Environment Forum
Global environmental challenges
Greenland ice melt sets a record — and could set the stage for sea level rise
Greenland’s ice sheet melted at a record rate in 2010, and this could be a major contributor to sea level rise in coming decades.
The ice in Greenland melted so much last year that it formed rivers and lakes on top of the vast series of glaciers that covers much of the big Arctic island, with waterfalls flowing through cracks and holes toward the bottom of the ice sheet. Take a look at video from Marco Tedesco of City College of New York, who is leading a project to study what factors affect ice sheet melting. The photo at left shows a camp by the side of a stream flowing from a lake — all of it on top of the ice sheet.
“This past melt season was exceptional, with melting in some areas stretching up to 50 days longer than average,” Tedesco said in a statement. “Melting in 2010 started exceptionally early at the end of April and ended quite late in mid- September.”
Summer 2010 temperatures in Greenland were up to 5.4 degrees F (3 degrees C) above average, and there was reduced snowfall, Tedesco and his co-authors noted in an article in the current edition of Environmental Research Letters. Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, had the warmest spring and summer since records began there in 1873. Average summer temperatures vary widely, but in coastal areas hover around freezing.
This is in tune with studies released in the last week by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the World Meteorological Organization finding 2010 was tied with 2005 and 1998 for the warmest year since modern global temperature record-keeping began in 1880.
With less snow cover, more bare ice was exposed to the sun, and because bare ice is darker than snow, it absorbs more solar radiation. So the more ice is uncovered, the more warming sunlight it absorbs and the more vulnerable it is to melting. Tedesco said other factors being examined include the impacts of lakes on the glacial surface, dust and soot deposited over the ice sheet.
The study was sponsored by World Wildlife Fund, NASA and the National Science Foundation.
Ice thaw exposes trove from pre-Viking hunters
A thaw of ice in the mountains of Norway is helping Lars Piloe and his team of archaeologists uncover a 1,500-year-old trove of equipment used by ancestors of the Vikings to hunt reindeer.
Their work as “ice patch archaeologists” points to one of a few positive side-effects of man-made climate change, widely blamed for shrinking glaciers worldwide.
On other missions to dwindling ice fields they have found arrows, even some with feathers attached. And another expert found a 3,400-year-old leather shoe. (…they speculate that the shoe’s first owner threw it away because it has a hole in the sole).
I was up by the ice a few days ago with my TV colleague Kurt – luckily about 40 cms of snow that fell shortly before had melted away, or the trip would have been in vain for everyone — on days with snow, ”ice patch archaeologists” can’t find anything.
And at almost 2,000 metres, the season is already extremely short — it starts in mid-August and ends as soon as the autumn snows fall, usually around now. Their finds are a stark sign that the ice has not been this small for centuries: feathers or leather turn to dust within days of exposure unless they are properly preserved.
Most of the finds at the ice, known as Juvfonna, are “scare sticks” — perhaps a metre long with another small piece of wood tied to the top to flap in the wind (see picture below left for the carved end of a scare stick where string was tied). Placed in rows on the ice, they would worry the unwitting reindeer just enough to guide them towards hunters lying in wait behind rocks, without causing a stampede. The archaeologists found dozens of the sticks — even I managed to find a couple among the rocks.
Archaeologists speculate that teams of hunters came up from the valley below — probably a 10-hour slog — and left gear at altitude between hunts to avoid carrying the extra weight. Maybe one year at the start of the Dark Ages there was an especially bad early snowstorm that covered up rows of scare sticks — until now.
Cracking views of Antarctic icebergs
As a view out of your home it’s hard to match — a constantly changing vista of icebergs just outside the British Antarctic Survey’s Rothera research station.
Every day the winds and tides on the Antarctic Peninsula shift them around — some break up abruptly with a loud splash while many simply slowly grind into ice cubes against the shore and disappear. I’ve tried to take a picture every day from the main balcony here (there’s a metal mast on the right hand side of each photo).
Walking along the shore here you can hear a bubbling as air in the ice melts out into the water. The old ice is the clearest — good for putting in cold drinks. Some form gravity-defying shapes such as arches or big holes — one in the bay a few days ago looked like a giant catamaran.
Icebergs cracking off glaciers in the distance can sound like an artillery shell exploding and big lumps falling into the sea send a wave across the bay. Seals lie on the beach, some of them snoring or nonchalantly scratching themselves — completely unbothered by the people passing by.
Friday
Antarctic melting is way more serioues than people truly believe. It seems although people are ignorant when it comes to how much an issue such as the ice caps melting. The increased water levels and reduction of habitats that are very important to arctic marine life will soon demonstrate the power of global warming, unfortunately.
