored at the camp, including sewage, diesel fuel, persistent organic pollutants like PCBs, and radiological waste from the camp's nuclear generator, which was removed during decommissioning.
I'd like to make a public commitment to reverse climate change!!
and then the other. won't be sure until after we die.
So this is something we should worry about a century from now? OK, I'll put it on the calendar.
... thats a kryptonian scoutship...
as early as 2090, rates of ice loss at the site could exceed gains from new snowfall. And within a century after that, melting could begin to release waste
So in about 200 years, the people alive then will have something to worry about.
To put this into perspective, let's look back at the technology of 1816 and compare it with today's. Then we can assume at least the same level of advancement from now until 2216 (if not, then I would expect the world of that era would have bigger problems than some sewage and diesel at the North Pole) and what would seem like an issue today will be entirely manageable by then.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
Wow! Good to know we have global warming alarmists, sorry "scientists", to tell us that ice levels may change in 200.
So 50 years ago a military base was abandoned, and in 70 years, the ice/snow will start receding, and then a 100 years after that, waste buried in the ice will be exposed... Wow, I hope we'll be able to organize a clean-up party in the next 170 years, before the waste starts to be exposed!
"New research suggests that as early as 2090, rates of ice loss at the site could exceed gains from new snowfall. And within a century after that...."
As scientist have proven unable to predict weather, much less Climate, I say we have a few years to worry about this. Currently snow and ice forming is out running the melting, EVERY YEAR, CURRENTLY, ITS GETTING BURIED DEEPER AND DEEPER. Possibly, in maybe 80 years the melting might keep up the new snow/ice formation and begin reversing. 100 years afterwards, maybe, we have an issue to deal with. Seeing as this could be cleaned up and moved with less then a years work (200 years from now when its almost naturally uncovered....why are we talking about this. Looks like more "the sky is falling" news to me.
So in 70 years, the ice might start melting. If climate models with a lot of uncertainty are correct. And we here on /. know how accurate computer simulations are, when the underlying factors are not well understood and not all are known.
and don't get me started on Seattle and San Francisco.
2090... HAHAHAHAHA They can't predict next week's weather and they want to... OHOHOHOHOHH [gasping for air] :-P
Oh, my stomach hurts
captcha: get your skepticals on
Do yourself a favor and have a look at the youtube video in the NPR link. It was produced by the war department. It's fascinating. I especially like how the solders were handling the fuel rods in t-shirts and no protective equipment at all.
I am quite sure every single one of those poor guys died a horrible death not long after.
http://www.npr.org/sections/th...
So one site melts and gets exposed. There's plenty enough ice in that sheet. We can easily build another such base at a deeper, more secluded position. Or 5 or 6 of them, just to be on the safe side.
Or, maybe we can do the sensible thing and protect our investment by having a high-capacity ice regeneration system installed on-site.
Of cold climate change gonna respect!
If any of the documentaries featuring Austin Powers are to be believed, that's more than enough time for Mr Evil to become Dr Evil
The US also had a series of DYE radar installations on the Greenland Ice Sheet - together they made up the DEW (Distant Early Warning) line. Climate scientists drilled ice cores at those locations as well.
I used to work in an ice core climate research group. I've never been to any of the DYE stations (although I did spent parts of some summers on the Greenland ice sheet); but there's a simple reason why those ice cores were drilled at these defense installations - logistics. It's difficult and expensive to get to, set up, and maintain a camp on the ice sheet. Piggybacking on already-existing military infrastructure saves time and money.
#DeleteChrome
Newsman Walter Cronkite even went there. What was a secret was what they were up to -- which by the way they didn't explain honestly to the Danish government, which was told this was a polar research station but didn't know that the ultimate aim was to set up a missile base.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Oh wait, not a single prediction made about climate change has *EVER* come to pass. Not one. Don't believe me? You can check. I'll wait.
Back in the Dark Ages, before smartphones and Pokemon Go, every schoolchild in the United States of America learned about the Viking settlements in Greenland.
Those settlements included dairy farms.
Those settlements were there, doing well, for 269 years.
They eventually shut down when the glacier moved south, it being really difficult to graze cattle on top of a glacier.
The Greenland ice sheet has not been there forever, people. Its progress southward can be tracked in the historical records from the Vikings. They left behind detailed notes on the development of the glacier, because it affected where the boats could make landfall.
I could watch stuff like this all day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Better known as 318230.
Scientist can't predict the weather more than 24-48 hours, and they keep claiming man made global warming. 25-50 years of weather data (some of that is questionable) considering the age of the Earth, is mule fritters. The SUN causes changes in our climate, not man. The sun, now in a period of COOLING, has had this summer, several periods of NO SUNSPOTS on the visible disk that is toward Earth. Lack of disruption in the solar disk, means no flares that will cause our geomagnetic bubble to ebb & flow, and cause the oceans to change. Once the solar minimum is over, those spots will start showing back up, and the solar flares will direct energy towards Earth. It also helps ham radio operators and the bands haven't been that good this summer. http://www.solarham.net/
The article was posted to encourage a near term response to a long term problem I assume for commercial purposes.
