oh F#$%. Greenland is melting and fast.

[KevinNYC]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...ice-sheet-melt

The Greenland ice sheet on July 8, left, and four days later on the right. An estimated 97% of the ice sheet surface had thawed by July 12. Photograph: Nasa
This is the most frightening picture you will ever see. The information expressed visually here can be summed up in three words: change or die. So let's take a closer look.

These two juxtaposed images of Greenland are based on observations by satellites monitored by Nasa. The view on the left synthesises their collective view of this inhospitable landmass in the Arctic Circle on 8 July 2012. That on the right shows what Greenland looked like to the same satellites on 12 July, just four days later. A huge amount of ice has melted in an extremely unusual Arctic heatwave.

It's important to appreciate the colour coding of this visible science. Areas marked in white are places where no surface melting of the Greenland ice sheet has taken place. Areas in pale pink were seen by just one satellite to undergo surface melting. Areas in dark pink were seen by two or three satellites to undergo surface melting.

Let's also be clear about what "surface melting" means. The Greenland icecsheet has not vanished. Parts of it are two miles deep: the entire area it covers is six times bigger than Britain. That's a vast quantity of ice. Every summer, parts of the surface of this immense frozen world melt. Temporary lakes even appear on top of the ancient ice mass. Such activity on the surface of the ice sheet has been observed to be growing. But nothing prepared Nasa scientists analysing satellite data this month for the information visualised here. According to these images, 97% of the surface of Greenland's frozen interior saw a sudden summer melt this month. That is a spectacular departure from the expected.

[KevinNYC]

Also this just came out.

The Conversion of a Climate-Change Skeptic

CALL me a converted skeptic. Three years ago I identified problems in previous climate studies that, in my mind, threw doubt on the very existence of global warming. Last year, following an intensive research effort involving a dozen scientists, I concluded that global warming was real and that the prior estimates of the rate of warming were correct. I’m now going a step further: Humans are almost entirely the cause.

My total turnaround, in such a short time, is the result of careful and objective analysis by the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project, which I founded with my daughter Elizabeth. Our results show that the average temperature of the earth’s land has risen by two and a half degrees Fahrenheit over the past 250 years, including an increase of one and a half degrees over the most recent 50 years. Moreover, it appears likely that essentially all of this increase results from the human emission of greenhouse gases.

These findings are stronger than those of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations group that defines the scientific and diplomatic consensus on global warming. In its 2007 report, the I.P.C.C. concluded only that most of the warming of the prior 50 years could be attributed to humans.

[andgar923]

These things happen my n!gga

[Kblaze8855]

This is the most frightening picture you will ever see. The information expressed visually here can be summed up in three words: change or die.

More people would take this shit serious if they didnt over dramatize it so.

Just makes them sound like alarmist hippies while the world goes on around them.

The world has faced global warming and cooling in far more extreme ways than the human race can cause and even if its much quicker than usual....its shown that the world can take it. It may one day really start to annoy those of us in the wrong places.

but change or die? **** outta here. Animals survived the coming and going of ice ages and times when the world was a lot hotter than global warming is gonna make it in the next 5 generations. Many went extinct but they didnt have coats, fire, AC, and the many other things we have. People have been getting by in Siberia and the North Pole for thousands of years....same of the middle east and the sahara. But climate change moving the extreme spots around over a period of decades(an impossibly fast period of time anyway) is gonna destroy humanity?


Even if a lot of us die(and I doubt it) there are bigger potential threats.

[SAKOTXA]

Yaaay. We're going to be able to witness the end of the world as we know it.

Come on guys, don't you feel special?!

[DCL]

we all live in the "now." our great grand kids would probably die of old age before sh!t gets serious, so nobody really cares at the moment.

[Legend of Josh]

Greenland has been sweating more than a whore in church for a good decade or so now, and things are only going to get worse. At this point, I'm not sure if the trend is even remotely reversible, but any and all actions we as humans can do at this point is worth the attempt.

I don't see some "Day After Tomorrow" ordeal in the near future, but at some point in the coming years, decades - something is bound to give-in, and more than likely, us as a planet are NOT going to be prepared for the consequences. It's human nature to just pass the buck and wait for the worst to happen before we act in response to "counter attack" if you will ... but at that point, no amount of $ or global effort will be enough to set things right.

I'm no scientist ... but if you ask me ... we're all fu*ked.

[Legend of Josh]

we all live in the "now." our great grand kids would probably die of old age before sh!t gets serious, so nobody really cares at the moment.

This is what everyone has been saying for the past 20 years if not more... but every five years or so huge populations percentages of scientists, political figures and just the everyday population has been learning in the direction that it's no longer a two or three generational problem, but something that is sneaking up on us right in our own back yards, NOW TODAY... not in multiple decade away. If you live in the US - is the current weather of this summer (the hottest on record) any indication maybe there's some truth to all this?

