Having Just returned from watching the raging rivers pour out of one of thousands of glaciers on Greenland, I was not too surprised, but humbly anxious about the impact of the meltwaters from Greenland Glacier featured in this post from: Newsweek http://www.newsweek.com/id/208164
The article summarizes some of the research that is coming out of the ongoing International Polar Year studies:
The IPCC may also have been too cautious on Greenland, assuming that the melting of its glaciers would contribute little to sea-level rise. Some studies found that Greenland’s glacial streams were surging and surface ice was morphing into liquid lakes, but others made a strong case that those surges and melts were aberrations, not long-term trends. It seemed to be a standoff. More reliable data, however, such as satellite measurements of Greenland’s mass, show that it is losing about 52 cubic miles per year and that the melting is accelerating. So while the IPCC projected that sea level would rise 16 inches this century, “now a more likely figure is one meter [39 inches] at the least,” says Carlson. “Chest high instead of knee high, with half to two thirds of that due to Greenland.” Hence the “no idea how bad it was.
52 Cubic Miles per year? Yikes. That’s like dropping big ice cubes in the ocean….. sure to raise water levels.
Will the Greenland Ice Sheet actually disappear?
The test of whether the nations of the world care enough to act will come in December, when 192 countries meet in Copenhagen to hammer out a climate treaty. Carlson vows that IPY will finish its Arctic assessment in time for the meeting, and one conclusion is already clear. “A consensus has developed during IPY that the Greenland ice sheet will disappear,” he says. Cue the Jaws music.
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