Comments for Greenland's Melting Ice Sheets Will Raise Sea Level 23 Feet at http://www.rightsidenews.com , comment 1 to 2 out of 2 comments http://www.rightsidenews.com Wed, 07 Jan 2009 11:57:29 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://www.rightsidenews.com/200807301586/energy-and-environment/greenland-s-melting-ice-sheets-will-raise-sea-level-23-feet.html#comment-104 "Temperature records show that the Arctic was in fact warmer in the 1930s and 1940s than it is today" .... Other way around. It's warmer now - http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/trends-in-arctic-temperature-1880-2006 "(2007) winter sea ice extent at both Poles reached record highs." South Pole only. Winter levels in the arctic recovered to about the extent of 2003. " ... a paper by NASA scientists last year says the reason has nothing to do with "global warming" ..." It said that arctic circulation changes had a much larger influence, but it did not deny or reject global warming influences. The volcanic activity referred to here occurred eight years ago. The ice-free conditions you're claiming for the Roman and Bronze ages didn't exist (the ice cores show continuous records). The claim of ice buildiup is inaccurate - the GRACE satellite studies conclude that the Arctic is losing 154±10 Gt/yr, and the Antarctic is losing 105±30 Gt/yr. Furthermore, the Alaska glacier regions are losing 98±8 Gt/yr. hth. - Steve Church Fri, 01 Aug 2008 00:06:49 +0100 http://www.rightsidenews.com/200807301586/energy-and-environment/greenland-s-melting-ice-sheets-will-raise-sea-level-23-feet.html#comment-103 You accuse the times of cherry picking their scientific information, when in fact you too participate in this fact picking. While I agree the times can and has omitted facts that would make their articles more unbiased, I was appalled to see some of the ommisions and statements you make that anyone could learn in GEOG 101. While normal fluctuations and oscillations occur on a regular basis in our climate, there is signifigant evidence gathered from ice and ocean cores dating back up to 750,000 years ago that we have entered the steepest rise in temperature that scientist have recorded and that it is at least partially caused by anthropogenic global warming. Since the industrial revolution temperature has been on a steady march upwards. Abnormalities in weather, such as the record snow we had last winter, and other phenomena's will increase all over the world as the climate continues to react to rising temperatures. Climate change is not a cut and dry act of being warmer or colder. Another consideration besides the possibilty of increasing sea levels, is that the melting of ice caps have been "freshening" the ocean. This freshening could result in the interuption of the Ocean's Thermohaline current, a massive global current that powers much of our world's climate systems. It is considered by many scientists that the shutdown of the thermohaline may have caused the last "little ice age" we had around 1800. In addition, your claim that the retreat of ice may open the way to additional oil drilling concerns me. In fact, many of the ice roads that support the trucks and equipment that travel to oil sites have been melting. In some cases roads that were open 245 days a year have been restricted to only 100 days a year in Alaska, limiting our ability to extract more oil. My final comment is about the timeliness of your article. It was just recently announced that a 18sqkm piece of ice has broken off the Ward Hunt ice shelf - a piece that had been intact for 3,000 years. Winter ice has not made up for the loss of summer ice - it is the collapse of long term ice shelfs and the melting of ancient glaciers that concerns most scientist, not the flux in a single year. What I don't understand is how the Earth has become a political battle ground. We owe it to future generations to be a little more resourcfull with what we have. No, that doesn't mean ending life as we know it, it means collaboratively working together to come up with solutions to some very real problems. While flux's in nature is well, nature's nature. It doesn't give us an excuse to say to heck with it and self implode. China is strategically purchasing the worlds natural resources as we just sit back debating a scientifically proven fact - the world is warming. So shouldn't we take a cue from nature and flux too? - Chelsie Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:19:02 +0100