Antarctic Ice Loss Jumps 75% in One Year!

The global warming Deniers (and the rest of us) just can't catch a break: Vast areas of the Antarctic ice sheet -- which has 10 times as much ice as Greenland -- is losing mass much faster than anyone expected. And the rate of ice loss has quickened in the last decade. In fact, 2007's ice loss was 75% higher than 2006's.

Jeez, it's almost like ... I don't know ... the whole friggin' planet is melting, and we are to blame! If only we had a group of scientists who would, like, report regularly on the impending catastrophe and explain to us how to avoid it....

As the Washington Post reports:

"Without doubt, Antarctica as a whole is now losing ice yearly, and each year it's losing more," said Eric Rignot, lead author of a paper published online in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Note to the Washington Post -- one of the many, many reasons traditional media are losing eyeballs to the blogosphere is that your embedded hyperlinks go bizarre places, rather than to, say, the study you are citing!

Here is the link to Nature's story on the article (note to Nature -- uhh, you folks could include a link to the actual study, too). And here, finally, is the link to the article, "Recent Antarctic ice mass loss from radar interferometry and regional climate modelling" by Eric Rignot et al. A subscription is required for the whole article, but the abstract is available:

Large uncertainties remain in the current and future contribution to sea level rise from Antarctica. Climate warming may increase snowfall in the continent's interior, but enhance glacier discharge at the coast where warmer air and ocean temperatures erode the buttressing ice shelves. Here, we use satellite interferometric synthetic-aperture radar observations from 1992 to 2006 covering 85% of Antarctica's coastline to estimate the total mass flux into the ocean. We compare the mass fluxes from large drainage basin units with interior snow accumulation calculated from a regional atmospheric climate model for 1980 to 2004. In East Antarctica, small glacier losses in Wilkes Land and glacier gains at the mouths of the Filchner and Ross ice shelves combine to a near-zero loss of 4 Gt yr^-1. In West Antarctica, widespread losses along the Bellingshausen and Amundsen seas increased the ice sheet loss by 59% in 10 years to reach 132 Gt yr^-1 in 2006. In the Peninsula, losses increased by 140% to reach 60 Gt yr^-1 in 2006. Losses are concentrated along narrow channels occupied by outlet glaciers and are caused by ongoing and past glacier acceleration. Changes in glacier flow therefore have a significant, if not dominant impact on ice sheet mass balance.

Just for the record, the loss of Greenland's ice sheet by itself could raise sea levels 20 feet. The West Antarctic ice sheet would add another 20 feet. How fast could it all happen? Pretty darn fast, just going by the last interglacial.

Anybody out there who still believes business-as-usual energy use won't result in multi-multi-meter sea level?

The time to act is now. If not sooner.

Comments

[curtlanai]

Take the time to listen carefully to the govt. funded scientists who claim that the ice melting is because of global warming and all you will really here is 'we think', 'it looks like', 'evidence suggests', 'in our expert opinion.' Not one of them has furnished one ounce of proof for their claims. If they are so 'expert' then why didn't they see the incredible increase in melt coming??? Right now the ice is melting at a magnitude of 4.5+ times faster than the 'so called' temperature' that they have said that the planet has risen (another untruth)! They have agenda!!!

The real truth is that there is something else far bigger happening on the planet. Let me suggest 'Tales from the Time Loop' by David Icke. Good things are happening in the background like http://www.republicoflakotah.com/

Curt serenepeace.com

[lungfish]

I live at the edge of the sea and derive part of my living from it (teaching freediving) and I can tell you that the tides are getting higher and covering more of the shoreline. Plus tides are definitely higher.

I live in Hawaii, on the Big Island, and the stories from those of my friends who are always in or on the sea support the contention that sea levels are rising. Tongan, Fijian and Micronesian islanders are noticing it as well and several islands have already been evacuated due to their lack of high ground.

A few inches rise in sea level may not seem like much but when it is calculated as part of storm surge during a typhoon those few inches can make a terrific difference in the amount of safe ground.

I remember commentary by scientists in the late 1970s and early 1980s that was amazingly accurate and consistent with todays data so it isn't like we weren't warned.

Personally I am particularly disturbed by the failure of cyclic plankton blooms that are critical to the food cycles of most sea creatures. These failings are a very, very bad sign that the sea systems are in flux and many creatures and human livelyhoods are in peril.

Whether or not it is our fault - climate shifts and extreme ones have been happening throughout Earths history - it is going to effect everyone and acting like we don't need to do what we can to minimize our contribution to the problem is a sure way to gaurantee catastrophe.

Even if Dubya moves to Paraguay we can rest assured that he will suffer directly because the ozone layer over the poles is so thin that the southern end of South America is recieving a lot of UV, enough to blind and burn people and animals that are exposed to it....

[nosanity]

trouble in Antartica you say , time to invade { insert middle eastern country of preference hear } offer limited to countries with vast quantities of oil only please , terrorist attack optional

[dogman44]

The answer is obvious, in the name our national security and corporate profit we must
attack Antarctica NOW!!

[PaulMauriceMartin]

The BBC is especially good on consistent environmental reporting. In brief, I think I can confidently say all that Al Gore's gotten for his efforts to date is a lot of green branding.

Paul Martin – originalfaith.com