Vast ice shelf collapses in the Arctic

[rodeodance]

1 January 2007 14:35



Vast ice shelf collapses in the Arctic

By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor

Published: 30 December 2006
A vast ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic has broken up, a further sign of the astonishing rate at which polar ice is now melting because of global warming.

The Ayles ice shelf, more than 40 square miles in extent - over five times the size of central London - has broken clear from the coast of Ellesmere Island, about 500 miles south of the North Pole in the Canadian Arctic, it emerged yesterday.

The broken shelf has formed an ice island, in what a leading scientist described as a "dramatic and disturbing event", citing climate change as the cause.

The news caps a dramatic year of discovery about just how quickly the polar ice is disappearing.

It comes as America's leading climate scientist, James Hansen, warns in today's Independent that the Earth is being turned into "a different planet" because of the continuing increase in man-made emissions of greenhouse gases.

The break-up of the Ayles shelf occurred 16 months ago, in an area so remote it was not at first detected. "This is a dramatic and disturbing event," said Professor Warwick Vincent of Laval University in Quebec City. "It shows that we are losing remarkable features of the Canadian North that have been in place for many thousands of years."Ice shelves float on the sea, but are connected to land (as opposed to ice sheets, which are wholly land-based). In the past five years, several ice shelves along the fringes of the Antarctic peninsula have started to become unstable or break up. The most spectacular was the 2002 collapse of the Larsen B ice shelf, the size of Luxembourg.

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[whistle]

1. Picture

<link> http://newsfeedresearcher.com/data/articles_t52/idt2006.12.30.06.29.23.html#hdng0

[enough]

2. Thanks for that excellent link, whistle.

[Gregorian]

3. Sadly, global warming is going to affect the poor the most.

As noted in other articles, the global warming refuges are already running for their lives. Whether from the parched deserts of Africa or the islands that are being flooded. What will one meter of rising ocean do to Bangladesh, one wonders.

I fear this problem is not going to be reversed. It's definitely going to bring us all together. Instead of fighting each other, "we'll" begin to fight for our survival.

I'm sorry. It's just that after so many years of ranting and raving, finally the rest of the world knows. I feel the need to post on these threads, even though there is a great sense of relief for me. I feel a personal burden lifted as the rest of the world finds out the truth. You see, when the problem was reversible I screamed the loudest, and did my best to avoid living in a modern way. In short, I didn't. I didn't do almost everything. It's what I didn't do that was important. But now that it's irreversible, and now that the rest of the people know what has happened, I feel a sense of peace. The final outcome looks certain. This isn't coldhearted. It may sound that way. It's just that when the outcome is certain, there's nothing left to do. We can slow it. And we will. We're in the lifeboats now. Enjoy the ride.