Scientists Say Greenland Just Opened Up a Major New ‘Floodgate’ of Ice Into the Ocean

[Hissyspit]

Source: Washington Post

Scientists Say Greenland Just Opened Up a Major New ‘Floodgate’ of Ice Into the Ocean

By Chris Mooney November 12 at 2:00 PM

As the world prepares for the most important global climate summit yet in Paris later this month, news from Greenland could add urgency to the negotiations. For another major glacier appears to have begun a rapid retreat into a deep underwater basin, a troubling sign previously noticed at Greenland’s Jakobshavn Glacier and also in the Amundsen Sea region of West Antarctica.

And in all of these cases, warm ocean waters reaching the deep bases of marine glaciers appears to be a major cause.

The new fast-moving glacier is the Zachariae glacier or Zachariæ Isstrøm, located in the far northeastern part of Greenland. In a new paper in Science, Jeremie Mouginot of the University of California-Irvine and his colleagues find that the ocean-based glacier, which contains 0.5 meters or a foot and a half of potential sea level rise, has begun a rapid retreat, especially since 2012. The glacier has lost fully 95 percent of the ice shelf that used to help stabilize it, they say, and now sports a 75 meter high ice cliff extending above the water (the glacier also extends hundreds of additional meters below it).

“This is sort of the second major floodgate from Greenland that has opened up,” says Eric Rignot of UC-Irvine and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, one of the authors of the study. The first, says Rignot, was the Jakobshavn glacier, Greenland’s “fastest” moving, according to a recent study, which is currently based 1,300 meters below sea level and also retreating into a deep basin.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/11/12/scientists-say-greenland-just-opened-up-a-major-new-floodgate-of-ice-into-the-ocean/

[Goblor]

1. Way to go

Obama ... Oh, wait!

[tzar paul]

2. Wise Edit!

Otherwise your screen name would have to be Goober.

[CatWoman]

4. I think the poster was being sarcastic

[tzar paul]

5. hopefully, you're right

[FLPanhandle]

3. Might be time to sell my waterfront home in Florida

Before it's a underwater front home.

[Wilms]

6. Stick a few pontoons under it.

[Doctor_J]

9. in a few years I'll be able to sell my oceanfront property in Michigan

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

37. Better hurry - people are catching on fast!

[Live and Learn]

7. We are so screwn! nt

[blackspade]

8. Shit. This is not good.

[restorefreedom]

10. holy shit this is bad

at some point (if not already), the acceleration of ice loss will be unstoppable. then we are truly attached to another object on an incline plane wrapped helically around an axis.

[Ilsa]

12. you mean "screwed"? LOL. nt

[restorefreedom]

13. another bbt fan, excellent. nt

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

38. Beer Bong Tuesday? Count me in!!

[restorefreedom]

47. heh

[StevieM]

15. This is why I am glad I don't have kids. I seriously worry about the planet that my

niece and nephews will be inheriting.

[restorefreedom]

16. yup. me either. and i am glad i am getting on in years

never imagined myself saying that even with all the times i heard it said.

[PasadenaTrudy]

48. +1! n/t

[wordpix]

27. agree. My one son is way up north but it's screwed there, too

[mak3cats]

32. Me, too. (eom)

[tabasco]

33. It will be a world without polar bears, tigers, lions, elephants, etc.

A world in which I do not wish to live.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

39. My kidsa are 23 and 25. They know they're fucked. They're both voting Bernie.

[WillyT]

11. Crap...

[allan01]

14. thanks for sharing this

[Cassiopeia]

17. Sanders said, “climate change is the greatest threat to the United States.”Oct 14, 2015

It's long past time for us to redirect our resources from the ME to funding alternative energy.

I'm sick of killing for profit while we ignore our real problems.

[tecelote]

24. "I'm sick of killing for profit while we ignore our real problems."

Absolutely. In more ways than one!

[Cassiopeia]

25. Indeed

We kill so many in so many ways for profit while the planet dies right beneath our feet.

No Bernie, no change. I'm not sure how much Bernie can actually pull off, but he's the only one running that I trust to even TRY.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

40. He's the only one that WILL try. That's why I won't vote for Hillary.

[Hydra]

18. More evidence that we are already in a feedback loop

Interesting times. I heard one DUer say he was going to space when questioned about the infinite growth thing. Maybe we can get all the Galters to do that.

