Data indicate warming far worse than thought

[IDemo]

Summer ice could disappear as soon as 2020, leading scientist reports

By Alex Johnson and Miguel Llanos
MSNBC
Updated: 46 minutes ago

New measurements indicate that the effects of global warming are much worse than previously suspected and could lead to a complete melting of Arctic summer ice in as little as 13 years, a leading climate scientist says.

The finding follows a U.N. report that accelerated warming would have catastrophic implications for humans and wildlife, leading to food and water shortages across the planet.

The sea ice data were salvaged from a British Royal Navy submarine, the HMS Tireless, which was conducting exercises under the Arctic last month until an onboard explosion.

Two Royal Navy sailors died in the blast, the effects of which, perhaps ironically, were dampened by the polar ice, said Peter Wadhams, an oceanographer at Cambridge University who has made numerous submarine expeditions to measure the thickness of the Arctic ice for more than 40 years.

[JuniperLea]

1. I've been saying this all along

A lot of studies make the mathematical error of not adjusting certain numbers, using the same base number throughout the calculation. The warming is exponential; warmer melts faster. Warmer begets warmer, on and on...

I was just telling my b/f this the other night.

[TheMadMonk]

5. Another thing missing is the ability of ice to adsorb lots of calories.

Once all that ice is gone every single calorie of excess heat goes into raising the temperature of the oceans.

The amount of heat currently melting 50 odd cubic miles of Greenland ice today will, in an ice free world, be capable of raising the temperature of 4000 cubic miles of ocean by 1 degree Celsius. (sorry about the mixed units)

Actually it's probably a lot more heat than that. Right now most of that ice is just adsorbing heat and NOT yet melting except for a little about the edges. But its capacity to adsorb heat is not infinite, and eventually a lot more heat is going to go directly towards raising the temperature of the oceans and atmosphere.

And more frighteningly still; East Antarctica, which holds about five times as much water as Greenland and West Antarctica combined. Enough for a 200 foot rise in sea levels in roughly as many years unless something changes drastically.

[JuniperLea]

6. I live at 20 ft above sea level...

And I've put my house on the market... now for TWO very good reasons!

[no_hypocrisy]

2. At this point, can it really be stopped? It seems that the best we can

hope for is slowing it down, putting off the inevitable.

[jpak]

3. No - but the most dire consequences can be avoided if we act now.

I say "we" - but "we" as individuals are the only ones that can effect real change.

Waiting for "someone else" to act won't cut it...

[no_hypocrisy]

4. I'm ready and I'm not.

Finding a way to survive will be unpredictable as society contorts and changes. And I understand that there will be more people reluctant to sacrifice for the good of the whole. But I've always understood one person CAN make even an imperceptible difference which ultimately will be demonstrated.

[roguevalley]

7. it may take having Manhattan inundated before some people get it

like old Inhofe(r)

[mzmolly]

8. What will Dennis Miller say?

How !~@$ tragic.