Can someone explain this to me - ice shelf collapsing validates global warming?

Question

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080325/ap_on_sc/antarctica_collapse;_ylt=ArcZ7piLJGWgAma02nO94RkPLBIF

This article indicates that some parts of antarctica are cooling, but the area where this ice shelf is happens to be warming.

if part is cooling and part is warming, how is the overall impact warming?

Also if this ice shelf has only been around for hundreds, to maybe 1,500 years - - what was there before it was created? Doesn't this help prove that there is a cycle to the creation and melting/destruction of the ice in the area?

Do you wonder why people are skeptical?

Answer 1

the shelf is in Antarctica - thats in the southern hemisphere - its there summer right now ... of course its going to be getting a little warmer in the summer than it is during the winter ....

Answer 2

You're right, this fact doesn't validate the science that says global warming is mostly man made.

It's simply a demonstration (and a pretty impressive one) of an effect of the present warming, and one which shows one of warmings major threats.  Collapse of land based ice raising sea levels.

I urge everyone to read the whole story.  It makes no claim that this validates global warming theory, just explains why this is a concern.  The reasonable statements by the scientists show the lie of calling them "alarmist".

But global warming theory (that it's mostly man made) has been validated in many other ways.

Answer 3

Any scientist that claims to know should be considered a fool!

Here is what Alarmists want you to IGNORE!

Listen to Climate Change: Heat under water near Antarctica

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian...

"It's the only place on the planet where active seafloor and subaerial (above sea level) volcanoes are near large icebergs and ice sheets."  ++

""Since three-quarters of the Earth is covered by ocean, the vast majority of volcanic activity on Earth is occurring without our knowledge undersea." So it's unknown how much heat and chemicals the underwater volcanoes spew into the ocean and atmosphere, affecting global ocean temperatures and climate, he says."

Answer 4

The break up of the ice shelfs in Antarctica are a direct result of global climate change from global warming.  The break up has gotten worse over the last ten years.  What will happen now is the rest of the ice sheet on the land,will slide into the sea. That will cause an immediate rise in global sea levels! This is the UNDENIABLE PROOF that global climate change is happening faster than predicted!

Answer 5

Global warming is a political tool.  Nothing more than a myth.  

Wow, watch the thumbs down pile up, this will be awesome to see. :)

Answer 6

The ice caps at Antarctica have been slowly gaining mass since they were first measured in 1979.

Right now it's summer in the southern hemisphere, so the ice is getting weaker as it gets thinner.

It's not unexpected that an ice berg break off.  This is natural and has happened many times before.

Answer 7

As a geologist, I have learned to think of things in geoLOGICAL time scales.  Alarmist typically don't think in logical time scales.  Even 1500 year isn't enough time to make useful deductions.  Pretending you can make useful deductions in a couple decades is really rediculous but that doesn't stop them from trying.  I am sure most people know this but it bears repeating, glaciers are formed by the accumulation of precipitation that is more than the melting.  The glaciers form, and migrate downhill.  They then melt at the downgradient point.  This point can migrate depending on many factors such as temperature, precipitation, etc.  Warming periods can cause significant migration of the point where glaciers melt.  This tends to look like they are melting away.  Since we have been generally warming since the last glacial period 10,000 years ago, there is some truth to this.  Pretending to know it is caused by man is rediculous and non scientific.

Answer 8

If the ice did grow but did not break off, wouldn't there be ice all through the seas by now, considering how old the earth is? It has to melt at some point. That shelf happened to be that point.

Answer 9

It is quite simple, actually.

You see, anything that could possibly be caused by a warm temperature, such as ice melting, people getting sunburn, my dog constantly barking at the back door, is caused by climate change, IE Global Warming.

Anything that could be caused by a cool temperature, such as snow, frozen lakes, frostbite, and my dog barking at the front door, are all local weather events and cannot be tied to Global Cooling, or even the status quo.

Everything clear now?  Good.  Hey barkeep!  Another round of Kool-Aid for everyone!

Answer 10

Global warming is about "global" warming.  That means the average temperature over the entire surface of the planet, is increasing.  There is no doubt that is happening, unless you believe the ground weather stations are unreliable, the satellite temperatures are unreliable, the world-wide glacier mass isn't decreasing, the arctic ice isn't getting less and less (on average) over the past 30 years, etc.

This massive ice shelf collapse is on the Antarctica peninsula (the part jetting out toward South America), a region known to have warmed 2.5 C since 1945.  That's a large area and that's significant warming. 1500 year old massive ice sheets don't collapse unless warming is occuring.

This is just one more piece of evidence that the consequences of large scale warming are serious.  If this were the only evidence of warming, so what.  But it's not, it's one piece of a mountain of evidence that global warming is occurring.

As for the natural cycles, those too have to have causes (the temperature doesn't simply choose to jump up or down on a whim).  Since solar activity, volcano activity, orbital variations, tectonic shifts, major wind/ocean current pattern shifts, and all other natural climate shift causes have been ruled out we are left with human caused global warming as the best theory.  Since greenhouse gases are known (and have been known for over 100 years) to trap heat in the atmosphere and CO2 (a known greenhouse gas) has been rising, it makes more sense to explain the measured warming with this than by some mystery unknown cause.