Ice Caps Melting Fast: Say Goodbye to the Big Apple?

from AlterNet:



Ice Caps Melting Fast: Say Goodbye to the Big Apple?

By Paul Brown, AlterNet. Posted October 10, 2007.


The talk of sea level rise should not be in centuries, it should be decades or perhaps even single years. And coastal regions like New York and Florida are in the front line for devastation.


It is hard to shock journalists and at the same time leave them in awe of the power of nature. A group returning from a helicopter trip flying over, then landing on, the Greenland ice cap at the time of maximum ice melt last month were shaken. One shrugged and said:"It is too late already."

What they were all talking about was the moulins, not one moulin but hundreds, possibly thousands. "Moulin" is a word I had only just become familiar with. It is the name for a giant hole in a glacier through which millions of gallons of melt water cascade through to the rock below. The water has the effect of lubricating the glaciers so they move at three times the rate that they did previously.

Some of these moulins in Greenland are so big that they run on the scale of Niagra Falls. The scientists who accompanied these journalists on the trip were almost as alarmed. That is pretty significant because they are world experts on ice and Greenland in particular. We were visiting Ilulissat, Greenland, once a stronghold of Innuit hunters but now with so little ice that the dog sleds are in danger of falling through even in the depth of winter. But it is not the lack of sea ice that worries scientists and should be of serious concern to the inhabitants of coastal zones across the world. Cities like New York and states like Florida are in the front line.

Scientists know this already, but just to give you some idea of the problem, the Greenland ice cap is melting at such a fast rate it is triggering earthquakes as pieces of ice several cubic kilometres in size break up.

Scientists say the acceleration of melting and subsequent speeding up of giant glaciers could be catastrophic in terms of sea level rise and make previous predictions published this year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) far too low. The glacier at Ilulissat, which it is believed spawned the iceberg which sank the Titantic, is now flowing three times faster into the sea than it was 10 years ago. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/environment/64735/

to the greatest extent humanly possible.

I don't subscribe to the RW nonsense that it's a done deal so we can't or shouldn't even bother to mitigate.

I'll be the first to admit I'm obsessed with that though since the nightmare I had this past summer, which I've talked about here before. Can someone please explain to me why I could be wrong about it? I have a mother-in-law in Pensacola whom I love to pieces and I fear for what could happen down there with only hours to prepare for it rather than days like with a hurricane.

I was starting to wonder if the previous reference to this last month was a typo. I guess not.

A meter a second. Now that's a surge!

..that is MOVING!!!

:P

& only one, besides me, is concerned about global warming. One guy told me that there aren't enough humans to affect climate change. "Seven billion people is about the equivalent of 7 million ants in Colorado." :eyes: How do you respond to that level of ignorance?

We are up against a population that doesn't want to change their way of life. Everyone wants the world to be a better place but no one wants to be inconvenienced to make it so.

I find that even most of the people who have some level of concern have no idea just how serious the situation has become. Everybody thinks that since everything has been basically very ok in their life's experience, that the world will continue along without causing any real inconvenience. Sure maybe it'll be a bit warmer (but lots of people hate winter so that's ok) and maybe the weather will be weird but few believe that immense, perhaps even violent, change may be at our doorstep.

To all appearances, we belong to a civilization and a species which needs to be kicked repeatedly in the face before getting the message.

If so, so be it.

Sadly, I have to agree. :cry:
I had a discussion with a co-worker the other day, one who claims to be green-friendly, and I was railing against McMansions (she lives in one) and suburban sprawl. Her argument was that you can make the houses more energy-efficient and that will solve the problems.
Then I brought up the incredible amount of land these houses eat up, the amount of material required to build them, the automobile usage that results from these subdivisions that move further and further away from the city center etc etc. It was as if I was talking to the wall, because none of it seemed to penetrate...

:dunce: :dunce: :dunce:

...and will soon be synonymous for 'the speed of a brisk walk'.

:P

I believe that the best antidote to despair is action. But when confronted with these kinds of looming catastrophes, I am at a loss as to what actions to take. Any thoughts?

Do everything you can to convince others of THEIR need to do same.

Do everything you can to convince government that this is truly an EMERGENCY.

That's about half of what typical households around here consume. CFLs and power strips.

I don't share the belief that we can make a difference. Until the coorporate monopoly on power is changed, nothing will change. Our carbon footprint is so small compared to the effects the big players have as to make one persons meager attempts to affect the outcome laughable.

Sorry, I'm not saying don't conserve and be green, just don't be obsessed with it 'cause it doesn't matter in the long run how obsessed you get - the change must come from those above. We'd be better to shake up the power structure and stop wasting our time trying to reduce our individual "footprint".

:P

Leadership! Let's elect Al Gore so that we maximize our chances. He should have been at the top of the ticket in 1992 but 2008 is the best we can do now. He has a host of global and national specifics to give us our best chances of survival.

but unfortunately, I think he is too feed up with the BS to run. One can only give so much. I hope he runs too, but I fear that he is feed up with the republican attack machine and doesn't want to pay that high price yet again.

it appears to me it is already too late.

Looks like we're in for some fun in the sun. Should be a good show though. It will be fun to watch the republicans sweat while still in denial.