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Greenland ice sheet is meeeelllting, it's meeelllting!

Posted at 10:17 AM on 11 Dec 2007

The Greenland ice sheet is melting at an alarming rate! As in, faster than it has since satellite measurements began in 1979, and with 10 percent more melting in 2007 than in the previous record year of 2005. Allow researcher Konrad Steffen to put it into perspective for you: "The amount of ice lost by Greenland over the last year is the equivalent of two times all the ice in the Alps, or a layer of water more than one-half mile deep covering Washington D.C." Yes, we think that qualifies as alarming.

sources: Reuters, The Longmont Daily Times-Call
see also, in Grist: Greenland's melting ice offers new mining opportunities, could fuel independence bid

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Comments: (3 comments)

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Wake Up!

Alarm ringing.

More fresh water than ever.

YUM.

by jabailo at 7:40 PM on 11 Dec 2007

Right....

So, I guess we also need to be alarmed about the glaciers that are advancing in the northern hemisphere too? Or, wait- the Antarctic Ice shelf is growing rapidly in some places! Quick- get into your cold-war style shelter and prepare for the worst! I guess us folks up here in the northern hemisphere don't want our ice going south. Seriously though, I think articles like this don't do much to help the cause of environmentalists.

"A layer of water half a mile thick over Washington DC"?

You people DO realize how small Washington DC is, right? How much of an ocean level increase will that water cause on a global scale? (Note: The earth is just a smidge larger than Washington DC) I guess it has a better ring to it than saying "A layer of water over .25mm thick over the entire state of California!"

I'm totally for cleaning up our planet and being responsible residents, but shock-jock grade articles like this only turn me further away from the whole argument. Everyone tells me I cannot deny the FACTS. Well, ok- but when I can go and find facts to counter your facts, they suddenly cease to be facts! This whole global warming craze only proves to me that 1: someone somewhere figured out a way to make a boat-load of money off of it, and 2: we are an incredibly arrogant species that only deserves what we have coming.

"You can't fix stupid." "A Uterus is NOT a clown car!"

by chugach3dguy at 1:37 PM on 12 Dec 2007

glaciers and global warming

About 80% of the world's glaciers are receding, so yes, some are increasing, but 4 out of 5 are not, and the trend is clear.

Meat Eating and Global Warming
www.ivu.org/members/globalwarming.html

Eco-Eating: Eating as if the Earth Matters at www.brook.com/veg

by CyberBrook at 12:10 PM on 13 Dec 2007

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