(02-14-2014 10:52 AM)200yrs2late Wrote: (02-13-2014 12:56 AM)ecumbh1999 Wrote: The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have decreased in mass. Data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment show Greenland lost 150 to 250 cubic kilometers (36 to 60 cubic miles) of ice per year between 2002 and 2006, while Antarctica lost about 152 cubic kilometers (36 cubic miles) of ice between 2002 and 2005.
What happened to the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets since 2005? It' seems like that data is taken from an insignificantly small period of time to show a decrease in ice to support a desired outcome.
What has happened since, still receding at an increased rate as it has been since the early 1900's. The quoted passage is from a single experiment conducted by NASA.
But, keep ignoring the evidence that right in front of your face,
The Larsen Ice shelf, actually 3 of them, Larsen B had been stable for atleast 12,500 years or since before the end of the last ice age.
The Larsen A ice shelf disintegrated in January 1995. The Larsen B ice shelf disintegrated in February 2002. The Larsen C ice shelf appeared to be stable in 2008, though scientists predict that, if localized warming continues at its current rate, the shelf could disintegrate at some point within the foreseeable future.
The Larsen disintegration events were unusual by past standards. Typically, ice shelves lose mass by iceberg calving and by melting at their upper and lower surfaces. The disintegration events are linked to the ongoing climate warming in the Antarctic Peninsula, about 0.5 °C per decade since the late 1940s, which is a consequence of localized warming of the Antarctic peninsula.This localized warming is caused by anthropogenic global warming, according to some scientists through strengthening of the Antarctic annular winds.
During 31 January 2002–7 March 2002 the Larsen B sector collapsed and broke up, 3,250 km² of ice 220 m thick disintegrated, meaning an ice shelf covering an area comparable in size to the US state of Rhode Island collapsed in a single season. Despite its great age, the Larsen B was clearly in trouble at the time of the collapse. With warm currents eating away the underside of the shelf, it had become a "hotspot of global warming." What especially surprised glaciologists was the speed of the breakup, which was a mere three weeks. A factor they had not anticipated was the powerful effects of liquid water; ponds of meltwater formed on the surface during the near 24 hours of daylight in the summertime, then the water flowed down into cracks and, acting like a multitude of wedges, levered the shelf apart, almost in one fell swoop.
Although the remaining Larsen C region, which is the furthest south, appears to be relatively stable for now,[12] continued warming could lead to its breakup within the next decade.[13] If disintegration should occur with this last major sector, which is larger in size than the US states of New Hampshire and Vermont will largely be gone in just over a century after its discovery.
Also, The speed of Crane Glacier increased threefold after the collapse of the Larsen B and this is likely to be due to the removal of a buttressing effect of the ice shelf.[15] Data collected in 2007 by an international team of investigators through satellite-based radar measurements suggests that the overall ice-sheet mass balance in Antarctica is increasingly negative.
And this on the North-West Passage,
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observ...in_history
2007 Envisat mosaic of Arctic Ocean
14 September 2007
The area covered by sea ice in the Arctic has shrunk to its lowest level this week since satellite measurements began nearly 30 years ago, opening up the Northwest Passage – a long-sought short cut between Europe and Asia that has been historically impassable.
In the mosaic image above, created from nearly 200 images acquired in early September 2007 by the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) instrument aboard ESA’s Envisat satellite, the dark gray colour represents the ice-free areas while green represents areas with sea ice.
Leif Toudal Pedersen from the Danish National Space Centre said: "We have seen the ice-covered area drop to just around 3 million sq km which is about 1 million sq km less than the previous minima of 2005 and 2006. There has been a reduction of the ice cover over the last 10 years of about 100 000 sq km per year on average, so a drop of 1 million sq km in just one year is extreme.
Mosaics of Arctic Ocean for 2005, 2006, 2007
"The strong reduction in just one year certainly raises flags that the ice (in summer) may disappear much sooner than expected and that we urgently need to understand better the processes involved."
Arctic sea ice naturally extends its surface coverage each northern winter and recedes each northern summer, but the rate of overall loss since 1978 when satellite records began has accelerated.
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment...13924.html
But it is the simultaneous opening –
for the first time in at least 125,000 years – of the North-west passage around Canada and the North-east passage around Russia that promises to deliver much the greatest shock. Until recently both had been blocked by ice since the beginning of the last Ice Age.
So what has changed that has caused the record ice melt in both the north and south poles, especially the north which hasn't been free of ice for anyone to able to sail for the last 125,000 years? The first time was 1906, but now opens on a yearly basis and longer and longer periods every year, dissipate the apperant pause in tempature increases globally the ice is still disappearing at a record rate. Why? Answer that question.