The largest ice shelf in the world just collapsed.....

Vesayen · September 22, 2003, 19:17

Can you say......... ****?

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science...eut/index.html

I dont see why this isnt a bigger deal in the media, this can have enormeous repurcussions.....

Japher · September 22, 2003, 19:19

Quote:

Local warming of the climate is to blame, they said -- adding that they did not have the evidence needed to link the melting ice to the steady, planet-wide climate change known as global warming.

What a stupid statement...

Provost Harrison · September 22, 2003, 19:20

Nuke the icebergs!

Japher · September 22, 2003, 19:21

Traianvs · September 22, 2003, 19:21

sadly, this isn't 'breaking' news, or nobody got killed, so for the media it's not important..

well we saw this coming, and it will continue to happen

Vesayen · September 22, 2003, 19:28

God I hate the human race.... well no, thats not accurate, I hate the rediculously vain and pan in the flash media, and the ignorant population who dosent care whats going on outside their back yard.....

For all we know this could be the start of the entire artic-ice shelf collapsing, AKA the APOCALYPSE and this dosent even get 5 minutes on the nightly news.

Traianvs · September 22, 2003, 19:38

you said it brother!

General Ludd · September 22, 2003, 19:39

meh, big deal. You see that thing about the water skiing squirrel?

Mr. President · September 22, 2003, 19:43

You underestimate people's resourcefulness.

Vesayen · September 22, 2003, 19:45

No I dont, time has shown people dont care about world events......

Mr. President · September 22, 2003, 19:51

If people could adapt to the Black Plague and the eruption of Krakatoa, they can adapt to anything.

Skanky Burns · September 22, 2003, 19:57

Nova?

Kuciwalker · September 22, 2003, 20:01

Well, a part of the sun would be left. We could all live in underground bunkers (or some of us) until the explosion finished.

flipside · September 22, 2003, 20:05

How is this viewed elsewhere?
It is a scientific fact that we know that the planet is warming.
It is a fact that we know that pollutants cause local warming.
It is a fact that this planet is at it's highest ever level of pollution.
It is a fact that we still cannot tell the difference between short term variance and long term patterns.
It seems to be a fact that we will butt-bang this planet until we have proved it is dead.

Kuciwalker · September 22, 2003, 20:09

DL DANCE!

It is a fact that we are still leaving an ice age.

chequita guevara · September 22, 2003, 20:19

Collapsing ice shelfs aren't really a problem. It would be similar to a huge chunk of the Arctic ice flows breaking off, they're already floating on water, so they won't raise the sea level or anything.

BUT! (there's always a but), what this does do is removes the pressure from in front of the glaciers, so they can no more rapidly advance into the sea.

BTW, skywalker, we are not leaving an ice age, we are still in one. Ice Ages are very long. We are in what is known as an instatial thaw, kinda like when it gets really warm in the middle of winter for a few days.

Kuciwalker · September 22, 2003, 20:22

If you are leaving the Ice Age, you are still in it. Only after you have left are you no longer in it.

You knew what I meant anyways.

General Ludd · September 22, 2003, 20:23

Can an ice age end in one persons life time?

Kuciwalker · September 22, 2003, 20:24

Well, an ice age is really a fuzzy time period. Lots of furry creatures to keep warm, etc.

What I mean is that you usually can't say "it started today" or "it ended today". You probably can't even specify the year. These things last around ten thousand years.

chequita guevara · September 22, 2003, 20:38

Quote:

Originally posted by skywalker
These things last around ten thousand years.

Actually, they last quite a bit longer than that. This thaw has lasted ten thousand years.

However, it's possible we could end the ice age in our lifetime through global warming. We could also send it roaring back with a vengence if we manage to get it warm enough that the oceanic conveyor shuts down.

General Ludd · September 22, 2003, 20:40

Quote:

Originally posted by skywalker
Well, an ice age is really a fuzzy time period. Lots of furry creatures to keep warm, etc.

