As ice melts in a valley wont the last half melt quicker than the first ! are we being lied to here too ?

Question

Scientists say that because the ice is melting so fast that this is a result of man made goobal warming. As ice melts and there is less ice covering the earth the temperature is bound to rise. If a glacier were 1 mile deep in a valley by the time it was half a mile deep most of ice is already melted, and as a result it appears that the ice is melting quicker. Volume wise the melt could be the same but appear to be accelerating greatly. Yes i admit temperaturs are rising but this can be attributed to solar weather, mount st helens and mount pinushibu. Scientists told us that these 2 eruptions threw so much dust and ash into the atmosphere that it could/would raise the temperature of the globe by 2 degrees centigrade each, have they forgotten these or are they to bussy trying to get funds by jumping on the global warming bandwaggon. From the cores drilled at the poles they show us graphs indicating co2 levels an peaks corresponding with high temperatures. But these centuaries apart !

Answer 1

I'm just gonna answer the question without getting to involved in the rest of the media propaganda thingie you got going there. Remember how rich the companies are that want you to keep on trucking with your lifestyle as it is. Media usually cover even the smallest idea as much as the overall opinion of the science world - this mostly leads to confusion of the average person, but you can always question the contents.

Answer: The last half will melt quicker if the temperature continues to rise yes. But global warming isn't measured by calculating how much ice is left, it's calculated by doing an average of all temperatures on the globe over a year. So you see the effect after many years, not one. What's so amazingly weird about this temperature rise in comparison to all the past ones is that this happens in apparantly no time whatsoever and for no other apparent reason that rapidly growing CO2 levels. Which humans are responsible for in massive amounts. Wouldn't it be fun if oil was banned forever now?

Answer 2

You are correct that the last part will melt quicker.

and if you are being lied to then you need to challenge your sources, because this mechanism is defined by the authorative UN IPPC http://www.ipcc.ch which presents all the concensus material on climate change, even accepted by the Bush administration.

This is one of the concerns that we need to stop the climate change now, because there are lots of mechanisms like this that will cause run-away unstopable climate change if we raise the temperature more than a few degrees above the long term norms that have given the planet such a stable environment for milliions of years.

eg as glaciers melt there is more bare rock so more heat is absorbed not reflected back, and there is less holding back the remains of the glacier so most gliciers are now moving much faster, and melt water is getting down to the base of glaciers where it lubricates them too.

Earths systems have been remarkably stable due to many differnet control feedback mechanisms (see James Lovelock Gaia) but humans have removed many of these through agriculture, clear cut forests, poor irrigation, species extinction, mountain topping, pollution of seas, and then stressing the system by releasing CO2 back into the atmosphere.

Answer 3

Slow down buddy! You've managed to seriously confuse yourself. The effect you speak of is just a "negative feed back loop". So in a way ,you're agreeing with the climate change models when they predict that climate change will accelerate faster and faster due to this,and many other "negative feed back loops"!