Bummer: New Paper Proclaims Doom From Antarctic Melt

Of course it does. And, of course, the media itself has shifted into Dooooom! mode. Here’s the NY Times’ resident climahysteric, Justin Gillis, along with Kenneth Change

Scientists Warn of Rising Oceans From Polar Melt

A large section of the mighty West Antarctica ice sheet has begun falling apart and its continued melting now appears to be unstoppable, two groups of scientists reported on Monday. If the findings hold up, they suggest that the melting could destabilize neighboring parts of the ice sheet and a rise in sea level of 10 feet or more may be unavoidable in coming centuries.

Global warming caused by the human-driven release of greenhouse gases has helped to destabilize the ice sheet, though other factors may also be involved, the scientists said.

And there’s your “science”, folks. It was preconceived to Blame Humanity….say, how did the scientists get to Antarctica to study the ice? Fossil fuels, perhaps? They sure didn’t sail or swim.

The rise of the sea is likely to continue to be relatively slow for the rest of the 21st century, the scientists added, but in the more distant future it may accelerate markedly, potentially throwing society into crisis.

“This is really happening,” Thomas P. Wagner, who runs NASA’s programs on polar ice and helped oversee some of the research, said in an interview. “There’s nothing to stop it now. But you are still limited by the physics of how fast the ice can flow.” (snip)

Those six glaciers alone could cause the ocean to rise four feet as they disappear, Dr. Rignot said, possibly within a couple of centuries. He added that their disappearance will most likely destabilize other sectors of the ice sheet, so the ultimate rise could be triple that.

By a “couple centuries”, they mean somewhere in the range of 1000 years.

Thing is, did they even go to Antarctica to perform science? The abstract notes

We measure the grounding line retreat of glaciers draining the Amundsen Sea Embayment of West Antarctica using Earth Remote Sensing (ERS-1/2) satellite radar interferometry from 1992 to 2011.

That’s not even 9 years, nor does it take into account the growth of the rest of Antarctic ice. We’ve been told again and again that a pause of 17+ years is too short to be a trend. Now, Warmists are trumping this study as doom.

In fact, the trends, per RSS, for Antarctica show that the areas where sea ice form are flatlined since 1980, and Antarctica overall shows a statistically insignificant rise since 1980. And, as Anthony Watts further notes

A lot can happen in several centuries, why even in the last couple of years Antarctic has seen record levels on Antarctic sea ice.

A lot can happen, and, realistically, there is nothing unusual about some melting at the poles during a warm period, which have occurred off and on since the end of the last glacial age.

Scientists said the ice sheet was not melting because of warmer air temperatures, but rather because relatively warm water that occurs naturally in the depths of the ocean was being pulled to the surface by an intensification, over the past several decades, of the powerful winds that encircle Antarctica.

Hooray, those are two of the blames Warmists have been pushing, mostly to find a way to deflect criticism that warming has essentially stopped for over 17 years. Interestingly, the release seems to coincide with the IPCC report, which also talks about “corks being released”, though the IPCC report talks in terms of 2,000-10,000 years.

Anyhow, Warmists, there’s your cue: give up all use of fossil fuels to save Antarctica.

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach.

Share this!

Enjoy reading? Share it with your friends!