Studies Show Ice Melting and Ocean Warming Both Happening Much Faster Than Previously Thought

Discussion in 'Politics' started by Frederick Foresight, Jan 17, 2019.

  1. https://www.commondreams.org/news/2...warming-both-happening-much-faster-previously

    "Just a reminder that behind each day's controversies, the biggest story is constantly playing out."


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    A new study by researchers at the University of California, Irvine, found that ice in Antarctica is melting at a far faster rate than it did in the 1980s.

    A multitude of new climate studies has painted a picture of the numerous factors that are simultaneously leading to rising sea levels, which could increase by more than 10 feet by the end of the century.

    Scientists at University of California, Irvine found significant acceleration in the melting of ice across Antarctica, compared with how fast the ice was melting in the 1980s.

    On social media, author and 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben was among those who issued a reminder that despite daily news regarding the Trump administration, the climate crisis remains "the biggest story" affecting the entire planet.





    The report, led by glaciologist Eric Rignot and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, revealed that the southernmost continent has lost 278 billion tons of ice per year since 2009—an enormous change from the 1980s, when about 44 billion tons of ice there melted annually.

    Compared to just last year, the Antarctic ice is melting 15 percent faster, with East Antarctica—previously found to be relatively stable from year to year—now losing 56 billion tons of ice per year. Rignot told CNN that he had not expected ice in the eastern part of the continent to be melting at such an alarming rate.

    "This region is probably more sensitive to climate [change] than has traditionally been assumed, and that's important to know, because it holds even more ice than West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula together," Rignot said in a statement.

    Rignot examined 176 basins across the continent where ice drains into the ocean, and found that warm, salty water near the edge of the ice mass is "vigorously [melting] the ice shelves."

    The newly accelerated melting of East Antarctica alone is expected to increase the risk of "multi-meter sea level rise from Antarctica in the coming centuries," Rignot added.

    Meanwhile, a separate study published in Science last week showed that the planet's oceans are warming about 40 percent faster than scientists indicated in 2013 in the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report.

    The oceans have absorbed about 90 percent of the energy created by fossil fuel extraction over the last century, keeping the planet's land from warming more than it already has.

    "The ocean is saving us from massive warming right now," Malin L. Pinsky, an associate professor at Rutgers University, told the New York Times.

    But with the rate of warming accelerating rapidly just in the past few years, and 2018 expected to be the warmest year yet for oceans, humans can expect to see increasingly destructive hurricanes; the ruination of ecosystems, affecting food security for people in many parts of the world; and rising sea levels.

    The new studies offer "further proof that climate science—and knowledge about the risks we face in the future—are getting better, more accurate, and more sophisticated."
     
    futurecurrents likes this.
  2. WeToddDid2

    WeToddDid2

    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-018-0207-4

    A decadal cycle dominates the ocean record, with melt changing by a factor of about four between cool and warm extremes via a nonlinear relationship with ocean temperature. A warm phase that peaked around 2009 coincided with ice-shelf thinning and retreat of the grounding line, which re-advanced during a post-2011 cool phase. These observations demonstrate how discontinuous ice retreat is linked with ocean variability, and that the strength and timing of decadal extremes is more influential than changes in the longer-term mean state.
     
  3. Isn’t this good news? Because 40 years ago the media was warning us about the coming ice age!
    Look at Time Magazine Jan 31, 1977 as an example.

    Almost seems like a complete 180 in just 40 years.
    Oh wait. That’s exactly what it is.

    Who knew the billions of years old earth could change so much in such a short time? Dreading the coming ice age again in 40 years. Scary.
     
  4. gwb-trading

    gwb-trading

     
  5. TJustice

    TJustice

    Just a reminder Ocean warming and cooling leads atmospheric co2 levels up and down. Bouth over the short term and by 12 months... this has been tested and shown in peer reviewed studies.

    Also... most of the warming is happening in the Indian Oceans where we have underwater vents and volcanoes.

    Also some of the significant polar melt is happening above an active Volcano.

    So it is possible the oceans are warming.... but there is no science stating that the warming is due to man mad CO2.
     
  6. Buy1Sell2

    Buy1Sell2

    Cyclical and Normal. Thank you for your time.
     
    Clubber Lang and gwb-trading like this.
  7. Buy1Sell2

    Buy1Sell2

    AH HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ---OH HOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOH-- EH HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE
     
  8. Yeah six foot rise is more likely, but at least a meter. That's a lot of shoreline. PLus the increased storm strength equals much damage and death and it's just starting. Sea level rise is increasing and will continue to for hundreds of years.

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  9. Oh, and despite jem's(TJustice) derangement which needs medication, CO2 is still a powerful greenhouse gas and this has happened.

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  10. gwb-trading

    gwb-trading


    NOAA — Straight Talk on Sea Level Rise
    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/03/20/noaa-straight-talk-on-sea-level-rise/
     
    #10     Feb 4, 2019
    traderob likes this.