Global warming melts last stable edge of Greenland’s Zachariae ice stream, scientists say

Updated Mon 17 Mar 2014, 9:29 AM AEDT
Photo

A surge in temperature from 2003 has eased the brakes on Greenland’s Zachariae ice stream.

Jim Yungel/NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, file photo

The last edge of the Greenland ice sheet that resisted global warming has now become unstable, adding billions of tonnes of meltwater to rising seas, scientists have said.

In a study published in the journal Nature Climate Change, researchers said a surge in temperature from 2003 had eased the brakes on a long “river” of ice that flows to the coast in north-eastern Greenland.

Known as an ice stream, the “river” takes ice from a vast basin and slowly shifts it to the sea – in the same way that the Amazon River drains water.

In the past, the flow from this ice stream had been constrained by massive build-ups of ice debris choking its mouth.

But a three-year spell of exceptionally high temperatures removed this blockage and, like a cork removed from a bottle, helped accelerate the flow, the study said.

The ice stream, called Zachariae, is the largest drain from an ice basin that covers a whopping 16 per cent of the Greenland ice sheet.

…(read more).

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Greenland Ice Melt ‘Accelerating,’ Climate Change Awakens ‘Sleeping Giant’

By Philip Ross
on March 16 2014 5:45 PM

Greenland is the world’s largest island holds roughly 680,000 cubic miles of ice within its ice sheet. The ice is up to 3 miles thick in some areas and covers about three-fourths of the island. Reuters

Scientists have known for decades that Greenland’s ice sheet is melting, but they may have underestimated just how much water the second-largest ice sheet on the planet is shedding. New research indicates that a key section of northeast Greenland thought to be stable is actually dumping billions of tons of water into the ocean annually after a barrier of ice debris that had blocked its flow finally gave way.

“We’re seeing an acceleration of ice loss,” Michael Bevis, professor of earth sciences at Ohio State University and co-author of a new study on Greenland’s melting ice sheet, told USA Today. “Now, there’s more ice leaving than snow arriving.”

The study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, included the work of an international team of researchers from Denmark, the Netherlands, the U.S. and China. According to AFP, the team measured the thickness of Greenland’s ice using four satellites and a network of 50 GPS sensors along the island’s coast. The monitors calculate the size of the Greenland ice sheet using Earth’s natural elasticity. When ice melts, it relieves pressure on the land underneath it, causing the ground to rebound just slightly. The monitors can sense these small changes.

….(read more).

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‘Keyboard warriors’ have taken over climate debate, Bill Shorten says

Opposition leader tells scientists that political consensus needs to be built and their findings on climate science defended

• Bridie Jabour
• theguardian.com, Monday 17 March 2014 01.04 EDT

An arctic research vessel investigating climate change. Shorten has said many scientists took popular support for action on climate change ‘for granted’. Photograph: Jenny E. Ross/Corbis

The climate change debate has been abandoned to “conspiracy theorists and keyboard warriors, the social media trolls and the angry shouts of talkback radio”, Bill Shorten says, and scientists should feel insulted their peer-reviewed research is being subject to “feelpinions”.

The opposition leader gave a speech to a “Science meets Parliament” event on Monday in which he said the Labor party would not walk away from action on climate change but the debate had suffered because of people using one-off weather events to justify their science.

He said consensus needed to be built on climate change, with scientists defending their findings more vigorously.

….(read more).

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Niger Delta Communities Pressure Shell on 2011 Oil Spill

E120, e145,

Clean Trillion California Dreamin’

Ceres

Published on Mar 17, 2014

Business leaders from Sungevity, Sapphire Energy, KB Home and CleanTECH San Diego talk about California’s clean energy policies and their companies’ innovations to cut GHG emissions and help build a clean energy future.

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Bigger is More Fragile

thomhartmann

Published on Mar 13, 2014

Thom Hartmann talks the demise of small businesses in the U.S. thanks to Libertarian theology and Raganomics.

If you liked this clip of The Thom Hartmann Program, please do us a big favor and share it with your friends… and hit that “like” button!

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Food-Matters

Ring of Fire – 11 March 2014

freespeechtv

Published on Mar 11, 2014

Dr. Tom Schneider will explain the growing problem of preventable medical errors, and what’s being done to curb this epidemic.

Ian Millhiser, editor of Think Progress Justice in Washington, D.C., will take us on a journey into.

Author Cliff Schecter will tell us how income inequality is poisoning our democracy.

Author and American Prospect contributing editor Paul Waldman will explain why success in big business doesn’t translate into success in politics.

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Ring of Fire 3/16/1

freespeechtv

Published on Mar 17, 2014

Attorney Seth Katz will explain the problem with corporate fines, specifically, why they do absolutely nothing to curtail criminal behavior.

Howard Nations will tell us what an economic disaster NAFTA has been for America, and we’ll discuss dangers of the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership.

Joe Cotchett will tell us about the rising tide of populism among Democrats in Washington.

And David Haynes will explain the political scandals surrounding the most promising GOP heavyweights.

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Thom Hartmann on the Science and Green News – March 17, 2014

thomhartmann

Published on Mar 17, 2014

Thom Hartmann comments on the science and green news for the week of March 17, 2014

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Nuclear

Manufacturing a Narrative for War – Gareth Porter on Reality Asserts Itself

TheRealNews

Published on Mar 15, 2014

On Reality Asserts Itself, Mr. Porter tells Paul Jay that by the end of the Vietnam War, he understood the US government and military could do terrible things

TheRealNews

Published on Mar 16, 2014

Mr. Porter tells Paul Jay about his new book “Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare”

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