NASA: 2T(rillion) Tons Of Land Ice Melted Since '03

[sabra]

Source: CBS News/AP

Greenland, Antarctica, Alaska Hit Hardest; Latest Sign Of Climate Change, Say Scientists


(CBS/AP) More than 2 trillion tons of land ice in Greenland, Antarctica and Alaska have melted since 2003, according to new NASA satellite data that show the latest signs of what scientists say is global warming.

More than half of the loss of landlocked ice in the past five years has occurred in Greenland, based on measurements of ice weight by NASA's GRACE satellite, said NASA geophysicist Scott Luthcke.

That matters, says CBS News correspondent Vicki Barker, because ice which melts on land contributes to rising sea levels.

The water melting from Greenland in the past five years would fill up about 11 Chesapeake Bays, Luthcke said, and the Greenland melt seems to be accelerating.

NASA scientists planned to present their findings Thursday at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco. Luthcke said Greenland figures for the summer of 2008 aren't complete yet, but this year's ice loss, while still significant, won't be as severe as 2007.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/12/16/tech/main4670944.shtml?tag=topStories;secondStory

[Uncle Joe]

1. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, sabra.

One suggestion, I would edit the title to spell out trillion, I first read it as 21 tons.

[sabra]

3. updated...

[lapfog_1]

2. That's about 144,000,000,000,000,000,000 calories.

Just to melt the ice (convert from ice to water at 32F).

That's a lot of calories.

[tclambert]

5. Wow, 1.44 x 10^20 calories! That's almost a million trillion twinkies!

[happygoluckytoyou]

4. do not worry my friends, SARAH is returning after a long trip, her heart will re-freeze the state

ya-bitch-ya

[tclambert]

6. That's enough ice for 114 trillion 28 oz. Slurpees

:beer: :scared:

[CubicleGuy]

7. So, wouldn't this mean...

... that there ought to be a noticeable or measureable difference in the height of sea level at continental coastlines throughout the world? Or is this just (so to speak) the tip of the iceberg?

[truedelphi]

9. That's a very good question. I think we need to know how many trillions of tons

The oceans contain, so we can determine what percentage of the oceans this Two Trillion Tons just happens to be.

[truedelphi]

11. Toward the end of the article, the sea ice-causing rise was estimated

Article states: Between Greenland, Antarctica and Alaska, melting land ice has raised global sea levels about one-fifth of an inch in the past five years, Luthcke said. Sea levels also rise from water expanding as it warms.

[awoke_in_2003]

16. What would be more worrisome...

is how this fresh water effects the salinity of the ocean. Enough of an influx of fresh water could shift the gulfstream, which would greatly impact the weather of the US east coast and Europe.

[alfredo]

19. Warmer water will raise the sea levels too. As water heats up it expands.

[Laelth]

8. k&r for real news. n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[Blue_Tires]

10. at least we now have a president who will pay attention to this

hopefully...

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

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[jpak]

13. Deniers can STFU

n/t

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

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[tclambert]

15. But I bet they won't.

I was afraid this would happen when Al Gore came out with his movie. The knee jerk reaction of some, not all, Republicans would be that if Al Gore is for it, they must oppose it. And it becomes a partisan issue. The science is clear and irrefutable. But there still is a PR effort to deny it. It was once funded by fossil fuel companies. Now most of them have reluctantly come around. But there are still people out there who pretend to believe global warming is a hoax. Humans have an immense capacity for pretending to believe in nonsense. How long did it take the Catholic Church to apologize about the Galileo thing? 400 years?

[stubtoe]

18. Yes, and I have an island in the Maldives I'd love to sell to these people.

Their insistent, yet pointless, denial is amazing

[northofdenali]

17. Anyone who has lived in Interior Alaska can tell you

global warming is an absolute fact. Years ago, it used to get COLD here (one year we hit 72 below in town, which is generally warmer than the rest of the Borough). Now it rarely goes past 40 below. I know that seems cold to most, but if you experienced the true cold of the North Slope, Atigun Pass, Coldfoot, etc. during the Pipeline years, it isn't too bad any more!

Our polar bears :cry::cry:

[judasdisney]

20. How does this affect tectonic plates? That's a lot of weight.

[tkmorris]

21. Offhand I would say not very much

For starters, the weight hasn't increased, it has merely shifted from one place to another. Further, though it sounds like an awful lot of weight, it's really not that much in the context of tectonics. The real danger is to the climate, ocean salinity, and rising sea levels.

[muriel_volestrangler]

22. There is a bit of rebound for the land that was under the weight

which affects the local sea level (so, ironically, Greenland itself may suffer no raised sea level, while the rest of the world does). For instance, the north of Britain is still rising, while the south is sinking (beyond the effects of global sea level from global warming). See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-glacial_rebound . But it doesn't, as far as I know, affect horizontal movement.