It has been very interesting for me this past couple of weeks to see Eric Rignot's name in virtually every major newspaper, all over Google News, and even in some of the email lists I belong to (which are on completely different unrelated topics). He is in the office right next to mine at work. (I.e., his office is behind the wall I face when I'm sitting at my desk.) And just yesterday, his wife Isabella Velicogna, who works downstairs, showed up in Google News (for example on Fox News <http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,186637,00.html>) with her results from a completely different method of measurement (change in gravity) showing that the Antarctic ice cap has also been losing ice for the past 3 years that the satellite she used has been in orbit <http://sciencemag.org/cgi/content/…>. One of the things that Eric showed that even the worst-case scenarios forgot to take into account is that the melting is causing the still frozen ice to slip and slide into the ocean anyway <http://sciencemag.org/cgi/content/…>. Since it displaces nearly as much volume as it would if it were melted, the net effect on world sea level is the same: Melted or not, all that ice and additional water will cause sea level to rise. Also today, as in the recent past, it was announced that the Iditarod race route in Alaska will have to be changed again due to a lack of snow along part of the original route. So while there is some argument as to what kind of global climate change is occurring and just how much of it is due to human effects, no scientists are arguing that you can add all the extra CO2 and other compounds to the atmosphere that humans are adding and that it will have absolutely zero effect. That is scientifically ridiculous. Most people around here I know therefore refer to it as global climate change rather than global warming because no one knows for sure what the actual effects will be. But they all agree that there has to be effects of some kind. I also haven't heard any results of anyone showing actual models or simulations that the earth will become nearly uninhabitable. That sounds like a huge overstatement of the problems that might occur. However, it would be very difficult to state with a straight face in the face of all the measured data showing up that nothing different will occur and that all will be the same as it has been for the past several centuries. I've even heard some people around here mention that Russia and Canada are already taking the very first initial steps to plan for setting up future shipping and trade routes and ports between the two countries for when the Arctic Ocean becomes mostly ice-free all year round. Personally, I don't know what the solutions are. But ignoring what the data are starting to show more and more, and act as if none of it is really happening, or expect it to all go away sounds even more foolish or even childish to me. One can prepare for various scenarios just as people everywhere should prepare for things such as earthquakes or hurricanes or winter blizzards that are sure to occur depending on what area of the world you live in. I can't imagine living in North Dakota and living my annual life exactly as I would here in California and expect to have no problems of any kind in the future. And it might be fun to be able to grow things outside that weren't possible a decade or two ago. Maybe that is a small silver lining that will help us get through things if the overall effects are worse than we expect... --Lee Poulsen Pasadena, California, USDA Zone 10a On Mar 3, 2006, at 1:59 PM, Dell Sherk wrote: > Here is an interesting article that was quoted from John Atcheson on > the > yahoo mesembs group: > > >> Climate change models predicted that it would take more than 1,000 > >> years for Greenland's ice sheet to melt. But at the AAAS meeting in > >> St. Louis, NASA's Eric Rignot outlined the results of a study that > >> shows Greenland's ice cover is breaking apart and flowing into the sea > >> at rates far in excess of anything scientists predicted, and it's > >> accelerating each year. If (or when) Greenland's ice cover melts, it > >> will raise sea levels by 21 feet - enough to inundate nearly every sea > >> port in America. >> >> But they will spit on our bones and curse our names if we pass > >> on a world that is barely habitable when it was in our power to > >> prevent it. >