Latest crack from global warming: 19 miles of ice fell in Canada
By Matt Jansen
Events like this make progress in energy efficient vehicles and other green initiatives that much more important. 19 miles of ice just broke free in Canada, underscoring the effects of global climate change.
The piece that fell was a 4,500 ice shelf that is now adrift in the Pacific Ocean, according to The Associated Press. And apparently the shelf’s disappearance was sudden:
The Markham Ice Shelf was a big surprise because it suddenly disappeared. We went under cloud for a bit during our research and when the weather cleared up, all of a sudden there was no more ice shelf. It was a shocking event that underscores the rapidity of changes taking place in the Arctic
There are also reports of other ice shelves breaking up and shrinking as temperatures rise, which is bad news for low lying land masses surrounded by oceans. The change may not be noticeable at first but as more ice floods into the oceans water levels will rise and encroach on previously viable land.
But wouldn’t it be possible to refreeze parts of the ice shelves using a chemical process? Obviously it wouldn’t be a permanent solution, but at least it could buy us some time.
Derek Mueller, an Arctic ice shelf specialist at Trent University in Ontario doesn’t think so, saying
These changes are irreversible under the present climate and indicate that the environmental conditions that have kept these ice shelves in balance for thousands of years are no longer present.
That’s because when large shelves of ice fall of now, they aren’t reforming. The air and sea temperature is too high. It’s also destroying fragile ecosystems and endangering shipping routes currently in regular use. But, that may be music to Canada’s ears, Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper “announced last week that he plans to expand exploration of the region’s known oil and mineral deposits, a possibility that has become more evident as a result of melting sea ice.”
That’s one way to turn a bad situation upside-down. Although, any way you turn the Earth, there’s still only one –and we need to take care of it.
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Stumble It!
September 4th, 2008
http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic39-1-15.pdf
It was gone in 1983..cannot be 4500 years old.
September 4th, 2008
If we’re lucky, the Earth warms up enough once more to allow farming in areas that now have permafrost, like in the time of the vikings.
Besides the fact that people are generally healthier when the weather is warmer, with exception only well past the very extremes certain people warn of, warmer weather leads to more land usable for farming, and less extreme storms (as the difference between very warm and cold weather gets narrower) destroying fewer crops, allowing for the world to feed more people.
It’s really unfortunate that the warming trend is expected to stop soon, since the sun is going into a cooler cycle. The warming has so many up sides.
September 7th, 2008
It’s really funny the way people try to spin things.
I have to ask, what good is more land usable for farming when your rainfall stops? That just leads to more parched land, and less agricultural supplies; drought has already become more prevalent. Consequently rivers dry up which then results in less land usable for farming.
Unfortunately the warming trend has no indication of stopping soon. Warming has so many down sides.