Expanding Ice Sheet in Antarctica
I had always figured that as the effects of global warming increase more and more of the largest ice sheets on the planet would continue to melt away. A great article in today’s San Francisco Chronicle speaks to why that assumption is dead wrong. The central ice cap in Antarctica, the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, has grown each year between 1993 and 2000. How could this occur as the planet continues to warm and post the hottest temperatures over thousands of years? David Vaughan explains that as more moisture is generated by warmer temps, the normally bone-dry ice sheet has recieved epic amounts of snowfall over the past decade, snowfall that normally would never fall as a result of the extreme dryness of the atmosphere over the ice sheet. Whats more, scientists have figured out that the amount of water now present in the East Antarctic ice sheet is equal to the amount of annual water flowing off of the melting Greenland ice cap.
The best part about this will be watching conservative politicians and wonks use this fact to backup their argument that global warming isn’t occurring due to an expanding ice sheet down south. Let’s hope they go a little deeper into the science of it all.
10 Responses to “Expanding Ice Sheet in Antarctica”
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July 17th, 2005 at 6:21 pm
Well, at least doesn’t this show that the world’s oceans aren’t going to overflow and flood all the coastal communities. Here’s a question I have: What exactly will global warming do? Will it do bad things? Will it do good things? Do you know?
February 19th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Did you listen to this guys answer?
Fact: If it is expanding then more water is turning to ice making it Bigger.
If the run off was the same or more then it wouldn’t get bigger.
November 26th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
The bottom line is that global warming is responsible or everything, including global cooling. Reason cannot win this debate.
January 3rd, 2008 at 1:34 pm
So…the local conditions in Greenland are warming…and local conditions in Antarctica are cooling, thus capturing greater amounts of available water vapor – sounds like we have reached the practical end of the 6000 year warming trend of the last ice age.
July 15th, 2008 at 5:48 am
Unbelievable the south pole is not melting away, the ice in Greenland and the far northern reaches of Canada increases in size and thickness but it is because of global warming. Let me get this straight if it melts it is because of GW it increases area and thickness it is because of GW. Oh now I get it, it is good advertising for the product GW.
August 1st, 2008 at 5:50 am
“Global Warming” is pure BS. An increase in average global temperature of one degree Fahrenheit over the last 100 years does not constitute a catastrophic warming of the atmosphere. Please, step out of the line of lemmings throwing themselves off the cliff in pursuit of this PR event known as environmental sustainability.
August 24th, 2008 at 10:36 am
I think there’s something very sinister about the constant promotion of AGW by the elite and the media; Isn’t it just a way to impose further taxes (in the form of carbon tax) on the world using fear-mongering? With the obvious decrease in global temps and expansion of polar ice caps in the last few years, are they really going to continue to peddle this nonsense?!
April 24th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Global Warming is a diversion to distract your attention from the REAL problem, the destruction of the Ozone layer. The causes of Ozone destruction? (1) Deforestation and (2) Catalytic converters (pollution) including CFCs (yes, they didn’t just ‘go away’), Nitrous Oxide (from jet engines).
Ozone destruction WILL raise global temperatures, WILL kill mammals (on a brighter note, the plants will like it), WILL cause drought in heavily deforested areas, WILL cause skin cancer.
Please, wake up. Hydrocarbons, while creating unpleasant and toxic pollution, and military adventurism, are not the problem. Methane has a greater effect on IR reflection than CO2, and I don’t see anyone talking about reducing the amount of cow and pig shit we produce. Destruction of Ozone on the other hand is not an easy problem to solve, and there is no indication anyone wants to actually solve it.
June 15th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
For those of you who don’t know,
Global warming has been outdated…
Global warming has been proven partly false but…
You might have noticed thatpeople know talk about climate change. This is different to global warming. Yes the average global temperature is raising but that is the average over the whole world. there are small, localised areas that are actually cooling because the natural cycle of heat transfer has been slowed by climate change.
November 13th, 2009 at 11:43 pm
hello