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Antarctica Is Melting, After All

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A while back, I blogged about how global warming skeptics were all smug and glowy (and wrong) about how Antarctica's not melting. If the sea ice in the South Pole is actually increasing, the reasoning went, then how could the planet be warming? Huh? Huh? Well, for a number of reasons, that logic is false, but guess what? It may be moot point anyway, since it turns out that the western part of Antarctica is melting—and fast: Ice loss in the region has increased by 75 percent over the past ten years.

A team of researchers led by scientists from UC Irvine discovered that the underlying cause for the melting was accelerated glacier flow, which is, in turn, caused by warming oceans. All that melting means higher sea levels:

They detected a sharp jump in Antarctica’s ice loss, from enough ice to raise global sea level by 0.3 millimeters (.01 inches) a year in 1996, to 0.5 millimeters (.02 inches) a year in 2006.

That level of melting puts western Antarctica almost on par with Greenland, a dubious distinction, to say the very least.






Comments

And a British expedition to Antarctica just discovered a lake of LIQUID water beneath two miles of ice. Maybe it's not mankind that's causing the ice to melt but geo-thermal or volcanic activity? By the way, the tone of your article suggests that the skeptics are not the only ones acting a little smug.

Posted by: trisha on 01/25/08 at 8:55 PM  Respond

The China Meteorological Administration (CMA) early Monday issued a red alert for severe snowstorms forecast for central and eastern China.
Heaviest snow in 50 years.
Heavy snow is set to blanket northern Hunan, eastern Hubei, southeastern Henan, northwestern Zhejiang as well as most areas of Anhui and Jiangsu provinces on Monday, while some of these areas will expect snowstorms, according to the CMA. The snow, the worst in a decade in many places, has hit most of China since Jan. 12, leaving homes collapsed, power blackouts, highways closed and crops destroyed. Al Gore promised us global warming, where is it. We will not pray to him any more, he is a false god.

Posted by: Sue Lee on 01/28/08 at 7:19 AM  Respond

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