Posted on 05/17/2009 9:04:41 PM PDT by reaganaut1
JUNEAU, Alaska — Global warming conjures images of rising seas that threaten coastal areas. But in Juneau, as almost nowhere else in the world, climate change is having the opposite effect: As the glaciers here melt, the land is rising, causing the sea to retreat.
Morgan DeBoer, a property owner, opened a nine-hole golf course at the mouth of Glacier Bay in 1998, on land that was underwater when his family first settled here 50 years ago.
“The highest tides of the year would come into what is now my driving range area,” Mr. DeBoer said.
Now, with the high-tide line receding even farther, he is contemplating adding another nine holes.
“It just keeps rising,” he said.
The geology is complex, but it boils down to this: Relieved of billions of tons of glacial weight, the land has risen much as a cushion regains its shape after someone gets up from a couch. The land is ascending so fast that the rising seas — a ubiquitous byproduct of global warming — cannot keep pace. As a result, the relative sea level is falling, at a rate “among the highest ever recorded,” according to a 2007 report by a panel of experts convened by Mayor Bruce Botelho of Juneau.
Greenland and a few other places have experienced similar effects from widespread glacial melting that began more than 200 years ago, geologists say. But, they say, the effects are more noticeable in and near Juneau, where most glaciers are retreating 30 feet a year or more.
As a result, the region faces unusual environmental challenges. As the sea level falls relative to the land, water tables fall, too, and streams and wetlands dry out.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
ping
Whoa! How can that be? Evil Sport Utility Donkey Carts?
Repeat the Algore mantra....”we’re all going to die”.
As I’ve said before this religion needs a reformation to get their theology straight.
Wow, that must be really fast. Except for the fact that the seas aren't rising at all.
Alaska has really mushy land, I guess. How do you build a golf course on that kind of stuff?
The net result of global warming might be to give us MORE livable land area, not less.
If only human activity were capable of bringing on global warming. Unfortunately we just have to hope for it.
That is unacceptable. This will result in less undersea area for sea urchins to occupy. We can fix this if we all send money to algore.
This is utterly laughable.
There are more new ones formiing behind the ones that are melting but the whackos don’t wanr ro mention those!
Perhaps a new name is needed for such land: permamush?
Technically, sea level has been rising since the end of the last Ice Age. But it is so slow it can hardly be noticed. We’re talking fractions of a millimeter/year.
If all the glaciers melted, which won’t happen, we’d get Greenland and an entire new continent, Antarctica.
I’ve tried to find a source for net change in land area if this occurred without success.
Yes, and the Big Hay companies.
It’s happening faster in the arctic than in the antarctic.
They lie awake at night thinking this s#!+ up, smoking crack, no doubt.
Huh... I thought that sea level was an absolute measurement, not “the relative sea level is falling”.
I guess it can be spun any way you want, just like the GW data...:^)
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