The Melting Snowball Effect

A new look at twenty years worth of research shows that polar ice is in fact melting, and raising sea levels, faster than anticipated. Greg Laden writes "Greenland is losing ice about 500% faster now than it was in the early 1990s, while Antarctica is losing ice at about the same rate." Altogether, ice melt since 1992 "has contributed to about 0.44 inches of sea level rise." On Stoat, William M. Connolley says "Still – that adds up to 0.6 mm/yr. So it will have to grow if its to become interesting by 2100." With ice-bound methane poised to mingle with carbon dioxide and accelerate global warming, interesting is a definite possibility. Scientists estimate that sea levels would rise by 200 feet if Antarctica thawed entirely. Not for several millennia, but an industrialist can dream.

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The good folks at the National Snow and Ice Data Center summarize the season in the Arctic Ocean. Turns out that the weather conditions that helped make 2007 a record for low sea-ice extent didn't recur.
Time to start watching the Arctic Sea Ice breakup. This happens every year, but as you know, the total amount of ice left each summer has been reducing, and the "old ice" which forms a basis for the arctic ice refreeze is disappearing.
"Convection in the Antarctic Ice Sheet Leading to a Surge of the Ice Sheet and Possibly to a New Ice Age" is a 1970's Science paper by Hughes.
What do you think of ice cream? How do you feel when you miss having your very own ice cream sundae? Well, I missed having a sundae today so I am feeling sad!