I can’t see global panic taking hold. Well, I never expected mass hysteria actually, but I would have thought that news of accelerating Antarctic meltdown would have brought out the doom-mongering commentators in droves. But I don’t see much sign of that.
Why are they so quiet ? Have they given up in despair ? Lads (and lasses) come back ! Tell us why this is such bad news. Speak your mind, freely. Give us some advice on exactly how concerned we should be.
“An Antarctic ice shelf has disappeared: scientists : Sat Apr 4, 2009 7:06pm : WASHINGTON (Reuters) – One Antarctic ice shelf has quickly vanished, another is disappearing and glaciers are melting faster than anyone thought due to climate change, U.S. and British government researchers reported on Friday. They said the Wordie Ice Shelf, which had been disintegrating since the 1960s, is gone and the northern part of the Larsen Ice Shelf no longer exists. More than 3,200 square miles (8,300 square km) have broken off from the Larsen shelf since 1986…”
“Antarctic ice bridge collapse hailed as new sign of global warming
An ice bridge holding a vast Antarctic ice shelf in place has collapsed, providing new evidence of the extent of global warming, according to scientists. : Last Updated: 4:38PM BST 05 Apr 2009 : The satellite picture, from the European Space Agency (ESA), showed that a 40 km (25 mile) long strip of ice believed to pin the Wilkins Ice Shelf in place had splintered at its narrowest point, about 500 metres wide. “It’s amazing how the ice has ruptured. Two days ago it was intact,” David Vaughan, a glaciologist with the British Antarctic Survey, told Reuters…The Wilkins, now the size of Jamaica or the U.S. state of Connecticut, is one of 10 shelves to have shrunk or collapsed in recent years on the Antarctic Peninsula, where temperatures have risen in recent decades apparently because of global warming. The ESA picture showed a jumble of huge flat-topped icebergs in the sea where the ice bridge had been, pinning the Wilkins to the coast and running northwest to Charcot Island. “Charcot Island will be a real island for the first time in history,” Mr Vaughan said. The loss of the ice bridge, jutting about 20 metres out of the water and which was almost 100 km wide in 1950, may now allow ocean currents to wash away far more of the Wilkins shelf. “My feeling is that we will lose more of the ice, but there will be a remnant to the south,” said Mr Vaughan. Ice shelves float on the water, formed by ice spilling off Antarctica, and can be hundreds of metres thick. Cores of sediments on the seabed indicate that some of these ice shelves had been in place for at least 10,000 years…”