Climate change: One the edge- Greenland ice cap breaking up at twice
the rate it was five years ago, says scientist Bush tried to gag

By Jim Hansen
17 February 2006

A satellite study of the Greenland ice cap shows that it is melting far
faster than scientists had feared - twice as much ice is going into the
sea as it was five years ago. The implications for rising sea levels -
and climate change - could be dramatic.

Yet, a few weeks ago, when I - a Nasa climate scientist - tried to talk
to the media about these issues following a lecture I had given calling
for prompt reductions in the emission of greenhouse gases, the Nasa
public affairs team - staffed by political appointees from the Bush
administration - tried to stop me doing so. I was not happy with that,
and I ignored the restrictions. The first line of Nasa's mission is to
understand and protect the planet.

Click to Expand Article

This new satellite data is a remarkable advance. We are seeing for the
first time the detailed behaviour of the ice streams that are draining
the Greenland ice sheet. They show that Greenland seems to be losing at
least 200 cubic kilometres of ice a year. It is different from even two
years ago, when people still said the ice sheet was in balance.

Hundreds of cubic kilometres sounds like a lot of ice. But this is just
the beginning. Once a sheet starts to disintegrate, it can reach a
tipping point beyond which break-up is explosively rapid. The issue is
how close we are getting to that tipping point. The summer of 2005
broke all records for melting in Greenland. So we may be on the edge.

Our understanding of what is going on is very new. Today's forecasts of
sea-level rise use climate models of the ice sheets that say they can
only disintegrate over a thousand years or more. But we can now see
that the models are almost worthless. They treat the ice sheets like a
single block of ice that will slowly melt. But what is happening is
much more dynamic.

Once the ice starts to melt at the surface, it forms lakes that empty
down crevasses to the bottom of the ice. You get rivers of water
underneath the ice. And the ice slides towards the ocean.

Our Nasa scientists have measured this in Greenland. And once these ice
streams start moving, their influence stretches right to the interior
of the ice sheet. Building an ice sheet takes a long time, because it
is limited by snowfall. But destroying it can be explosively rapid.

How fast can this go? Right now, I think our best measure is what
happened in the past. We know that, for instance, 14,000 years ago sea
levels rose by 20m in 400 years - that is five metres in a century.
This was towards the end of the last ice age, so there was more ice
around. But, on the other hand, temperatures were not warming as fast
as today.

How far can it go? The last time the world was three degrees warmer
than today - which is what we expect later this century - sea levels
were 25m higher. So that is what we can look forward to if we don't act
soon. None of the current climate and ice models predict this. But I
prefer the evidence from the Earth's history and my own eyes. I think
sea-level rise is going to be the big issue soon, more even than
warming itself.

It's hard to say what the world will be like if this happens. It would
be another planet. You could imagine great armadas of icebergs breaking
off Greenland and melting as they float south. And, of course, huge
areas being flooded.

How long have we got? We have to stabilise emissions of carbon dioxide
within a decade, or temperatures will warm by more than one degree.
That will be warmer than it has been for half a million years, and many
things could become unstoppable. If we are to stop that, we cannot wait
for new technologies like capturing emissions from burning coal. We
have to act with what we have. This decade, that means focusing on
energy efficiency and renewable sources of energy that do not burn
carbon. We don't have much time left.

Jim Hansen, the director of the Nasa Goddard Institute for Space
Studies in New York, is President George Bush's top climate modeller.
He was speaking to Fred Pearce.

http://signs-of-the-times.org/signs/...d2257a771e5767

dove wrote:

Climate change: One the edge- Greenland ice cap breaking up at twice
the rate it was five years ago, says scientist Bush tried to gag

Cobblers snipped

Much as there is to be desired in the mankey, I fear that the blame for
random speculations snipped from the web sites of serious scientific
organisations for reasons of their lack of any factual content can not
be laid at the base of his tree-den.

This is all the more likely as the Presidunce can't even read a
children's book let alone find his way around a website. Anyone who,
despite the reports of the Incumberance's lack of activity when one of
the largest cities in the USA needed his attention the most, aught to
realise the gross over-simplification the OP has spun on this.

"Weatherlawyer" wrote in message
oups.com...

dove wrote:

Climate change: One the edge- Greenland ice cap breaking up at twice
the rate it was five years ago, says scientist Bush tried to gag

Cobblers snipped

Much as there is to be desired in the mankey, I fear that the blame for
random speculations snipped from the web sites of serious scientific
organisations for reasons of their lack of any factual content can not
be laid at the base of his tree-den.

This is all the more likely as the Presidunce can't even read a
children's book let alone find his way around a website. Anyone who,
despite the reports of the Incumberance's lack of activity when one of
the largest cities in the USA needed his attention the most, aught to
realise the gross over-simplification the OP has spun on this.


What tosh . Do you realise the USA responded far quicker to the Tsunami
then the inept United Nations.

Lawrence Jenkins wrote:
"Weatherlawyer" wrote in message
oups.com...

dove wrote:

Climate change: One the edge- Greenland ice cap breaking up at twice
the rate it was five years ago, says scientist Bush tried to gag

Cobblers snipped

Much as there is to be desired in the mankey, I fear that the blame for
random speculations snipped from the web sites of serious scientific
organisations for reasons of their lack of any factual content can not
be laid at the base of his tree-den.

