Greenland glacier recedes 10 miles in 8 years

[Chris]

Greenland's glaciers under threat from climate change
By Slim Allagui – 14 hours ago

ILULISSAT, Greenland (AFP) — One of the world's largest glaciers, on the west coast of Greenland, is shrinking at an alarming rate as a result of global warming -- with potentially dire consequences.

Ilulissat, a UNESCO-listed glacier, is shedding ice into the sea faster than ever before, according to one of Denmark's top experts on glaciology.

Andreas Peter Ahlstroem, a researcher with the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland institute, told AFP that the glacier has receded by more than 15 kilometres (10 miles) since 2001.

"Its calving rate (breaking off of ice) has never been so rapid," he said.

The Ilulissat glacier and icefjord have been on UNESCO's world heritage list since 2004 and is the most visited site in Greenland, its ice and pools of emerald-blue water admired by tourists and studied by scientists and politicians around the world.

The Danish government chose Ilulissat as the venue for recent talks with some 30 countries to discuss ways to slow global warming -- a place that Shfaqat Abbas Khan, a glacier expert from the Danish Space Centre, describes as the "most visible and striking example of climate change."

The glacier is the most active in the northern hemisphere, producing 85 million tonnes of icebergs per day, according to Khan.

AFP: Greenland's glaciers under threat from climate change

 

[Chris]

This glacier shrunk by 10 miles in the last 8 years.

 

[Old Rocks]

Ah, but Chris, the glacier inside the crater of St. Helens has grown by a couple of hundred yards in the same period, so it balances out, right?

 

[code1211]

This glacier shrunk by 10 miles in the last 8 years.

Is Long Beach under water yet?

 

[johnrocks]

What are we supposed to do about it,enact a "war on ice cubes" or something?

 

[xsited1]

Greenland glacier recedes 10 miles in 8 years

My ice maker has been running overtime. I'm going to overnight a package of ice cubes to Greenland first thing tomorrow. I've instructed all my friends to do the same. The problem should be solved by the end of the week.

 

[KittenKoder]

If all this ice is melting then where the hell is it going?

 

[dilloduck]

The glaciers are retreating !! The glaciers are retreating !!! We've won the cold war !!!!

 

[Missourian]

Ancient Greenland was actually green!




The oldest ever recovered DNA samples have been collected from under more than a mile of Greenland ice, and their analysis suggests the island was much warmer during the last Ice Age than previously thought.

The DNA is proof that sometime between 450,000 and 800,000 years ago, much of Greenland was especially green and covered in a boreal forest that was home to alder, spruce and pine trees, as well as insects such as butterflies and beetles.
From the genetic material of these organisms, the researchers infer that Greenland’s temperature once varied from 50 degrees Fahrenheit in summer to 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit in winter — the temperature range that the tree species prefer.

Ancient Greenland was actually green! - LiveScience- msnbc.com

Must have been dinosaur fart induced global warming and Viking-made climate change that melted it the last couple times.

 

[Missourian]

Greenland was once very Green

Is this what southern Greenland looked like 400,000 years ago?

More from those Greenland ice cores............

Scientists from the University of Quebec at Montreal looked at pollen within the sediment ice cores dating back almost a million years and they indicate that Greenland was much greener than it is today with several warm periods over the million-year span. The data indicates that there was extensive fernlike vegetation about 125,000 years ago and widespread spruce forests about 400,000 years ago, which would look similar to the current day Norway.

Scientists already knew that Greenland had a warmer past, but the ice-core data tells them that past climate warming on the Greenland ice sheet was much greater than previously believed, according to the Canwest news service article.

The study, published in the journal Science, does indicate that it did take a 20,000 year warm period to melt back the ice sheet enough to allow the spruce forest to grow over southern Greenland, but paleoclimatologist and co-author Alexander Wolfe notes that these warm spells occurred with greenhouse gas emissions 30% lower than they are today.

AccuWeather.com: Global Warming News, Science, Myths, Articles

More for you to digest.

Just think, if you had only been born half a million years ago, you would have been there to sound the alarm.

 

[KittenKoder]

Greenland was once very Green

Is this what southern Greenland looked like 400,000 years ago?

More from those Greenland ice cores............

Scientists from the University of Quebec at Montreal looked at pollen within the sediment ice cores dating back almost a million years and they indicate that Greenland was much greener than it is today with several warm periods over the million-year span. The data indicates that there was extensive fernlike vegetation about 125,000 years ago and widespread spruce forests about 400,000 years ago, which would look similar to the current day Norway.

