Scientists warn sea level rising due to melting Antarctic ice

April 26th, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

By
Associated Press

PUBLISHED:

21:44 EST, 25 April 2012

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UPDATED:

08:16 EST, 26 April 2012

Going, going, gone? A new study has found that Antarctica's massive ice shelves are being eaten away from below by warm water

Going, going, gone? A new study has found that Antarctica’s massive ice shelves are being eaten away from below by warm water

Antarctica’s massive ice shelves are shrinking because they are being eaten away from below by warm water, a new study finds.

That suggests that future sea levels could rise faster than many scientists have been predicting.

The western chunk of Antarctica is losing 23 feet of its floating ice sheet each year.

Until now, scientists weren’t exactly sure how it was happening and whether or how man-made global warming might be a factor.

The answer, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature, is that climate change plays an indirect role – but one that has larger repercussions than if Antarctic ice were merely melting from warmer air.

Hamish Pritchard, a glaciologist at the British Antarctic Survey, said research using an ice-gazing NASA satellite showed that warmer air alone couldn’t explain what was happening to Antarctica.

A more detailed examination found a chain of events that explained the shrinking ice shelves.

Twenty ice shelves showed signs that they were melting from warm water below.

Changes in wind currents pushed that relatively warmer water closer to and beneath the floating ice shelves.

The wind change is likely caused by a combination of factors, including natural weather variation, the ozone hole and man-made greenhouse gases, Pritchard said in a phone interview.

Wastin away: This map shows Antarctica's ice shelves on the continent's western coast thinning, with the red portion indicating ice thicker than 550 meters, while blue is thinner than 200 meters.

Wastin away: This map shows Antarctica’s ice shelves on the continent’s western coast thinning, with the red portion indicating ice thicker than 550 meters, while blue is thinner than 200 meters.

Cause for concern: Scientist Hamish Pritchard claims that the melting and thinning of floating ice shelves could eventually trigger a rise in sea level

As the floating ice shelves melt and
thin, that in turn triggers snow and ice on land glaciers to slide down
to the floating shelves and eventually into the sea, causing sea level
rise, Pritchard said.

Researcher: Hamish Pritchard is a glaciologist at the British Antarctic Survey

Thicker floating ice shelves usually keep much of the land snow and ice from shedding to sea, but that’s not happening now.

That whole process causes larger and faster sea level rise than simply warmer air melting snow on land-locked glaciers, Pritchard said.

‘It means the ice sheets are highly sensitive to relatively subtle changes in climate through the effects of the wind,’ he said.

What’s happening in Antarctica ‘may have already triggered a period of unstable glacier retreat,’ the study concludes.

If the entire Western Antarctic Ice Sheet were to melt – something that would take many decades if not centuries – scientists have estimated it would lift global sea levels by about 16 feet.

NASA chief scientist Waleed Abdalati,
an expert in Earth’s ice systems who wasn’t involved in the research,
said Pritchard’s study ‘makes an important advance’ and provides key
information about how Antarctica will contribute to global sea level
rise.

Another outside
expert, Ted Scambos of the National Snow and Ice Data Center, said the
paper will change the way scientists think about melt in Antarctica.

Seeing
more warm water encircling the continent, he worries that with ‘a
further push from the wind’ newer areas could start shrinking.

Thaw: If the entire Western Antarctic Ice Sheet were to melt - something that would take many decades if not centuries - scientists have estimated it would lift global sea levels by about 16 feet

Thaw: If the entire Western Antarctic Ice Sheet were to melt – something that would take many decades if not centuries – scientists have estimated it would lift global sea levels by about 16 feet

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Oh I see, so now global climate change cooling…err…warming (or whatever it’s calling itself this week) isn’t ‘directly’ to blame. Is that the distant sound of gentle back-paddling? Never mind that, quick, pay more tax to save the euro as Brussels magic currency controls the weather…oops, sorry…climate.

