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Greenland’s Fastest-Thinning Glacier


pantheory

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What was thought to be Greenland’s Fastest-Thinning Glacier, upon a more thorough analysis turns out to be actually growing in size.

https://www.livescience.com/65080-greenland-glacier-growing.html?utm_source=ls-newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20190327-l reZs

When a theory becomes dominant and alternatives forgotten, "global warming" for instance, mistakes can more easily be made and studies can have foregone conclusions.

Although global warming in the north is still believed to be a dominant factor, there seems to be at least a temporary reversal in this warming trend, maybe a coming 20 year long reversal according to the article. As a result of this finding some previously high-ranked published papers relating to northern glacial reduction have been withdrawn for further study.

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I posted about this elsewhere. Very worthy of note. They think it's temporary. But what if it isn't? Certainly it's something to keep a cautious optimistic eye on now. I keep saying that only time will tell with this issue. The same people that didn't see this coming, suggest that it will reverse again and melt away even faster. Wrong again? Possibly. We'll just have to see. 

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Very likely temporary, but if not, only good news. 

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On ‎3‎/‎30‎/‎2019 at 10:45 AM, Joshpantera said:

I posted about this elsewhere. Very worthy of note. They think it's temporary. But what if it isn't? Certainly it's something to keep a cautious optimistic eye on now. I keep saying that only time will tell with this issue. The same people that didn't see this coming, suggest that it will reverse again and melt away even faster. Wrong again? Possibly. We'll just have to see. 

 

One guy apparently predicted this sort of thing seven years ago according to your article. Seems to me that GW wouldn't be a straight mathematical linear upward trend. The share market analogy is good. Sure there's been huge dips, but anyone talking about the share market staying stable or 'cooling' in the long run is wrong. But if you only looked at the 87, or 2008 crashes you'd say, yep definitely going down.

 

However this is one piece of science I wouldn't mind being wrong... apart from the fact it will show we really don't know who the hell our climate system really works.

 

Another however... however we should be looking at the same things we are looking at regardless of warming or not. We can't keep damaging the planet like we are and get away with it, fuels will run out at some stage, so a long easy transition is better than going over the cliff one day wondering where it all went wrong.

 

 

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5 hours ago, LogicalFallacy said:

However this is one piece of science I wouldn't mind being wrong... apart from the fact it will show we really don't know who the hell our climate system really works.

 

That seems to be the big question that comes out of the debates. And it's entirely possible that how climate system really works isn't well understood yet. 

 

5 hours ago, LogicalFallacy said:

Another however... however we should be looking at the same things we are looking at regardless of warming or not. We can't keep damaging the planet like we are and get away with it, fuels will run out at some stage, so a long easy transition is better than going over the cliff one day wondering where it all went wrong.

 

 

I don't particularly like fossil fuels regardless of the warming debate. And I certainly don't like trashing the planet in general. There seems to be enough motivation to keep the planet clean to push past debates about warming, natural or man made, natural ups and down all within reason, etc., etc. It's not like clean fuel and energy hinges only on whether it's manipulating the climate. City smog and other issues just plain suck in my opinion, regardless. I used to absolutely hate southern California in the early 80's. Nasty smog around LA. Caught in by the mountains. We used to drive up to high altitude sometimes on weekends just get up out of the smog bank. I couldn't wait to move back home to Florida where the sea breezes generally keep the air clean. 

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23 hours ago, LogicalFallacy said:

 

Yes such a hole has been discovered but there are other possible causes for this other than global warming. The first possibility is that there is presently unknown volcanism under this area. Antarctica has many known volcanic activities under it.  And secondly as the weight of a glacier increases with ice, it has greater weight and therefore more friction and heat is produced at the bottom of the glacier causing melting and sliding of glacial masses.

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https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/111889787/global-warming-is-shrinking-glaciers-faster-than-thought#comments

 

Can't find the actual study. Why don't these people link the actual studies? Morons.

 

If anyone comes across the actual study, which might have a completely different title, please link. I'll keep looking.

 

So my question would be, is the Greenland slowing glacier an outlier, in a trend of shrinking glaciers, or is all the data wrong and glaciers are not shrinking?

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1 hour ago, wellnamed said:

 So the study was from 1961 to 2016.

 

The OP study is recent and they note it may require a review of key papers released prior. Might be a space to watch?

 

 

Weird, reread the OP article. In it they say this:
 

Quote

 


In all, Jakobshavn grew about 100 feet (30 m) taller between 2016 and 2017, the researchers found. But, as mentioned, the glacier is still contributing to ocean level rise worldwide, as it's still losing more ice to the ocean than it is gaining from snow accumulation, the researchers said.

 

 

So it's growing.... but still losing more ice than it gains. So the fact that it's growing is kinda irrelevant if it has a net loss? Doesn't take a genius to figure out if you lose more than you gain it will continue to contribute to sea level rise.

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On 4/8/2019 at 1:35 PM, LogicalFallacy said:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/111889787/global-warming-is-shrinking-glaciers-faster-than-thought#comments

 

Can't find the actual study. Why don't these people link the actual studies? Morons.

 

If anyone comes across the actual study, which might have a completely different title, please link. I'll keep looking.

 

So my question would be, is the Greenland slowing glacier an outlier, in a trend of shrinking glaciers, or is all the data wrong and glaciers are not shrinking?

 

The above question is slightly miss-worded. The question should be "is the Greenland growing glacier an outlier in a trend of shrinking glaciers, or is all the data wrong and glaciers are not shrinking?

 

Yes, a very good question that can only be answered by many continuing multinational studies. Preferred analyses IMO should have no preconceived prejudicial ideas of global warming as much as possible.

 

According to the most reliable link IMO that I could find, Greenland as a whole continent has been losing ice for the last decade more than it has gained ice. It has gained ice to a reliable extent only in the last two years.

 

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/09/24/greenland-ice-sheet-apparently-gains-mass-for-the-2nd-year-in-a-row/

 

but as explained in the title link of the opening post above this new trend, with variables expected from year to year, could last another 20 years according to their analysis and related paper. It seems peculiar to me that this same glacier now reported to be growing, was in 2016 considered by extensive study to be the fastest thinning glacier of Greenland.

 

https://www.livescience.com/65080-greenland-glacier-growing.html?utm_source=ls-newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20190327-ls

 

 

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