Let's say worst case scenario and it's our grandchildren ... is the Chevy Volt right now today the answer to everything? ... when we're still burning more fossil fuels daily more than we did the day before, EVEN WITH advancements in alternate energy solutions? We're not doing enough to slow down the sleeping giant, and to say "it's something our grandchildren can worry about when the time comes" is practically saying "let's just keep partying like it's 1999 b/c we're all fu*ked anyway!"

[KevinNYC]

Animals survived the coming and going of ice ages and times when the world was a lot hotter than global warming is gonna make it in the next 5 generations. Many went extinct but they didnt have coats, fire, AC, and the many other things we have. People have been getting by in Siberia and the North Pole for thousands of years....same of the middle east and the sahara. But climate change moving the extreme spots around over a period of decades(an impossibly fast period of time anyway) is gonna destroy humanity?


Even if a lot of us die(and I doubt it) there are bigger potential threats.

People have not lived at the North Pole for thousands of years. This guy


and this guy

got there 103 years ago.
You mean the Arctic.

Humans have used fire for over 100,000 years and had ovens for at least 20,000 years.


Also this simply boils down to what you mean by 'getting by' because a warmer planet will probably not be able to support as many humans as it does today. There would be giant changes for agriculture. A warmer planet also raises the levels of acidity in the oceans which would also affect our food supply. It also means rising sea levels. I live on an island 2-300 yards from the water.

How many generations will it be before nobody is able to get by where I got by?

[blacknapalm]

ya, very few people live on the north pole or in antarctica outside of scientists. i still get what kblaze was trying to get across, mainly the idea that humans don't drastically change the external trends of what is occurring in as little as few generations. limit CFC's, emissions and nuclear power (still controversial).

i've seen info and research on both sides and still really have to brush up on it more because it's been a while. i am fairly convinced that most sample sizes are misleading and not large enough. a few hundred years of recorded data is nothing in regards to the history of man. i don't want to dismiss it but in my cynical standpoint, i understand those that would push it (or de-push it, mind you).

don't get me wrong...humanity needs to act now if there's a verifiable, sustaining threat. the powers that be might have a different say. there's so many factions and lobbyists that have personal interests here.

my father actually worked in greenland for nearly a year during the daytime hours. he said no one even spent more than 15 minutes outside close to the work area. i think his main point was that it was easy to lose your mind there. you had to eat in the cafeteria for every meal and then on top of that, you couldn't even really go outside for a smoke break. you couldn't go outside to get food, to get away, to hang out. you were just stuck in the facility.

it was too damn cold and the only thing around were arctic foxes. 21 hours of daylight, 24 hours of subzero temperatures. i know he won't have any special insight but i'll pass this along to him anyway

[Legend of Josh]

ya, very few people live on the north pole or in antarctica outside of scientists. i still get what kblaze was trying to get across, mainly the idea that humans don't drastically change the external trends of what is occurring in as little as few generations. limit CFC's, emissions and nuclear power (still controversial).

i've seen info and research on both sides and still really have to brush up on it more because it's been a while. i am fairly convinced that most sample sizes are misleading and not large enough. a few hundred years of recorded data is nothing in regards to the history of man. i don't want to dismiss it but in my cynical standpoint, i understand those that would push it (or de-push it, mind you).

don't get me wrong...humanity needs to act now if there's a verifiable, sustaining threat. the powers that be might have a different say. there's so many factions and lobbyists that have personal interests here.

my father actually worked in greenland for nearly a year during the daytime hours. he said no one even spent more than 15 minutes outside close to the work area. i think his main point was that it was easy to lose your mind there. you had to eat in the cafeteria for every meal and then on top of that, you couldn't even really go outside for a smoke break. you couldn't go outside to get food, to get away, to hang out. you were just stuck in the facility.

it was too damn cold and the only thing around were arctic foxes. 21 hours of daylight, 24 hours of subzero temperatures. i know he won't have any special insight but i'll pass this along to him anyway

The fact that many people don't live in the Arctic Circle doesn't mean its changing composition doesn't impact those outside of the Arctic Circle. I'm not sure of the approx. percentage, but there's a significant chunk of the human population that reside on coastal regions of our planet ... and thus unfreezing ice caps that do not freeze back in the winter entirely (which is what is happening slowly, and much and much more surely!) would effect coastal cities across the entire planet, not just Greenland, Canada, Northern Europe and Russia; it's a global alteration of all connecting bodies of water (all oceans, huge seas, etc.).

[Kews1]

global warming =



i dont see the problem here.

[QuebecBaller]

5 months ago, there was snow everywhere, it was cold as f**k. And now, I can swim in a pool everyday.

Some people are calling this global warming... I call this: Summer!

[Meticode]

Both pictures of Greenland are the same. The only difference is NASA went back in and MS Painted in white squares on the pic on the left.

[-p.tiddy-]

How come the ocean is the same level its always been?

No ones beach houses are flooding...