Re: East Antarctic Ice Sheet

Wanted to share what I picked up in a radio broadcast today...


East Antarctic Ice Sheet may be losing mass faster than prevously thought

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8371773.stm

http://wildsingaporenews.blogspot.com/2009/11/antarctic-ice-loss-vaster-faster-than.html

Vince,

The scientific method, we all learned as kids in school, explains that we build a model based on fact and then, by using observation, we validate and tweak the model to gain understanding. Not all models are correct. Some are valid in certain parameter ranges, others need more parameters- so to speak- due to the complexity of variables, etc. So to shoot holes into models and theories is perfectly valid. One must question fact until it makes sense to all.

I have read a few of your posts and that of others before joining and jumping in on this forum. Based on that history, and your reply here, I thought it best to arm myself with as much fact and information as possible to help you and many others.

Here goes:

Response to your post

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Catalonian Burro
Response to post

Headline:
Major Seismic Event Needed To Penetrate Thick Skull

The feedback effects are troubling---> less snow --> more exposed water and land (darker) more sunligt absorbed--> more warmth--> more melting.

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan

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Frank Furter
The feedback effects are troubling---> less snow --> more exposed water and land (darker) more sunligt absorbed--> more warmth--> more melting.

What's troubling about it?

Vince,
Mono Lake is a good example of how an entire ecosystem can breakdown by changing the salinity of a body of water. Look into it.

There is enough fresh water in the ice sheets to change the salinity of the oceans. Not that that will kill everything but it will have an impact on the puny thread that ties humans to life on this planet.

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Old Dude

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Vince

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Frank Furter
The feedback effects are troubling---> less snow --> more exposed water and land (darker) more sunligt absorbed--> more warmth--> more melting.

What's troubling about it?

Just that the issue is not likely to be a linear change but an exponential temperature change-- faster and faster over time. Hopefully the Arctic and Antarctic will not burst into flames.

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/2009 06:02AM by Frank Furter.

Good gawd, the fact that this conversation/explanation is taking place surely means that we are all doomed....

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Vince

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Frank Furter
The feedback effects are troubling---> less snow --> more exposed water and land (darker) more sunligt absorbed--> more warmth--> more melting.

What's troubling about it?

Vince,

More melting reduces salinity of the oceans. Reduction of salinity has the eventual capacity to shut down the natural flow of warm water currents towards the poles where they are cooled, sink to deep depths, and return towards equatorial regions where they are reheated and repeat the cycle. Try thinking of North America and Europe without the effects of the Gulf Stream. It's not pretty.

Yes, I'm talking about how global warming can lead to excessive cooling in the northern latitudes. This sort of contradiction fills global warming sceptics with glee because it provides another opportunity to foster confusion.

Jim



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/23/2009 06:34PM by tomdisco.