Melting ice may slow global warming

[Cronopio]

Source: Guardian UK

Collapsing antarctic ice sheets, which have become potent symbols of global warming, may actually turn out to help in the battle against climate change and soaring carbon emissions.

Professor Rob Raiswell, a geologist at the University of Leeds, says that as the sheets break off the ice covering the continent, floating icebergs are produced that gouge minerals from the bedrock as they make their way to the sea. Raiswell believes that the accumulated frozen mud could breathe life into the icy waters around Antarctica, triggering a large, natural removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

And as rising temperatures cause the ice sheets to break up faster, creating more icebergs, the amount of carbon dioxide removed will also rise. Raiswell says: ' It won't solve the problem, but it might buy us some time.'

As the icebergs drift northwards, they sprinkle the minerals through the ocean. Among these minerals, Raiswell's research shows, are iron compounds that can fertilise large-scale growth of photosynthetic plankton, which take in carbon dioxide from the air as they flourish. ...

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/dec/07/melting-icebergs-slow-global-warming

[IndyOp]

1. Large-scale growth of photosynthetic plankton sounds good...

So does buying time. It doesn't sound REALLY good, but it sounds a little bit good.

:(

[Arctic Dave]

2. Silver Lining Award?

[Cronopio]

5. I see it as Mother Earth doing what she can to restore the balance.

She gives us a lot of space to question our squandering, exploitative ways. It's too bad for all of us that so many people choose to continue to squander and exploit those opportunities.

[Arctic Dave]

6. To bad greed doesn't have a conscious. If there is money to be made

who gives a rat butt. :(

[Zhade]

7. Too bad nature doesn't have one, either.

Er, actually, maybe we should be glad of that fact, given how pissed such a consciousness would be if it existed...

[Arctic Dave]

8. Nature is pretty even when it comes to being pissed about things.

[hendo]

3. interesting read, thanks NT

[Piewhacket]

4. I'm not a geologist/climatologist or nuthin...

but I got a bit of advanced thermodynamics under my belt,
which is why I can pretty much say you don't need advanced
thermodynamics to understand that water has a heat fusion of
79 calories per gram, and that is one *** of a lot of energy
stored in our ice caps. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enthalpy_of_fusion

Translation: One gram of ice at 0 C will cool 79 grams of water
at 25C to 24C. One gram of ice melted at 0C requires the same energy
as 79 grams of water heated +1 degree C. Think about it.

Think of the ice pack as a huge "refrigeration capacity"
regulating the earth's climate. huge.

And so, my fellow doomed earthlings it follows that when the ice
has melted, as it is doing at a frightening pace, our climate and world
will be finally and completely f^%$#&&%ed.

We just had to have that zoomcar. We just had to let the moneyscum
economically, politically, and environmentally wreck the planet.
Just had to squander all the money, all the oil, all the planet.

But sure, it ain't so bad. The melting ice will give us a few more years.
I'll be dead and gone. Not so bad. Cheerful news even.

But nothing we do now is going to save the ice. Nothing. Its too late.
Start adapting your children water world, friends. Prepare them for
space habitat. Ready ships to go wreck Mars.

Our children will sing...

Out ride the sons of Terra; Far drives the thundering jet..
We pray for one last landing, On the globe that gave us birth
Let us rest our eyes on the fleecy skies
And the cool, green hills of Earth.
(R.A. Heinlein)

[bean fidhleir]

10. I wish we could recommend specific posts. BRAVO! Well the hell said!

Lovelock's Gaia is doing her best to maintain a homeostasis suitable for our form of life. But it doesn't have to include *us*. As Bucky Fuller said, Nature doesn't need us - we're just an experiment, like all the human subspecies who've preceded us. And if we persist in trying to overcome Gaia's limits on our behavior, off to the fossil record we go.

[freedomnorth]

9. Does this negate albedo effect?

And other positive feedback loops that are kicking in?

False hope I fear.
:scared:

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. It's still relatively small, compared to the CO2 we put into the atmosphere each year

2006: 25 billion tonnes per year

They think this might remove 500 million tonnes each year - 2% of our output.