An odd title, you might think to your self. However, everything is connected. Trust me. But first things first.
Both Greenland and Antarctica are experiencing significant thinning of their ice fields and glaciers according to scientists. I’m sure this will be attacked as “junk science” by the global warming denial industry. It comes from research done through the use of a NASA satellite laser, after all.
Greenland and parts of Antarctica are losing large volumes of ice to the oceans as their glaciers get thinner, a Nasa satellite has revealed.
Many glaciers have increased their flow rates in recent years, and the Icesat mission now allows scientists to measure their thickness in detail. […]
The swiftness with which some of the glaciers now move towards the sea far outstrips the rate at which ice can be restored to the land through precipitation.
As a consequence, these glaciers are shown in the Icesat data to be falling in height – some dramatically so.
Fore example, the giant Pine Island and Thwaites Glaciers in the West Antarctic are thinning by up to nine metres per year.
The faster the ice melts the greater the potential for seas to rise, as glaciers literally disappear before our eyes, increasing the pace of global warming:
Two weeks ago, I visited the Arctic. I saw the remains of a glacier that just a few years ago was a majestic mass of ice. It had collapsed. Not slowly melted — collapsed. I traveled nine hours by ship from the world’s northernmost settlement to reach the polar ice rim. In just a few years, the same ship may be able to sail unimpeded all the way to the North Pole. The Arctic could be virtually ice-free by 2030. […]
I was alarmed by the rapid pace of change there. Worse still, changes in the Arctic are now accelerating global warming. Thawing permafrost is releasing methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. Melting ice in Greenland threatens to raise sea levels.
And in other climate change news, our descendants may be screwed no matter what we do to reduce green house gas emissions:
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WASHINGTON (AP) — A United Nations update says Earth’s temperature is likely to jump nearly 6 more degrees by 2100 even if every country cuts greenhouse gas emissions as planned.
Scientists looked at emission plans from 192 nations and calculated what would happen to global warming. The projections even take into account 80 percent pollution cuts from the U.S. and Europe, which are not sure things. The U.S. figure is based on a bill that passed the House of Representatives but is running into resistance in the Senate.
It seems the worse case scenario is occurring. Warming is happening faster than the models predicted. On the plus side, Idaho vintners can produce red wine from grapes grown in Idaho’s Snake River Valley now, something that was virtually impossible only a few years ago:
Ron and Mary Bitner took a chance when they started growing grapes for wine in Caldwell 29 years ago.
That’s because Idaho’s Snake River Valley, the highest elevation and coolest viticulture region in the Northwest, had winters too cold and a growing season too short for red wines. They started with just white wines, but since the launch of Bitner’s Vineyards, Idaho’s winters have warmed and the threat of winter freeze has reduced.
The growing season has gotten 20 to 30 days longer, and for the past 17 years the Bitners have been growing both reds and whites.
“It does seem like our red varieties like it,” Bitner said of the changing climate. “We weren’t able to grow the reds in Idaho when we started, and now we are.”
Boise’s average temperature has risen nearly one degree in the last century, triggering a series of changes inIdaho rivers, forests, range and farmland.
So drink up, my friends. I can’t wait until we start seeing vintage wines from Alaska or the Hudson Bay area, can you?