This is all the more likely as the Presidunce can't even read a
children's book let alone find his way around a website. Anyone who,
despite the reports of the Incumberance's lack of activity when one of
the largest cities in the USA needed his attention the most, aught to
realise the gross over-simplification the OP has spun on this.

What tosh. Do you realise the USA responded far quicker to the Tsunami
then the inept United Nations.

As if I had any respect for the UN?

What has that to do with the inaction over Katrina? Or anything ese in
the thread for that matter?

The OP said it was the head chimp's fault that some sort of control is
still exercised over the NASA site. I was just pointing out the
dick-head hasn't got control over when and where to relieve his
bladder.

He had to fly over New Orleans twice before he could find it.

Rumour has it that the only reason he had kids was to stop his wife
taking any more of his bananas.

"Weatherlawyer" wrote in message
oups.com...

Lawrence Jenkins wrote:
"Weatherlawyer" wrote in message
oups.com...

dove wrote:

Climate change: One the edge- Greenland ice cap breaking up at twice
the rate it was five years ago, says scientist Bush tried to gag

Cobblers snipped

Much as there is to be desired in the mankey, I fear that the blame for
random speculations snipped from the web sites of serious scientific
organisations for reasons of their lack of any factual content can not
be laid at the base of his tree-den.

This is all the more likely as the Presidunce can't even read a
children's book let alone find his way around a website. Anyone who,
despite the reports of the Incumberance's lack of activity when one of
the largest cities in the USA needed his attention the most, aught to
realise the gross over-simplification the OP has spun on this.

What tosh. Do you realise the USA responded far quicker to the Tsunami
then the inept United Nations.

As if I had any respect for the UN?

What has that to do with the inaction over Katrina? Or anything ese in
the thread for that matter?

The OP said it was the head chimp's fault that some sort of control is
still exercised over the NASA site. I was just pointing out the
dick-head hasn't got control over when and where to relieve his
bladder.

He had to fly over New Orleans twice before he could find it.

Rumour has it that the only reason he had kids was to stop his wife
taking any more of his bananas.


Typical "lets hate America" bandwagon stuff. I'm sure Saddam would have
dealt with it far more efficiently.
Or how about the Italians, whose ex PM apparently gave our own 'Casino
Queen' Tessa Jowel's husband a £346,00 bribe too give false evidence. Or
how about Britain which is suffering rising endemic violent crime that's
being kept under wraps.
America have the misfortune to suffer naturally occurring serious disasters
such as Earthquakes, Tornado's and Hurricanes let alone severe winter
weather and droughts and that was before global warming!
Imagine the moribund EEC dealing with a disaster on Katrina's scale.
Yeah they'd be more concerned about 'coffin quotas ' and the like.
Okay what about the left's citadel of cultural power-the UN?
Yep good old Koffi, Kojo et.al, certainly did a fantastic job in feeding the
Iraqi people in the "Oil for Food scandal. Yep many billion's of dollars
into private Swiss bank accounts.
The USA suffer severe Hurricane & Tornado damage costing billions of
dollars year in and year out, yet Democracy prevails.

Lawrence -very irritated by continuous Shoot down American season. It's the
best yer gonna get.

lawrence Jenkins wrote:

The USA suffer severe Hurricane & Tornado damage costing billions of
dollars year in and year out, yet Democracy prevails.

Where? Have you ever heard ofa company called Diebold?

Lawrence -very irritated by continuous Shoot down American season. It's the
best yer gonna get.

Define American you absolute plonker.

If you are talking about the USA perhaps you would care to explain why
not one senior officer in fact nobody over the rank of an NCO has ever
been found guilty of any misconductin any of the manufactured disasters
that can be laid at the door of the monkey in the the White House.

http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/multi_...raib-tiny.html
http://www.michaelmoore.com/index.php

As for any international aid that the USA manage to send out. It
doesn't quite gel with the Gretna town sherriff's office preventing any
help going to that stadium in New Orleans now, does it? Nor does the
abjact neglect of oversight that the federal government put itself into
for most of a week.

So do you wonder why the countries that are in continual need of aid
never seem to get their accountants into gear? Wake up you troll.

"Weatherlawyer" wrote in message
oups.com...

lawrence Jenkins wrote:

The USA suffer severe Hurricane & Tornado damage costing billions of
dollars year in and year out, yet Democracy prevails.

Where? Have you ever heard ofa company called Diebold?

Lawrence -very irritated by continuous Shoot down American season. It's
the
best yer gonna get.

Define American you absolute plonker.

If you are talking about the USA perhaps you would care to explain why
not one senior officer in fact nobody over the rank of an NCO has ever
been found guilty of any misconductin any of the manufactured disasters
that can be laid at the door of the monkey in the the White House.

http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/multi_...raib-tiny.html
http://www.michaelmoore.com/index.php

As for any international aid that the USA manage to send out. It
doesn't quite gel with the Gretna town sherriff's office preventing any
help going to that stadium in New Orleans now, does it? Nor does the
abjact neglect of oversight that the federal government put itself into
for most of a week.

So do you wonder why the countries that are in continual need of aid
never seem to get their accountants into gear? Wake up you troll.


There we have it.
"wake up you troll"
That very term lets me know you are no older than forty and no younger
than twenty.
Now please pray tell me .Why should the USA even countenance financial aid
for countries that don't countenance aid for the USA.
Where is it written in history that the USA is responsible for the rest of
the world.. Did they have colonies?