John_Stone Report This Comment Date: February 19, 2006 06:38AM
" In 1996, Greenland was losing about 100 cubic km per year in mass from
its ice sheet. In 2005, this had increased to about 220 cubic km. By comparison,
the city of Los Angeles uses about one cubic km of water per year."
John_Stone Report This Comment Date: February 19, 2006 06:41AM
" The implications of the research are dramatic given Greenland holds
enough ice to raise global sea levels by up to 21ft, a disaster scenario that
would result in the flooding of some of the world's major population centres,
including all of Britain's city ports."
John_Stone Report This Comment Date: February 19, 2006 06:41AM
*21ft ... 7m*
fossil_digger Report This Comment Date: February 19, 2006 04:37PM
it's too bad almost noone does anything to slow the process, only accelerate it
more and more each year
John_Stone Report This Comment Date: February 19, 2006 09:41PM
I think its become self-perpetuating at this point.
The world's mountain glaciers have been melting for years ... more melt -->
more water vapor in the atmosphere --> H20 amplifies the 'greenhouse effect'
--> melting more ice into water/water vapor --> more unpredictable weather
patterns --> greater frequency of strong storms.
As for no-one doing anything about it, well, most of the world agreed to the
Kyoto Accords addressing global warming a few years ago; but the US didn't,
citing "loss of corporate productivity" or profits, or something.
Despite that the US Council of Mayors themselves agreed to follow the Kyoto
Accords in spite of federal reticence. I think this was a couple years ago.
Besides, all the kids want their iPods and fast cars... And China is getting
more cars, so is India. I don't think there's any stopping it at this point.
Hahaha Report This Comment Date: February 19, 2006 10:39PM
"melting more ice into water/water vapor --> more unpredictable weather
patterns --> greater frequency of strong storms"
This chain of events has NOT been shown yet (If i recall, hurricane activity is
not actually higher than ~30 years ago - it just seems that way b/c we have far
greater access to news and greater development in hurricane areas) -- of course
it is plausible that during a "fast" (.1 deg/decade) global
temperature change weather patterns would become very disturbed.
Also, more water vapor tends to mean more clouds (more storms? -- possibly) and
clouds tend to reduce the total heat transfer to the earth... of course whether
or not the cloud effect is less than the effect of extra water vapor is also
unknown because of the difficulty in modeling cloud formation.
"As for no-one doing anything about it, well, most of the world agreed to
the Kyoto Accords"
True enough, but RATIFYING Kyoto is not the same thing as actually doing
anything. In fact, if I recall, most "Kyoto nations" have not
actually gotten very far in reducing their emissions - of course it is still
early...
"but the US didn't, citing "loss of corporate productivity" or
profits, or something."
Yes, but it also declined b/c the treaty did not include the fastest growing
polluters: China and India. Also, the US believes that technological
transformation is the solution (whether this can happen fast enough is a good
question) and joined a Asia-Pacific partnership to this end (though critics do
say this is bogus - time will tell, I suppose)
Tribucian Report This Comment Date: February 20, 2006 04:15AM
If you have not seen it, check out the movie "The Day After
Tommorrow" staring Dennis Quade. Whenever the weather in my area does an
abrupt change -- and it does often (this last week included snow on the weekend,
followed by temps in the upper sixties for two days followed by tornados &
straight line winds for one day followed by an ice storm and temps in the teens
today with temps in the 50's predicted for tommorrow) -- the movie pops up in
the recesses of my mind. I still get the willies.
fossil_digger Report This Comment Date: February 20, 2006 06:14AM
it was 85 degrees in dallas onthe 16th then fri./17th went down to 33-34, then
sat/sun. 25 w/very light icing.
that's just an average texas week for ya
Anonymous Report This Comment Date: February 21, 2006 12:06AM
if were lucky man will get wiped out and some of will mutate to an advanced
species.
John_Stone Report This Comment Date: February 21, 2006 09:01PM
All the marshes and barrier islands in the Gulf of Mexico (S. of New Orleans)
have been washing away for years. With the oceans rising, New Orleans is the
first major city that will be abandoned to global climate change.
WHat you say Hahaha has some merit. We =don't= know what will happen with all
that extra water vapor in the atmosphere. More clouds? More storms? Freakier
weather? The climate =IS= changing, that is indisputable. =How= is the big
question. Fend and Figure It Out for yourselves, I guess.
