Study: Ice sheets melting, sea level rising faster than previously thought WaPo

[JohnWxy]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-carbon/post/study-ice-sheets-melting-sea-level-rising-faster-than-previously-thought/2011/03/08/ABjIyOP_blog.html

The vast ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are melting faster than previously thought, and that melting is accelerating, according to a new report that verifies 18 years of melting via two independent techniques.

Left unchecked, the extra water dumped into the oceans could push average global sea level 6 inches higher by 2050, the report finds. That would mark the ice sheets as the largest contributors to sea level rise, outstripping melting from Earth’s two other huge, frozen reservoirs, mountain glaciers and polar ice caps.


A new study finds the melting of ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland is accelerating, outstripping previous estimates of their contribution to sea level rise. (Eric Rignot) The new estimate of ice sheet melting – and the subsequent rise in sea level – outstrips more modest figures offered by the International Panel on Climate Change in 2007, the last time that international body published a comprehensive assessment of the ice sheets
(more)

[aquart]

1. Than WHO previously thought?

I'd start looking for buyers for those Hamptons mansions now.

[nonperson]

2. I say we put all nuclear plants near current sea level up on stilts

Except for the ones that float then nm those.

[FirstLight]

3. by the time they figure out how fast and how deep...

the water will already be over their heads...

all these projections are off exponentially, because the feedback loop is growing faster each year...

Waterworld, here we come

[guardian]

9. Okay

1. How much would the sea level need to rise for the photoshopped photo in your post to be an accurate portrayal?

2. What study/report/scientist is projecting a sea level rise of that magnitude?

3. Are you basing your post on actual data, or just fearmongering without any basis in fact?

[villager]

4. but we're absolved from worrying about it! Osama's dead!

Who needs a stable planet, or climate, or food or jobs, after news like that!?

[kestrel91316]

5. Faster than expected?? Gosh, imagine THAT.

When are the climatologists gonna figure out that we are facing exponential and not linear change??

[XemaSab]

6. Looks like I'm late to the party

[hatrack]

7. Wow, who could have predicted this?

:silly:

[eppur_se_muova]

8. "Faster than expected" is the new "No one could have predicted". nt