Scientists already knew that Greenland had a warmer past, but the ice-core data tells them that past climate warming on the Greenland ice sheet was much greater than previously believed, according to the Canwest news service article.

The study, published in the journal Science, does indicate that it did take a 20,000 year warm period to melt back the ice sheet enough to allow the spruce forest to grow over southern Greenland, but paleoclimatologist and co-author Alexander Wolfe notes that these warm spells occurred with greenhouse gas emissions 30% lower than they are today.

AccuWeather.com: Global Warming News, Science, Myths, Articles

More for you to digest.

Just think, if you had only been born half a million years ago, you would have been there to sound the alarm.

Ooops, now you've done it ... all the peer pressured scientists will have to make you "disappear" like all the others.

 

[DavidS]

Ancient Greenland was actually green!




The oldest ever recovered DNA samples have been collected from under more than a mile of Greenland ice, and their analysis suggests the island was much warmer during the last Ice Age than previously thought.

The DNA is proof that sometime between 450,000 and 800,000 years ago, much of Greenland was especially green and covered in a boreal forest that was home to alder, spruce and pine trees, as well as insects such as butterflies and beetles.
From the genetic material of these organisms, the researchers infer that Greenland’s temperature once varied from 50 degrees Fahrenheit in summer to 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit in winter — the temperature range that the tree species prefer.

Ancient Greenland was actually green! - LiveScience- msnbc.com

Must have been dinosaur fart induced global warming and Viking-made climate change that melted it the last couple times.

Actually, "ancient greenland" wasn't so ancient. Greenland was Green during the time when the Vikings settled it... which is why it was named.... GREENland.

That was a bit more than 1,000 years ago.

Additionally, this took place during the medieval warm period which was also a time of abnormally high sunspot activity.

 

[KittenKoder]

Ancient Greenland was actually green!




The oldest ever recovered DNA samples have been collected from under more than a mile of Greenland ice, and their analysis suggests the island was much warmer during the last Ice Age than previously thought.

The DNA is proof that sometime between 450,000 and 800,000 years ago, much of Greenland was especially green and covered in a boreal forest that was home to alder, spruce and pine trees, as well as insects such as butterflies and beetles.
From the genetic material of these organisms, the researchers infer that Greenland’s temperature once varied from 50 degrees Fahrenheit in summer to 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit in winter — the temperature range that the tree species prefer.

Ancient Greenland was actually green! - LiveScience- msnbc.com

Must have been dinosaur fart induced global warming and Viking-made climate change that melted it the last couple times.

Actually, "ancient greenland" wasn't so ancient. Greenland was Green during the time when the Vikings settled it... which is why it was named.... GREENland.

That was a bit more than 1,000 years ago.

Additionally, this took place during the medieval warm period which was also a time of abnormally high sunspot activity.

Wow ... you admitted that it wasn't suppose to be a glacier ... I'm surprised.

 

[DavidS]

Must have been dinosaur fart induced global warming and Viking-made climate change that melted it the last couple times.

Actually, "ancient greenland" wasn't so ancient. Greenland was Green during the time when the Vikings settled it... which is why it was named.... GREENland.

That was a bit more than 1,000 years ago.

Additionally, this took place during the medieval warm period which was also a time of abnormally high sunspot activity.

Wow ... you admitted that it wasn't suppose to be a glacier ... I'm surprised.

why? I'm about as pro-global warming as Chris is pro-Sarah Palin.

 

[KittenKoder]

Actually, "ancient greenland" wasn't so ancient. Greenland was Green during the time when the Vikings settled it... which is why it was named.... GREENland.

That was a bit more than 1,000 years ago.

Additionally, this took place during the medieval warm period which was also a time of abnormally high sunspot activity.

Wow ... you admitted that it wasn't suppose to be a glacier ... I'm surprised.

why? I'm about as pro-global warming as Chris is pro-Sarah Palin.

Bah! Don't ruin my fun ...

 

[DavidS]

Wow ... you admitted that it wasn't suppose to be a glacier ... I'm surprised.

why? I'm about as pro-global warming as Chris is pro-Sarah Palin.

Bah! Don't ruin my fun ...

I'm not in charge of KK's fun. You need a pair of double a batteries and something long and narrow for fun.

 

[editec]

It continues to amaze me that we cannot even settle on something so obvious as whether glaciers are retreating.

Now clearly I'm not in a position to know since I'm not there, but surely somebody must be.

When we cannot even come to agreement about something that must clearly exist in the world (like the state of glaciers worldwide) there's not a change that we can agree on issues that are less obvious.