Fred Smilek is the acting president of the Society to Save Endangered Species. It was founded two years ago by Fred Smilek along with his two best friends Charles and Jonathan. The Society to Save Endangered Species has blossomed from a minute organization with three members to one with more than ten members. Since its inception the organization has been able to raise nearly $25,000 in funds.
It was Fred Smilek’s love and passion for rare and nearly extinct species that caused him to form this wonderful organization in 2006. Additional content about the history of wildlife conservation can be found here. If you have any questions regarding the Society to Save Endangered Species, Fred Smilek, or how you can help insure that these rare species are around for a long time to come have a look at Fred Smilek’s home page which can be found here.
http://www.fredjsmilek.com
A view from the North – Alaska’s melting glaciers
Welcome to the front lines of global warming in the United States – the Harding Ice Field in Alaska, the biggest icefield in the United States. At the Exit Glacier north of Seward – the only glacier in the Kenai Fjords National Park reachable by foot – the giant cerulean blue ice sheet gives every sign of staying put. But one only has to glance at the many signs along the roadway and footpath to the glacier’s edge to mark its retreat – it hit its peak size in 1815 and has been receding ever since. Signs along a footpath leading to the base of the glacier show just how far it has retreated. The glacier lost about 10 feet from its front face over the summer of 2008. Since the 1980s, land-based glaciers and ice caps like this one in Alaska have contributed the most to sea level rise than any other source within their category, which includes other land-based glaciers like Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro and the Chacaltaya Glacier near La Paz, Bolivia, said Brenda Ekwurzel, a climate expert with the Union of Concerned Scientists. Unlike the ice cover around the North Pole or giant floating ice sheets, land-based ice contributes directly to sea-level rises. According to a 2007 report by the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, glaciers and ice caps have the potential to raise global sea levels by between .15 meters and .37 meters. That pales in comparison to the giant ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, which could raise sea levels by 63.9 meters if they fully melted. At the Aialik Glacier in the Harding Icefield – reachable by boat or plane, the living nature of the ice was more evident. On a visit to the glacier via tourboat on Aug. 15 on a trip hosted by the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism, several chunks of ice broke apart and crashed into Aialik Bay. Throughout the visit, the ice cracked andgroaned, with a sound like thunder claps that punctuated the still air.
Is the melting glaciers of alaska a sign of things to come? I’m 17 and it’s sad when you think about what they used to be. I want to be a wildlife veterinarian and travel to Alaska. It sucks because my generation is far too late.
Skating on thin ice
We hear a lot of grim news about how sea ice has been melting more than usual in recent summers in the Arctic, how glaciers from the Himalayas to the Andes are melting or how winter sports such as ice hockey in Canada may be under threat from global warming.
So here’s a bit of light relief (assuming it’s not for real):
Wither is global warning or climate change does it matter? The facts are something is happen around the world. Can we just focus on the matter right now! If we are going to blame anyone is far too late, the damage is done. The axis shifted twice, pole shifted to Russia’s, the Gulf Stream has change, Arctic Ocean Currents Changed Increasing Climate Change, increasing earthquakes around the world, increasing volcano around the world, Death tolls increasing in Europe of unexpected winter record breaking events that haven’t happen over 15 to 20 years, oil is on the raises and War is on the way, Virus and diseases is making headlines around the world, our sun is increasing with CME and others impulses, asteroids and comet is also making headlines, violence is happen around the world and we still going back and forward on who to blame or who is correct and who is not? REALLY!! And this is the best social networks can offer! Sure is all your opinion and thought but come on now? When we hear the government rambling day and night and the media are we any better? STOP the blame and let’s all work together and make our own government, our own science, Ect. I have giving you the facts, now let’s work together and find the real answer. The world we living are never straight up with any answer but half. We all know in case of the worst we or the government cannot stop all events or save 7 billons of people, but we can have a fighting chance to live, to survives and save our loving ones. We still have 30 to 40 millions of years before there is NO more earth, before that time happens we all are going on a roller coaster ride. The earth is going on changes like no human ever seen before. You tell me or name me one human who has lived either 25,000 years or 100,000 years. The point is change is about to happen and we just have to deal with the new changes when it happen. But at less we can give ourselves a time lap a head start to be prepared was coming. Use the internet for good use and better cause. It’s a helpful tool. In time what we have and what we see might not be there tomorrow, two days, two weeks, two months or a year from now. Let’s gather our information and let’s show the people and the government that we know! Remember no matter who is the president he or she still has to follow the protocol and must NOT alarm the people. But we still have access to the internet. So they’re not all bad! They do want us to know on their term. Is not right but who say we all must follow the rules anyway. Let’s gather what we know once again and let’s make a difference. If you have one or less you will not survive but if you have tens and more then the chances of living went up. Enough with the drama time is wasting.