California Sized Area of Antarctic Ice Melts

Warm temperatures melted an area of western Antarctica that adds up to the size of California in January 2005, scientists report.

Satellite data collected by the scientists between July 1999 and July 2005 showed clear signs that melting had occurred in multiple distinct regions, including far inland and at high latitudes and elevations, where melt had been considered unlikely.

Water from the melted snow can penetrate cracks and the ice, lubricating the continent's ice sheets, sending them toward the ocean faster and raising sea levels, the scientists said.


SOURCE:
LiveScience.com

This is not good, that much ice melting is a very bad thing to happen.

We should be very worried, as when either Antarctica or Greenland start melting like this,
well we all know what happens..

Comments, Opinions?

I saw a show tonight how this little mammal is dying due to global warming and having too much fur and being too hot.
In western USA in the mountains life is moving up to eascape the heat.

Polar bears and seals are screwed.

Is that the point of no return I see receeding into the distance behind us?

I just feel it's a cycle that's happened before and will happen again and again. About 10 percent of Earth's land is covered with glaciers. During the last Ice Age, glaciers covered 32 percent of land. Glaciers store about 75 percent of the world's fresh water. Antarctic ice is more than 2.6 miles (4,200 meters) thick in some areas. If all land ice melted, sea level would rise approximately 230 feet (70 meters) worldwide. Now that scares me alot Here's a picture of the front of the glazier.



Here's an article at Live Science stating that some scientist blame the Ice Ages on the tilted earth. Don't know if I beleve that but anything's possible.
www.livescience.com...

The earth's 100,000 Year Orbital Cycle
www.grandunification.com...

This was interesting to read. I do feel that these cycles are not causes by man but by the solar cycles, earth cycles. The earth is very good at filtering the atmosphere of polution by rain, snow and winds on earth and from solar winds. This being said, it still alarms me that the oceans will rise very high and cover alot of land. Leaving people homeless and causing overcrowding when these people have to move inland. I would like to know how the earth adapts to iceless polar caps and warmer temperatures. I've heard rumors that the earth would be better off as a warmer planet but I know that the heat will kill alot of people. It already gets hot enough in some areas. And would people make the same mistake that happened in Greenland and Iceland? Will they start moving in and settling where it once was cold to only freeze when it changes back? Nobody really knows the answers because we haven't been here long enough to see the cycles. Especially if it's a 100,000 year cycle. Thanks for the thread iori_komei , but there's nothing we can do about it. Just like the dinosuars and other life here on earth. We either adapt or disappear.