March 4, 2006

O.M.G. - We are all gonna die!!!

Recent news from Antarctica -- the ice is melting. This has been gaining a lot of traction but, they are not telling the entire story. From The Scotsman:
Antarctic ice sheet is melting at rate of 36 cubic miles a year, says study
Melting Antarctic ice is adding so much fresh water into the oceans every year that it could fill Loch Ness 18 times over, according to scientific research published yesterday.

Previously it was thought that the massive ice sheet would actually help mop up some of the sea level rise caused by global warming, because rising temperatures would increase the amount of snow falling on the continent.

However the latest survey - using a new technique to measure the mass of ice with NASA satellites - has become the first to suggest that overall it is in "significant decline". They found it was losing 36 cubic miles a year, enough to raise global sea level by 0.4 millimetres a year.
Bot... Let's look at this article in PhysOrg:
East Antarctic Ice Sheet Gains Mass and Slows Sea Level Rise, Study Finds
From 1992 to 2003, Curt Davis, MU professor of electrical and computer engineering, and his team of researchers observed 7.1 million kilometers of the ice sheet, using satellites to measure changes in elevation. They discovered that the ice sheet's interior was gaining mass by about 45 billion tons per year, which was enough to slow sea level rise by .12 millimeters per year.
And a bit more:
"Ice sheet response to climate change is a complex process that is difficult to measure and even more difficult to predict," Davis said. "The overall contribution of the Antarctic ice sheet to global sea-level change will depend on how mass changes in the ice sheet's interior balance mass changes from the coastal areas."
In other words, we don't really know that there is a correlation. For a graphic image of the Sea Level change over the 163 years from 1841 to 2004, check this post out: The rising Sea Level Posted by DaveH at March 4, 2006 9:19 PM | TrackBack
Comments

I still say that the Dutch should have _meticulous_ records going back much more than a couple hundred years. It would be interesting to see what they say. (After we account for the subsidence of the land.)

Posted by: Al at March 5, 2006 9:25 AM
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