– Simon, Barnstaple, UK., 26/4/2012 20:35

F.A.O bostonEddie, boston MA USA… Would this be the same National Snow and Ice Data Centre that ZedsDeadBed quoted from the other day on here? The very same organisation that I was able to find out is actually a PRIVATELY owned entity, that has its own agenda. Oh, and that ‘AGENDA’ is as follows: If, there is an INCREASE in ice mass, THEY LOOSE THEIR FUNDING FROM CONGRESS !!! Funny how there ALWAYS seems to be ice LOSS in their studies and reports? The Internet is a wonderful thing BostonEddie, isn’t it. You can find all SORTS of uncomfortable information on it to just pound the Man Made Global Warming fanatics, such as your good self…
– stevie, the REAL world…, 26/4/2012 17:45
================ Stevie, the place you are in is not the REAL world, whatever the voices in your head are telling you.

– Michael, England, 26/4/2012 19:15

Oh, and that ‘AGENDA’ is as follows: If, there is an INCREASE in ice mass, THEY LOOSE THEIR FUNDING FROM CONGRESS !!!
– stevie, the REAL world…, 26/4/2012 17:45
================ What a ridiculous post. You need to grow up.

– Old Timer, Oldcastle, 26/4/2012 18:52

– stevie, the REAL world…, 26/4/2012 17:45

If the sea goes up 16 feet we will all be under water – unless you live on top of a big hill.
– Tommy Baker isn’t Society, Hawkshaw, england, 26/4/2012 16:19…..Sure, if by all you mean anyone who lives less than 16 feet above sea level. In most places that would be anyone more than a mile inland. I know pretty much no one is going to change their mind about AGW, for believers it is religion and no amount of predictions proved wrong or computer models proved wrong (show me a single model that predicted no warming in the last 15 years) is going to shake that belief but let me ask a question. How is paying a tax to do the same thing tomorrow as you did today going to address anything? I’m afraid the rank and file environmentalists are being played as ‘useful idiots’ (Stalin’s term, not mind) by the leaders who for the most part are not environmentalist; they are leftist using AGW to further their deeper agenda.

– Robert, Atlanta, GA USA, 26/4/2012 17:20

On The National Snow and Ice Data Center, online, you’ll see a nice graph showing the constantly decreasing thickness of sea ice. **Antarctic sea ice varies sharply from year to year and after a peak in 1968 is steadily declining (NSIDC/State of the Cryosphere). Now that satellite measurements are more refined, the measured extent is expected to decline even further. Where do these anti-AGW guys get this nonsense?

– bostonEddie, boston MA USA, 26/4/2012 17:03

Google “Antactic volcanoes map”. Coincedence? Ask Hugh Corr of the British Antarctic Survey. He doesn’t think so.
– Completely Average, Somewhere, 26/4/2012 15:14
============= Only if you misquote him.

– Old Timer, Oldcastle, 26/4/2012 16:33

Greenpeace, FoE, WWF and Green Liberal educators ( the BBC?) is wrong, or more likely evil.
– Rusty, Area 51, 26/4/2012 15:46
—————- I seriously wonder about the mental health of some of the contributors on here sometimes.

– George, Durham, 26/4/2012 16:31

The author of this blatantly alarmist article conveniently forgot to include that little tidbit. NATURAL VARIABILITY, not long-term climate change.
– Kay, USA, 26/4/2012 15:01
===================== You have the wrong paper. None of the words you quote are included in the abstract of the paper this article refers to.

– Old Timer, Oldcastle, 26/4/2012 16:29

For Ted Wallis, France: As commented in several postings, Ted, there is no evidence that Antarctic ice is all about to melt away, but if it did, the results might not be as benign as you suggest. A few rough figures:
The area of the oceans is about 140 million square miles (Lutgens, Essentials of Geology)
Using your figures, the volume of Antarctic ice is about 98% x 5.4 million cubic miles = 5.292 million cubic miles. Allowing 10% for shrinkage on melting, this would produce about 4.763 million cubic miles of water. Spreading this over the present area of the oceans would give an increase in surface level of 0.03402 miles = about 180 feet. Yes, this is a very rough-and-ready calculation, and doesn’t consider the spreading that would take places at the shorelines, etc. Still, whether the oceans spread outward or upwards, the effects of all the Antarctic ice melting would be far from negligible. (But never mind: it’s NOT happening …)

– Mike, Dalian, China, 26/4/2012 16:28

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