[wordpix]

26. nice toon ---art buyers are "scrutinizing" at Christie's

http://observer.com/2015/11/christies-post-war-plays-safe-with-savvy-shoppers/

Maybe they're saving their warbucks for something besides art. There's a slight change in the wind

[mountain grammy]

19. Scientists going to Greenland to witness the beginning of the end.

The story of the century.

[Martin Eden]

20. At this point I wonder if we have a snowball's chance on the Senate floor of reversing this trend

... even if all the deniers were booted out of office and we made cutting GG a national priority.

[jtuck004]

21. No. n/t

[ellenrr]

30. No credible scientist believes climate chaos can be avoided...

some say it can be "mitigated".
If you listen and read carefully you can see scientists no longer talk about avoiding climate chaos.
More and more 'moderate' sources like Salon and HuffMo - not exactly extreme in their reporting - are publishing pieces indicating that the window of opportunity is gone.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/louise-leakey/human-extinction_b_3543036.html

A good source on climate reporting is:
Dahr Jamail
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/28864-species-extinctions-human-chronic-disease-on-the-rise-as-climate-disruption-mounts


I think if any mitigation can be done, it will be slight and meaningless.

This is the time, imo, to be honest as a human race and acknowledge that we have fucked up royally.
Not that I expect to ever see it.

But I think of the words of Phil Ochs, "At the end end, even treason is worth a try."
In this case "treason" is to tell the truth,
which most people cannot hear.

For example this man tells the truth and the science backs him up:

[Scootaloo]

23. Reversing? REVERSING?!

Friend, we dpn't ven have a chance of slowing down. reversing? Oh be still my beating heart!

[GliderGuider]

44. Nope.

[Lodestar]

28. Besides ocean rise, will the elimination of weight of the ice cause the land to rise?

Don't know how all that works but makes sense to me.

[Recursion]

29. There's some of that, yes

And glacier melt cools the ocean, which makes the ocean fall some (so far rising sea levels are mostly from thermal expansion).

The precise effects of a given glacier's breaking up can be difficult to predict.

[Javaman]

31. interesting you say that...

It's an old article but I think still relevant...

Retreating Glaciers Spur Alaskan Earthquakes

http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/environment/glacier_quakes.html

Scientists at NASA and United States Geological Survey (USGS) are using NASA satellite and global positioning system receivers, as well as computer models, to study movements of Earth's plates and shrinking glaciers in southern Alaska. Glaciers here are very sensitive to climate change. Higher temperatures and changes in precipitation over the last 100 years appear to be contributing to an increase in glacier melting in the area.

Southern Alaska is also prone to earthquakes because a tectonic plate under the Pacific Ocean is pushing into the coast, building up lots of pressure. The weight of a big glacier on top of these earthquake active areas can help keep things stable. But, as the glaciers melt and their load on the plate lessens, there is a greater likelihood of an earthquake happening to relieve the large strain underneath. Even though shrinking glaciers make it easier for earthquakes to occur, the forcing together of tectonic plates is the main reason behind major earthquakes.

[tabasco]

34. If Greenland rises, North America will sink.

So, we don't really have that going for us.

[MH1]

35. The rapidity of environmental change will cause mass species extinctions

Which might be just fine for human civilization. Or not. We really have no way of knowing.

Mass migrations, on the other hand, combined with depleted resources, point to escalation of conflict throughout the world. Combined with accelerating access to highly efficient technologies for killing other people, and/or general destruction ....

well I think you get the picture.

[leftyladyfrommo]

36. Does this mean New Orleans and Miami are goners?

Just wondering.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

42. BIG TIME! Both completely under water in less than 20 years.

[bahrbearian]

41. "The Greatest Threat to our country is Iran"

[Blue_Tires]

43. Good luck trying to start a real, public discussion about this....

[GreatGazoo]

45. ?? the discussion is well under way, about 45 years now...

http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/modern/jb_modern_earthday_1.html

[Kennah]

46. Benghazi!

[kydo]

49. That too will be under water.

Who ya think the repugs will blame and scream cover up and demand more hearings, for that, Obama or Clinton?