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red clay
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Topic: Antarctic Ice Sheet Collapses Posted: 15-Apr-2008 at 23:23 |
This is not a good sign.
A chunk of Antarctic ice about seven times the size of Manhattan suddenly collapsed, putting an even greater portion of glacial ice at risk, scientists said Tuesday.
Satellite images show the runaway disintegration of a 160-square-mile chunk in western Antarctica, which started February 28.
It was the edge of the Wilkins Ice Shelf and has been there for hundreds, maybe 1,500 years.
This is the result of global warming, said British Antarctic Survey scientist David Vaughan.
Because scientists noticed satellite images within hours, they diverted satellite cameras and even flew an airplane over the ongoing collapse for rare pictures and video.
"It's an event we don't get to see very often," said Ted Scambos, lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado.
"The cracks fill with water and slice off and topple. … That gets to be a runaway situation."
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Knights
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Posted: 16-Apr-2008 at 04:56 |
Interesting - do you have any more information on exactly how the Ice Sheet actually collapses? I've never heard of this on this scale before.
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Darius of Parsa
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Posted: 16-Apr-2008 at 05:13 |
The thing is we cannot do much about global warming - the Earth is warming naturally. I do not see how this is such a bad sign, its nature at work. 1,500 years is not a long time when using geological time.
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Knights
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Posted: 16-Apr-2008 at 05:17 |
Good point. Do we know if the impacts of the collapse have been evaluated to any extent? It may just be a natural process, and benefit the ecosystem. I don't know enough to make a conclusive judgment though.
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SearchAndDestroy
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Posted: 16-Apr-2008 at 05:25 |
I just saw something recently. They were doing a Geology study and also showed how our orbit changes. The conclusion of the layers and how many years sperate them, and scientific data about our orbit, it said the Earth should be going through a cool down now. Every 100,000 years I think it was said, is when our orbit changes and the climate gets colder or warmer. We are supposed to be going into the colder orbit I guess you could call it.
They also said that we are rasing the temps to that warming period temperatures.
So, we are doing a pretty good bang up job on our world, aren't we. I guess I could expect a beach front at my house in a few years.
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Darius of Parsa
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Posted: 16-Apr-2008 at 05:38 |
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Posted: 16-Apr-2008 at 22:37 |
That maybe one change, but I'm talking about a change from the around around the sun which cools us, and that does not happen every 1,500yrs, and we are in the beginnings of the cooling orbit, but yet are warming. On top of that, scientist believe a Ice comes every 10-15,000 years, and we are overdue if I remember correctly, which only adds more to the idea that we are the cause.
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Darius of Parsa
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Posted: 16-Apr-2008 at 23:09 |
"Climate change is much more likely to be part of a cycle of warming and cooling that has happened regularly every 1,500 years for the last million years, they say."
Did you even read the articles?
It says it in the second link.
Edited by Darius of Parsa - 16-Apr-2008 at 23:10
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Posted: 17-Apr-2008 at 01:02 |
Towards the end it puts blame on the sun, but we are supposed to be having the opposite effect with the orbit.
I have a hard time believing that the problem was as bad as it is now and how fast it's getting worse. We have a serious possibility of losing some species, one being the Polar Bear which is pictured on that page. from what I heard, a few cases were documented of them drowning due to being tired of having to swim longer distances. If global warming was as bad as in the past, I'd imagine it would have been slower and gradual otherwise we wouldn't have these Bears today. This is mostly a guess admittedly, but the scientific community is worried about the Polar Bear, and I can't imagine them living long if natural climate change had the same effect as todays climate is having on them.
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Darius of Parsa
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Posted: 17-Apr-2008 at 01:19 |
I doubt it. Polar Bears will find other areas to live in, such as North America and Russia.
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Posted: 17-Apr-2008 at 01:36 |
I'm sure they did in the past, I'm guessing the warm ups were alot more gradual. We already lost more ice years ahead of what they expected.
Though we might see more hybrids if they go into N.America. A year or so ago they killed a Polar/Grizzly Bear hybrid, had a HUGE paw. Thing was a monster.
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Siege Tower
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Posted: 17-Apr-2008 at 01:47 |
i just recently finished "the state of fear" by Michael crichton, and the book raised some very controversial point about the whole global warming theory, so has anyone read the book?
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Ponce de Leon
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Posted: 17-Apr-2008 at 18:18 |
If you want the ice caps to stop melting, lets start killing our cattle whos farts are warming up the planet
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