Climate Report Downgrades Ice Loss, but Media Reports Opposite

Daily Tech ^ | 12/29/2008 | Michael Asher

[ebayhater]

A new scientific report from the U.S. Climate Change Science Program has sharply reduced earlier estimates of global ice loss. The CCSP, which coordinates the efforts of 13 different federal climate agencies, has released updated figures estimating combined ice loss from Antarctica and Greenland at 48 cubic miles per year, a figure the Washington Post dolefully reports as "accelerated" ice loss.

But is it?

In 2006, a widely-reported study estimated ice loss from Greenland alone to be over 57 cubic miles per year. Another the same year reported Antarctic ice loss of 36 cubic miles -- a combined annual total of over 93 cubic miles. The new estimate, however, is only about half as high. In most rational circles, this would be cause for celebration.

Not for the Washington Post, h...

[ebayhater]

More examples of the media reporting what they want to hear, not whats actually happening.

[TheBattman]

And to take this all a step farther... with ice actually covering more area than before, where exactly is this ice disappearing from?

[Vigilanteman]

Qattara Depression

If Greenland melted down completely, 88% of the excess water produced could be contained by flooding the uninhabited Qatarra Depression in northwest Egypt, producing thousands of miles of valuable lakefront property, generating electrical power as water flowed from the Medditerranean to the depression and potentially turning much of the surrounding Sahara Desert into arable land.

It took Greenland 18,000 years to accumulate as much ice as it has now. How long do you think it will take it to melt?

This would be a comparatively simple and inexpensive engineering project. If one wanted to pipe or channel through a mountain range, the same could be done to Death Valley, California, but it wouldn't hold quite as much water as the Qattara Depression.

An in-between project, both in terms of expense and capacity would be to link the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, which could really use the water.

[cripplecreek]

I think it migrated south. We had ice on the lakes about 3 weeks early here in southern Michigan.

[steelyourfaith]

 

Beam me to Planet Gore !

[dennisw]

U.S. Climate Change Science Program....

Climate change??? 
Whatever happened to global warming???

What unmitigated BS and hucksterism...
People are making money pushing this line of BS

[GreyFriar]

Thanks for the excellent suggestion on what to do with the excess water from after the Greenland ice melts. Besides creating lake front property in Egypt and Libya, it will keep the sea levels from rising and wiping out the left coast (no great loss).

[NaughtiusMaximus]

I live in Northern Arizona. The city engineers have condemned 5 commercial sites because of ice on their roofs. The rest of the ice is covering my driveway. The government is welcome to come and get the ice back.

[Islander7]

....coordinates the efforts of 13 different federal climate agencies...

13 agencies!? We seriously need a tax revolt in this country. Everyone should stop with holding from their paychecks.

[cripplecreek]

Warming didn’t work out so hot so they went to climate change. I’m betting that “climate fluctuation” is next.

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

That’s a good idea!

[jsh3180]

Even if we were losing 48 cubic miles of ice per year, which I highly doubt, at that rate it would take 1,600 years to lose 1% of the world’s ice.

[Vigilanteman]

Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? If rising sea levels from global warming were really a problem, these are real solutions. Dismantling industry and returning to the dark ages are not an option and would affect global sea levels about as much as pis*ing in the ocean.

[Vigilanteman]

I don’t doubt your assessment, but would you mind sourcing and posting the calculation so I can use it with my linked Qatarra Depression calculation?

[saganite]

They’ve let the budget cutting mantra, where a reduction in the growth rate of govt is a cut, permeate their GW reporting and a reduction in the estimated ice loss is reported as an increase. Nothing new here really, just more “truth”.

[aruanan]

What they ought to be reporting is net ice loss. There is not a net loss; there has been a net ice gain for both Greenland and the Antarctic.

[PreciousLiberty]

Highly related older thread with commentary:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2150160/posts

CAGW is becoming a bad joke, and one we sure can’t afford!

[Will88]

Not for the Washington Post, however.

Like most extremists, the folks at the Post don't like having their religious beliefs questioned. They're gonna save the world whether it needs saving or not.

[Foolsgold]

Sea Ice melting will lower sea levels (Fill a glass with ice then fill it with water to the very top, when the ice melts the glass will no longer be full) Besides all them Polar Bears we are being asked to save will pee in the ocean and raise the level./sarc

[uglybiker]

I’m betting that “climate fluctuation” is next.

To be followed by climate stagnation

It all makes sense, now! Mankind (meaning: Bush/Cheney/Haliburton/righwingers/SUV drivers/Illuminati, etc.)are preventing the climate from changing!