Global Warming: NASA Studies Retreating Glaciers

Published in the International Glaciological Society, the new report from NASA shows the changes in ice sheet thickness in Greenland and Antarctica.

The survey shows there was a net loss of ice from the combined polar ice sheets between 1992 and 2002 and a corresponding rise in sea level. The survey documents for the first time extensive thinning of the West Antarctic ice shelves and an increase in snowfall in the interior of Greenland, as well as thinning at the edges. All are signs of a warming climate predicted by computer models.

The full release of the report (PDF) is here. While the study did not approach the issue of carbon emissions and their link to global warming, Jay Zwally, the primary author of the report, says that the climate predictions they cited are based on manmade emissions and that such emissions are the most likely source of the warming trend.

Other recent studies have shown increasing losses of ice in parts of these sheets. This new survey is the first to inventory the losses of ice and the addition of new snow on both in a consistent and comprehensive way throughout an entire decade.

Tracking the accumulation of snow and ice and the loss of ice from the sheet due to melting gives us a perspective of the dynamics of the ice sheet and therefore a baseline for studying the effects of changes in the polar caps to sea level.

"The study indicates that the contribution of the ice sheets to recent sea-level rise during the decade studied was much smaller than expected, just two percent of the recent increase of nearly three millimeters a year," says Zwally. "Continuing research using NASA satellites and other data will narrow the uncertainties in this important issue."

I'm happy to see more and more evidence, more and more studies being done, to show that we are ruthlessly destroying our planet. Hopefully, with enough studies and evidence, we can turn the tide of environmental destruction in this country and join the rest of the world in being concerned about it.