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A major Greenland glacier that was one of the fastest shrinking ice and snow masses on Earth is growing again, a new NASA study finds.
The Jakobshavn (YA-cob-shawv-en) glacier around 2012 was retreating about 1.8 miles (3 kilometers) and thinning nearly 130 feet (almost 40 meters) annually. But it started growing again at about the same rate in the past two years, according to a study in Monday’s Nature Geoscience . Study authors and outside scientists think this is temporary.
“That was kind of a surprise. We kind of got used to a runaway system,” said Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland ice and climate scientist Jason Box. “The good news is that it’s a reminder that it’s not necessarily going that fast. But it is going.”
Box, who wasn’t part of the study, said Jakobshavn is “arguably the most important Greenland glacier because it discharges the most ice in the northern hemisphere. For all of Greenland, it is king.”
A natural cyclical cooling of North Atlantic waters likely caused the glacier to reverse course, said study lead author Ala Khazendar, a NASA glaciologist on the Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) project. Khazendar and colleagues say this coincides with a flip of the North Atlantic Oscillation — a natural and temporary cooling and warming of parts of the ocean that is like a distant cousin to El Nino in the Pacific.
While this is “good news” on a temporary basis, this is bad news on the long term because it tells scientists that ocean temperature is a bigger player in glacier retreats and advances than previously thought, said NASA climate scientist Josh Willis, a study co-author. Over the decades the water has been and will be warming from man-made climate change, he said, noting that about 90 percent of the heat trapped by greenhouse gases goes into the oceans.
https://www.apnews.com/b19abfb0a0534b51925aa121806255a8
(Score: 1, Redundant) by bradley13 on Friday March 29 2019, @09:13AM (4 children)
"A natural cyclical cooling of North Atlantic waters likely caused the glacier to reverse course"
Say it's not true! Nature has cycles. Like ice ages and interglacials. And our interglacial is, so far not even as warm as previous ones. Heck, it isn't even as warm as recent warm periods. [wikipedia.org]
TFA is deluded. Why they ever thought the climate was in any sort of "runaway" condition is just inexplicable. The planet has been far warmer in the past [wikimedia.org], has had far higher CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere - and yet hasn't cooked itself. It should be clear to anyone that negative feedback prevents any sort of runaway effect, certainly in the tiny region of variation we are currently seeing.
Of course, changes in climate will have effects. And climate is changing, the planet is currently getting warmer. Sea levels are rising a couple of millimeters per year. Color me unimpressed - it's just not that dramatic. Coral islands fix themselves [newscientist.com]: except where the local inhabitants have screwed things up, they are currently growing. The only significant effect will be on mainland cities built on the water's edge - and there are plenty of options, anything from levees to simply moving slowly inland.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 29 2019, @09:25AM (3 children)
Yes. Miami has no problems. Tell them that.
Get a clue, idiot. When you can't fathom timescales longer than age of your grandma, then please fuck off and leave it to the experts.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Freeman on Friday March 29 2019, @02:35PM (2 children)
How old are the supposed experts and why should I trust them to care about the next 20 years, let alone 200 years? Also, which experts? Do they believe in population reduction? What methods do they believe would be best for population reduction? Are they members of PETA? Do they think a dog's life is equivalent to a human's? Do they think dogs are better than humans? Would they like to get in at the ground floor on a new opportunity?
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 29 2019, @06:14PM
More important question Mr. Faithful, just how old do you think the Earth really is?
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Saturday March 30 2019, @09:29PM
Regardless of inherent merit. dogs do not master a technology that can destroy most life on earth.