Look, either (none, few, some, many or all) glaciers are melting or they're not.

The reality (whatever it is) is really not subject to debate, is it?

So what is it?

Are glaciers melting or not?

 

[Old Rocks]

Ancient Greenland was actually green!




The oldest ever recovered DNA samples have been collected from under more than a mile of Greenland ice, and their analysis suggests the island was much warmer during the last Ice Age than previously thought.

The DNA is proof that sometime between 450,000 and 800,000 years ago, much of Greenland was especially green and covered in a boreal forest that was home to alder, spruce and pine trees, as well as insects such as butterflies and beetles.
From the genetic material of these organisms, the researchers infer that Greenland’s temperature once varied from 50 degrees Fahrenheit in summer to 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit in winter — the temperature range that the tree species prefer.

Ancient Greenland was actually green! - LiveScience- msnbc.com

Must have been dinosaur fart induced global warming and Viking-made climate change that melted it the last couple times.

There have been many periods in geological history during which the Earth warmed rapidly. The rapid addition of GHGs from volcanic action and outgassing of clathrates was the cause in both the Permian-Triassic Extinction, and in the PETM, which also involved an extinction period. Just because human beings are the cause of the rapid buildup of the GHGs today does not excuse us from the consequences of that buildup. That is determined by physics, not somebody's idea of "how things ought to be".

Methane catastrophe - 05 March 2005 - New Scientist

Methane catastrophe

Clathrate gun hypothesis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Melting Arctic Ocean Raises Threat of ‘Methane Time Bomb’ by Susan Q. Stranahan: Yale Environment 360

30 Oct 2008: Report
Melting Arctic Ocean Raises Threat of ‘Methane Time Bomb’
Scientists have long believed that thawing permafrost in Arctic soils could release huge amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Now they are watching with increasing concern as methane begins to bubble up from the bottom of the fast-melting Arctic Ocean.
by susan q. stranahan

For the past 15 years, scientists from Russia and other nations have ventured into the ice-bound and little-studied Arctic Ocean above Siberia to monitor the temperature and chemistry of the sea, including levels of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Their scientific cruises on the shallow continental shelf occurred as sea ice in the Arctic Ocean was rapidly melting and as northern Siberia was earning the distinction — along with the North American Arctic and the western Antarctic Peninsula —of warming faster than any place on Earth.

Until 2003, concentrations of methane had remained relatively stable in the Arctic Ocean and the atmosphere north of Siberia. But then they began to rise. This summer, scientists taking part in the six-week International Siberian Shelf Study discovered numerous areas, spread over thousands of square miles, where large quantities of methane — a gas with 20-times the heat-trapping power of carbon dioxide — rose from the once-frozen seabed floor.

 

[Old Rocks]

It continues to amaze me that we cannot even settle on something so obvious as whether glaciers are retreating.

Now clearly I'm not in a position to know since I'm not there, but surely somebody must be.

When we cannot even come to agreement about something that must clearly exist in the world (like the state of glaciers worldwide) there's not a change that we can agree on issues that are less obvious.

Look, either (none, few, some, many or all) glaciers are melting or they're not.

The reality (whatever it is) is really not subject to debate, is it?

So what is it?

Are glaciers melting or not?

Yes, they are. With the exception of a few that are recieving more snow from the increased water vapor in the atmosphere, virtually all the worlds glaciers are in retreat.

IPCC Third Assessment Report - Climate Change 2001 - Complete online versions | UNEP/GRID-Arendal - Publications - Other

http://assets.panda.org/downloads/glacierspaper.pdf

SOTC: Glaciers

World’s Glaciers Shrink for 18th Year in Alps, Andes (Update2) - Bloomberg.com

Thirsty Yet? Alpine Glaciers in Full Retreat | Use Celsias.com - reduce global °Celsius

http://www.forestry.ubc.ca/Portals/54/docs/screen-pdfs/02-mountain-science-glacial-retreat-view.pdf

These are just some of the sites where one can obtain information on the extant of the present deglaciation.

 

[Old Rocks]

Actually, "ancient greenland" wasn't so ancient. Greenland was Green during the time when the Vikings settled it... which is why it was named.... GREENland.

That was a bit more than 1,000 years ago.

Additionally, this took place during the medieval warm period which was also a time of abnormally high sunspot activity.

Wow ... you admitted that it wasn't suppose to be a glacier ... I'm surprised.

why? I'm about as pro-global warming as Chris is pro-Sarah Palin.

I do not think that any reasonable person is "pro global warming". However, some of us prefer to see reality for what it is.