Naked Science Forum

Life Sciences => The Environment => Topic started by: thedoc on 22/02/2011 18:12:26

Title: How vulnerable are the Antarctic ice sheets?
Post by: thedoc on 22/02/2011 18:12:26

Scientists are keeping a close eye on the West Antarctic ice sheet because if it’s melts, we’re in big trouble from the resulting rise in sea level.  But how vulnerable is it?  Dr. David Barnes from the British Antarctic Survey has been trying to find out by studying small marine creatures called bryozoans...
Read a transcript of the interview by clicking here (http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/content/interviews/interview/1566/)

or [chapter podcast=3022 track=11.02.20/Naked_Scientists_Show_11.02.20_7947.mp3](https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thenakedscientists.com%2FHTML%2Ftypo3conf%2Fext%2Fnaksci_podcast%2Fgnome-settings-sound.gif&hash=f2b0d108dc173aeaa367f8db2e2171bd) Listen to it now[/chapter] or [download as MP3] (http://nakeddiscovery.com/downloads/split_individual/11.02.20/Naked_Scientists_Show_11.02.20_7947.mp3)

Title: How vulnerable are the Antarctic ice sheets?
Post by: thedoc on 22/02/2011 18:12:27

Title: How vulnerable are the Antarctic ice sheets?
Post by: yor_on on 11/03/2011 16:13:57

Krill numbers may have dropped by as much as 80% since the 1970's - so today's stocks are a mere 1/5th of what they were only 30 years ago. The decline in krill may in turn account for the decline in the numbers of some penguin species. From Antarctica and its krill population. (http://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica%20fact%20file/science/global_warming.htm)

And this study from 2007 regarding Subglacial Water in West Antarctica Considerably More Active Than Previously Observed. (http://scrippsnews.ucsd.edu/Releases/?releaseID=773) There's more of course, but combine those with this paper. "That West Antarctica can collapse much faster than Greenland relies on another oddity of the West Antarctic geometry." (http://www.radix.net/~bobg/faqs/sea.level.faq.html) From 1997, but more actual today I think than it was then.

Title: How vulnerable are the Antarctic ice sheets?
Post by: yor_on on 11/03/2011 17:20:04

So the question you might be asking yourself if you cared to read, and then made the further effort to actually understand, that old excerpt is..

So Is Antarctica's Ice Sheets - Growing or Shrinking -. And where if so, West or East, both? This one is from NASA 2010 (December) (http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/20100108_Is_Antarctica_Melting.html), and yes, it's shrinking. So do we need to be concerned? Well, yes, maybe not you, but your kids perhaps, and their kids definitely. That is in a forty to a hundred and fifty years perspective, about. A long time for you, as you most probably will be dead by then, but geologically speaking, a ridiculously short moment.