Antarctic Ice Sheet Is Melting Rapidly (Washington Post)

[Up2Late]

(Note: This is the 3rd of "...a slew of scientific papers in recent weeks..." and different from the report that came out yesterday about African Lakes and Rivers.)

Antarctic Ice Sheet Is Melting Rapidly

New Study Warns Of Rising Sea Levels

By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 3, 2006; Page A01

The Antarctic ice sheet is losing as much as 36 cubic miles of ice a year in a trend that scientists link to global warming, according to a new paper that provides the first evidence that the sheet's total mass is shrinking significantly. The new findings, which are being published today in the journal Science, suggest that global sea level could rise substantially over the next several centuries.

It is one of a slew of scientific papers in recent weeks that have sought to gauge the impact of climate change on the world's oceans and lakes. Just last month two researchers reported that Greenland's glaciers are melting into the sea twice as fast as previously believed, and a separate paper in Science today predicts that by the end of this century lakes and streams on one-fourth of the African continent could be drying up because of higher temperatures.

The new Antarctic measurements, using data from two NASA satellites called the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), found that the amount of water pouring annually from the ice sheet into the ocean -- equivalent to the amount of water the United States uses in three months -- is causing global sea level to rise by 0.4 millimeters a year. The continent holds 90 percent of the world's ice, and the disappearance of even its smaller West Antarctic ice sheet could raise worldwide sea levels by an estimated 20 feet.

"The ice sheet is losing mass at a significant rate," said Isabella Velicogna, the study's lead author and a research scientist at Colorado University at Boulder's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. "It's a good indicator of how the climate is changing. It tells us we have to pay attention...."


(more at link below)

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/02/AR2006030201712.html?nav=rss_nation>

[sutz12]

1. Welcome to Waterworld

The antarctic is colder than the arctic.

I live on a hill. Maybe in a few years, it'll be waterfront property.

[ReaderSushi]

11. Don't be so pessimistic!

If you live on a hill then you'll have a whole island!

[simonm]

2. Desalination

Does anyone know if desalination of sea water can affect the weather?

[Up2Late]

4. Yes. It does. It screws up the Ocean currents, which act as a regulator...

...of the planets temperature and rainfall.

Here's an article that explains it fairly well:

<http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1602579,00.html>

[badgerpup]

5. don't know about weather...

...but sure as shootin' is going to affect marine ecology.
Any one have any idea how much leeway the various marine life...both animal and vegetable... has to deal with this sort of thing?
They evolved to live in a salt water environmentand I think a lot of them are sensitive to the PH...
:scared: :hide: :yoiks:

[phantom power]

8. Desalinisation is regarded as the trigger for THC shutdown.

So that's at least one way.

[Richard D]

3. 36 cubic miles a year

wow. That's a lot of water. Waterworld indeed.
What the fuck are we doing.

[AlGore-08.com]

6. But, but, but...THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS GLOBAL WARMING!

King George said so!!

[Up2Late]

7. When I saw your picture, I immediately thought of the that painting...

...that comes alive in Ghost Buster's 2. I can't remember the guy's name, you'd have to see it.

[Up2Late]

9. BTW, that so-called "scientist" that it says works for a website supported

...by Oil Industry funds, well it's much worst than that.

His website is a Dis-info site for a MAJOR Washington Lobbying firm <http://www.tcsdaily.com/about.aspx> who are one of the largest producers of bogus, RW Republican dis-info, DCI Group, L.L.C.; These guys are very well connected to the Swiftboat Veterans for Bush. <http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=DCI_Group>

<http://www.dcigroup.com/>

<http://www.dcigroup.com/approach/>

:kick:

[Odin2005]

10. Antactica is the world's air conditioner

It works just like the the North Atlantic thermohaline circulation does, only on a much more massive scale all around the continent, chilling the deep ocean to near the freezing point of fresh water, and this deep cold water wells up on the west coast of continents in subtropical areas, which not only cools and dries the atmosphere, but also creates a continuous vigorous mixing, brings oxygen to the deep ocean and brings nutrients needed for marine plankton to the surface, increasing the amount of biomass in the oceans greatly. It is the presence or absence of this mixing that determines whether the Earth is in an ice-house mode like now, or a hot-house mode like during the Mesozoic. If the Antarctic ice sheet retreats from the coast, and is therfore no longer in contact with the ocean, we can kiss our current ice-house world goodby and say hello to jungle, jungle, and more jungle untill increased erosion caused by the warmer, wetter conditions takes CO2 out of the atmosphere and snaps the world back into ice-house mode.