Retreat of Antarctic ice gathers pace

[Ioman]

Glaciers in the Antarctic are retreating at an increasing rate, in what scientists said on Thursday was a clear sign of climate change.

Most of the glaciers on the Antarctic peninsula, near the southernmost tip of South America, have retreated over the past 50 years as temperatures have warmed, according to a study from the British Antarctic Survey and US Geological Survey. Inland glaciers appear to be accelerating their descent to the ocean, threatening to raise the sea level.

Run for the hills! But seriously, time to sell that beach front property. ;)

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/692e2334-b28d-11d9-bcc6-00000e2511c8.html

[Sunny]

This is very scary. Nobody seems to want to talk about it tho. But we all need to start taking global warming seriously if we want to try to maintain life "as we know it." Fighting the drive to open the Arctic for drilling is first and foremost to prevent (or at least slow down) this disaster.

There are several environmental websites people can visit if they want to take action. And it's really easy, you don't even have to leave your computer. :)

http://www.nwf.org/action/
http://www.worldwildlife.org/action/index.cfm

[ECA]

The fun trick, that most wont tell, is HOW much salt is IN water...MX is from 5-7%.
REST will be fresh water. It wont mix...It will SIT there and stay COLD.
What does this do?? It displaces the SALT water, so currents change. It will fill the lower reaches of the oceans and STAY cold. It will fill the trenches, and valleys at the bottom and SIT there.
NOW the fun part...
HEAVY ships are only boyant(sp) in Salt water.
Ocean depths will be FREASH water, NO FISH, at least NOT as many on the bottoms.
some places will loose all crustations, and Coral.

The interesting part.
Water level will raise...How MUCH?? Dont know.
5' will submerge ALOT.
and ADD to the water tables and flooding along rivers.
10' could flood most coastal areas.
15' we WOULD loose all coastal areas, and ALOT of islands.

And how will MANKIND see it??
WE LOSt all our homes, GIVE US MONEY.
We lost our business, GIVE us MONEY.

[Ioman]

Unfortunately, I do not see the governement doing anything until this affects their bottom line. This is very sad. I know that I try to be consious about things I do and think about how they will affect the environment, too bad a lot of others don't.

[gary_hendricks]

I've moved to Singapore recently (that's in Southeast Asia) so I won't have that glacier problem. But we could feel the impact of the Asian Tsunami in Indonesia in Dec 2004.

[Sunny]

Ioman-I'm afraid you're right about that. Thinking about this makes me glad I don't have any children, cause it scares me to think about what the world will be like 30 or 40 years from now. I only hope that our government will get it together before it's too late.

Mr. Hendricks--you may not feel the impact of the glacier change directly, but it will affect all of us in the long run.
(Anyone see "The Day After Tomorrow"?)

[ECA]

I did, GOOD movie..
I would check the areas that are under 20' above sea level..
they will make GREAT lakes, and sea's..

[dang]

btw, day after tomorrow was greatly exagerrated. This wont be a sudden, one day massive storms type scenario. Instead we will gradually see changes, rises in the sea level, etc. It's already happening, but it may go at a quicker pace then what was first observed.

A big effect will be weather. Poles getting warm, tropical areas getting colder.

ECA, The fresh water (there is fresh water in the ocean now) is in the extreme depths, where coral and many sea life do not live in the first place. I really think this will stay the same, since the sea level will rise so will the habitat for these animals. It wont effect the sea life too much imho.

[nightowl]

Yea that movie was a little far fetched. Dont think anything like that will happen right away, It probably would take many years to get to that point.But its something to think about..........Jim :cool:

[Sunny]

The movie synopsis was a bit extreme, no doubt. But that doesn't mean we should wait thirty years before trying to do something to prevent it, does it? The whole reason that movie was made was to wake people up and get them to start thinking about what we can do to prevent this before it happens--not when it's too late.

The climate change is already starting to have a profound effect on wildlife. Polar bears are having a harder time finding food and their environment is shrinking so they are having to move further north. At the same time, I just read an article the other day about how grizzlies in some northern areas are beginning to invade polar bear territory because THEIR habitat and food supply is getting smaller...

[ECA]

Mother nature has a tendancy to avalanche..
Once she gets on a run, you cant stop it..
Problem we have is REALLY understanding what is causeing it.
Nature, in this area, is running on 2-3 clocks, that self correct themselves. But nature correcting itself, DONT care what happens to anything ON the planet while it corrects itself.
Then comes the idea of HOW long of a process it will take...
With some, we have been causeing this problem sence the 1800's..some say sence the 1920's and some say 1950's...Nature probably WONT go on this schedule.. Nature could take 200-1000+ years to correct whats happened. And nature will probably go thru a WHOLE cycle to correct it.

Now there IS another concern..
It comes to the thought, that WE AINT been here long enough to KNOW how this planet act/reacts, its GLOBAL seasons, its natural SYNC...'Recorded' history dont show ENOUGH of the global history..or even an accurate view of what we can see..
We can look at the planet itself and see that ALOT has happened, and that ALOT IS happening..but we cant see the end affect.

the LEAST of the solutions is to CUT pollution
If you find a solution to this that will Make EVERYONE happy, DO it.

the hardest solution says "DROP the population upto 1/2-2/3's"
This aint fast, easy, or even a LIKEABLE solution..try to deplete the totall population of the world, by dropping the population EQUAL the all of CHINA PLUS...
This would be like, the population in about the 1700's...just before the mechanical revolution...and Doctors...

[dang]

well, if cutting pollution were that easy, and people werent so greedy then it'd be great. I dont think cutting pollution would make any changes fast enough though. Probably need to build some type of air cleaner machine to actually speed up the cleaning of the atmosphere.

[ECA]

well??
That would be fun...
lets see...Air polution is one...
did you know that the magnatic poles are switching??
How about the amount of CO2 and oygen are changeing?
Polution in the oceans???
The salination of the oceans?? Its going down,..
The TREES???

ya know something REALLY funny...
the Earth would be better with out manknind..
GREAT solution, but I dont think we would do it..

[ECA]

The main problem may be in what we have done in the past..

the chemicals and the cuttings, and alot of other things...

Its a pattern, that shows in nature...

when a species over grows it SELF, it dies out...untill it EQUALS equalibriam..

[v8juice]

Nice job with the spelling there, ECA. Way to go!

[llbbl]

v8juice is back! how long has it been? lols

[v8juice]

v8juice is back! how long has it been? lols

The longer the better as my girlfriend used to say...

[ECA]

ya, they NEVER kill the OLD signups here..