‘Irreversible Collapse Of Climate Alarmism’ – Antarctica & Sea Level claims – ‘Yet another non-crisis crisis’ – ‘Truth sacrificed in the name of sensationalism’
'What is not clearly stated is that all glaciers, including the WAIS and those on Greenland, are constantly flowing down hill. The reason they flow is that they are constantly gaining mass from accumulated snowfall. Glaciers grow from the top and the added mass causes the ice to flow down hill... The fact of the matter is that the ice drainage rate—ice melting or breaking off into the ocean—is highly variable, as is the accumulation of new ice from precipitation. The time scales for variation can be long, longer than a human lifetime, so any snapshot at a particular instant must be taken with a grain of salt (or crystal of ice). Despite the caterwauling in the media, this is yet another non-crisis crisis. In fact, even while this new speedup in the WAIS's march to the sea has been found, Antarctica is setting new records for surrounding sea ice for a second straight year, baffling scientists seeking to understand why this ice is expanding rather than shrinking in a supposedly warming world. How soon we forget the plight of those high-minded eco activists who got themselves stuck in the summer ice around the southernmost continent. If they are in a coastal area they can flow into the sea where chunks break off forming icebergs. If the ice was on land, its addition to the ocean will cause sea level to rise.'
'There is a whiff of desperation in the air, and the over-hyping of these latest papers signals not the imminent decline of Antarctica’s glaciers but the irreversible collapse of climate alarmism. This latest climate change scare is a prime example of science speak sending the overly excitable media into an ignorance driven frenzy.'
The two studies, one by NASA and the other by researchers at the University of Washington, looked at the Western Antarctica Ice Sheet over different stretches of time. The NASA study focused on melting over the last 20 years, while the University of Washington used computer model to predict the future of the WAIS. At least one of the papers could be considered real science, the type that takes actual measurements. Regardless, both studies arrived at similar conclusions: The thinning and melting of the Antarctic ice sheet is underway and cannot be halted. But that is not the whole story.
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And while the word “collapse” implies a sudden change, the fastest scenario envisioned by the researchers is 200 years, and the longest is more than 1,000 years. Moreover, there are large uncertainties in these predictions because glaciers do not flow at consistent rates. Greenland’s glaciers have recently demonstrated the variable nature of their march to the sea. The new “rapid” rate measures after the grounding line breakout in Antarctica will undoubtedly slow in the future. This leads to the question how fast is the ice shrinking in Antarctica? There are many different estimates.