I have a suggestion. Have the same folks do the cleanup on Rio's rivers and the Pacific plastic island. By the time they get a handle on that, they will have the resources, experience and heritage to take on Greenland's "secret" facilities as well as Nevada's "secret facilities", as well as store our nuclear waste somewhere useful. The sun.
Do or do not there is no try.
If we use the Scientific Method (rather than anecdotes) we look at data. Here is the Danish Meteorological Institute's measurements (Greenland is administered by Denmark)
http://www.dmi.dk/en/groenland...
Of particular interest is this graph:
http://www.dmi.dk/uploads/tx_d... Here is the Arctic Ice Extent:
http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/ice...
Here is the late-summer Arctic ice extent. Temperatures drop below freezing in a week from now and the Arctic ice will start accumulating again (this is from an American source):
http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_i...
The coasts of Greenland are losing some ice, which may be why this base is being expose, but a much larger interior are in the interior is putting on a lot of ice/snow. The pattern of where ice is gained and lost seems to vary annually, depending on sea conditions and also changes in wind/storms.
Given that the Antarctic is putting on ice and the total ice cover of the globe is actually increasing (if you look at the measurements) then there isn't much of a reason to panic - especially as those that study solar activity have a prediction of Maunder-Minimum conditions by about 2030, where the global temperature will decrease drastically. So relax, enjoy the good weather (El Nino this year, which was wonderful) while it lasts, amigas y amigos.
Don't forget to always check the observed data, as computer climate models are not data according to the Scientific Method, they are considered "hypothesis" and observational data can falsify those hypothesis.
This video detailing construction of Camp Century was supposedly classified but there were articles published about it in Nat Geo and other publications at the time and during the early '60s.
The amount of waste that would be released if the camp were to be exposed for any reason would be a fart in a windstorm compared to the septic tanks leaking and leaching into the Indian River in over-misdeveloped South Florida, and would have a correspondingly minimal impact in the site area, much less the whole island and surrounding waters. Hardly suitable grist for the climate change FUD grill, for all you who have drunk the kool-aid and refuse to acknowledge the political and economic agendas gerrymandering science in that arena.
The Air Force dug some tunnels during the cold war to launch missiles. What is so "mysterious" about it?
The dangers of excessive individualism are nothing compared to the oppressiveness of excessive collectivism
Therefore we have no global warming to worry about even if it adds plutonium to my soup or my grandchildren's playground.
I'll be long gone by then so I don't give the furry crack of a rat's behind. Also, get off my lawn.
Guess what no believers. If your IQ is above 90 one need not muse over climate change. Where I live in Canada the growing season has increased by three weeks in 40 years. Birds species not seen here 40 years ago are commonplace now. The tundra to the north of me has failing permafrost such that forests are now referred to as drunken as the trees are sub sing into the slush that used to be firmly supported as frozen soil. Methane fades are bubbling out under winter ice from a loss of Methane ices formerly stable at depth in colder oceans. What do you idiots require to understand that we are changing the. Climate? You Americans will keep building your condos on the shorelines of your tropical cities as in Florida and only when the water is lapping at the second story will you finally stop reading the Bible and look up to see the slow wet Armmeggedon you have created. Summers will kill you and storms will increase and ravage us all as have happened more and more. We in the North have had gigantic firestorms and ice storms of unprecedented ferocity and across the continents floods and drought and catastrophe has been recorded. Are we that stupid not to note these things? Apparently slashedotters are too busy to note any of this. I am old and will miss the catastrophe but some of you will get around for the next unknown tragedies. Get ready since you seem unwilling to prevent it. Kiss your collective arses goodbye.
as early as 2090
There seem to be two categories of climate change prediction: too soon to matter ("It's not climate, it's weather"), and too late to test ("as early as 2090").
There is another category: "long enough to be about climate rather than weather, and wrong", but we don't hear about those much.
There's no time like the present. Well, the past used to be.
In this case, not just the children, children that have yet to be born, probably for a couple of centuries. Even then, that's a maybe. Sounds like more Man Mad Global Warming bullshit. As if everyone will suddenly say - oh, gee, let's start doing something about it. I'll put up those solar panels, we'll do away with gasoline, we'll do away with everything else they SAY is contributing to MMGW, including killing off about 3/4 of the human population (Leaving about 1.5 billion of us behind). A lot of people don't realize that's what they want. To me, I'm being captain obvious here. Ain't going to happen.
One thing is for sure, that site will be exposed one day. Humans may be long gone by that point, however it will happen. Earth has a way of rotating land around and shifting things, even climate. It's natural.