Antarctica melting.

Antarctica is melting, losing 36 cubic miles of ice every year, scientists have revealed.
In comparison, the city of Los Angeles consumes about 1 cubic mile of fresh water a year.

The South Polar Region holds 90 percent of Earth’s ice and 70 percent of the total fresh water on the planet, so any significant pace of melting there is important and could contribute to an already rising sea.

For now, the newly measured melting might seem like a small quantity. The loss of ice in Antarctica amounts to about 0.4 millimeters of global sea rise annually, with a margin of error of 0.2 millimeters, the study concludes.

LiveScience

It's sad, not only whats happening, but that this does'nt really shock me.
The planet is changing at an ever increasing rate, and the way things are looking, it's changing for the worse.


Comments, Opinions?

0.2 - 0.4 millimeters of global sea rise annually

That adds up.

Im not really concerned at all though the earth and humans for that matter have been through this all before. At the end of the last major Ice Age sea levels rose 300ft Worst case even if all land ice melted, sea levels would rise about 230ft. Another Ice Age would come theres no stopping it and sea levels would drop. The world gets hotter and colder no matter what humans do. Earth naturally has changing climate always has.

Luckly humans are among the most adaptive creatures that have ever lived on this planet. Might not work out so well for the Polar bears though

The earth is seeking a balance...
but it is like driving a car without oil... it does wear down parts that cant rebuild themselves...

Ice is melting...
droughts in california/west coast seem to have been stopped...
BUT... droughts in the middle have started (oklahoma, Texas)

Some places are recording record highs... some record lows...
some both...
I.E. oklahoma had temperatures of under 0- last week (with wind chill)
it was 93 in Lawton yesterday... (one week later)

I worry more about the rising temperature of the oceans causing release of methane ice on the sea floor. It could make big explosions all along the coasts.

or the decreased salinity killing off the majority of food fish species (tuna, mackerel, etc)

water levels really wont rise much (if any) due to increased rain over land areas...
but flooding will be a problem.

BTW- has anyone ever wondered if there is something scientifically important to the fact that healthy human blood has the same exact salt concentrations as the ocean.
And soon they will be different.
Wonder if that bodes bad for us...

Originally posted by LazarusTheLong
The earth is seeking a balance...

Ice is melting...

Some places are recording record highs... some record lows...
some both...

I worry more about the rising temperature of the oceans causing release of methane ice on the sea floor. It could make big explosions all along the coasts.

or the decreased salinity killing off the majority of food fish species (tuna, mackerel, etc)

BTW- has anyone ever wondered if there is something scientifically important to the fact that healthy human blood has the same exact salt concentrations as the ocean.

I was unaware of frozen methane gas under the oceans. I thought methane did not freeze until it was about -200 deg F? Do you think a WARMING period will precede the next Ice Age or will we just move straight into the Ice Age? Either way it is going to wreck the world’s economy. There will be chaos unlike any we have ever seen before. The rich West will be blackmailed by atom bomb toting dictators for food to feed their hungry masses. It’s going to be tough for everyone. Since the winds move from west to east, in the northern hemisphere, whatever nuclear fallout is in one place will be spread around the world in a few days. I think that was the 1950s theory behind the so-called Doom’s Day Bomb, an H Bomb wrapped in tons of cobalt. In your own space. But its own fallout would kill everyone, sooner or later.

Originally posted by donwhite
I was unaware of frozen methane gas under the oceans.

It's a rarely advertised fact. The proper term for it is "gas hydrates". I opened a thread in the "Peak Oil Forum" to discuss it's potential as an alternative source of fuel... but I only got one reply.

Anyway, the thread is here if you're interested in knowing more about gas hydrates.

What worries me isn't the potential for explosions these things might cause if warming continues. What worries me is that methane itself is a greenhouse gas, so you're gonna have a cascade effect, like some kind of feedback-loop.

Then there's the issue of methane and carbon dioxide trapped in vast areas of permafrost that might be released if the ground thaws out, making the greenhouse effect more severe.

It seems like there's less and less opportunities to reverse the effect, and from what we know now, once we've reached that critical point, there appears to be no turning back. We'll cook ourselves to death.

Perhaps the solar shade idea is not such a bad thing.

antartica was once a fertle place maby it is its time to return to this state? the oceans will never rise 300 Ft it is imposable there isnt enough ice to do it.

Originally posted by engenerQ[/I] The Antarctic was once a fertile place - maybe it is time to return to this state? The oceans will never rise 300 feet - it is impossible - there is not enough ice. [Edited by Don w]

PLATE TECTONICS. Indeed - at least once - Antarctica was as far north as the Tropic of Capricorn. It is suggested it was a part of Gondwanaland. But that broke up 70 million years ago. We do not know how many times in the past 4 billion years the land masses assembled into a Pangaea. The last Pangaea is dated to about 350 million yeas ago; it could have been more than 10 times.

I understand the Pacific Ocean is 3 feet higher than the Atlantic Ocean, at Panama. Maybe this is why the oceans at Tierra del Fuego - Cape Horn - are so notoriously hazardous?

I think fresh water on Earth is given at 3% and water in ice at half that, or 1.5%. 90% of the ice is in Antarctica. Greenland is the largest ice sheet in the Northern Hemisphere but it is small compared to Antarctica. Both ice sheets are in regression due to melting. Or what we call Global Warming everywhere but in the White House.

[edit on 3/20/2006 by donwhite]