Antarctic Climate Change Surveyed

Personally, I am still on the fence on how this global climate change is occurring, be it man-made or just a natural cycle of the earth.

I appreciate all the information that the ATS members have contributed to the discussion.

In this report, a team of scientists did a recent 10 week survey of Antarctic ice shelves and once again the news is disturbing.

Antarctic trip shows climate change effects

Hamburg (dpa) - An expedition has revealed the first evidence of biological changes under the sea caused by the collapse of ice shelves in the Antarctic due to global warming, according to German researchers.

Scientists searched 10,000 square kilometres of seabed that were covered for millennia by two massive roofs of ice, Larsen A and B.

The ice shelves disintegrated 12 and five years ago respectively, due to higher temperatures that have been linked to man-made global warming.

As the ice broke up, it made the region accessible for the first time, lifting the lid on the unique plants and creatures inhabiting this part of the ocean floor.

More disturbing news on the Antarctic region concerning climate change.

Southern Ocean current faces slowdown threat

HOBART, March 22 (Reuters) - The impact of global warming on the vast Southern Ocean around Antarctica is starting to pose a threat to ocean currents that distribute heat around the world, Australian scientists say, citing new deep-water data.

Melting ice-sheets and glaciers in Antarctica are releasing fresh water, interfering with the formation of dense "bottom water", which sinks 4-5 kilometres to the ocean floor and helps drive the world's ocean circulation system.

A slowdown in the system known as "overturning circulation" would affect the way the ocean, which absorbs 85 percent of atmospheric heat, carries heat around the globe.

Here is a new article on trouble in the Antarctic, an ice sheet the size of Texas is thinning.

Antarctic ice sheet 'thinning'

A PIECE of the Antarctic ice sheet the size of Texas is thinning, possibly due to global warming, and could cause the world's oceans to rise significantly, polar ice experts say.

They said "surprisingly rapid changes" were occurring in Antarctica's Amundsen Sea Embayment, which faces the southern Pacific Ocean, but that more study was needed to know how fast it was melting and how much it could cause the sea level to rise.

The warning came in a joint statement issued at the end of a conference of US and European polar ice experts at the University of Texas in Austin.

To be quite honest I believe most of the reports about warming in Antarctica are simply misleading if not outright lies.

At first glance, cooling the already-coldest continent might not seem to make much difference. Researchers say, however, it's making life even tougher for the few hardy plants and animals that struggle to live in the Antarctic Dry Valleys, the continent's largest ice-free area. No plants or animals, only microbes, live on the ice that covers about 98% of Antarctica.

Also, the cooling helps illustrate how little is known about some important aspects of Antarctica's climate.

Source: www.usatoday.com...

The earliest claims of warming came from a very tiny sample taken at the Antarctic peninsula which is under heavy influence from the ocean. There is more information on this subject as well as ice measurements.

A new study appearing in Science (January 18, 2002) concludes that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is thickening, rather than thinning as was previously thought. Earlier studies found that in the Ross Sea Sector, "The grounding line (the point where the ice sheet loses contact with its bed and begins to float) has retreated nearly 1300 km along the western side of the Ross Embayment," since the last glacial maximum.

and

The new study used satellite remote sensing to get better measurements. Contrary to earlier studies, the authors found "strong evidence for ice-sheet growth (26.8 � 14.9 gigatons per year)." They conclude, "The overall positive mass balance may signal an end to the Holocene retreat of these ice streams."

Source: www.globalwarming.org...

If people want to look at this honestly the only thing you can conclude is that the edges of Antarctica are under the influence of warmer ocean waters. So ice that advances out over the water will be likely to break off as the warmer water has an impact on it. In the mean time the ice that is away from the water grows thicker and the temperatures get cooler.

You are going to find a great deal of dishonesty when it comes to Antarctica because it is supposedly the benchmark for the warming models and when it fails to support the models all the credibility goes out the window. So to make the system work you have to make dishonest claims about what is really happening in Antarctica.

Old article but it did turn some heads, away from what was really going on. I think instead of the name calling and disinformation they should given scientist a chance to put some real numbers behind the scientific data.

www.commondreams.org...

In this article, they explain the growth of deep Antarctic ice stores. What was left out of the 2001 study was the conclusion. The air over the cap has warmed enough to allow for the production of snow. This has been causing some offsetting of the rising waters. Where the danger now is when the fresh water is locked up on the south pole then it stays there until the planet warms enough to start melting it's fringes. By then the great oceanic conveyor belt will have shifted of failed resulting it large uninhabitable zones that are currently inhabited.

"Scotty have you got the replicator working yet, I'm hungry"

[edit on 1-4-2007 by AlabamaCajun]