Just read on Reuters that there is actually some good news coming from an "ice study."
A study of Greenland's ice sheet has revealed that a vast store of planet-warming methane appears to be more stable than thought, easing fears of a rapid rise in temperatures, a scientist said on Friday.
Scientists have feared climate change could trigger a huge release of methane from the clathrate reservoir, sending global warming spiraling out of control.
An estimated 5,000 billion tonnes of carbon are locked up in these deposits, said Vasilii Petrenko of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado.
Only about one trillionth of the methane from the air bubbles contained the carbon-14 isotope. The analysis was undertaken at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization.
Warmer oceans, caused by general global warming or local events can trigger more breakups of ice shelves and faster flow of ice streams in Antarctica. In Greenland, sustained increase in temperatures of only a few degrees will remove the ice.
What the researchers really want to know is how all this meltwater affects the flow of the broader ice sheet once it gets to the bedrock below.
Sarah Das is from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. "It's kind of hard to say what the impact one particular lake would have on the velocity of a large portion of the ice sheet," Das says. "But in general, it would seem that the ice sheet is speeding up quite a bit."
So much water flowed under the ice, it actually lifted the glacier by three feet and sent it slip-sliding a bit toward the coast.
So the fact that carbon isn't releasing as much as feared is the good news. But the glacier moving around and changing water levels so drastically is the bad news. I suppose you have to take the good with the bad. Right?
The Australian Nuclear Science & Technology Organisation (ANSTO) is Australia’s national nuclear organisation and the centre of Australian nuclear expertise. The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation Act 1987 (Cth) prescribes its general purpose. The purpose is translated into action through corporate drivers of vision, mission and strategic goals.
"A chunk of ice spreading across seven square miles has broken off a Canadian ice shelf in the Arctic, scientists said Tuesday.
Derek Mueller, a research at Trent University, was careful not to blame global warming, but said it the event was consistent with the theory that the current Arctic climate isn't rebuilding ice sheets."
"We're in a different climate now," he said. "It's not conducive to regrowing them. It's a one-way process."
While no blame is directly placed on global warming it is very clear the accusations are floating just below the melting ice surface. It wasn't until reading this AP article that I was able to visualize and more firmly understand the glacier dilemma. It is true glaciers have been under going changes over the last century. Pointing a finger at global warming could easily be refuted, but time line aside it is obvious. If massive pieces of ice are melting and breaking off mile wide glaciers one could assume the temperature is a factor. Then to further conclude ice is not reforming elsewhere...well I'll leave you to your own thoughts on that one.
The Canadian Press/AP took and captioned the included photograph.
"Ice drifts off Canada's Ellesmere Island on Sunday after separating from the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf. The shelf lost a sheet of ice that covers seven square miles. A scientist said the cause was a "different climate" that isn't rebuilding Arctic ice, though he stopped short of directly blaming global warming."
