Two Major Greenland Glaciers - 300K Apart - Double Flow Rate In Two Years

[hatrack]

LONDON (Reuters) - Two major glaciers in Greenland have recently begun to flow and break up more quickly under the onslaught of global warming, a new study said on Friday, raising the spectre of millions drowning from rising sea levels. The report from the University of Swansea's School of the Environment and Society said the Kangerdlugssuaq and Helheim glaciers had doubled their rate of flow to the ocean over the past two years after steady movement during the 1990s.

This spurt meant that current environmental models of the rate of retreat of Greenland's giant ice sheet -- which could add seven metres to the height of the world's oceans if it disappears -- had underestimated the problem. "It seems likely that other Greenland outlets will undergo similar changes, which would impact the mass balance of the ice sheet more rapidly than predicted," the study said.

It said the fact that the two major outflow glaciers had shown the same sudden acceleration despite being more than 300 km apart suggested the cause was not local but more likely climatic or oceanic in origin.

"In both of these glaciers the acceleration and retreat has been sudden, despite the progressive nature of warming and thinning over some years," the report said.

EDIT

http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-02-04T050724Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-235199-1.xml&archived=False

[Delphinus]

1. See,

this should be FRONT PAGE news in every newspaper of the world!

There's no stopping this - we could, MAYBE, abate the consequences, but there's no turning back and there's no lifeline. Not a g0d blessed one in this freaking administration gives one whit about this! Our lives are meaningless to them.

[rodeodance]

2. "The United States, the world's biggest polluter,

has rejected both the protocol in its current form and any suggestion of expanding or extending it."

[rodeodance]

3. This information is a dire warning! to all of the world!

"In both of these glaciers the acceleration and retreat
has been sudden, despite the progressive nature of warming
and thinning over some years," the report said.

"The longevity of this flux increase is unknown but
could be substantial," it added.

[gulfcoastliberal]

4. They should keep up new studies of this.

Cause their old models are way obsolete.

[NNadir]

5. Let's hope that this isn't an underestimate as well:

Scientists said on Monday the world had to halt greenhouse gas emissions and reverse them within two decades or watch the planet spiralling towards destruction.

Isn't this a great time to live under Repuke rule?