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Have you ever been to the South Pole? Neither have I. And there are high odds neither one of us is ever going to get there. So we have to depend on experts to tell us what is happening there. So what do the experts tell us is going on? Here is the problem. There are two totally different reports that have reached me today:
From Al Gore’s website:
A large section of the mighty West Antarctica ice sheet has begun falling apart and
its continued melting now appears to be unstoppable, two groups of scientists
reported on Monday. If the findings hold up, they suggest that the melting could
destabilize neighboring parts of the ice sheet and a rise in sea level of 10 feet or more
may be unavoidable in coming centuries.
Global warming caused by the human-driven release of greenhouse gases has helped
to destabilize the ice sheet, though other factors may also be involved, the scientists said.
The second post comes from WattsUpWithThat:
The National Snow and Ice Data Centre said the rapid expansion has continued into
May and the seasonal cover was now bigger than the record “by a significant margin’’.
“This exceeds the past record for the satellite era by about 320,000sq km, which was
set in April 2008,’’ the centre said.
This says differently.
originally posted by: Grimpachi
a reply to: smithjustinb
The big question is, "are you voting democrat or republican?" Because that's what this is all about. I'm voting republican.
I will vote for the turd sandwiches who are least likely to screw things up worse, but I am glad you found a club to be part of that has to make things easier on you at the voting booth. You don't need to educate yourself on the issues or even the candidates you can just look for the letter R.
f you don't know what party you're going to vote for and you want to judge the elections on a person to person basis, you aren't educated on the issues.
originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: pianopraze
Except that the ice loss which is allowing the shelf to slip into the ocean is occurring because of warmer water being brought to the surface by changing wind patterns.
The ice loss has been occurring over the past 40 year (at least), while there is no evidence of volcanic activity.
One must also be careful how you interpret trends in Antarctic sea ice. Currently this ice is increasing overall and has been for years
All the sea ice talk aside, it is quite clear that really when it comes to Antarctic ice and sea levels, sea ice is not the most important thing to measure. In Antarctica, the largest and most important ice mass is the land ice of the West Antarctic and East Antarctic ice sheets.
originally posted by: Blackmarketeer
Both papers conclude that warm water upwelling from the ocean depths has most likely triggered an inherent instability that makes the West Antarctic ice sheet vulnerable to a slow-motion collapse. And one paper concludes that factors some scientists had hoped might counteract such a collapse will not do so.
The Southern Ocean has typical depths of between 4,000 and 5,000 m (13,000 to 16,000 ft) over most of its extent with only limited areas of shallow water. The Southern Ocean's greatest depth of 7,236 m (23,740 ft) occurs at the southern end of the South Sandwich Trench, at 60°00'S, 024°W. The Antarctic continental shelf appears generally narrow and unusually deep, its edge lying at depths up to 800 m (2,600 ft), compared to a global mean of 133 m (436 ft).
originally posted by: Soloprotocol
oh well, there goes London...lol