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That Huge Iceberg Should Freak You Out. Here's Why

posted by Fnord666 on Monday July 17 2017, @05:17AM   Printer-friendly
from the one-big-ice-cube dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

(CNN)This week, a trillion-ton hunk of ice broke off Antarctica.

You probably know that. It was all over the Internet.

Among the details that have been repeated ad nauseam: The iceberg is nearly the size of Delaware, which prompted some fun musing on Twitter about where exactly Delaware is and how anyone is supposed to approximate the square footage of that US state. The ice, which has been named A68, represents more than 12% of the Larsen C ice shelf, a sliver on the Antarctic Peninsula. And most important: None of this has anything to do with man-made climate change.

The problem: That last detail -- the climate one -- is misleading at best.

At worst, it's wrong.

Some scientists think this has a lot to do with global warming.

I spent most of Thursday on the phone with scientists, talking to them about the huge iceberg off Antarctica and what it means. Here are my five takeaways.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/14/world/sutter-iceberg-antarctica-climate-change/index.html

[Warning: CNN autoplay video - Ed]

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Monday July 17 2017, @04:55PM (2 children)

    by aristarchus (2645) on Monday July 17 2017, @04:55PM (#540392) Journal

    You will on occasion find yourself agreeing with jmorris and other frightening people. Deal with it.

    The first step in dealing with it is to consult the check-list!

    When I am agreeing with jmorriskhallow

    When, and if, god forbid, this happens to you, there are several commonsense steps to take.

    1. Are you in fact khallow? If this is true, it is very sad, but at least you are not jmorris.
    2. Are you agreeing with khallow because you are frightened, scared of Hillary, or have become a right-wing nutjob? See a doctor and ask for Spice, because fear is the mind-killer.
    3. Is khallow right? Unlikely, yes. Impossible? Almost. But still logically possible, on the "tarbaby" principle. See if you can get paid for doubting AGW on the internets.
    4. Are you agreeing with khallow because of Ayn Rand, von Mises, or Nozick? Agreeing with jmorris is the least of your problems.
    5. You are agreeing with jmorris because no one give you an argument, but just throws off one-liners and obvious rebuttals? Perhaps you are confusing ideological petrification with intellectual and scientific intercourse. Perhaps you should start disagreeing with khallow, just to be contrarian and "cool". There is hope for you!

    If, after running through this short checklist, you still feel inclined to agree with khallow, but are bothered by this feeling, please contact the Special Social Justice Warrior Response Squad, khallow Division, at ssjwrs-khallow@socialjusticewarriors.org. Your tendencies will be noted.

    Modified mutandis mutandum.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   2  

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 17 2017, @06:47PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 17 2017, @06:47PM (#540474)

    You think it is normal to turn off your brain in the face of anything you find unusual and turn to a "checklist" to tell you what to do?

    • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Monday July 17 2017, @07:27PM

      by aristarchus (2645) on Monday July 17 2017, @07:27PM (#540503) Journal

      Wait a sec, . . . OK, checked the list: I agree with both jmorris and khallow on this one. Highly unusual.