Antartic Sheet Melting Quickly
WolfSinger @ Wed Mar 08, 2006 1:24 pm
[align=justify]and that isn't a good thing. I remember when winter was cold, and often characterized by a few feet of snow - which sometimes caused schools to be closed - and summer was warm, but not so blistering hot that you couldn't stand it.
Being fair-skinned, red-haired, and blue-eyed, I've always been prone to bad sunburns in the summer, but when I was a kid, I can clearly remember that it was a rare day, indeed, when I actually got sunburnt. I could spend the entire day in the summer sunshine, and not come home with more than a slight red color to my skin.
But those days are long over. As we continue to pollute our planet, our ozone is becoming too overloaded to handle everything like it should, and we're becoming more and more prone to radiation from UV rays. Glaciers all over the world are melting - my husband and I have actually noticed a visible change in several glaciers we've seen over the past decade - and I don't think this is going to get better before it's too late. Wasn't it only a few years ago that a couple of rather large sections of both the Ross Ice Shelf and the Larson B Ice Shelf broke off?
*sigh* 
I think we're heading for a major catastrophe, if we don't smarten up...[/align]
Ripcat @ Wed Mar 08, 2006 4:07 pm
A piece I was watching on TV claimed 150 cubic kilometers of ice in the form of water was melting away...they compared that to the amount of water Loas Angeles uses in a year which is 4 cubic kilometers of water.
michaelredeagle @ Wed Mar 08, 2006 4:52 pm
That was just in Greenland. The sheer amount of water when you add the artic, antartic, Greenland and all the random iceburgs together increases the amount to a number that I have yet to see anyone publish. But from my own math it would seem to be about an inch a year and increasing, my time in Calif I learned that errosion is one of their major probs, like in Vanc and that you cannot get insurance in many places now due to errosion.
WolfSinger @ Wed Mar 08, 2006 10:10 pm
michaelredeagle michaelredeagle:
That was just in Greenland. The sheer amount of water when you add the artic, antartic, Greenland and all the random iceburgs together increases the amount to a number that I have yet to see anyone publish. But from my own math it would seem to be about an inch a year and increasing, my time in Calif I learned that errosion is one of their major probs, like in Vanc and that you cannot get insurance in many places now due to errosion.
[align=justify]Erosion is a problem, yes. I think that in places like Vancouver, though, the erosion process is worsened because of human interference. People want waterfront properties, and when you build on waterfronts, you automatically open yourself up to all kinds of problems with erosion. In places like Florida and California, where there are a lot of beach properties, erosion has been escalated - and the results have never been good.
And once again, I apologize - I lost my train of thought... *sigh*[/align]
Yank-in-NY @ Wed Mar 08, 2006 11:14 pm
It's Bush's fault!
Johnny_Utah @ Wed Mar 08, 2006 11:31 pm
Yank-in-NY Yank-in-NY:
It's Bush's fault!
Yes it's Bush's Fault, he controls the World's Weather with his secret Weather Machine.
Ripcat @ Thu Mar 09, 2006 6:11 am
those damn bushes....
ridenrain @ Fri Mar 10, 2006 8:40 am
Is this why we need to buy emission credits from China?
BartSimpson @ Fri Mar 10, 2006 8:46 am
ridenrain ridenrain:
Is this why we need to buy emission credits from China?
Ah, the true joy of the Kyoto Treaty: it does NOTHING to reduce global pollution - it is just another tool to move money and jobs from one country to another.