Comments on: Mass loss from Greenland ice accelerates

By: The climate votes last: Ice sheets could lose mass more rapidly | Environment Studies

Sat, 06 Nov 2010 21:10:10 +0000

[...] little over a week ago, I wrote about increasing mass loss from Greenland’s massive ice sheet. (See this post [...]

By: Mauri Pelto

Mauri Pelto — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 16:57:49 +0000

The dynamics of the outlet glaciers or the northern section of the GIS are much different than the Jakobshavn area and much different from each other. Humboldt Glacier has very limited areas below sea level, and hence only minor sections of the glacier are below sea level. Ryder Glacier has a bedrock high above the fjord limiting its ability to tap the ice sheet in the same way as Jakobshavn. Petermann Glacier does have the same setup as Jakobshavn, but much lower velocities. Steffen is missing these key dynamic variations from glacier to glacier.

By: spyder

spyder — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 18:48:06 +0000

I remember ‘wayback’ in 2004, that the US Department of Defense hired some CA folks to construct a worst-case global climate-change scenario. While this new report doesn’t match those modeled worst-case consequences, it certainly pushes the sea level and glacial-loss effects into an alarming range (and this is just about Greenland). It would be interesting to see correlated data from Antarctica; but, even then, i doubt it would do much to change the political landscape of the US.

By: Return to Previous Arctic Conditions Unlikely Says NOAA « Brendon Bosworth

Return to Previous Arctic Conditions Unlikely Says NOAA « Brendon Bosworth — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 16:47:56 +0000

[...] how warming in Greenland is causing accelerated melt rates and contributing to sea level rise, read Tom Yulsman’s post. Tom interviewed Konrad Steffen, director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in [...]

By: Steve Bloom

Steve Bloom — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 00:13:52 +0000

‘If those glaciers speed up enough, they have the potential to “drain most of northern Greenland in decades or a century,” Steffen says.’

Caramba! This is a big deal, Tom. Recall Tad Pfeffer’s results from a couple of years ago, generally that something like this wasn’t possible becvause you could only stuff so many ‘bergs through those outlet fjords so fast. IIRC he came up with about a meter maximum for Greenland by 2100. Northern Greenland being where the bulk of the ice is, what Steffen is suggesting is conservatively triple that. This sounds like a real reporting opportunity. Please jump on it!