What I mean is that you usually can't say "it started today" or "it ended today". You probably can't even specify the year. These things last around ten thousand years.

Then why is it 'ending' so quickly?

chequita guevara · September 22, 2003, 20:41

Quote:

Originally posted by Osweld
Then why is it 'ending' so quickly?

No one (in the know) says it's ending.

Dis · September 22, 2003, 20:59

global warming is my theory why we have so much crazier weather lately.

of course none of tha crazy weather affects me

Okay I'm being self absorbed there. I should care about people who live in hurricane/tornado/blizzard zones. Because I want people to continue living there, I don't want them moving to wear I live and ruining things. Weather is perfect where I live, and I don't think it could support 6 billion people.

Berzerker · September 22, 2003, 21:24

Quote:

Can an ice age end in one persons life time?

Tough to say, the mechanisms that cause ice advances and retreats can occur in a lifetime, but the effects of those mechanisms usually take much longer to be realised. There's evidence from ~115,000 years ago of an ice advance not only starting but it's impact being felt withing a few years. Pollen from NW Europe shows vegetation changed rapidly from an "interstatial" - warming period - to a glacial period and this happened "suddenly" geologically speaking, within as few as 20 years.

At the end of the last ice advance, ~13,000 years ago, the planet had been warming for about 1,000 years but suddenly reverted back to glacial conditions in NE America and NW Europe. This was caused by a retreating ice sheet covering the Great Lakes region weakening enough for "Lake Agassiz" - a monstrous lake once located just to the NW of Lake Superior - to break through and drain down the St Lawrence pouring into the N Atlantic shutting down the "conveyor belt" system - a mechanism for transfering heat from the tropics to the poles. Of note, this conveyor system for re-distributing heat to the poles roughly follows the path of hurricanes.

This period also saw other vast glacial lakes bursting their ice dams, Lake Bonneville in Utah and Lake Missoula in Idaho and Montana, and those Siberian glacial lakes responsible for the sudden freezing of mammoths so often cited by "Great Flood" proponents...

Btw, technically speaking, we're in an ice age and have been for millions of years. While there may be evidence from long ago of ice ages, several theories have been advanced to explain the one we're in. The rise of the Himalayas ~40 million years ago changing the jet stream, the closing off of the Panama Isthmus shutting down the transfer of tropical and equatorial waters between the Pacific and Atlantic, etc.

I seriously doubt "warming" in Antactica caused the ice shelf's collapse and I'd love to see the evidence. Ice shelfs can only grow so larger before they break off and that is a natural cycle, not something induced by man.

DRoseDARs · September 22, 2003, 21:30

Minor point-of-correction in that last sentence, Berzerker:
Arctic (north pole), not ANTarctic (south pole).

That's all; carry on...

Verto · September 22, 2003, 22:08

How do we know this is the beginning of the apocalypse, because the world is warming? Who is to say this isn't simply the continuation of a cycle, which is what Harvard's studies have found.

Berzerker · September 22, 2003, 22:58

Oh, I didn't read the link and just assumed it was a chunk of the southern ice shelf that broke off. Aside from Greenland, I didn't even know there was a significant ice shelf at the north pole since it's all water and ice up there.

Lancer · September 23, 2003, 00:41

Che is correct. We are in the middle of an ice age, enjoying a few sunny millenium. That is a fact, according to the ice cores reamed out of the very deepest ancient pack ice, according to past ice ages. If this ice age is anything like prior ones, get some good thermals.

So, when you drive your car you are in fact preserving the world as we know it, and perhaps delaying the next inevitable 'snowball earth' scn.

Do a search for 'snowball earth'. I dare you.

Ted Striker · September 23, 2003, 00:46

Does your brother's ass get cold in the summer though?

Oerdin · September 23, 2003, 01:40

Lancer: We're actually on the tail end of an ice age and not in the middle of one.