Has everyone seen this today?

Question

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer

30 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - A chunk of Antarctic ice about seven times the size of Manhattan suddenly collapsed, putting an even greater portion of glacial ice at risk, scientists said Tuesday.

Satellite images show the runaway disintegration of a 160-square-mile chunk in western Antarctica, which started Feb. 28. It was the edge of the Wilkins ice shelf and has been there for hundreds, maybe 1,500 years.

This is the result of global warming, said British Antarctic Survey scientist David Vaughan...............

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080326/ap_on_sc/antarctica_collapse;_ylt=AmzgFRDU6Y3NBaJEf99cLfKs0NUE

Answer 1

Diane,

You've talked to your husband and you think you're educated?  Please there are a lot of educated sceptics.

You know what the weather is like in the Antartic?  It snows.  Snow builds up in the middle bit it doesn't just build up and up otherwise it would form a giant mountain.  It flows to the edge and breaks off into the ocean.  This is a natural process that has been happening since the begining of the world whether the Earth is warming or cooling or staying the same temperature.

Ice breaks off the Antartic regularly.  In the last 30 years bigger ice pieces have broken off the Antartic.  Presumably before then there were big pieces also, but nobody was there to see them.

For a scientists to take a look at the ice and say this is caused by global warming, he is not using scientific method, nor is he guessing.  He is saying what is inside his heart, his feelings, his faith.  

Climate science is not really science, it is more like a religion.

Answer 2

Yes, and it isn't the first evidence, green land is melting away as we speak!

Answer 3

It's natural.

It's called the spring break-up.

it gets warmer, it melts.

Answer 4

Yes, but they're basically saying we shouldn't worry about it !?!?

I think it's pretty frightening.

Answer 5

Ice cycles are melting off houses in Canada right now, is that global warming as well... or perhaps SPRING!?   lol

Answer 6

I'm melting, I'm melting  .................

Answer 7

Dang, wow..... Oh, I forgot, it is summer over there. May I ask for proof that it is caused by man?

Answer 8

Burmie - do you always post comments without even reading the content?  Because if you had read the link, you'd know that this has nothing to do with annual cycles melting and refreezing.  This is a massive ice shelf that's been solid for possibly 1500 years and now it's breaking off.  

According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center:

The Wilkins Ice Shelf is a broad plate of permanent floating ice on the southwest Antarctic Peninsula, about 1,000 miles south of South America. In the past 50 years, the western Antarctic Peninsula has experienced the biggest temperature increase on Earth, rising by 0.5 degree Celsius (0.9 degree Fahrenheit) per decade.

This should be one more wake up call that these massive glaciers, once they start melting, can collapse faster than expected.

Answer 9

So, Diane B, let me see if I am following you here.  The agency in Australia tasked with studying Antarctica needs someone's wife notify them when a huge chunk of ice breaks off of Antarctica?  And we are supposed to trust their research?  Nice.  That would be like hearing that Newton's wife hollered at him to let him know another apple fell off of the tree because he apparently wasn't paying attention.

But onto the question.  Someone please correct me if I am wrong.  The ice sheet around Antarctica does not extend to South America and Africa, does it?  That means the ice has to break off sooner or later, otherwise the ice would continue to grow.  So, how is this news?  Ice sheets break off all of the time.

Considering we have been truly studying Antarctica less than 100 years and closely observing it in only the last 30 - 40 years, how do we know this is unusual?  How do we know this doesn't happen regularly?  Any answer other than we don't is intellectually dishonest.

People are talking about how this was predicted and how it is more proof of global warming.  Hogwash.  I predict that another ice sheet will break off in the next 30 years and it will be due to swimmers urinating in the ocean and warming it up too much.  When it happens, prove me wrong.

Sorry, a real prediction is one that specifies cause and effect.  In global warming terms, that would mean saying an increase in CO2 by a certain amount would result in a particular temperature.  Predicting a broad range of temperatures or an event that is likely to happen anyway does not count as a valid prediction.  AGW alarmists need to tell us what the temperature is going to be 5 or 10 years from now.  If they won't or don't give us accurate predictions, then we know they don't truly understand the science they are trying to rule our lives with.

Answer 10

Got to find my snow cone machine!!

Answer 11

yeah global warming

Answer 12

Yes as soon as I saw it I forwarded it on to my husband at the Australia Antarctic Division to share with those who work there.  They are the scientists and the researchers who go to the Antarctic from Australia.  He found it very interesting and he too said definitely a sign of global warming -- maybe now people will realize that global warming is current and a problem to be dealt with now and not putting it off any longer.

Mr. Bored:  A chunk of ice seven times the size of Manhatten Island is not just SPRING!  You like many others need to educate yourself with regards to global warming!

5_for_fi...  The Antarctic Division has already been informed of the ice collapse at Wilkens.  They knew about it before it was put on Yahoo news. I was stating that I had read it on Yahoo news and forwarded the information on to my husband not knowing he already had the information but he still found the Yahoo news article interesting.   I do not claim to be educated about the research of anything else that the Antarctic Division studies or their reserach and scientific teams.  However I do know that the people who work there are of the highest calibur and are the most respected in the world with regards to their knowledge and their performance while living for a year at a time in Antarctica.    However it is evident that you don't know much about any of it either being as you cannot even spell the word Antarctic correctly.  I think you might need some education.  That's like the pot calling the kettle black isn't it?  At least I can admit that I am fallible.  Maybe next time you should be standing on one of "those pieces of ice that melts"

Sorry the person who can't spell is Ben O my apologies to

5_for_fi... however, he is not informed if he thinks that the ice is melting because people are pissing in the ocean.  The ice that collapsed would have taken in the are aof 1500 years to be the depth of the ice -- this is not just  melt down, but actual global warming.  Look around you -- the weather is changing, the temperatures are increasing, people keep polluting the air and not doing anything about it.  How can you possibly say that it has to be proven to you -- prove to me that you are right in what you say -- you can't either.